Skiing in Nagano

Well I’ve skipped out on the blog a few weeks now, but I promise to write about everything I’ve been up to in the next couple blogs. It may be a little out of order though.

So, right now we are out of classes for a few weeks for winter break. Last week, I went with two friends, Lisa and Yaeeun, to Nagano for a skiing get away. If you didn’t know, Nagano is where the 1998 Olympic Winter games were held, so it was awesome going there to ski. It was absolutely beautiful!

We took a night bus (which is very common for trips across Japan) on Monday night and arrived Tuesday morning. It was pretty funny, because we booked our trip a few days before we went, so none of us really knew the exact details of the trip, so when we were dropped off at the edge of our ski resort’s town, Nozawa Onsen, we had no idea where to go, and it was snowing like crazy… We looked like a couple of fools walking through the snow without any of our gear on.

We finally found our hotel (old Japanese Style hotel called Genbe) where you take off your shoes at the door, and wear slippers throughout the building. The rooms have no beds when you walk in, just a small table in the middle. The table, a kotatsu, is low, wooden frame covered by a heavy blanket, on top of which is a table top. These are very common in to have in family rooms because they keep you warm in the winter, since many houses, hotels, and buildings in Japan don’t have central heating. Oh, and since there are no beds, you would open the closet to find your bedding and futons.

We skied for three days straight on the trip, which made us extremely sore. I was even more sore, because I was skiing with two girls that have gone skiing almost every year since they were about 5 years old, so their ability is far superior to mine… and let’s just say, they didn’t quite realize my lack of ability so the first day I managed to fall down the mountain… Ha. I was so sore that night and the next day.

Me falling down the mountain...

Also, everything on the mountain and the skiing gear is very similar to what you would find in Colorado ski resorts. The only difference is the food and drinks, which is primarily Japanese-style cuisine.  And, I don’t think there were any places for beer, at the top of the mountain, like you always find in Colorado. Otherwise I really felt like I was skiing in Breckenridge, until I would hear someone yell in Japanese and then I remembered where I actually was.

After skiing each night, we returned to our hotel, showered, and had an amazing dinner which the inn keeper made for all of the guests. It was very traditional Japanese food, but it was so delicious. We made plans to go out on the town the first night, but after eating so much, and sitting under the warm kotatsu, we crashed by like 7:00. Each morning we were awaken by the inn keeper over the intercom for breakfast at 7:30, so I guess it worked out that we went to bed so early. The breakfast were also very different than American, but so delicious. Then, after breakfast, we’d go upstairs and sit under the kotatsu more, before heading out to ski.

Dinner Day One

Dinner Day Two

But, I must mention, I was with two fluent Japanese speakers, which helped out with arranging all of the trip details, and communicating with the inn keeper. However, one morning, we were just hanging out… and I guess here is the conversation that took place between Yaeeun and I. (She is from Korea)… so not an English native speaker.

Me: “Wow look at this view of the mountains out the window, and sitting under this warm koFAtsu… it doesn’t get much better than this.”
Yaeeun: “It’s koTAtsu, you blonde dumb!”
Me: “It’s DUMB blonde, Yaeeun!”

Haha, the mixups between two people with different native language are always funny.

Sorry again, for leaving you all without posts to read for about a month. I will update again in a few days. Happy New Year to everyone, and I'll see you in less than 2 weeks! =]

With all of my love from Japan,

Momiji (The color change of the leaves)

Long time no see. Well, I’m still here in Japan, going to school, and trying to get as many last minute small trips planned. Recently the “momiji” has finally hit the Kansai area, and hard! “Momiji” is the changing colors of the autumn leaves, which is a very popular time in Japan to go up into the mountains to see the different leaf colors. I’ve heard that this year, it is happening later than usual, but I’ve gone into the mountains for the momijigari (autumn leaf viewing) experience twice now.  However, both times, the leaves weren’t quite as red as I would have hoped.

About a month ago I went with two Japanese friends, Shota and Megumi, and two American friends, Clay and Kyle, to Mino Yama for the Momijigari. We hiked up quite a ways on a small street filled with shops and music. It was a lot of fun seeing many authentic Japanese souvenirs and foods. Some of the treats specific to this time of year, are the Tempura fried maple leaves, which sound gross, but are very delicious! =] They taste a lot like maple syrup! Also, on this mountain, monkeys are commonly seen, and are notorious for stealing picnic food. So, we were told not to take any food up with us on the mountain. However, we saw no monkeys... =[ After hiking up about 30 minutes, we reached the top! And at the top was a beautiful waterfall, and many trees that weren’t very red yet, but I’m sure right now (which is the peak of the momiji) would be BEAUTIFUL!

A sign telling us not to feed the monkeys.. Haha!

One of the few red trees =]=]

The tempura fried maple leaves!

 Also, a few weeks ago I went with another Japanese friend to a famous temple in Kyoto, Kiyomizudera. It was so beautiful, and such a neat experience to see all of the old buildings and architecture. Kyoto is well known for its leaves in the autumn season, and even though this was still several weeks into November, the leaves still weren’t quite red. However, I had a great time seeing the temple, and tasting all of the delicious treats in Kyoto in the many shops leading up to the temple! It is common to come to this temple in the fall, and stop at the shops along the way for the wagashi treats. Wagashi is a general term for Japanese confections, but a common type is Mochi filled with a red bean paste. They are good, but when comparing them to a Western dessert, well there is no comparison… I love my Western cakes and sweets. Here, they don’t use as much sugar; the Japanese don’t like sweets, the American way.

