pre-halloween fun

Whew! These past days have been a blur - all of a sudden life seems to picking up the pace again. Also it's finally starting to get colder in Nagoya, which is exciting because that means soon I'll be able to wear more of the sweaters and cold-weather clothes I brought. :)

So on Wednesday a bunch of international students went to this place called Cat's Cafe (not a real cat cafe, unfortunately) and take on the challenge of eating a giant parfait. It literally comes in a bucket, piled up with fruit and whipped cream, and costs 5500 yen, which is over $60, so it's not something you can just order on a whim. We had to wait for a really long time while they made it, but when it finally came we were all in awe, because it was so enormous and delicious-looking. But there were 11 of us and we were hungry from waiting, so we ended up demolishing the whole thing in about fifteen minutes. Taste-wise and experience-wise, it was very worth it. :D

On Thursday I participated in an international student tea party (for lack of better terminology), hosted by the tea ceremony club at Nanzan. There were only 5 international students there, but it was a very small Japanese-style room, so that was probably a good thing. We got to drink macha, or green tea, and eat the ricidulously sweet sweets that come with it, all while learning the right ways to bow and drink the tea, which included rotating the cup before and after drinking. They also let us try whisking the tea ourselves, but mine didn't become nice and frothy and light green like the others' - one of the club members suspected that the water wasn't hot enough (I went last), so I'll take that explanation instead of me just being a failure. :P It was all very ceremonious and a really nice chance to experience the tea ceremony (we have a tea ceremony class at Nanzan but I'm not taking it). The club members were also really nice, so I'm thinking of going back sometime.

Friday was the Nagoya Koryuu Kaikan dorm's Halloween party, which is apparently a really popular annual event. I thought it was just a party thrown for the international students, with maybe a few Japanese students mixed in, but as it turns out there were tons and tons of Japanese students (plus international students) there - I'm pretty sure there were at least 200 people, all crammed into the dorm's common room and lobby area. It cost 900 yen to go, since they had food and drinks, which made me not want to go at first, but in the end I think it was worth it. I met a lot of new Japanese people and talked to some I hadn't seen in a while, so it was pretty fun. It was also really cool to see everybody's costumes - they were a lot more into it than I expected, especially for a country that doesn't actually celebrate Halloween. I guess people everywhere like the chance to dress up in costume for a day. I suppose that also explains why there are Halloween decorations all over the stores - they don't celebrate the holiday per se (even Halloween parties aren't that common), but they really like decorating for it. Anyway, after the party one of my classmates invited a couple of us to her apartment to eat something before going home, which was very nice of her - she's an international student like us, from Mexico, but she lives on her own and is planning to enroll as a real (4-year) student at Nanzan, which is impressive.So we all bought some snacks at a nearby supermarket and brought them to her little one-room apartment, which was very cozy and fun. We also made plans for Saturday, which was the Inuyama festival!

Inuyama is technically in the countryside, but Japan is so densely populated that even the countryside has houses everywhere and looks like a city (to me). We got there by train, with really cool reversible seats (you could change which direction they faced, to make groups of seats facing each other or rows one behind the other) and pretty scenery, which made it feel like we were actually going somewhere. It was about a half-hour by train, which was impressive because one of our classmates commutes from there every day. Anyway, when we got there we found our way to the castle and wandered around all the stalls; while waiting for the aforementioned classmate-who-lives-in-Inuyama, Andy, we bought a bunch of festival food from the stalls and had lunch. Then finally all the people we were waiting for showed up and we went into Inuyama Castle! Inuyama Castle is the oldest castle in Japan, and the steps for each story were surprisingly steep - each one went all the way to my knees (granted, that's probably shin-level for most people, but still) - but fun to climb, and the view from the top was absolutely gorgeous.

When we came out Andy's host mother decided we should all try one of Inuyama's specialty foods, whose name I have forgotten, but is basically grilled tofu with miso on a stick and quite yummy, so she bought us all one stick each, which was very generous of her. And then she invited us all to her house to eat dinner before going back to the festival after dark, which was even more generous! It was also very tasty, and then she played some piano for us and made Andy play violin, and then we were off again to the festival! The big attraction for Inuyama festival is the parade of floats (like the dashi at the Nagoya festival, only according to Inuyama's website they're called yama instead), which are hung with 365 lanterns once it gets dark and then move down the streets. It was ridiculously beautiful and very impressive to see them turn them around corners, with all the lanterns swinging around and bouncing once they set the yama back down. Earlier in the day we also got to see one of the giant sheds where they keep the floats for the rest of the year, which was also cool.

