Golden Week May 2nd - May 7th

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Golden Week May 2nd - May 7th


Golden week is exactly that - a golden week filled with consecutive holidays such as ‘Constitution Day’, ‘Children’s Day’, and the ‘In Between Day’ giving many Japanese people the chance to travel and take a break each year from the stressful lives they lead. This also then allows for me, the exchange student in Japan, to also take a final break before last minute papers and Japanese finals take place.

I wasn’t about to let my last dance in Japan (as an exchange student) be a boring one, so I made sure to fill up the itinerary with various activities before the week actually arrived. Unfortunately due to Golden Week fatigue and some papers having deadlines recently this journal is coming a little after the fact., but please enjoy the pictures as always, and I will even for once try to write in a half decent manner.

If you have read previous entries such as ones from last semester you may have noticed that I was lucky enough to go to a Hanshin tiger’s game. This team, combined with the Giants in Tokyo make up for the pride and soul of Japanese baseball. The park where the Hanshin tiger’s play, Koshien, is the oldest ball park in Japan, and before the athletes enter the stadium they apparently bow out of respect to this fact. Anyway, again to kick off golden week I was able to go along with like 30 other Gaidai exchange students to Koshien and watch the Hanshin tiger’s as they took on the Swallows, a team from the Tokyo area.

The game was a good battle, 2-2 for most of the game until the Swallows managed to hit a grand slam near the end of the game to make the score 2-6 favoring the away team. This deficit was a little too much to over come and the tiger’s lost the game. However, the fans of Japanese baseball are so hardcore we still had an amazing time after the game taking photos with random people who were huge fans of the tiger’s and even bigger fans of the foreigners who were wearing their team’s memorabilia. We had a great time and I even lost my voice from cheering so loud for the whole game. I can’t sing any of the songs in Japanese, but we did sing take me out to the ball game, which was nice and wonderful. We also got the wave going, which the Japanese people don’t seem to understand. Towards the end of the game, we actually had a few different rows doing the wave together with us having a great time. Like I said we went with 30 other students, which meant we had an entire row to ourselves, which then in turn meant our wave rocked. After the game some of the kids went out to eat and dancing for the evening, but I then went home to prepare for the next day. The next plan was an entire day together with Tsu partaking in Kyoto sightseeing.

We started out my meeting at Kuzuha station (next to the closest station to the seminar houses, Makino) on the platform as we waited for the express train. Tsu was coming from the Osaka end while I was already in the general direction of Kyoto so it took her a little longer to arrive, but the weather was just unbelievably beautiful so I didn’t mind at all. She arrived just before the doors to the express closed so we hopped on and started our journey.

The night before Tsu was nice enough to make a homemade bentou (box lunch) for us to enjoy on this fabulous day. Being the start of Golden Week every thing was much more crowed then in tends to be, including the morning express train we rode. When we arrived to Kyoto we were going to originally ride the bus to Ginkakuji (The Silver Pavilion), but because of being so busy we couldn’t even force our bodies into the bus. We then decided to take the subway and go to the opposite side of Ginkakuji, Nanzen-ji, and start the philosopher’s walk to eventually end up at Ginkakuji. The philosopher’s walk is a walk about 2 kilometers long that an ancient famous man used to walk everyday while he pondered something or another. Nowadays this walk is lined with little café’s tucked into nature so well it feels completely natural and is a happy feeling to the body to see this nature used so well.

Halfway through the walk we stopped and ate part one of the bentou that Tsu had prepared. We had some sandwiches, onigiri (rice balls), fruits, chicken, and even some banana chips that I managed to bring along. Very delicious and the feeling of eating a great lunch outside when the weather is perfect is just incomparable. Joy!

After we started walking again we found a little shop selling cheap Kimono’s, where I tried one on for the first time. No, I didn’t buy one, but Tsu seems to think the black one is my color. Well, I don’t know haha…When we arrived to Ginkakuji, we were surprised how crowded it actually became. We managed to get inside and make a quick round around the temple, but soon excited because it was just so crowded. We then ate some green tea ice cream and began our walk to Kiyomizu-dera.

In order to make it to Kiyomizu-dera we had to first cross through Maruyama-Koen, which if you remember is where I went to do Hanami a little while back. Kiyomizu-dera was also very nice because of all of the different shops selling different varieties of Japanese snacks as well as souvenirs. The sky was a happy blue all day long even as the sun was starting to set over Kiyomizu-dera. This is when Tsu and I decided to go to Kamo-gawa and finish the bentou we started earlier. Kamo-gawa at San-jou is like a serious dating spot at nighttime where so many couples go and line the river as they sit together. We enjoyed the last of the bentou and called it a night.

