I'm going to start out by saying that I had high hopes going into this trip, and after having went, I realize that I was underestimating exactly how amazing it would be. If I had to choose one physical location in the entire world to live, I think I'd choose Okinawa.
Basically, picture Hawaii, then picture a not-as-crowded as Tokyo part of Japan, then mix them together, throw in a unique stlye of island music and symbols like the Guardian Dog Lions known as Shisa, and now you have Okinawa.
The trip started with a bus ride to the airport (I wasn't going to take the trains with some luggage, as small as it may have been, it was pretty close to rush hour), then a 2 hour plane ride to Okinawa. For those of you who aren't in the know, Okinawa became part of Japan in 1972 after the United States turned it back over to Japan, as it was recently caught up in war beforehand. United States Citizens aren't always exactly the most welcome, also because there are still a lot of military bases in Okinawa, but through peace treaties it's manageable, but there are still problems. Anyway, the point of bringing this us was to say that Okinawa is a fairly recent addition to the established country of Japan. Because Okinawa is a chain of islands, the language has evolved differently than mainland Japanese, so some Tokyo residents even have troubles sometime. Obviously, to people like me who don't understand mush, it's fine, haha.
Anyway, when we got there we saw how beautiful it was, and immediately everyone wanted to go swimming at the beach. However, and this is the only bad thing about the trip in my opinion, the hotel that we stayed at closed their beach swimming at 6:00 PM, and we didn't have any freetime at the hotel before that time on any given day, so we didn't get to swim at the beach right outside our hotel. One of the stops we made (and I'll go into this later) had a beach, and some people swam there, but there was so much other stuff to do there that I didn't deem worth it. And I swam in the beach with a few other people the first night at the hotel until we got kicked out, so I got to anyway.
So to start things back a little, we arrived at the airport. From there we took a bus to a place called 琉球の館 （Ryukyu no Yakata, Ryukyu is the name of Okinawa, as in Ryukyuans are the people that live in Okinawa, and are not considered the same as Japanese people in every sense of the word). Here we were shown the history of Okinawan cloth making and we had the chance to dye a design with paint and they're going to touch it up and mail it back to us.
After that we took the bus to 首里城 （Shuri Castle) and walked around the old castle ruins and saw some intersting historical things. The whole experience was really neat.
Dinner at the hotel as well as arriving at the hotel for the first time was next. You can see in the pictures, but pretty much the view from the hotel room was fantastic if there ever was a fantastic view. It is now my DSi's background as well. It is a shame that we couldn't swim there without getting in trouble because of the time frame, but we were allowed to be on the beach and walk in the water until 10:00 PM, so I really have no huge complaints. Dinner consisted of an all you can eat Japanese assortment of food, it was okay, but nothing great. We did have a performance though, and that was interesting enough.
Free time ensued, that for me that night included swimming in ocean because someone decided to jump in. I didn't know it at the time, but he just planned on jumping in and getting out, but me following him in made him decide to stay out there with me, haha. Later 2 other peopl joined me, but it ended in the IES staff making us get out. There was no penalty, although the director did get a call from the hotel management, oops. No regrets though, it was fun. Everyone else got drunk. Like every other night we were there.
Our room was interesting, we had one room and a bathroom with no beds. We slept on tatami mats with a matress, and it was actually incredibly comfortable. I slept very well.
There was an お風呂 there, public bath, and it was like the size of a swimming pool. That was awesome and a bunch of us went there every night. Being naked in Japan with other males in a bath is actually much easier than you'd think it would be =P
The next day we had a continental breakfast with eggs and bacon among other things. We left the hotel at 9:00 every morning, always by the same bus, so it became part of schedule. The first destination on Day 2 was a glass blowing workshop place. We actually each got to make a cup! It was really neat. Well, most of it was them holding the things and basically just us spinning the rod and everything, but nonetheless we saw it all being done in front of us. That was really fun.
