Saturday in the City

This afternoon I went to Nagoya Station to see about putting more languages in my electronic dictionary, but unfortunately you can only add specific dictionaries. Although my dictionary can go between English, Spanish and Japanese now, it couldn't do French to Spanish if I put a French dictionary on there. Only a French to English/ Japanese dictionary is available. Hmmm...
Then I met up with Katsutoshi-san, Catherine and Alexis. Together we went to the Noritake Garden. We explored the museum there which shows the history and production process of Noritake ceramics. It was quite fascinating. Some pieces are amazingly detailed in structure (for example a statue of a man riding a winged horse, saving a lady from a dragon) and others, such as the vases, in that they are all painted by hand.





Back at Nagoya Station, the annual winter illumination had just begun. It's on every night for almost 2 months at Christmas time. There is a huge (22m/46m) grid mounted on the side of the station, with 1.1 million lights on it!!! The theme changes each year. This year is showed the changing of the seasons in a little seaside town. Around the station there are also lit up trees and other displays. It's all very beautiful.
Then we met Hiromi-san at a restaurant there and Katsutoshi-san had to go to a meeting. We enjoyed a beautiful 6-course Japanese dinner. The sashimi, teriyaki tuna, tempura and various side dishes were delicious! ごちそうさまでした！

Hiroshima

Before coming to Japan, I had read a novel based on true stories from the August 6th, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. It was intensely real in its descriptions of the horrors of that day and the days to follow. Saturday morning, we visited the Peace Memorial Park, starting at the Hiroshima Dome, one of the only damaged buildings left standing today. It is preserved as a reminder of the impact of the nuclear bomb.
As we continued through the park, there were two cenotaphs dedicated to the thousands of children who lost their lives. One was surrounded by cases full of colourful paper cranes folded by school children to pay respect to the dead and encourage peace in the world. I started getting chocked up and as I walked beside the pond towards the Memorial Museum, I wondered how people could do this. Not just specifically concerning Hiroshima, but everywhere that is affected by the cruelty of war.
In the museum, I noticed that the facts were unbiased and included events that Japan is not particularly proud of. It talked about Japan’s past wars and the conditions of World War II. It explained the U.S.’s reasoning behind the bomb and choice of target. But I just can’t understand how anyone could plan to cause such utter destruction even if they thought it would bring an end to the war.
The part of the museum that affected me the most was seeing the displays of clothing and articles worn by many of the innocent people who lost their lives and reading about their suffering. Many people died immediately from the impact, others eventually died of their burns and injuries. Some died of violent radiation sickness in the months following the bombing and others managed to survive only to die of cancer and other diseases years later. I left the museum with tears in my eyes and a clenched feeling in my stomach. I just hope that no human ever again feels that they have reason enough to inflict such pain and suffering on others.

Miyajima

Friday morning I left bright and early along with 50 or so other international students and several guides for a 7.5 hour bus ride to Hiroshima. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Miyajima, a mountainous island with a beautiful seaside shrine. We took a ferry across and were immediately greeted by the resident deer that were lounging about, wandering the streets and trying to eat our pamphlets and paper. The shrine was built in 593 and remodelled in 1168. It is on boardwalks in a bay with a 7-metre tall Tori Gate out in the ocean. There is also a 5-story pagoda that was built around 1407; however the founder died halfway through construction and it has remained unfinished.
Now, Jessica and I looked at the map we were given before the trip and decided we were hiking to the lookout on top of the mountain! Some people wondered if we would have time as it gets dark by 5:30pm here, but I was sure we could do it. It didn’t look that far on the map . . .
We started up around 3:50pm, stopping by a temple, surrounded by maple trees that were beginning to turn colour. From there, we hiked up the stairs, through the trees, along the valley, up the stairs. We could be heard saying “Sequimos, si! Paramos, no!” and “Si se puede!” (Let’s keep going and yes we can). We were starting to get pretty tired of the constant stone steps leading up through the trees. Around 5:00, it started getting dim, but we were so determined we just kept going. There were signs pointing up and signs pointing down, but no indication of how far we had come or how much further we had to go.
Finally, we reached an intersection that said 60mins back down to the temple and 20(or so?)mins back down another path, but still not how long to the top of the mountain. Oh dear! I called the rest of my group and they were waiting for us in the town at the bottom. We opted for the 20mins back down, but it started UP a narrow path through the trees and as I walked into a spider web that was it, we were going back down the way we came up.
It was 5:30pm and we started using the glow from our cell phones to light the path in front of us. Slowly, arm-in-arm, we made our way down the stone steps through the dark trees. Jessica doesn't see well in the dark and had never been in a forest at night. I was doing fine until 10mins along, there came an animal screech from up the hill. Then I was spooked… We kept talking and I sang some songs to drown out the night sounds. When I finally saw the temple lights at 6:30pm, I was so relieved! I learned a lesson – don’t trust tourist maps and don’t underestimate Japan’s mountains. What an adventure!
We snapped some pictures of the shrine and Tori Gate before hurrying to the ferry port where my group was waiting and just managed to slip on the 6:45pm ferry. We caught the train to the hotel, talking to two guys from the Dominican Republic who are on a baseball league here. I bought some market food to eat at the hotel then enjoyed a hot bath while drinking some tea and reading my book. I was so exhausted, the bath felt wonderful!