And then on Sunday I went with a few of my classmates to the international fair at COP10, the international conference for biodiversity that's being hosted in Nagoya until the end of this month. We had to go for class, because we've been studying all this environmental/biodiversity vocabulary because of it, but it was actually pretty interesting. Learning all the random vocabulary like 'overhunting' and 'threatened by extinction' actually came in handy, too (which I guess was the point). We went to a lot of booths and also watched a performance of people tying their yukata/kimono obis all by themselves, which I didn't think was possible - I don't know what that had to do with biodiversity, but it was pretty cool anyway. After going around all the booths, we found a place to eat lunch, which happened to be next to a game center. Eating at the restaurant gave us free plays at the game center (though two of us didn't know what they were for so we refused them -.-'), so we went there for a bit. We didn't end up winning anything, but we did do purikura again, bringing my total purikura count up to three!

After that I met up with my friend Mary and we watched our friend Naoko do some cool fire-baton-stuff at her school festival - it was all dark and raining, but the darkness made the fire look even cooler, and the rain didn't really affect the fire at all. It was really really beautiful, though they made us watch from inside because of the fire hazard. -.-'

So that was my crazy week. This weekend is finally our fall break, which is from Friday until Wednesday, including three days of school festival time. It's our only real break other than weekends, because Nanzan doesn't observe a lot of national holidays, ostensibly because we get six days off for the festival (I think they're just mean). I'm planning to go visit my friend's mom in Osaka, then spend a day at an onsen with some of my classmates! Definitely looking forward to it. :)

culture culture culture

I never know how to start a blog post, and today I'm feeling uninspired, so I'm just going to jump straight to the describing-what-I've-been-doing part.

Last Wednesday I went to go see kabuki! Kabuki is one type of traditional Japanese theater; one distinct feature is that all the actors are men, even for female characters (though apparently nowadays some kabuki theaters do have female actors). Ironically, kabuki was initially created and performed by women, but first women then young men were banned from kabuki for being too erotic (or something like that). Anyway, the CJS office at Nanzan gave international students the chance to see a performance for only 3000 yen (a little more than $30), which is really cheap for kabuki, so it was a great opportunity. Before going, we had to attend a lecture given by Watanabe-sensei, who I believe is the theater director at Misono-za, the theater we went to. Apparently even Japanese people need extra background knowledge before seeing kabuki; it's not something you just buy a ticket and go see.

The stage! After this I found out cameras are forbidden.

We met in front of the theater at 3:45 and didn't leave until almost 9:30 (we brought our own dinners and ate them in the theater during the breaks); there were four different acts (unrelated to each other) in the evening, and we watched them all. The theater was very impressive, and also filled with lots of places to buy omiyage (souvenirs, usually food), in true Japanese fashion. We went in and found our seats, which were pretty high up but still had a good view of the stage. The shows were very long and basically unintelligible, speech-wise (there were headsets for rent that explained what was happening in Japanese), and I fell asleep in every one (big surprise), but I still enjoyed the experience a lot. The costumes were very pretty and we had also received (poorly written) English explanations of each of the acts beforehand, so we weren't completely clueless as to what was going on. One thing that surprised me during the show was the people yelling out the names of the actors; after the show Watanabe-sensei explained that this is also a traditional part of kabuki. We also got to go underneath the stage (we weren't actually allowed backstage) with Watanabe-sensei, which was really cool and really nice of him to do - none of us were expecting it. All in all I think it was a very worthwhile experience, though I don't know if I would necessarily go see it again.

On Thursday, five of us went to my friend Evan's house for dinner, which was great. We met his host parents (I'd met his host dad once but not his mom) and chatted and spent some time looking at pictures of their grandson and of the houses his host dad had designed/built (he built the house they live in too), but the real highlight was dinner. There was a wood stove and a fire pit in the house that they used to cook, which I thought was pretty cool. We had aiyu, a type of fish, potato salad, potatoes, sweet potatoes, boiled eggs, pork, and sesame-rice-things-on-a-stick (they have a real name, but I forgot it), all of which was delicious. When we were all done eating and ridiculously full, they brought out dessert: yogurt jelly with mulberries on top and candied chestnuts - needless to say, they were fantastic. And then after that there were pears! Good food, good times. :) I envy Evan his host mom's cooking and the view from his room (he has a giant window that looks out over the city), but not the giant spiders that live in his house (luckily I didn't see any while I was there). :P

Anna and the origami!

And then on Friday, my friend Anna from Carleton came from Hirakata, Osaka to stay for the weekend! It was really really awesome to see her again and hear about life at Kansai Gaidai. :D She got to Nagoya on Friday night, so we ate dinner (after much searching for a restaurant; I don't know where anything is) and then met some of my friends at an izakaya. Unfortunately we missed the last bus to my house (which is at 11), so I had to get my host mom to come pick us up at the station and bring us home (and I still feel bad about it, even though she says her sons did it all the time). On Saturday, we went to Oasis 21 and wandered around the COP 10 station there, which was themed 'the lives that are connected by water'. I made a fortune teller to stick on the wall-o'-origami and held a tiny turtle! We also watched a performance by a Mongolian musician (which reminded me of my friend Helen, who is doing her Fulbright in Mongolia!), which was pretty awesome - at one point he did this amazing thing involving overtones, which I tried to catch on video. After that we wandered around the Sakae area and looked at all the stalls set up for the Nagoya festival! There were a lot of stages and performances and lots and lots of food vendors, but we had to ge home in time for dinner so we didn't buy anything.

