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! =]=]



2 months, WHOA.

So, still not great at updating this more than once a week! But, that is okay, b/c like I've said, I've been journaling so I don't forget anything! =]

So.... two weeks ago still.... was Sunday October 23, and I had to pleasure of going golfing with my hostfamily father! We got in the car, and drove about 1.5 hours to Nara, to a golf course hidden up in the mountain/hill area. Right away I noticed something completely different, the golf carts were moving on their own! (ghost rider =]) This was crazy to me, we had a remote control that we pushed to get them to move along the cart path; however, this meant that you couldn't steer the cart ever or make it go any faster than the designated speed that was control by the computer in the cart. You don't even have to be in the cart while it is moving! So, for all of you people that go golfing to drive the cart because it's fun, don't go to Japan, because I guess all of the courses are this way! I asked my hostfamily father why, and he said that there was a terrible accident that killed someone before the remote control golf carts, and now they don't trust the Japanese to drive them on their own. So, basically these carts move at about half the speed that they should, along a magnetized cart path... its like a bad amusement park ride. Also, the carts are abnormally large, you only need one per group, its like a big caravan! =] Here's a few pictures from the course!

cool view from the course

stadium lights

Also, this course took forever and a day to play! Our 10:30 tee time was an hour late, and we didn't leave the course until about 6:30 at night! It was dark as we finished, which wasn't a problem b/c they had STADIUM LIGHTS, so you could finish your round. It started to rain though, so we wanted to leave, but its not like we could, because of the magnetised carts, you can't get around the people in front of you! So, we were trapped behind the die hard golfers who weren't already frustrated with the 7 hour round, or the rain at this point... what a day. =] After seeing how long it would take to complete a full round here, I'm not sure if I would still love golfing if I lived here in Japan... especially since in high school we were told to basically sprint to your next shot, as to not waste any time! PLAY READY GOLF! =]

Anyways, gosh I keep writing so much... okay I will update again tomorrow, I need to catch this thing up with what is actually going on now, and not two weeks ago! Sorry charlies!

Love and miss you all!

Happy Halloween!

Well, this blog isn't even close to being up to date to today (Halloween)... Oh well. Where my journal last leaves off is from about two weeks ago (October 17), so we'll do that week now!

Monday: We went to a giant recycle shop called "Hard Off", weird name, but great finds! =] I think the best part was seeing this at a playground along the way though:

I hope you can see this, if not, it is a group of children on unicycles at recess! I've never seen anything like it! Only in Japan...



Tuesday: So, for quite a while now, I have heard my host mother and father talk about their love for Taco Bell and other American fast food places... and Subway is another addition to the list. The first day that I went to campus with my host mother, she pointed out the Subway and said that I would be bringing it home for dinner for the family several times. I thought it was such an odd request, but I said okay! =] Then about a month ago, I noticed, in our train station, that a new subway was being built! I bet you can imagine my host mother's excitement. So, it finally opened, and we went there for dinner! One thing that was different, was that they had french fries, and all different types. Ones with cheese powder on it, garlic ones, sea weed ones, and regular ones. I don't think we have that back home, haha. But, it was nice having a turkey sandwich with all the veggies, mayonaise and vinegar...another great reminder of America. And... the BREAD! Here, at the supermarkets, you'll find one type of bread... it is super white and super thick. So, I miss my whole grain wheat, and at subway they had wheat! =] I think I'll go back again soon, I can only handle so much white bread.

Wednesday: This night I went to Clay's host family's house for dinner because... he was making RUNZAS! No one else here knows about the deliciousness of a good runza, so he wanted to share the experience with his host family and some of the other ryugakusei (foreign exchange students). They were so so so good! And, now the other American students want to have the recipe to remake them! I love sharing the goodness that Nebraska brings to the world, especially  if it is good food! =] 

To continue with the American food tradition this week... On Friday, Clay, Lucas, and I went to Dominoes pizza for lunch. Again, a great reminder of why I love American food! =] That night I went over to my friend Lynn's apartment for dinner for her birthday! We ate great food... Pizza (TWICE in one day), french fries, salad, and CHEESECAKE! =] Haha, I feel like this blog should just be entitled "all the food I ate this week" =]. 

Well that is all for now, I promise to get this back up to date soon! Love and miss you all!

Long time no see.

Wow. I officially am the worst blogger ever. Well, at least I have been journaling so I could update this eventually. About two weeks ago is when I should have updated again. So… here it goes. I’ll do recent stuff in a few blogs!

Week of 10/14-16

Well, Friday I went to a yakitori with some friends. I love these places, they cook chicken anyway you want it. We had some fried chicken (like little chicken nuggets), fried chicken with tartar sauce, and French/freedom fries… (I refer to them as that when I am talking with my French friends here) covered in SALT. Ha, my favorite. Again, it is always nice getting a reminder of home. The coating on the fried chicken is amazing here though, might be better than home.

Saturday: I was awoken by my host family because we were having PANCAKES! Ha, they were so good. Of course it wouldn’t be a Japanese/American meal without something weird. We had mashed potatoes with them?? Odd, yes. Delicious, yes. Later on, I went to an Indian restaurant with Clay, Lucas, and Maren. It was my first time, and it was DELICIOUS. I had some curry, nan, and sanomia. Again, what great friends I have here! =]  I had to go to bed early though.. because…

SUNDAY I went to Universal Studios Japan! =] We went with some of my host sisters’ friends and their families. It was a lot of fun road tripping there and eating junk food. We got to the park around 10:30 and were there until about 10:00! It was a long day! We only got to go on a few rides too, because the lines are SO long here! I think we waited about 1 ½ to 2 hours for each ride. NUTS! Even the food lines were long! One of the “rides” was a 3D/live recreation of The Terminator, in Japanese of course. I never knew Arnold was fluent in Japanese =]. It was pretty sweet though, with live actors/3D movie going on all together! Also, because it is close to Halloween, the park was decked out. At night, they even had actors dressed up like zombies walking around! They were quite the fright! Yuichan and her friends got very scared! Another funny part about the day was that I had several people come up and ask to take photos with me. Silly, silly.  The night ended with a beautiful light up parade too! It was awesome! 

Here’s some pictures from the park:

Well that is all for now, I promise I will get up to date soon! I love and miss you all!