College Connections

After the French language lounge and Portuguese class yesterday, I headed to Nagoya where I visited an exhibition of foreign art. I enjoyed much of the photography and art work, but found myself more interested in the profiles, seeing where people are from and how long they've lived in Japan. There were many American, British, Australian, Brazilian and Mexican artists.
From there, I went to Konan and we had a quick dinner with John and Shoko before going to John's Wednesday night coffee club. It's an English conversation club for a couple of his Japanese acquaintances. Back at their apartment, I enjoyed a relaxing bath a glass of sake before tucking into the cozy futon. The next morning we had a very hearty breakfast before heading to the college. I attended his morning seminar class with the 3 students who had studied in Castlegar last year, then had to take the bus to the train station.
At Nagoya Station, I met Linda, the coordinator for the international program at Selkirk College and the Peace Studies instructor. She is in Japan for an educational fair, so she came to visit the college here on her way through. We did a presentation together about Selkirk for some students who are interested in studying abroad. There were many photos in the power point of when I was Cultural Assistant - good memories!
Then Momiyama-san (who works at the office here) took us out for lunch with Brooks too. We went to a ton-katsu restaurant, Nagoya's specialty, breaded pork cutlet. I'm not a big fan of pork so I opted for deep-fried oysters...mmm... We started by crushing our own sesame seeds for the sauce! After such a big lunch, we decided it would be a good to walk it off so we headed up to the hill shrine before I showed Linda back to the bus stop.

Into November

As we entered into November, I could be heard yesterday morning saying "isn't it hot?" to an elderly lady at the post office and that afternoon "it's rather chilly isn't it?" By that evening we were bundled in coats and scarves for a night wander around the community on the hill. We went for a really long walk because we had eaten way too much cake, brownies and chocolate fondue at Yuka's birthday party! Today is her birthday and national Culture Day in Japan so no one has classes. We explored the hill shrine this afternoon and discovered a cave behind it.
Otherwise, I've been doing homework and catching up on chores and emails etc. lately. I'm working on my application for Royal Roads University where I plan to study starting in July 2010 and graduate with a degree in Professional Communications in July 2011. I have also decided to go back to Ecuador for a month this winter! My sister is living there and my two best friends will be in South America then, so hopefully we can all meet up! I'm really excited to see my host families and friends there after more than 3 and a half years! Because it was affordable to get a multi-destination flight, I'm taking the opportunity to learn Portuguese in Brazil for 3 months! It will be my 5th language! I hope I don't get them all mixed up!

Halloween Party

After a long week packed with grueling Japanese tests, it was nice to enjoy a good Halloween Party at I-House on Friday. Lots of people dressed up! Some of my favourites from the night include Alexis's mask which she made from origami paper, the vampire who cut up the garlic for our dinner, the suicidal salary man, and sneezing Piccachoo (he had a cold), heh heh. Personally, I dressed up all in white to look like a ghost. It was funny how many people didn't recognize me at first!
Today I am catching up on some emails and chores, then digging into the homework. We have self-study week next week, so no morning classes, just piles of homework!! It should be a nice break from routine though! Right now I am out in the courtyard where the big tree is shedding showers of autumn leaves every time a breeze picks up. Fall in Japan is simply beautiful! And not cold whatsoever! It's practically warm out here!

