Sunday and Monday

Sunday I went to Himeji Castle, one of the largest in Japan. This castle housed Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who was the person to completely unite Japan after centuries of civil war. Its history is really deep, and probably only interesting if you are me haha! I couldn't help but take this samurai picture also...

After Himeji I traveled back home, and went to a sushi place with my host family. I've never eaten so much fish before, I can't even imagine what their bill was. The large shrimp sushi came with this little guy, thought it was picture worthy.
Monday was an easy day of school, and dinner at my new older brother's house (not okaasan or otoosan). He made Chinese food, which was not real Chinese food but a Japanese take on it... just like America does with Chinese food. We ended up drinking for a while, and when I told him I liked wine he opened a bottle from New Zealand that he had. Japanese people chug their wine, and I didn't want to be rude and not keep up with him.. I've never finished a bottle so fast! After both of us were pretty toasty (his wife couldn't drink because she is 2 months pregnant), he called his driver over and we went to the onsen... yes he has a driver, and I want one too now. The onsen was different.. it had a freezer you could go into, cold pools, and an outside natural hot spring. The freezer was crazy and our hair was frozen very quickly. We have a BBQ at his house this weekend, I am sure it will be fun! This weekend is also a big festival that I'm looking forward to.

Till next time..

Dan

1st Weekend Part I

After school we went to Komatsu air base, Japan's largest spot for F-15s. It was a little weird because our bases are a lot better, and the things they wanted to show off weren't necessarily that cool to us. We did get to play around with some of the self defense weapons though, which was really cool.

After, I went to Osaka for the weekend! We got in at around 1130 pm, but decided to still go to a bar even though it was so late. It was a nomuhodai bar (all you can drink), but the drinks there were very very weak. I'm not sure when we actually left, but it was light out already when we did!

After sleeping for a couple of hours some more people came to Osaka and I met them at the train station. We walked around for a good amount of time... even went to America town, which was pretty gangster. For dinner we went to a bar/ restaurant and talked to the bar tender in Japanese the whole time, it was cool! At night we tried to do bar hopping... but most of the bars there only had a max of 10 seats (there were hundreds of bars though). There were also mostly only old people drinking. I'm told Tokyo is more full of a younger crowd.

Strange fact about Japan that surprised me... prostitution is just an accepted part of the culture. There are billboards everywhere with prices for girls or guys. And some street walkers that are just weird. I guess Japanese guys have strange fetishes cause most of them were dressed in bunny/ cat ears or other costumes. I have to start class... I'll write more on the weekend later.

Day 4 & 5

Another two great days in Japan! School was average as always, but once it was done there was a lot of fun. First we went to Kanazawa Castle, my first castle. It was very tranquil inside, and
easy to imagine what it was like over 3 centuries ago.
















The next day was very busy. Went to Daijoji Temple for some Zen meditation, very cool! One of my favorite things that we have done so far... even though sitting in the position for so long was pretty painful.















Afterwords I played Pechinko, which are Japanese slots. The only difference is that you have to get a ball in a small hole before the slots will spin. So its possible to spend money without getting a chance to win!
I also went to a Japanese arcade, which was full of awkwardly old people... and a few that looked like they had never actually left the arcade before.

That was all for today, the weekend was more exciting.



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3rd Day

Another interesting day in Japan, and my camera is back in action so lots of photos! First I woke up and took my first Japanese bus ride from okaasan's to school... a little confusing. School lasted far too long. This is one of our teachers, they are all pretty much the same haha.


The day got cooler as it went on though, we went to a Geisha District. There we made gold leaf chopsticks... Kanazawa makes almost 100% of Japan's gold leaf. The area was very traditional and pretty amazing.



We also drank some golden tea (literally tea with gold in it... pretty cool)



From there I went back to the house... or at least tried to. I get pretty lost before I decided to ask for directions, luckily my Japanese has improved enough that this wasn't a problem at all! Back at home okaasan had me sit in while she taught her friend the tea ceremony and after some oishii yakisoba, otoosan brought out a few items from his antique collection and insisted on taking pictures of me with them.













Finally we went to our nightly onsen (hotsprings) trip... relaxing as always! Below is a picture with my atarashi anisan (new older brother).












yasuminasai,

Dan

2nd Day

I forgot my camera so no pictures today, sorry!

Today I had orientation and first day of class. The only exciting part of school was going to Coco's ichibanya for some curry. If you have been to Japan before you should know all about this place, and it definitely stands up to its reputation. Oishii!

The excitement came when I met my host family, the Takanagas. They live on top of their towel service business in a very nice house... I call the mom okaasan (mother in Japanese) and dad otoosan (father in Japanese). They have 3 daughters and a son... met the son today and will meet one of the daughters (I think tomorrow). Ohh and almost forgot, they don't speak English!

For dinner they made me more food then I could ever hope to eat... but it was all great. The food kept on coming to they finally realized I did not know how to say "gojisosama desu!", which is how you end a meal in Japanese. They also kept on giving me more and more asahi, a Japanese beer. I "kampai"ed a little bit too much I think haha.

After dinner we went to the on-sen, or hot springs. Thats where okaasan bathes every day, I'm not sure if I will be. It was great! Running out of time in class... more updates tomorrow hopefully.

ja mata,

Dan

1st Day
I’m without a phone for the next 4 weeks, so I decided that I would do this to keep some sort of contact with everyone back in the states. Hopefully I’ll be able to update at least every other day, I’m not sure how consistently I’ll have internet yet. Either way I have to submit a photo journal at the end of all this, so I’ll be prepared!

After an 11 hour flight and 4 horrible movies I landed in Tokyo, Japan! At the airport we went through customs very easily, and had 2 hrs till our next flight to Kanazawa. Excited to do “something Japanese”, parts of the group found a noodle place… first Japanese meal! Their rice isn’t even comparable to whatever is served at the best Asian places in America (Japanese rice is forbidden to be exported).

Before flying we found out the plane didn’t have room for us to check our bags, so some of us volunteered to have ours shipped to the hotel we were staying at for the first night. I was one of these people… a little scared about receiving it back.
I also had to figure out Japanese bathrooms… the picture says it all.

After the small plane ride and checking into the hotel some of us toured around Kanazawa at night (around 11pm Japan time). We were determined to reach a Coco’s Curry (which every American visiting Japan has fallen in love with). Unsure of whether or not Coco’s would accept our cards, we stopped at about 10 different ATMs on the 30 something minute walk there… no luck. Japanese banks only.

At Coco’s they didn’t accept our cards, and Geoff lost the 2000 yen bill he had with him on the walk… bummer. So cashless we turned around and went to a very cheap place where we could scrape up 380 yen and buy a single bowl of noodles. Let’s hope for better luck with ATMs tomorrow!

Back at the hotel we found a beer vending machine (one of the wonders of Japan). All of us were pretty exhausted… myself especially since I didn’t get to sleep between ring dance and my flight to Japan!

Tomorrow I get to meet my host family and will hopefully finally get my hands on some yen and my bags!

Ja mata