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Walk Downriver
The white sakura trees on the bridge nearest the dormFor the most part, this entry is a mild form of catchup, after all this Kyoto business. Not that the last few episodes haven't been full of riveting pictures. But I think it's high time to be caught up! So, without further ado, a summing up of the main events of the past two months!
The first group of pictures I have up on here came from a walk I had downriver in Higashikurume the very day after we all returned from Kyoto, April 1st. After so much walking through the streets of Kyoto, my feet didn't seem to want to stop moving once I got home. So I took a nice little spring walk down the river by myself. Japan, having different weather depending on where you are (like any other place), has different blooming times for the cherry trees with each spring. This is called the sakura front. They start blossoming from one end of Japan all the way to the other. The leaves do the same thing in the fall, but in the opposite direction. It's pretty wild. But to my point: right before we left Kyoto, the sakura trees were barely on the brink of bursting
with their beautiful blossoms (how's that for alliteration?), but they were already several days bloomed in Tokyo by the time we got back. They had lost all their pinky color and had turned white.
While it was unfortunate that we were not able to attend a fine hanami (going out to look at the freshly blossomed sakura trees), there was a second wonderful thing to watch even after the sakura had bloomed. We went to Ueno park (near Ikebukuro, to give some sort of reference) and watched the petals fall.
Imagine it... Sitting on a tarp in the middle of a park on a warm day, enclosed by an arc of sakura trees and surrounded by pleasant faces. Some drinking, some quietly talking. Jittery with anticipation for the slightest breeze to hit the branches. And when it finally whispers its way through the treetops, you can't believe your eyes. It's snowing in springtime. But it's magic snow. It doesn't melt away, nor is it cold. You can pick it up piece by piece, soft as silk on your fingertips, and throw it back into the air, pretending that you can make it fall again as beautifully as when
the wind first shook it from the trees. The air is filled with such a sweet scent that it almost makes you want to laugh and cry and fall asleep, all at the same time. And maybe you do... But you probably couldn't dream of something so lovely as when you're awake.
I regret not having my camera on me during Ueno park, but the pictures wouldn't have done it any justice. It's just... something you have to see for yourself.
Well, to break from that lovely scene, I suppose I'll keep on with the rest of the update. Classes started shortly after we got home, and there were a few (pictureless) weeks of adjusting to the new schedules. As of now, this is my schedule, in case anyone cared to know:
Tuesday (10:30 - 12:00) Judo
(12:50 - 2:20) Japanese Grammar 3
Wednesday (10:30 - 12:00) Cross-cultural Ideas
(2:30 - 4:00) Identities in Cross-cultural Encounters
Thursday (10:00 - 11:30) English tutoring with Hyuna
(12:50 - 2:20) Cross-cultural Activities
Friday (10:30 - 12:00) Natural History in Japan
(12:50 - 2:20) Japanese Conversation 3
Tutoring on Thursday actually came about as quite a surprise
to me. One Friday as I was heading out of my conversation class, an Asian girl (I assumed she was Japanese), asked an American classmate and I if we could all go downstairs and talk. She bought all of us some iced coffee and we headed outside. -All of this was in Japanese, and I was surprised by the fact that I understood almost everything she said. More surprising was that I found myself having to translate for the other American girl. In any case, she could read English and understand it pretty well when it was spoken to her, but she brought us outside to ask if either of us would be willing to tutor her so that she could start speaking it for herself.
In the end, Leanna, the other American girl, ended up being busy because she was already tutoring someone. I at first attempted to direct the girl to one of my friends that spoke much better Japanese, but she said she didn't care to have someone who could speak Japanese well. So after a few seconds thought, I figured what the heck. I'd never tutored before, and why not have a go? We ended
up talking the whole way back to the train station, and it was the longest conversation I'd ever had in Japanese. -Turns out, by the way, that she's Korean. But more on that later. . .
Near the tail-end of May, Aimee and a new boy from the dorms, Tomoki, had a joint birthday party. There are a few interesting pictures from that, including the cake they shared -of which, I have
never tasted a cake its equal. Light as a feather, filled with strawberry mousse, and topped with the freshest, coolest, lightly-sugared fruit! Bloody fantastic is what it was.
In case you all missed seeing my lovely face (... pah), I have a couple of pictures on here that I took in very early May when I decided to play with my makeup on a boring night. Not the best way to spend my time, but hey. I have no idea what to use as a witty comeback the the previous sentence. Make something up.