Lion King

Universities in Japan have huge festivals with club performances, activities and plenty of food stands. Ours was this weekend so the Japanese students had Thursday and Friday off to prepare for it. However the international students had tests both days and more on Monday! But we still pulled off an awesome trilingual production of the Lion King play.
I was one of the directors so the past month has been a little stressful trying to bring everything together. Alexis who was in charge of props and costumes took over my roll while Mom was here and continued to keep everyone on track until the day of the production. She did wonders with the costumes on a limited budget. The main material was cardboard from free boxes at from the local super store. Rosie handled the music and the 3 RAs did the script.
The night before the play, we found out we had got the stage wrong, so we had to throw all of our stage directions up in the air, but in the end it was all ok... actually it was all extremely entertaining. I was so proud of everyone! I played a giraffe and made the mask!! With Alexis' help of course! If you can, feel free to watch the full production which is now on YouTube. Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/user/NagoyaGA.
The Suzukis came to enjoy the festival and watch the play. Katsutoshi took lots of photos for me (Thank you! I hope you were able to enjoy the play too!). Back at I-House, they gave me some sweets they had brought for everyone and onigiri (rice balls wrapped in seaweed) that looked like mini soccer balls!! Everyone thought they were so cute!!!
That evening I invited Alexis along to enjoy the waffles I made with Yuuko-san. We shared some of the ice wine she had ordered from Kasugai since she enjoyed the stuff we had the other night so much. We ate in my room with a refreshing autumn breeze coming in my balcony door.
I've decided that yesterday was a day for Gram because I played her favourite animal in one of her favourite plays, received yellow roses (from Yuuko-san), drank wine from the Okanagan valley and made waffles for Sunday night dinner!

Nagahama and Nagoya

Saturday morning Mom and I set off early, heading to Nagahama. I had been mailing back and forth with Hisako-san, the lady I met briefly in the train when I visited Nagahama at the beginning of September, hoping to visit her later this semester. Then when Mom came, I wanted to show her Nagahama, so I called Hisako-san. Although the priest was visiting their house that day, she offered to have us stay there!
On the train I noticed a few young ladies in kimonos, and even more when we got off the train. I thought maybe there was a wedding or something, but it turns out it was the day of the city’s annual kimono festival! What great luck! Our first stop during our day of wandering the city was at the lakeside castle. There we watched a demonstration of some old-style guns that are made just outside the city.
We walked into town, exploring many shrines and temples and enjoying different foods from the stalls set up along the covered shopping alleys. The rain caught us in the afternoon for a bit, which just meant we had the one shrine all to ourselves! At the main temple, we watched as all the girls in kimonos line up to receive prizes for entering in the festival. Some of the kimonos are so colourful and intricate.
In the afternoon, we made our way to Hisako-san’s house where she was waiting to greet us and make us tea. Her and her husband (an orthopaedic surgeon) live in a fairly large old-style Japanese home with a beautiful little garden out the back. There is no bath, so we went across the street to the public bath, complete with jet tubs, a cold pool and sauna – very much appreciate after the rain that afternoon. When we got back, she had dinner ready. We ate two kinds of fish and beef “shabu shabu”, thin strips of beef cooked in a vegetable broth in a pot in the middle of the table, with plenty of side dishes. I had fun trying to translate all the conversations at the table that night.
After a decent sleep on the futon, we were woken up at 7:00am on Sunday morning by the city hall’s announcement reminding people that there would be a community earthquake training session later that day. Hisako-san had prepared a large breakfast complete with the smoked-duck her husband had prepared just for us. Then it was time to catch the train back to Nagoya Station where we met up with Mayuko!
Then the Suzukis showed the three of us around Nagoya Castle where the annual chrysanthemum festival had just begun! Again, very lucky timing! The flowers were amazing – whole trees of chrysanthemums! Mom and I also really enjoyed the bonsais. And of course the castle itself is stunning. Katsutoshi had prepared some material about its history etc. and made an excellent guide! Before it was time to leave, we enjoyed a cup of green tea in the tea house there.
Back at Nagoya Station, we took a trip in the glass elevator up to the 47th floor, open air Sky Promenade at a building across the street. Amazing view! Then we met with John and Shoko who showed us to a little soba restaurant for dinner. We tried taro and gingko nuts! Shortly after, it was time to say goodbye to Mayuko as she had to take the shinkanzen back to Tokyo and we returned to Nisshin. That night we stayed in the Western-style room at Ikue’s apartment building. Monday morning I left for classes and Mom took the bus to the airport to fly home. It was fabulous to see Mom and show her around a bit of Japan, now it’s back to the usual grind…