Famous view of the temple, some of the red leaves too!

some more red leaves! =]

 

Here are some japanese school girls washing their hands with the "holy" water outside the temple.

And FINALLY, this past week, the leaves are turning red, but I haven’t had a chance to make it back to Kyoto, so I decided to go with some friends and take some pictures around campus! =]=]

Well, that's all for now! Love and miss you all! I'll see you soon!

Pictures. KGU campus and my walk home in Takarazuka.

 KGU Campus entrance, and some of the beautiful gardens and ponds on campus

On my way home.

My apartment building



School Festival

Whoa, look at me go getting on here again this week. So, it was like two weeks ago that our school had a festival: Shingetsusai, which they have every fall and a few days of class are cancelled! =]=]

I joined a "club" here at KGU with another ryugakusei (foreign exchange student) Madeleine who is from Germany! It is the 「デザイングループ」　= the design group (oh and those are the japanese version of quotation marks) So, this design group had an exhibition at the festival, so we worked some of the shifts, which didn't involve anything but drawing "live art" on chalk boards for 4 hours. It was a long day. Haha, but here are some sweet pictures of some of the art that the group members did:

Also, at this festival, a lot of the sports clubs and circles have tents where they sell food, in order to raise money for the year. It is a pretty sweet way to fundraise. And they actually make a lot of money because the food is good, and not only do the 20,000 plus students go to the festival during the days off, but a ton of people from the community come! I, of course, loved the food a little too much, and went to the festival to eat 3 of the 4 days it went on. Some of the food I ate was: yakisoba with a fried egg on a rice cake (delicious fried noodles in special sauce and mayonaise on top) , yakiudon (fat noodles with same special sauce and mayo), okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake with yaki sauce, mayo, and seaweed), akashiyaki (octopus and egg dumplings in a fish broth), an egg omlett with veggies and mayonaise, and some friend icecream with maple syrup! All was exceptionally delicious. =]=] I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet, but the Japanese put mayonaise on EVERYTHING. And it is delicious... very delicious... YUM. haha. I second guessed it a lot at first, but they know what they are doing when it comes to mayonaise. And its not like that fake stuff, Miracle Whip, its almost the same as Hellmanns, which is my personal favorite! =]=]

Also, there are clubs and circles focused on music, so the entire festival there were different clubs and circles holding miny concerts in the different academic buildings. It was pretty sweet watching rock bands in a classroom/ lecture hall. Almost like a music video or something! Each music club is made up of about 60-80 members and they divide up into different bands. Some were AMAZING, and others were pretty funny. One group that I distinctly remember was a "beatles cover band" one. Poor lead singer... didn't really know the words to many of the songs... "Its been a hard days night, and I've been sweatin like a drawer?" Haha, and in a language where the "l" and "r" sound has no distinction, singing a song with "love" in the chorus may not be the best choice. "Can't buy me rooove, rooove, rooove." =]=] It was really funny, and pretty dang cute.



 Oh, and there are dance clubs and circles too, here are a few pictures of some of the "dance off" performances!

I think NWU should have a festival like this. It was awesome! =]=]
That's all for now! Love and miss you all!

Hair. Halloween.

Hello everyone! Still in Japan. Haha, so... if you look at the picture below, what is the one thing that is the same in each??

Yup, that's right, almost every Japanese girl you see here has BANGS! All of them, so it was no surprise when I went to get my hair cut a few weeks ago and they asked me if I wanted bangs. I declined, but she definitely thought I would be "metcha kawaī" (really cute). They're obsessed. But, after the bang discussion, I had an amazing experience. 40 minute head massage/ shampooing. WOW. I didn't know it was possible to recieve that treatment at a salon, but it is. They massaged my head, laid several warm towels on it, while I was conditioning, and then gave me a shoulder rub after it was all done. The chair was similar to a lazy boy recliner, and the lights were dimmed, with a faint smell of fresh lavender. =] Wow... I'm weird. Anyways, I will definitely be returning before I leave.

That next weekend was HALLOWEEN! Of course it was a Saturday, so I met up with Lucas, Clay, and Maren at our favorite Indian restaurant for the curry special, they also gave us free dessert. There are many perks to becoming a regular at restaurants, and with being a foreigner! =] I need to take a picture of the place, its so cute inside with all the bali decor. Later on, I met up with Clay and Lucas to help out with their "costumes." On the way to our Halloween party, we were like CELEBRITIES. People not only stared at us, like usual, but they also kept asking to take pictures with us. We were loving it. But looking at this picture, I don't know who wouldn't want to take a picture.

We went to Sannomiya in Kobe for the dance party. It was sponsered by an entertainment group on campus, and was a lot of fun!! =]=] I even helped Clay win a dance competition. =] After we ate tons of chicken on a stick at our favorite torizoku place. What a great night! =]

Well, that's all for now, I promise to update again this week. I can't believe it's already the middle of November! See you all soon in the 402! =]=]