We then left there and arrived at Ocean Expo Park, a giant place with Japan's largest Aquarium including a 3 story tank containing some Whale Sharks. The Aquarium was really fascinating, but there were some other things there that were even cooler. Ask anyone but myself, Emily (also has never drank alcohol, so not everyone drinks I guess), and a few others and they'll say that coolest place there was the beach, and while I would have loved to go swimming, what I did was so much better. I went to this place called the Tropical Dream Center, which was basically this Tropical Flower and Fruit Garden, with ruins and amazing scenery. It was the most interesting place I think I may have been to ever, the dedication by the gardeners is amazing. Don't worry, there are pictures, of everything, when I get around to uploading them. Maybe when this is read I'll have them up, but ~1,200 photos isn't exactly the thing that goes up in an hour, ya know? Regardless, Emily (the person I was with) and I both thoroughly enjoyed the Tropical Dream Center and would fully recommend it to anyone who is in Okinawa.
Let me also add that Okinawa is famous for it's Guardian Dog-Lion statues called Shisa (siisaa in Okinawan), and I happen to love the hell out of them, so I bought a lot of them as souvenirs, and I hope that the readers of this like them as well because if you're family there is a good chance that's what you'll get as a souvenir =P They are the statues that are accredited for keeping away evil, always found in pairs, always one has an open mouth and the other closed. Some modern days ones are made with humorous expressions, but they're all signs of good luck and protection, so their underlying meaning is amazing as well. They're also the coolest looking things ever, so yeah.
At the end of the Ocean Expo Park, we left back for the hotel by bus. On the bus we either looked out the windows or a lot of us who had Nintendo DS (the handheld Nintendo System) played some Multiplayer Tetris. It was the game of the trip, haha.
At the hotel was another 食べ放題 (tabehoudai, all you can eat), and similar food. Again, it was alright, nothing that excellent, but good. At night instead of getting director Shin-san in trouble, I decided to walk the beach and walk in a little and let the waves hit my legs. This was fun, it's been years and years since I've last been to a beach and I want to go to another before the summer ends to actually get a chance to swim. I've even started to forgive the sand for it's existence realizing that it's not the sand's fault that it gets everywhere. (Even though our room managed to gather sand despite our seemingly cautious actions to prevent just that).
The next morning was a breakfast similar to the last, but delicious. We then left for a place called Monzamo Cliff, which turned out to be an absolutely breathtaking view of some of the cliffs of Okinawa. Since Okinawa is an island, pretty much everything is beautiful, but here especially. After this we went to Okinawa World, a place with a lot of things Okinawan all in one place. The first thing we went through was a Cave, it was pretty neat but a little morbid because it was where some people hid during times of war, but if you don't think about that it's fine. =P
Also there we had a tradional Eisa dance / performance with drummers and sanshin players and a couple people in a Shisa costume. It was very good. The music of Okinawa is amazing and I recommend it to anyone wanting mellow or island sounding music. There are also a few mainstream J-Pop / J-Rock groups such as Orange Range that have emerged from Okinawa, but they don't always sound Okinawan.
Lunch there was interesting, we had some noodles in a soup broth which was okay, but the real treat (with heavy sarcasm) was the tempura Goya. Goya is famous to Okinawa (and India apparently), but it is now my absolute least favorite food. It translates to mean Bitter Melon and it is said that it is "widely grown for edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all vegetables" It is really quite gross, haha. A few people didn't mind it, to those people I give my respect. I, along with many others, couldn't take more than a bite.
After this place we went to the most depressing part of the whole trip, an Okinawan Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum. Okinawa is on alright terms with the USA now, but they used to battle, and there was a long history of that here, and I just didn't like it that much. It was only an hour or so though, and the grounds that it was located on were exceedingly beautiful, so that was good.
After that we had the opportunity to play the sanshin, that is the 3 stringed guitarish instrument famous in Okinawa. It's like a shamisen. It was fascinating and fun.
Dinner at the hotel that night was good. We were given a tray of raw meat, veggies, soup, and a hotplate burner. We cooked our own food and it was a lot of fun and very delicious.
After dinner I went out to the beach to stand in the water and Emily joined me and we just walked onto the sand to let the waves hit us. We were in high tide so a couple waves actually made it past our waists, haha, and those were the fun ones. It was a nice contrast to what others were doing, that is, getting ridiculously drunk. Whatever, what we did was fun and the other people didn't bother me. I'm okay with people who drink if they're okay with people who don't.
The next morning was a repeat of the last breakfasts, just with bacon instead of ham like the day before. The bacon here is like American Ham though, in case you were wondering. As in, not crunchy.