The next day Levi and Roger joined me for an afternoon in Kobe meeting up with Ryoji for the first time since he has started his full-time job in Yokohama, beside Tokyo. So, the three of us set out in the morning and rode various trains making our way to Hyogo prefecture to visit the Tomoyasu family. Right away when I first met Ryoji I noticed how his hair has already managed to change from the semi-wild college boy hair to a completely obedient business man’s hair style that you see oh too much in Japan. Despite the hair his wonderful and friendly personality remained constant and we picked up like it was yesterday when we last met (the day of his graduation from college).

Upon arrival to the house for what was supposed to be a relaxing barbeque party, many already half drunk familiar faces welcomed us by asking so tenderly if we were thirsty. Of course what they were getting at is they wanted to watch us being forced to drink beer. I was only out of the car for about 30 seconds before being asked this question. This pretty much sets up how that day went. I was told to ask everybody if they have the samurai spirit in their blood which meant I was challenging them to an all out chug contest. They of course say they have it in some manly way, we cheer, and the game begins. Let me tell you what, these Japanese guys are good. They could drink so fast it was crazy to see haha. Needless to say Levi, Roger, and I had a rough time defending team America verses team Japan, the low numbers hurt a little bit.

I was able to communicate so much better than I did from just this past winter break with everyone, even Ryoji’s grandma! I tell you being able to speak a foreign language is such a happy feeling. Especially when you are seeing results in such a blatant manner. Everyone was happy with my Japanese and I was happy that everyone was trying to speak with me so much. Levi too has learned so much this year. Together we were able to become pretty good at Japanese. How great!

When it came time to leave I said bye to everyone in a pretty emotional way, being that I may never see some of these faces again. Everyone throughout this entire year abroad has given me so much I could never forget it. I gave and received handshakes and kisses even while the car was pulling out of the driveway - ahhh how great the experience of studying abroad can truly be!

Well, after taking a day off from the previous day, Tsu and I embarked for the prefecture of Mie where one can find the Shrines of Ise. Ise is the holiest place in terms of Japanese Buddhism. Is this really a popular spot for young people? Well, not exactly, but we were making due with the low amount of money we both have at this time.

We met where the large Korean population of Osaka lives, Tsuruhasi, and made our way via 2 hour express train to the city of Toba. Having lived in the countryside my whole life and not seeing it for 10 months, arriving to Toba was a nice nostalgic feeling arriving back to the countryside. It looked familiar and smelled familiar, too. We made our way around seeing the Ise shrines and did souvenir shopping together before we could check into our Ryokan (Japanese style inn). We checked into our hotel later and were served green tea and snacks and had our picture taken before being taken to our room. We went through this whole formal ordeal where I understood almost nothing because of the Japanese language’s tendency to have too many formal ways of speaking.

We had access to Onsen (hot spring bath) 24 hours a day so we made use of it right away. Onsen is so relaxing and a great way to get refreshed so we both went until dinner time. After eating dinner, which was way to fancy for me, we just took it easy for the night enjoying each others company sleeping over together for the last time until who knows next.

The next day was rainy so we went to an aquarium to enjoy the day. We were able to watch a show featuring seals which are my favorite animal. I was happy about that! The aquarium featured many different animals, not just fishes, so it was actually a really enjoyable time. I found out that I am pretty disgusted by strange looking fishes and Tsu is really bugged out by many little fishes all together, haha. When are time had run out we returned to Osaka by the same express train we arrived on and readjusted to the city life. The countryside was nice, but I feel my home is here in Osaka!

So as we wind down I know have 10 days and counting in Japan. It’s going to be an experience just returning to the US after so long - I am eager to see friends and family, but of course at the same time I feel like this has become my life and not just some sort of 10 month study abroad program. Up until this point in my life I have just always constantly been adjusting between college life and home life and religious life. It would just be nice to know where I am heading to and have a life I don’t need to be split apart from. However, this is what I have decided and so this shall continue as long as I see it to be the way of being most happy in my life. So many questions unanswered … When we I next come to Japan? Will I continue studying Japanese on my own? What about my Tsu? Can I really live without using trains everyday? (^_^)

Expect one more update before I head home! 2 papers, 2 finals, and 1 long flight!

- Zach

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