History is Alive and Well/ I Officially Start PII

Ryo and I began our second day of touring Kanazawa with breakfast in a small cafe. I had toast with butter and anko (red-bean) topping. Then we took a bus to a district called Tera-machi, which literally means "temple area" because the whole neighborhood is one temple or shrine after another; there's upwards of 70 there! One in particular is called Myoryuji, or "Ninja-dera".

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the temple, but it really was an architectural masterpiece. There were two pitfall traps if you removed boards from the floor. There were several hidden staircases, and though the building looks like a two-story construction (which was mandated by law) there are actually seven levels within it. There's even a small room specifically for seppuku (ritualized suicide)! The temple has nothing to do with ninjas: it was actually built by Maeda Toshitsune for his samurai to stand by for battle.

From there we went to a neighborhood which is full of completely preserved chaya: teahouses and geisha entertainment venues.

It was just a nice, traditional area to walk around in. It was also close to the river:

In the afternoon I went and checked in to the hotel PII designated I should meet in. Ryo left for Tokyo. I was the first one to arrive in my 3-person room, but the room next door had some of my friends from Yale. So we hung out and eventually a large group of us went out for udon at a nearby shopping mall (which I WILL be returning to because the clothes are FANTASTIC).

The next day we met with our host families. I'm staying with a couple, Ryuichi and Nobuko Kosugi. He is an interior designer, and she works at a nursery school. They live in a house and have an adorable dog named Cocoa (HAH MOM I GET A DOG AT LAST).

And I get my own room:

I take a bus to school in the morning, which will take about half an hour. I'll have school from 9-12 Mon-Fri, and sometimes afterwards there are designated activities. There's other extracurriculars I can sign up for, like gold-leafing, pottery, and other traditional arts. Should be fun. Tomorrow I finish taking my placement exam, however, so wish me luck!

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文化祭！(Bunkasai--Cultural Festival Days 1 and 2) and Man I'm Tired!

So this weekend was Musashino Joshi's annual Cultural Festival, an event that all high schools (I would assume) have, where the school is open to the public and classes and clubs put on events, or set up quiz games or food booths. Essentially it's like a carnival. Traditional culture...not so much (though there are aspects of it). Mostly it's just good fun. My class was doing a chocolate banana food booth, so on Friday (the school-wide prep day, even though techincally it was another Japanese holiday) we got cardboard and began making our booth, which was Hawaiian themed. And you'd think it wouldn't take very long, but it took the entire day and then about half an hour on Saturday. (Also, what' you're seeing is Summer Uniform Form 1.5, where there's the sweater over the shirt.) But in the end the booth turned out pretty sweet, if I may say so myself: The top says Chocobana, and the sides of the poles are made to look like palm trees with a monkay on it

Enoshima: The Heavenly Maiden and the Dragon

This past Monday was a national holiday -- Mountain Day -- so, of course, Troy and I headed to the beach instead. Well, to an island near a beach since (as some of you may know) I'm not exactly the beach-going type. Plus I'd just climbed Mount Fuji, which was more than enough mountain for me. Enoshima is a small island off the coast of Kanagawa Prefecture, fairly near Kamakura. It's connected to the mainland via a bridge, so you can just stroll on over from the train station. The entire island is dedicated to Benzaitan, the goddess of everything that flows -- time, water, speech, music, and knowledge. According to the "Enoshima Engi," (a history of the shrines and temples on Enoshima) there's also a legend associated with the creation of the island involving Benzaitan and a dragon. In brief, the area around Enoshima was once wracked by violent storms and earthquakes. Eventually the tumult ended and a heavenly maiden (Benzaitan) descended from the clouds.

Homecoming

This is it. It's Friday, February 3rd and in less than 24 hours I will leave this house for Tokyo train station, which will take me to the airport, which will take me...home. Most of this week has been taken up with goodbyes: to schoolmates and teachers, and later, close friends. There were tears involved. I think the photos will do it a lot more justice than I could: Kohei, from tennis group. All the tennis people got together for dinner at an okonomiyaki (think cabbage pancake, with yummy stuff like shrimp in it) but first we went to a boardwalk which had nighttime light shows. Top: Anime Club. They threw a small party for me, where we ate lots of food and watched (what else) anime and talked. Bottom: one of my English classes. They asked me to teach them an American game for the last day, so I taught everyone how to play Heads-Up 7-Up. They were pretty good at it. The other exchange student, Nom, and my Japanese teacher. The last view of school: the walk leading u

Rice and Ramen

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