Scavenger Hunt! (Victor)

Given the clue “Find the temple where Hideyoshi’s wife Onene spent her final years”. It didn’t take long to find out that my assigned sight was Kodai-ji Temple. A relatively unknown temple when compared to its neighbors, Yasaka Shrine and Kiyomizu-Dera, Kodai-ji is a beautiful site that I personally enjoyed more than Kiyomizu-Dera, the go-to temple in the Gion area. My temple is more toned down and elegant than the other two places I mentioned above, its structures are more simplistic and fewer in number, but each of them are considered historical treasures.

Trying to find the entrance on a narrow residential street.

When I visited Kodai-ji the first time, I knew nothing about it other the fact that is where Hideyoshi’s wife died, and that she had it built to honor his memory after he died. My main focus during this exploratory first visit was to learn my way around the complex, take pictures, and make sure that I could remember the path again when we returned together in October.

Kaisan-do with view of a pond

I absolutely loved Kodai-ji. The more simplistic layout of the buildings lends itself to a quiet space in nature very well. Due to the article I read by William H. Samonides and more of my own research in preparation for touring around again, I learned that it wasn’t supposed to be that way. The complex used to have many more buildings, but due to several fires only six main structures remain. One of my favourites is the Kaisan-Do; it has many paintings from the Tosa and Kano schools.

Famous picture of Kodai-ji maki-e

The Otama-ya, however, is a very special building as it contains much of what Kodai-ji is known for; Momoyama period maki-e, also known as Kodai-ji maki-e. Maki-e is a Japanese style of lacquer where gold or silver dust is sprinkled on the lacquer while it is still wet.

Match and mochi

By far, my favorite part of visiting Kodai-ji was getting a cup of matcha tea while sitting in a tea room. Near the end of the walking through Kodai-ji, you can pay 500 yen to get a cup of tea and a small mochi snack. The perfect way to end a walk around centuries old Japanese buildings surrounded by nature.

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? (Victor)

I don’t get to hear a lot of the dialect from my area, Osaka, partially because of my bad habit of staying inside my room when I’m not in class, but also because many of the Japanese students in the seminar house, and around campus always try to use English when speaking to me.

Eat and eavesdrop to learn Japanese.

I tend to hear the most of Kansai-ben when I go out to a cafe or restaurant alone, and I have nothing to do but eavesdrop on neighboring tables.

The two most common phrases I hear are ええで which is equivalent to いいよ, and おおきに, the equivalent to ありがとう. This makes sense considering I hear it at restaurants where phrases like “No problem/okay’’ and “Thank you” are commonplace. I was also specifically taught the phrase おおきに at a small basement restaurant in Kyoto called Teppan Tavern Tenamonya, which I highly recommend. At the end of the meal, they gave us a thank you card that says おおきに on it, and the owner, and chef, of the restaurant made sure we knew what it meant and had us repeat it out loud after him.

Let the bourbon flow! Even though I only got cocktails.

Kansai-ben speakers will probably despise me for saying this but another reason I don’t pick up on the dialect a lot is because most of the time it’s not different enough from Tokyo-ben/standard Japanese that I get confused. If I said that out loud to someone from the Kansai area I’d probably get yelled at. I’ve been told by my Japanese professor here that the people who use Kansai-ben are not only very proud of how they speak, but also specifically have a special hatred and sense of superiority towards people from Tokyo and how they talk. I may be misremembering, but the first time I really noticed Kansai-ben was when I went to a bourbon bar called Rogin’s Tavern in the middle of Osaka where an old man was having a conversation with the bartender that I felt I should’ve been able to understand but was having a strangely hard time. Also, it was my first bar experience so that was pretty fun and funky.

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.

Mapping the City (Charles S)

Days 1-2

The first two days were right off the bat of being in Tokyo. I hadn’t slept much in the last 48 hours and it was incredibly difficult to accept the reality of where I was. I went to Akita Airport via plane instead of the bullet train due to price (which was surprising as I thought I would be somewhat linked to larger cities via that train.) Upon meeting the staff who were in charge of the bus we drove an incredibly short drive to the University. I would come to know that the views of rice paddies and farms were in the opposite direction of where I came from, so the only thing I could see during that drive was dense vegetation.