A few days after this, still in early May, I went on a 2-day (though 1-night) camping trip with a large group of the folks from Higashikurume. As a reference, it
Downriver 6
"Danger! Don't play in the water!" (or you'll die) was near Takau, but since that doesn't mean much to most of the people reading this (and barely means that much to me, what with my sense of direction), I'll just say it was very near the mountains. The pictures do most of the explanation of that. Amazing to think that even in a place as lovely as that, there were still telephone poles everywhere... It's a little frustrating, and I have half a mind to call it a Japanese trademark. But the trip was still fun. A squirtgun fight, good food, fireworks, and a slightly frustrating lack of sleep (comes with the territory of stuffing one large room full of people, 80% of whom have been drinking).
A few weeks into tutoring Hyuna (the Korean girl), Liz and a Chinese friend of ours, Grace, ran into her while shopping in Kokubunji station near the university after classes. We ended up having dinner together, and after talking for a while, she discovered the sad but true fact that none of us had been to an onsen (bathhouse) yet, even though all of us very much wanted to do so. So, she asked if we all wanted to go together,
Downriver 7
Yeah, I cheated and held the branch with my hand. But the wind was too strong! and we said of COURSE we did! So she said she'd plan things out and she and I would talk about dates and places and times to go during our next tutoring session, then we'd all hit the baths!
So, last weekend, Aimee, Lauren, Liz, Hyuna, and I (Grace unfortunately had a big Japanese test to take that day) all spent the day in Hakone (about an hour or two away by a very special fast train called a shinkansen) and topped the day off by going to an onsen! We started off after the train ride by hopping on a bus and going up the mountains. We weaved and turned so many times through the streets that I actually felt sick. A first time for me. But fear not, no ralphing was to be had by any of the lot of us. We walked to a huge lake (Lake Ashi, to be exact) and ferried across it by way of a boat that looked like a pirate ship! We got to see the lovely mountains and lots of pretty houses. After grabbing a quick bite on the other end of the lake, we went by cable cars up
in the air to Owakudani, a volcano with active sulfur vents! Because of the sulfur, the air was pretty stinky by the time we hiked up to the highest point we were allowed to reach. Kinda like the smell of farts and rotten eggs, but I didn't really find it unpleasant until right near the top.
The specialty of this area is kurotamago, which means black eggs. They're hardboiled in the sulfuric springs of the volcano! How cool is that?! Hyuna said that eating them is supposed to elongate your life by 7 years. Who knows? Either way, they were delicious! Not too much different from your average hardboiled egg, except that the sulfur seemed to give them a smoky flavor, which was quite tasty. I still can't get over the fact that I had an egg that was boiled in a volcano. It's way too cool.
Anyway, after that, we bought some souvenirs (I got an adorable phone charm of 6 little black eggies) and headed back down the volcano and down the rest of the mountain, this time by cable car (thank goodness; I was afraid another bus ride back down was going to do me
in). We found an onsen very near the station and went right in.
In case anyone on here is very new to the whole onsen thing... Being a bath, everyone goes in... that's right. Naked. You wash off thoroughly before getting in, then you hop right in and relax for a couple of hours. Hyuna, having been in Japan for a couple of years by this point, was used to the whole thing. It took the rest of us a good few minutes to be okay with doffing our duds, and even then, we all went to wash off with towels wrapped around us. Then we just came to grips with the idea that yep, we'd all be naked. Big whup. So we threw off more of our embarrassment, washed off, and hopped into the bath.
The water was just lovely. Just hot enough to stand, and there was a waterfall of hot water continuously pouring in and renewing the bath. The bath itself was made of a bunch of big boulders and had a very natural feel to it. After a few minutes of sitting around with our knees hugged to our chests, we all got comfy
and moved around. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I can't wait to go back. Particularly because America is so uptight and messed up about the idea that we'd never EVER have anything like onsens. Which I kinda understand, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's quite a shame. We think being naked means having sex. I think being naked isn't all that crazy. Not saying I dream of being a nudist, because yes, there's a time and a place to be naked. But hey. It's just naked. C'mon. And onsens rock.
For now, that's all I'll stick onto this installment, though I have a few more pictures to put up past that. I'll save those for another day. Another post. Meantime, I hope you've enjoyed this fresh batch of words, pictures, and tomfoolery!
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