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!

Looking up!

Well, I am on the mend, at least in spirit I am...
This morning I missed class to go to the hospital. Brooks (who works at the International Office at the University) went with me by taxi. The doctor gave me different medication that I will start taking tomorrow, so let's hope that this stuff works!
Then the Suzukis came to visit me this afternoon and brought these lovely flowers and a care package full of fruit, candies, cake and miso soup. I feel so loved and cared for. They are the greatest family-away-from-home ever. Their kindness and generosity have given me new hope/ courage to get over this.
I've put the flowers out on the kitchen tables so that everyone can enjoy them. As I look at them, it reminds me that I forgot to mention the flowers that were at their house when we went there the other day. They have a beautiful big bush with white flowers... no, wait... light pink or... could it be that they are turning pink?? Yep! As the day progresses, the flowers gradually change from white to dark pink - incredible!

The Ups and Downs

First the good stuff - I got into the kanji class that I wanted to! This week we started language classes and I like the style, challenging, but not boring or overwhelming. We also had a meeting for language lounges today and I can work as a tutor in the French and Spanish lounges like I did last semester.
Now for the not so good news... even though I'm trying to stay positive, having had bronchitis for a the past 3 weeks, it's getting me down. It's no fun to be woken up 5 or 6 times a night by intense coughing fits that leave me gasping for breath. It's frustrating and exhausting. I'm keeping on top of homework and other duties, but I haven't been able to do any extra studying so I won't be writing the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December. It'll just have to wait for another year.
I spent the whole weekend trying to relax and get better. I watched 7 or 8 episodes of Gilmore Girls! It just feels like such a waste of my time, I want to be productive! I want to achieve things... arg!
Maybe my brain is getting the best of me, maybe it thinks too much and my body is trying to tell it to slow down. This is the 3rd time I've been sick this year, not to mention my back and digestive problems worsening. I figure that no one can have everything so while I am good with languages, I am unlucky when it comes to health even if I eat well, etc. So I guess the moral of the story is that everyone has their ups and downs and we should each be thankful for what we do have. I am still so happy to be in Japan and have such a fabulous opportunity to study the language and experience the culture. I hope I get better soon so I can make the most out of it!

First Days of Language Classes

Well my long weekend consisted of being sick (I've got bronchitis apparently) and trying to study as much kanji as possible in between visiting with friends (the picture is of Ikue-san playing the Japanese harp).
Classes started on Thursday with orientation and conversation class. Then today we had a kanji placement test - the results will be up on Monday morning. In general I feel that I am more comfortable than my classmates when it comes to speaking in Japanese, but their grammar is more advanced. My 7 classmates are:
Cameron, 21, from Seattle
Jericho, 21, from Iowa
Kyle, 27, from Iowa
Catherine, 19, from Tazmania
Coralie, 19, from France
Emmanuelle, 23, From France
Celine, 23, from France
We cannot speak anything but Japanese in the classes, even if we want to explain something. It should be a good challenge for all of us!

Long Weekend

Just as classes start, we get a 5-day weekend... sweet! But I have to study kanji like mad because we have our kanji placement test on Friday. Unfortunately I am also getting over what we think in bronchitis, but that didn't stop me from enjoying some relaxing time...
On Sunday, I visited Mayu at her home town just outside of Nagoya. We had a chat with her 87-year-old grandma (it happened to be respect for the aged day here) and I showed Mayu my pictures from this summer. Then we made lots of waffles, followed by a short bike ride.
Today Melanie a I met up with Mendiate in Nagoya. He's a guy from Mozambique who I met last semester and who studies at Nagoya University. We wandered around the monthly market at Kakuozan and met up with Katsutoshi. We prayed at the temple there and bought a few snacks at the market.
Then Melanie and I went with Katsutoshi to their home in Kasugai where I had been once before. Hiromi was waiting for us in a yukata to teach us tea ceremony! I had bought myself a whisk and scoop from the green tea farm in Korea so I was excited to learn how to use them.
She began by serving us two servings of matcha, preceded by sweets (sweet potato and chestnut paste). Green tea is so warming. Then Melanie and I each took a turn at making the tea, learning all the delicate hand movements that go along with the service. After the tea ceremony, we ate a variety of bean paste rice cakes and candy boiled chestnuts which are traditional foods during the Buddhist Higan Festival to celebrate the fall equinox.
We went home bellies full of yummy sweets and soothing tea, heads full of tea ceremony knowledge, hands full of goodies and our own tea sets!!! and faces full of smiles.