The campus’s size was unclear at this time. But after reaching my dorm it was clear that I was on the edge of it. Directly across the street was a huge community garden, filled with many unrecognizable plants. Even the smell of dead plants that fills the air in most rural areas was incredibly different. The first “landmark” that I would say I recognized outside the school was the garden itself, but specifically the garden shed. The shed seemed to be an old bunker, overgrown on the sides with vegetation, and also had spaces for plants and a bridge built into its sloped side. I will link the picture I took of it, as I believe it is the first picture I took in Akita.

The second day I woke up at around 5:30am. My Roomate turned out to be from England, and the degree seeking students would not arrive for another week or so. I had yet to meet any locals, and the place had not yet been properly humanized for me. At around 7am I went for another walk past the garden, further this time to the corner of my street, which is AIU on one half and residential on the other. There I found the konbini. Upon glaring at the katakana for too much time I realized its name was Banafe. I interpreted this to be shorthand for Bananafish, because the logo on the sign was a fish in a banana peel. I still have yet to truly decipher the meaning of that. The moment that would follow is one that I think shocked almost every Japanese learner that walked into the store that day.

I had used Japanese in Tokyo to order food and to ask for directions, so I was confident in communication within Banafu. It is owned by an older married couple, who spoke in what I have since learned is a heavy dose of the Akita Dialect. I knew that the dialect was present here before I came, but I had projected more of a sense of rareness on people actually using it. I couldn’t understand a word that he said past good morning. I did learn that their dog's name is Ku-chan though. I am aware that this essay is sparse in content discussing the map making process, but with so very few landmarks so far the first two days established my center of the world for the next few weeks. That being Banafu, specifically the vending machines and picnic table outside of it, which would hastily become a very social area.

Days 5-7



The next week would have my map expanding from just the campus, and this is where it started to get a little complicated. I went to the local mall this week, as our school's bus stop has a direct link to it. I went to buy cooking materials and things of that sort. I wasn’t quite sure if the area the mall was in (which was a ten minute bus ride away) was considered to be in Akita City itself. I would learn that it isn’t quite there yet. Passing rice paddies and a river, newer buildings and residential areas began to present themselves. Upon checking the bus schedule for the mall me and the kids I was with realized that it would be another 3 hours before the next one back, so we decided to walk it. The walk began as a sort of side of the highway affair. It wasn’t an attractive scene at first, the area where the mall sits is strip mall filled and on a busy road.

We passed gigantic old factory buildings and tangled electrical plants. We soon got back into the countryside, passing the sparse towns throughout the walk, which you could walk through 10 minutes a piece. It darkened and started to rain halfway through the 2 hour walk. So my mind's geography of that direct path is hazy. It seemed like we were deep within the woods and hopelessly far from anything, until the light at the end of the tunnel named Banafu suddenly popped up on the left. That weekend I also passed the local shrine which was deep within the forest between the school and the airport. I found signs for it by trying to find a secluded parking lot to skateboard in, and followed it for about 45 minutes.

12-14 days:

By this point I had been to a big new landmark, as well as the City itself. Both of which were way farther than I expected. The landmark in question is the beach that was recommended to me and other internationals. It was a 45 minute ordeal to get there by train and bus. On the way we stopped in Akita City Station, but didn’t go into the city just yet. To get to the first train you need to take a bus from right outside our cafeteria to the closest town I walked through on my way back from the mall. The town is called Wada, and that is where the closest train access is. The bus ride to Wada is less than ten minutes. On the train we traveled about 7 and half miles to the city, passing more Paddies and different little towns at each spot. The surrounding hills and mountains bowl this area in, their peaks are sharper than the more rounded out hills of the Massachusetts mountains that I’m used to. The train was also significantly more crowded than I thought it would be. At the station we transferred trains and rode another 15 minutes to the town that was next to the beach.

This town was the first time I experienced sights that were familiar to me. Most buildings were abandoned and most windows were boarded up. There were houses made of sheet metal, and very few people around. The town itself consisted of different buildings built along right on the beach before the sand started. There were a few people surfing and the only person I saw outside the water was a carpenter. The beach itself was covered in plastic. Beach toys, bottles, and other assorted plastics peppered the beach. It was saddening, but it was also an important moment to me for reasons I still have difficulty describing.