We then left for a place called Kokusai Street, a busy shopping street that has hundreds of store. Probably, haha. There were neat stores, and had I not bought a lot of souvenirs for both other people and myself I probably would have bought stuff here, but since I had I didn't. There were interesting places though, so it was fun.
The last event we had before flying back was lunch at Sam's Sailor Inn, which is a hibachi place. That is, they make food in front of you. It was neat, and although a bit strange that the waitress people were dressed in sailor outfits and tied on a bib (which was really strange, haha), it was a great time. Our chef actually dropped one of the seasoning shakers while flourishing them and it knocked down a thing of liquid, which I managed to catch on tape, haha. But he was still pretty impressive, but nowhere near what I've seen online. A great experience though.
The flight back was good, minus the extreme headache I had developed rapidly and withough warning, but someone gave me some advil and that was fantastic in a short time. A bus ride back (no way to trains at 5:30 PM in Tokyo >_<) was all that was left.
So overall, it was a great trip and I want to live in Okinawa, haha. Given the situation I very probably will not, but I'd love to visit again. I'd also be curious to visit Hawaii as it's closer and reminds me of Okinawa and I'd like to see how much it actually is. I expect a lot less Japanese but it still seems like a fastinating place to go.
I'll start posting links to my photos after they're up, so hold on tight. I also have some short videos, so I'll post them as well.
Ja mata!
My Japanese Experience
Sorry to keep it short, but I'm not all that interested in writing about it compared to all the Okinawa stuff I'd rather talk about. But anyway, on Tuesday I went to Roppongi Hills to examine the shopping malls there for a field study, and here are the pictures I took from there. Roppongi Hills is crazy and not really that "shopping mall" like, but Tokyo Midtown was. They were both interesting enough, but they were just shopping districts. Meh. Haha. =P
Here's the album anyway : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080574&id=3708410&l=b9fc7cc0fb
Oh, and prepare for about ~1200 pictures and videos from Okinawa. Yeah. You might want to take a day off of work or clear your schedule, haha. That'll be later this afternoon. ;)
Today, unlike last weekend which I spent watching the entire 4th Season of LOST, I went exploring. My destination today was none other than the Imperial Palace. For those of you that aren't in the know, the Imperial Palace is where the Emporer of Japan lives, and the royal family. Obviously, commoners are not allowed to walk inside (or even ont he Imperial Grounds), but the Imperial Palace East Gardens that are attached by some gates, are open to the public. So I went there today, they're about 45 minutes away from Baraki. I spent the day walking around the gardens and then walking around the entire perimeter (about a half hour walk at a decent pace) of the Imperial Grounds. The whole outer edge of the Grounds is surrounded by a moat and various Bridges and Gates leading in, and like stated before, you can't go in them, but they're pretty, haha. Additionally, it was nearly impossible to see anything from the outside as well, but the walk around the moats was still fun and definitely worth it. It was actually not raining, something that it is supposed to do for a good 20 out of the 30 days of June. How fun, haha.
Let's see, other than that, how have I been doing... I'd say I've been doing pretty swell. I have sort of traded tennis for Poi and other things, as the club has gotten too large to really enjoy the kind of tennis that I want to play. I still practice Poi, normally in the evening after classes or outside Kanda campus in the large field. People sometimes watch me but I guess that's part of the performance part. I feel bad that I can't actually do anything really cool but oh well, haha.
School is going great, I've had pretty much 100's on everything so far minus Japanese, where some of the quizzes I get ~37/40, which still is pretty good. Japanese is definitely the hardest, at least time consuming, but even as it is I think the class is pretty fun. I'm going to go out and say that I probably could have handled level 3 (or even level 4) if I knew more vocab and just had practice speaking. I say this because all the grammar that we're doing I've known because of grammar books and even the material in the people in the upper level classes I've looked at and also am familiar with it. I think I'm actually in a very good situation for me because once I start learning vocab I can apply so much more and really become more comfortable speaking. I didn't manage to get into Japanese next semester, at least the language, because of a large amount of Linguistics I have to catch up on, so this might be my last class at college of formal teaching. After this I think it's up to me to find Japanese people or something to talk to, haha.