Showing Mom around Nisshin

After classes and in between homework assignments, I was able to show Mom around the place where I have been living since March. On Monday, Keisuke joined us and we went to a nearby curry rice restaurant. Mom and I shared a chicken curry and salad – not quite thanksgiving dinner, but it was mighty tasty. That night we stayed in the Japanese room at Ikue’s apartment building.
On Tuesday, I went to class in the morning and Mom went to talk to Brooks (the young American who works in the international office) about getting a translation of the medical slips from my hospital visits. At break, he pulls me aside saying that since I was not feeling better yet, we should go to the hospital. So next thing you know, Mom, Brooks and I are in a taxi to the hospital. This time I got a chest x-ray done and after waiting a while to get into the doctor’s office his was rather vague about what my symptoms could mean and needed a lot of prompting to give answers to our questions. We settle on that it hadn’t developed into pneumonia, but possibly into asthma… so I was prescribed another set of medication, including two inhalers. I wasn’t too convinced at the time, but it’s been almost a week now and I’m feeling a lot better… of course I hope it isn’t really asthma and was just lingering symptoms of the bronchitis. Anyways, back at I-House that afternoon (a little late) Hiromi came with her sister to visit us. They had both come to Nelson 10 years ago when Hiromi preformed the tea ceremony for us. We had a lovely chat out in the courtyard garden. They had also brought some “thank you for coming to Japan” gifts for my Mom and birthday gifts for me. How wonderful of them!
On Wednesday, I had a long day of classes because of Portuguese class and Mom made dinner for me at I-House in the evening :) Thursday Mom and Ikue met me for lunch at the university cafeteria. From there, we went for a walk up to the funky house and the small shrine at the top of the community behind the university. That evening Mom and I ate a lovely Japanese dinner that Yuuko-san (the caretaker here at I-House) prepared for us. And we all shared the Okanagan Ice Wine from Suzukis. It was fabulous!
On Friday, once I had finished most of my homework for the weekend, Mom and I played a game of cards and then walked up to the hill shrine. There we cleansed, prayed, admired the beautiful view and then we walked down the other side to Osho-sama’s house. I had planned to just introduce her to my Mom before we went out for dinner, but Osho-sama insisted on inviting us in for tea… and rice cakes, and gifts… lots of gifts, treats, mugs and and obento box! We weren’t that hungry after, but still wanted to try the nearby sushi bar, so we stopped in there for a bite to eat before returning to I-House. That night, I got woken up at 4:30 in the morning by someone pounding on Yuka’s door saying there was an emergency, then Melanie got taken away in the ambulance. I couldn’t get to sleep for a while, worrying about her so I wrote the last post for my blog. Turns out that she has kidney stones – ouch! I guess the moral of these stories is, hospital visits aren't fun so please take care of your health!

A Weekend with Mom

From Tuesday to Thursday last week, Mom and I had been staying in the hotel-style room at Ikue’s apartment. On Friday, I went to Ikue’s for afternoon tea with Jessica. Mom and I were still working out plans for her stay here. That night we stayed at I-House and I got some homework done.
On Saturday morning, we headed out fairly early by bus and subway to Nagoya Station where we caught a train to Konan to meet John and Shoko. I had given Mom their address when they were looking for someone to take care of their cats in Nelson during the summer and when started to plan coming here, they helped out a lot. After morning tea at their apartment, we drove with their friends up to a city in Gifu prefecture called Seki. It is famous for producing knives, swords and razors, etc. There we watched a sword-forging demonstration at the "cutlery" festival.
From Seki, we drove to another city in Gifu called Tajimi. I had been there once before with the Suzukis to make pottery. This time we met up with a lady named Martha who immigrated to Japan from the United States about 30 years ago. Mom had contacted her because she belongs to a square dance club there. First she showed us around the beautiful temples and natural gardens where the ponds are laid out in the shape of the Chinese symbol for “heart”. Then we went for a delicious dinner at a quaint sushi restaurant before heading to their evening square dancing. Suzukis met us there and we watched some of the dancing (Mom joined in) until it came time for the beginners lesson and next thing you know, they got all of us out dancing with them – great times!
We both stayed over at John and Shoko’s that night and headed out the next morning towards Magome in Gifu. This town was a “post” town along one of the old highway roads when people would hike from one place to another. There were many souvenir and treat shops along with restaurants and inns along the steep, stone street. From there, we hike 7.7kms along the old road, through big cedar trees, past houses and persimmon trees, stopping at some pretty waterfalls along the way. We eventually arrived at Tsumago in Nagano prefecture. It was a similar-style town and we bought some stuffed-bread treats at a little shop. We found out a bus would come for another hour, so we took a taxi back to Magome. From there, we drove back towards Konan, but being a 3-day weekend, the express-way was packed! Mom and I got out in Tajimi along the way back and took the train/ subway/ bus back to Nisshin.
It made for a good long weekend, only I didn’t have Monday off like everyone else in Japan… I had a huge vocabulary test at a 2 minute speech to do! So much for Japan’s Sports and Health Day or Canadian Thanksgiving!