A puppet on the dashi, staring right at me.

The next morning, we met up with some of my friends to stake out spots for the parade! We were about two hours early and the parade was late, so there was a lot of just waiting, but in the end we got perfect spots: we were sitting on a tarp on the corner of the intersection where performances happened and had a great view. The parade was pretty cool, but there were lots of gaps in between groups (probably to let traffic through periodically) and it was kind of slow-paced. But we got to see some traditional dashi (shrine-float-things) with puppets on them, which were pulled along by groups of men - they were really heavy so turning them around was a big deal. It was pretty impressive to watch. We also saw lots of little children and the floats they made, Nana-chan, the giant doll that stands by Nagoya Station (only minus her legs and arms, which was kind of weird), a lot of marching bands, and some ninjas, to name some highlights. Eventually we decided we would rather eat food than watch the rest of the parade (it was way behind schedule and past 2:00), so we made our way to the food stalls we saw yesterday and got food! I ate a tornado potato, which was basically a fried whole curly potato on a stick, a stick of yakitori (actually I suspect it was chicken intestines but don't really want to know), and tamasen, or a fried egg sandwiched between shrimp senbei crackers. Like festival food in America, it was a little expensive and probably bad for my health, but worth the experience. :) Then we went to the Higashiyama Zoo because they had free admission (thanks to the festival), but we only had about 30 minutes before it closed and it was also really depressing - unlike American zoos, there was much less space and most of the animals we saw were basically just in cages. This could have been because it was about to close and so they put them in cages for the night, but still. After that, we headed to the Higashiyama Sky Tower, which gave us a lovely view of the sunset around the city. And then Anna had to go home, which was sad, but I hope to go visit her and the other Carleton folks at Kansai Gaidai sometime!

My tornado potato!

That concludes the adventures of this week; thank you for reading. :)

festivals and ferris wheels

So it's been a veerry long time since my last post, but in my defense I seemed to have caught a stomach bug last week and really didn't feel like doing anything but sleeping. Also it appears my last post was as boring as I predicted (judging by the lack of comments), so sorry! This one should be slightly more exciting. :)

As mentioned, I did spend one night in the dorm, but as I didn't venture from my room to explore at all, I can't really compare it to the ones in America. I stayed in a very nice little single with my own bathroom (tiny bathtub and everything) and a little veranda even (I think it may be for hanging laundry). One difference I can say is that apparently you're not allowed to have friends in your room; they're allowed in the common room until 11 but not after that! Which is a little crazy when I think about how much time I spend in other people's rooms/in the lounges at Carleton. The front door was also locked like the dorms at Carleton, but instead of a OneCard you use your room key and a code, which was kind of fun to do. Anyway, I think I may be heading back to the dorm for a few nights later this month, so maybe I'll have more to say then.

Me with Sakura Panda! Also a little bit of my friend Evan.

Last weekend was a pretty exciting one. As I think I've said before (or maybe I forgot), this year is Nagoya's 400th anniversary of becoming a city! As a result, there are lots of celebrations happening - autumn is also the season for festivals, so there is lots of excitement. Anyway, last weekend Nagoya had a yuru-kyara festival, which I went to with some friends. Yuru-kyara, or yuru-character,  basically means 'mascot', as in the kind where people wear giant costumes! I think it was mainly targeted for little kids, but I actually enjoyed myself immensely. There were characters from all over Japan (and even some of the audience were from places as far as Hokkaido), and we ran around taking pictures of/with them and buying character goods. My favorite was Negiccho, who is basically a giant green onion. :D We also watched a performance of some people dressed up as famous historical characters like Togukawa Ieyasu (the shogunate, who lived in Nagoya), which was fun. They also danced with a few characters, which I thought was hilarious.

The next day, because I had no homework (for once), my host mom took me to a little amusement center in the middle of nowhere called something Oasis (for some reason oases are popular here). The main reason we went was to ride the ferris wheel, because I told her about how I really like them (I've already been on two since coming to Japan and have plans to ride at least one more), but we also tasted senbei crackers at a senbei store, watched a drum performance, and watched somebody carve feathers out of wood with chainsaws.

Since then life has been pretty tame- yesterday was the first Saturday I didn't go explore somewhere with friends, mostly because they were all off somewhere else, but I did have a nice day visiting a fabric store with my host mom and exploring Tokyu Hands, the 'creative life store'. We also rented a movie (Public Enemy), which was fun. Anyway, I think the newness of Japan is wearing off and my schedule is becoming routine. Not that it isn't fun anymore, but now it's starting to feel like regular life instead of every day being an adventure - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Next weekend, though, my friend Anna from Carleton is coming to Nagoya, just in time for the Nagoya Festival, which I am ridiculously excited for! :D There are only 10 Saturdays left before I leave Nagoya, so I'll keep trying to make the most of them. :)