So next week I'm going to Okinawa as part of an IES trip, nicknamed the "Hawaii of Japan". Google image Okinawa and find some pictures if you like, or wait until Sunday when they're uploaded of what I take if you're interested. Speaking of which, I took about 350 pictures today of the Imperial Palace area, so if you have the time check em' out. I won't be offended if you don't though, there are 350 pictures.
I've been playing some arcade games lately, well, not religiously, haha, but maybe spend $10 a week at the arcade. Besides Taiko, the drum game (which I now get blisters playing because the levels I'm at are very fast and clearly I don't know how to hold drumsticks =P), I've found some 2D Fighting games. I've always liked the genre and just recently got back into it. I downloaded some of the games for the PC and have played them a little, including Guilty Gear and Melty Blood, if anyone reading this is familiar with them, they're both anime style fighting games, and a both a lot of fun. I also played a game a couple days ago called BlazBlue, which isn't released on console yet, but it too is a lot of fun. Yep!
Let's see... I've heard that it is a concern around the world, but Swine Flu is slowly making it's way across Japan. While not nearly the problem it is in Mexico and the US, it is spreading Eastwards through Japan, and if it hits Tokyo there is a good chance that our Universities will close for a little bit. I guess as long as no one gets it, or if they do they don't let it get bad, it could be a nice break >_<
If anyone knew it before, I still watch Bleach, the anime, every week when it's released in Japan. Of course subtitled, I still don't know enough Japanese. Another anime I started watching is Utawarerumono. This particular anime is about this mysterious man who wakes up in a world of people with ferret ears and it's basically a fantasy / war / action anime, it's really quite good. I guess it started off as an Adult Graphic Novel, haha, but has since been adapted into a family-ish friendly Manga and Anime. In terms of American shows, I am on the 5th Season of LOST and am going to start Supernatural from the beginning. I think these are pretty good plans for rainy days or just nights I don't have homework in general.
Well, I'm going to get to uploading my 三百五十写真 (350 pictures), I'll post the links to them when I'm done!
Here!
First 200 Pictures : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2079918&id=3708410&l=f2ad31f473
Remainder : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2079924&id=3708410&l=49eafa4e64
I took some pictures while sitting on the windowsill waiting for a test today at Kanda. You could check them out, and my first venture with Griffin to the Temple behind my dorm. Who would have known that a rather generously large temple existed merely a minute's walk away from my front door? すごかった！ (Amazing!)
You can click here if you want to see the pics.
Like flowers? Check out my new album, it has flowers that are planted at Kanda! It also has anything else related to Kanda, although at the time it isn't that extensive. But I'll keep updating! Remember to check my other album, the Day 41 - 50+ too, the link was posted in a previous post but I'll repost.
Kanda! : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078886&id=3708410&l=b84b1632d0
Random album : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078270&id=3708410&l=a4f375352a
So today was a really good day, I decided to go to a garden that I had planned on going to a couple weeks ago but didn't leave the juggling store in time before to do so, haha. Well, today I went to Rikugien, which is one of the largest Landscape Gardens in Tokyo. It takes about an hour to walk around all of it, but I took a lot of different side paths and managed to get a good 2 hours out of it. It was really pretty and there were many things there that you can't see anywhere else in Tokyo, like different kinds of trees and nature. There were many other photographers there, Japanese people that is, so I didn't feel like a tourist as much as I usually do, haha. It really was a photoworthy place, and while it wasn't Hakone, it was pretty damn beautiful.
Here's the link to my album, and one of the comments about the Koi has a video link to a video I took as well. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078645&id=3708410&l=82edb26666
Lately I've been pretty good as well. Last week school started back up, and well, I was reaaaally tired on Thursday for no reason at all and quite tired on Friday. Needless to say, I got a lot of sleep last night, haha. It was fantastic.
On Wednesday night of last week I went to a very interesting place for dinner. It was called "The Lockup", located in Shibuya. Basically, it's a themed restaurant and it's theme is that of an insane asylum / laboratory, haha. Every 90 minutes they turn all the lights off and people dressed as murderers and werewolves break into people's rooms (you sit in like a cell type thing, haha) and they scare people. It was really neat and the food is all themed and stuff too. I didn't take too many pictures of there because the lighting was bad and you're not supposed to take pictures of the employees there. I have a few pictures in my abstract album of the last week, and that is here : http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078270&id=3708410&l=a4f375352a
One last thing, I made another Poi video and attempted to put it with music on Youtube, so hopefully it doesn't get taken down, or if it does at least it's without a threat to shut down my Facebook, haha. That video is on my facebook without music, but the music version is here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7IpvLj8s8E
Sorry about not updating as much as I could be, but I'm rather busy / tired at night to do so, and sometimes I just forget about it. Keep asking questions though, I'll try to get around to answering them!