Mountain Villages

Today we took a school trip up to two mountain villages in Gifu and Toyama prefectures. The road through the mountain to get there is full of long tunnels through the tall lush mountains and bridges spanning the narrow valleys. At Gokayama village, we had to take an elevator down the cliff from the parking lot to get there. There were several wooden gasshou-zukuri houses with huge thatched roofs.
Shirakawa-go is a larger community which we accessed by crossing a suspension bridge over a wide river. Both villages were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995 because most of the few gasshou-zukuri houses left are located there. In the house that we entered, they used to raise silk worms in the attic to make silk for kimonos!
After a black sesame ice cream, Alexis and I walked around the town with the little time we had left there. It is very picturesque and would be such a peaceful place if it wasn't for the groups of tourists. The shrine was especially beautiful, very rustic, surrounded by huge cedar trees.

First two weeks of craziness!!!

Oh my!!! I'm "home" and things have been a crazy rush lately between meeting all the new students, writing intense 8-hour long placement tests, having a cough and life in general... and it's just the beginning...
I got placed into the 401 class which is crazy!!! I was the lowest student in the 101 class last semester so it's a huge jump and it's going to be a challenge. Upon discovering that I got into such a high level, I am going to attempt the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam on December 6th. I really doubt that I will pass it, especially since only a third of the people who take it pass, but it's worth the try because it's valid for life if I do and if I don't, it's just good motivation for me to study really hard!! So I'm sorry if I don't write so many posts, send as many emails or letters over the next 3 months, but I really want to try my best!
Lately I have been walking up to the hill shrine every morning, rain or shine. Sometimes Jessica (from North Carolina who was born in Honduras) comes with me. The other day we visited Osho-sama at the temple. She served us tea and gave us a bunch of gifts to take home. And told us to come any time and bring a note book so that she could help us learn Japanese.
Ah! And lastly, I am going to take a Portuguese class... in Japanese!! Mah! It's a second semester course so I have a bit of catch up to do, but I actually understand the Portuguese more then I do the Japanese, lol. It's going to be so great!! I'll learn so much of both languages.
The pics here are of Jessica with her camera (she likes to take pictures, not have them taken of her), the welcome party and when Minase and Hanano came up from Osaka to visit me, Keisuke, Yui and Jun here in Nagoya.

A brief stop in Nagahama

On the morning of the 5th Ayumi's mom dropped me off at the closest train station and I headed "home". But first! Nagahama! It might be the nicest place I've been to so far. It's a small city on the shores of Lake Biwa (the biggest lake in Japan). I ended up spending 3 hours instead of the planned hour and a half wandering around the town. I could have spent so much longer there. I walked through some neat old-style shopping streets, checked out the glass-blowing museum and traditional floats museum and discovered a really cool little weekend market where a guy took my picture through a kaleidoscope.
I went to a beautiful temple, prayed and ate some of my packed lunch by the pond in the peaceful garden out back, with not a soul around. Then I at black sesame seed ice cream and visited some other shrines and temples as I made my way back to the lake side park where there is a small castle. The lake is huge and quite clean. It reminded me a bit of Okanagan Lake, but a little less inviting.
Even the train station itself is an interesting thing to see because it is the oldest train station in Japan! As I was looking for a seat on the train, I was happily surprised when an elderly lady waved me to the seat beside her. She said she had been behind me in the line. We got chatting and she gave me her contact information in case I get the chance to go back to Nagahama! And I definitely hope to because it is a fabulous little town!