Ever since I have been here, I have been amazed at the cleanliness of the countryside. Even though I knew cities here were relatively free of street trash, I still hadn’t seen any litter the whole time I had been here. This perplexed me due to the sheer amount of vending machine drinks being consumed by everyone in my close proximity. Everyone sits and consumes them at the banafe, and still the area stays clean. The beach (although it was saddening for us) grounded me in a way. In my head I almost exclaimed “Oh! So this is where all that trash is.” In a messed up way I felt more at home after I saw this. Along with the more impoverished area we were in, this trip assisted me and looked at Akita as a more real place than I had been, and also helped me relate it to the place I call home.

We also went to the city itself a few days after the beach. It was bigger than I thought it would be based on AIU’s landscape. After exiting the station there was an arms race protest as well as a festival featuring Kanto (a local sport that consists of balancing many lanterns on a pole.) None of the kids I was with had sims yet, so we walked around the city hoping to see the castle in the center park. The park was closed so sadly I have yet to experience that, but we could see it poking out of the park as we walked around. The only thing we knew about was a second hand store called Hard Off.

There were surely buses in the city that we could have utilized to get to the store faster, but we were all too overwhelmed and phoneless to utilize them, and so we walked. It took hours to find, and on our way back the sun had began to set. This is when I encountered a new problem. Akita City was pretty barren at night. On our way back to the station we noticed a street we hadn't seen before. It was full of Izakaya and music, and the familiar pop culture fantasy neon signs. Upon further investigation this part of the city was a sort of red-light district. Even though the area had earned itself that title it was still well known to the Japanese kids I met later that it had a fun and busy night scene. I also learned this area only opens up at 9, which is right when the last bus is. Leaving the area we saw many kids our age rushing out of the station we were walking into. It was really nice to see so many people, and feel the rush of population again. Hopefully I can figure out a way to explore the city at night.

Mapping My Way (Victor)

Being as timid as I am, and that my friends were far away from me, living on the college campus while I lived in a building thirty minutes away, I explored as little as possible at first. I only went to the small grocery store five minutes away the next day out of necessity for food, and after it was acquired, I didn’t leave the building again until orientation a couple of days later. I was absolutely terrified of going anywhere by myself. Despite there being a bus stop right outside my building that took me straight to campus, I opted to walk my first several trips because I was too nervous to take the bus alone and I didn’t get a bus pass for almost two weeks because the thought of getting to, and navigating a train station alone was also scary. I didn’t go anywhere I didn’t absolutely have to, and I tried to rope in my roommate or friends for every trip I went on.

My understanding of the world around me represented by sticky notes.

This fear of exploration, particularly by myself, meant that I didn’t have any understanding of my surroundings and even though I walked to campus several times, I was so glued to Google Maps that I didn’t absorb any landmarks.

My small world

Even now that I’ve been in Japan for a few weeks, I still haven’t done much exploring, which I regret because I now have less and less time to go out as the semester ramps up. I have my major landmarks, like Himawari, the very bright and bold pachinko parlor that signals where I need to turn right to get to campus from where I’m living. The Top World Market is where I do more extensive grocery shopping trips, and it signals that I’m getting closer to home but my bubble is still so small. For example, I’ve never turned left at Himawari, I take the bus whenever I can, blocking me from taking in information from my environment, and I’m still not comfortable taking the train alone.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to take some bigger steps on my own soon.

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.

My First Big Trip Alone (Victor)

As I set out on this journey I hope to push myself further outside of my comfort zone than ever before. I’ve never been away from home for so long without so much as a weekend back with my family but this time I won’t see my house again for four months. 

Final Look

Of course furthering my language skills is always my goal for studying abroad but I also want to learn to communicate with people that grew up in a completely different environment than I did. It will be challenging to adapt to Japanese culture, as much as I research ahead of time, I can never truly understand what it will feel like to be there until several days or weeks after I’ve gotten off the plane with no reasonable way to change my mind and go home.

Being so far from my friends and family, I expect to be challenged with loneliness and isolation greater than I’ve ever experienced. I won’t be able to text my parents during the day and get a snappy reply, I’ll have to plan calls ahead of time, I’ve never had to do that before. Years ago, I went on a trip to China with my 8th grade Chinese class and I didn’t have much communication back home then either, but I was surrounded by my English speaking classmates and a nice teacher that was constantly checking in on us. I’m mostly alone on this journey, and that’s scary.

Mt. Fuji from the air

But I also hope to learn how to overcome fears like this and be able to go on more adventures after this one.

Welcome to Kansai Airport, Osaka