Finding Hideyoshi’s Shrine - A Scavenger Hunt (Mahala)

For my scavenger hunt, I was given the hint:

Find the main shrine to Hideyoshi in Kyoto and also the uncomfortable memorial to his invasions of Korea nearby.

My first step in this journey was establishing what this “uncomfortable memorial” was my assumption that Hideyoshi had many shrines in the country due to his very important status in Japanese history. So, I knew that my location was in Kyoto (because of my university’s location, and the destination of our class trip) and I looked up any Korean memorials that could be connected to Hideyoshi. My research led me to the Mimizuka site. It is the burial mound of the noses of 38,000 Koreans that were taken as war trophies during the Hideyoshi invasions. It is a one minute walk to the shrine that honors the man responsible for the mound.

Upon further research I learned that the shrine has a pretty complicated history. The original site was torn down and buried by Tokugawa Ieyasu and was then rebuilt by Emperor Meiji about 200 years later. The initial destruction was because Tokugawa Ieyasu felt that honoring the man that he replaced was offensive to his position. However, Emperor Meiji believed that the people should honor Hideyoshi to reconnect with their national history and pride.

So I had my location and I just needed to visit. On a very hot Saturday, I took the train into Kyoto and first found Mimizuka. I did not stay for long, as it freaked me out to stand in front of something so dark. The gate to the mound was closed, and there was trash in front of it. This made me quite sad. I then walked to the shrine, which was also a short visit since most of the shrine was closed off. I had gone during unconventional hours during the work week, so that’s probably why it was closed. At the shrine, there were the main steps which led to where you drop your 5 yen coins and pray, and they were paralleled with two ema holders. Ema are wooden plaques that people write wishes on and leave them at the shrine. In the front of the shrine there was a statue of Hideyoshi.

These places are significant because of the fact that Hideyoshi was such an important person in Japanese history. He was one of the three men responsible for the unification of Japan. In his time of power, he led two separate invasions of Korea, which resulted in Mimizuka. Later in the Meiji period he became a symbol of Japanese nationalism and identity, which resulted in his shrine being rebuilt. Japanese history would be completely different if not for Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Mimizuka

Prayer altar

Stature of Hideyoshi

Say What?: My Experience with the Kansai Dialect (Mahala)

Before coming to Japan, I was aware that the Kansai dialect was a bit weird compared to the Japanese I have been learning for the past 3 years. I was a bit scared because, truthfully, I had no clue what that meant. However, after being in Japan for about 5 weeks now, spoken Japanese does not seem super different like I expected it would. To be honest, I have really heard about 2 or 3 words that belong specifically to the Kansai Dialect.

The word　めっちゃ　is probably the most common kansai word I have heard. It means ‘a lot’ or ‘very,’ and replaces the word とても. I kept hearing this word all of the time and finally figured out its meaning. Another word is おもろい　which replaces おもしろい and means ‘interesting.’ There are probably many other words that are Kansai dialect, however as I learn more every-day language in Japan, these words are never differentiated from “normal japanese.” There have been a couple times where my japanese friend has been asked to give us some words in Kansai-Ben, and she can’t really list more than three things., Kansai dialect is how she speaks, it isn’t anything different or unusual.

To me, adopting these words has been strange. In some instances, when describing something I try to adopt めっちゃ into my sentence and I am unsure whether I am using it correctly. I know I am, but because I learned a different word previously, it feels wrong when I say it. However, as my Japanese improves, I know that being immersed in the Kansai dialect will eventually cause me to use words from Kansai and I think that that is really cool.

A night out in Ebisuhigashi, Osaka.

Navigating Japan: My Experience in a New City (Mahala)

Today starts my fourth week here in Hirakata and it has been quite the journey to figure out how to get around a country that I have never been to before. Usually when I go someplace new I am with my mother who knows exactly where things are, what to do, and how to get around (if we don’t have our own car with us). It’s been helpful for the last 20 years of my life but now I don’t have her with me to navigate us. I have definitely noticed a difference in how I function in a new environment without her. I am the one person in my family who doesn’t do well with directions so at home I normally try to become familiar with a couple different areas of a city and work out from there. I noticed with this week’s exercise that I have done the exact same thing here.

My first week here, I was still recovering from weird jet lag and attempting to fight the insane heat, so not much exploring was done. However, I was still able to establish some main points of navigation close to me.



[Map of my surroundings after 1-2 days in Hirakata]

As I said earlier, I didn’t really get out much the first couple of days. The only thing that I actively searched for was somewhere to buy groceries. In this search, I did not stray far from campus. The only thing that I was totally sure of was the Lawson at the end of the street. I did go a couple of other places, but I was following other people at the time and very quickly forgot where we had gone.



[Map of my surroundings after 5-7 days in Hirakata]

After 5-7 days I was a bit more comfortable with the main intersection next to campus. I found a closer location to buy food that was right next to campus, and I saw that the perpendicular street was the way to Kansai Gaidai’s second campus, and was host to a lot of restaurants.



[Map of my surroundings after 10-12 days in Hirakata]

This is the chunk of time in which I really started to explore. As you can see in the map above, I became a lot more familiar with the main streets next to me and traveled farther down them. I was also able to locate two train stations, and took trips to Kyoto and Osaka. This area of the city is what I have really mastered. I have yet to really travel up the street though, I have only been to the store Izumiya once.

To me the easiest part of navigating is finding landmarks and their immediate surroundings. If we were to use the map as reference for cardinal directions, to the north is the big train station and the Hirakata T-Site which is a big shopping area. To the south is the Nakamiya Campus and is the direction that the bus route runs (seeing as there were only stops on that street). To the east is where I live and is a highly residential area. In fact most of my immediate surroundings in Hirakata seem to be housing.



[Bookstore inside of Hirakata’s T-Site Shopping Area]

Although I am familiar with this area, I still have no clue where I am in reference to Hirakata. I don’t even know my general area on a map. So there is a lot of work for me to do in learning my surroundings. But, I am starting to find exploring more fun than stressful like it was in the beginning. I hope to learn more about Hirakata soon!



[A picture of the main street while on my way back home]

Mahala's Big Day Out (Mahala)

As I set out on this journey I hope to put my mind at ease. The past two school years have been a bit difficult for me in reference to many things that would cause anyone a bit of uneasiness. But this year is going to be completely different for me. I will not really know anyone, therefore I will not feel obligated to spend as much time with others like I did in Beloit; and, I will not have an on campus job, which will give me free time at college that I have never held before. These two things gives me the opportunity to actually have the proper time for my classwork and to have small daily adventures around a place that is completely new to me. I love exploring and am always sad when I can’t see more of the places I visit, but a whole year will give me so much time to explore.

The biggest challenge that I will face is the lack of confidence in my Japanese language abilities. I tend to beat myself up a lot about not being at the right level for my classes, but the other half of me understands that I have never properly had the chance to learn. There is only so much that sitting in a classroom can do for you and your target language.

Time is what I hope to get out of this experience the most. Time to really engage with the hobbies and things that I have lost over the past couple years, time to explore Japan, and time to let the language sink in. I believe that at the end of this year, I will definitely be able to see a difference in myself.

Last shots before I go--reenacting my first day of kindergarten.