Birthday surprise

MY GOODNESS - biggest surprise of my life...
On Tuesday, the day before my birthday, Ikue had invited me to her place for a party. Jessica and I made our way there for 6:30. Ikue's 2 daughters were there waiting to greet us. We went to wash our hands and as I came out of their washroom, my Mom was there... wait, MY MOM was there!!! WHAT??? An intense hugging, smiling, laughing, crying and generally disbelieving session ensued, followed by a "how the, what the, for how long" etc. I cannot believe that I had no idea!!! I had given Ikue my Mom's email so that could chat and Ikue could practice her English, but I got the impression they didn't write to each other all that often. They are both so talkative, I am astonished they kept it a secret!!
Meanwhile, I also noticed that Katsutoshi and Hiromi where there too!!! When Ikue's husband came home from work, we all sat down to a beautiful dinner followed by a delicious birthday cake!! I slept over at the hotel-style room at the apartment building where my Mom was staying, but couldn't get to sleep from all the excitement.
Since then it has been a huge rush of trying to keep up with school work while still dealing with this darn bronchitis or whatever it has turned into now and hanging out with my Mom.
On Wednesday, I Mom came to part of my Japanese class in the morning, I worked at the French Language Lounge at lunch and then went to Portuguese class. In the evening, Mom came to I-House and my had a cake potluck to which people pitched in 100yen each towards an electric hand mixer that I hope to buy soon. Alexis and Jessica made lots of delicious carrot and banana cake, Yuka made an apple cake and many other people brought cakes, including a delicious pineapple upside down cake!
On Thursday, a typhoon passed through Nagoya early in the morning (I was so exhausted by then I didn't hear a thing), so classes were cancelled. I spent the whole day trying to coordinate plans with all of our Japanese friends for my Mom's 2-week visit. Anyways, I have to finish my homework before meeting her for dinner - does curry chicken count as Thanksgiving dinner?? Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians reading this!

Story of the PJ Pants

Yee... the little glees in life! In between the incredible amount of homework and vocabulary study this weekend, I managed to watch a movie and another episode of Gilmore Girls, during which I worked on getting better (slow but steady process) and sewing my pajama pants!
Now for those who don't the story of the PJ pants, it starts in the year 2000ish, in grade 8 or 9 sewing class when I first sewed the blue (now faded to white) happy face flannel PJ pants. I loved them to near death, in other words when they got a huge rip in the butt during my grad year. I was devastated because one of my favourite shirts had just ripped in several places... Then, ah ha! I realized it would make the perfect patch!
When I was living in Ecuador (2006), more holes appeared, which I patched up with my school uniform shirt, a Canadian flag, a Quebec flag... and since then I have gone travelling around the world, always bringing the pants with me and patching them whenever they rip.
Every patch has a story to it from my favourite pair of high school jeans to my sister's childhood pajamas to the shirt my Grandma got from her first cruise with my Grandpa. The most recent addition was sent from my friend, Bridget, from when she spent a month in Togo. And I just reinforced the waist band with Esha's old pajamas he gave me before leaving.
The holes are never-ending and the patches are even starting to need patches, so if you have a favourite little piece of material, save it for me or send it to me with its story and I'll add it to the pants!
My address here is: Kim Lipscombe (Room 207), NUFS International House, 37-39 Takenoyama, Iwasaki-cho, Nisshin-shi, Aichi-ken, 470-0131 JAPAN. I'm here until Dec.21st then home for Christmas!!

More Pottery!

Mmm… I love getting my hands in clay!! This was my second time doing pottery here in Japan. This time I went with the university to a place in Seto city, possibly the most famous city in Japan when it comes to ceramics. The soil there produces a very high quality clay. The place we went to has one of only 4 remaining old-style, hill side, wood-fire kilns in the area.
After a demonstration, we each got to make a piece and then we could pay to make an extra piece if we wanted to. I first made a round little cuppy-mug and, because it’s just so much fun, I made a squat little vase. I chose 2 different glazes and they should be finished in about a month – I’m excited!
In other news, I'm not over my bronchitis yet, but the symptoms are much more manageable. It's going to be another weekend of taking it easy!