Curious to see how my Poi is coming? Not curious to see how my Poi is coming but have 4 minutes to spare? Stumbled across this blog randomly and want to see someone who you don't know who learned Poi 5 days ago do Poi? Like the song Miss Independent by Ne-Yo?
If any of the questions have the answer of "Yes", you should watch this:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=549140236438&ref=mf
Hope you liked it. Next up I'll be learning Plane Control, Windmills, Fountain and extra fluidity in general. Maybe some Isolations too. Not sure. More to come! Sorry about the lingo, the best way to find out what I'm talking about I guess is to go to Youtube if you're really curious.
Today I went to Akihabara and didn't really do anything other than go to some anime stores and video game stores. Bought a few small figurines and such, but nothing much else. Waited in line for what's called a Maid Cafe, where the waitresses are dressed in maid costumes, haha, but the line was too long so I just left the people I was with and went back, actually to McDonald's, then back here to shoot that video. Later on I went with someone to get a Level 10 curry, and it's ridiculously hot, too hot to enjoy in my opinion, but kinda tasty. I will admit my flatulence smelled fierce later though...
And with that note I'm going to leave you all!
More Poi later probably! It's an awesome thing to do, I suggest everyone learn. =)
So the last few days myself and 7 other IES students including 2 people from University of Rochester decided to go somewhere that wasn't Tokyo. The result put us at Lake Ashinoko, about 5 hours away by Train --> Mountain Train --> Cable Car --> Rope Car Gondola. At Lake Ashinoko we stayed at Camp Mura, a camping area that also rented out cabins for a very reasonable price. ($210 a night) It might sound like a lot, but we had 8 people so each night it cost about $25. The cabin had a kitchen with cookingware, 2 bedrooms with 3 beds, a dining room attached to the kitchen, a washroom, and a toilet room. As it should so happen our toilet broke the first night but it was fixed the second. We had 4 males and 4 females so we split the bedrooms to a Male room and a Female room, but we were still 2 beds short. The girls worked it out in a way where they just shared but we decided to draw cards to see who slept in the kitchen on the window sill for each night. Being it card drawing, something I'm rather lucky with, I got a bed both nights.
While we were there we made all of our own meals with food that we had bought before we left. Basically our meals were made up of Rice, Chicken, and Potatoes for every meal, along with some bread and jam. While at the cabin we wandered and explored the area around the lake, went to an indoor Onsen [and later an outdoor one!], played Charades both nights, and overall had a great time.
Unlike the train rides which are more or less tedious in Tokyo, but still convenient and admirable nonetheless, the trip to Hakone was nothing short of amazing. The first 2 hours were on Train, but the scenery started changing to more of a nature background, which was nice. Then we had to switch to a train that went through tunnels and up hills and through forests, which was super amazing. At that point I didn't think the scenery could get nicer, but the cable car to the top of the next hill said otherwise. Waiting there were Rope Car Gondolas, the only way to get across to the lake. Basically we had this little capsule Gondola thing that was like a giant ski-lift for all intensive purposes, except we were 100 or so feet from the ground. We could see trees and fields and mountains, and also Mt. Fuji, although the first day it was a touch overcast. Anyway, the Gondola was the most amazing thing I've ever rode in I think, it's like being in a helicoptor or a plane, and I was with friends so it was even more amazing.
The last day we went on a tour boat across Lake Ashi, and as it would so turn out the boat was Pirate themed, haha. It was bizarre and I don't understand it but it was really amazing to see all the stuff around the Lake.
Well, it's late now and I'm going to leave you with ~350 pictures in 2 albums.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078245&id=3708410&l=08bd7f203a
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078256&id=3708410&l=0efaf268cd
Enjoy! If you're a friend of mine on Facebook I think you'll be able to click here and see some of the other pictures that people posted of me from the trip.
Well, g'night everyone!