Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A Day Downtown

Today I met up with an old friend from Beloit—Ann. She’s taking a brief visit in Japan after teaching in China and went to Kansai Gaidai about two years ago! In addition to Ann and I, LA and Isa, a new student, joined us as we made our way to Kappa Sushi—the local kaitenzushi restaurant. After that, we made our way down to Hirakatashieki for some shopping!

Of course, shopping is one of my bigger weaknesses. But I managed to get gifts for some people who I haven’t managed to find gifts yet for as well as a new purse because my old one is starting to fray around the edges (cheap! I wish I had gotten a better one!). I also found some cute craft items and a book of felt critter patterns. It doesn’t even matter that they are in Japanese because sewing instructions are practically universal! There are some really cute patterns I can’t wait to try out!

In other news: I’ve fixed my earrings that were too small, one of my roommates finally arrived, and I’m really annoyed that after living in the same room for a month, I was made to pack up, move out, and then move back in for a period of one week only. (>_<) I’m living out of my suitcase yet again!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Orientation Week Starts Again!


So today was the first day of Orientation week and I got everything I needed to done. I’ve filled out my forms, signed my papers, and paid my fees—I’m ready for the semester to start! After this was done, I took a bus down to downtown Hirakata and met up with Okaasan for some sushi. Okaasan has just come back from Thailand, and we had all of our “girl-time chat” like we usually did. It was really nice to see Okaasan again, and I hope we can keep in touch better than I did during winter break—but it’s been kinda a busy winter for me, so I’m sure I’ll have more time now! So, we went out for sushi, I gave Okaasan a sumi-e that I had done for her, she gave me some omiyage from Thailand, we gossiped, and then I headed back to the dorms where I celebrated getting everything done in one day.

After that, I went out to dinner with LA (one of my friends from Beloit who’s here for the spring semester) and one of my new friends from the dorm, Beth. We went to a nearby restaurant with lots of delicious, cheap food.

I don’t learn who my new host family is until Thursday (>.<), but I’m really excited. While I had a great time with Okaasan, it was a little lonely being the only other person in the house. I’ve requested kids this time and I’m really looking forward to this!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Stressed

So today I got stressed. And for those of you who don’t know me, when I get stressed I bake. I bake a lot. This is slightly problematic in Japan, where there are no ovens. Instead, they have microwaves with oven features.

I found this cool recipe for teabag cookies and I decided that I would make them.  These cookies are basically shortbread cut into a teabag shape and then dipped in chocolate. I decided to spice things up and add some cinnamon to half of the dough.

Here are the results:
 

They were a hit in the dorm and all residents agree: these cookies are tasty!


Thanks to Hiromi for the pics!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Kyoto National Museum

Today Abby and I went to the National Kyoto Museum which was under construction, and thus the general collections hall was not open to the public (until 2013!!). Fortunately, there was an exhibit on modern Chinese Ink Paintings in Japan in their “special exhibit” hall, which was open. Being a sumi-e student and a Museum Studies minor made it very interesting—I spent most of the time trying to figure out which brush strokes were used for a certain effect and if I could recreate it tomorrow in the sumi-e classroom. I also spent an inordinate amount of time examining the exhibits themselves—some of the display cases were atrocious! However, the light setup was really, really nice. The signage was pretty well-put together from what I could read…but that wasn’t much. XD

The two of us!

As for the exhibit pieces themselves: after studying them closely, I feel I have a better idea on how to make sumi-e with sparrows on them now…OFF TO PRACTICE~!

After that we went out for tea and headed back to the seminar house. We stopped for groceries on the way home, and that’s about it. 

Here's one of the many wild birds we saw today: some sort of blue heron (I think...?) and a cormorant! 

 Thanks to Abby for all the wonderful pictures!

Also in EXCELLENT news: I got my camera lens today! My baby is fixed~! Prepare for the photo onslaught~!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Japan HATES Credit Cards

So today I attempted to navigate a Japanese electronics website to buy a new lens for my camera.

...only to find out after jumping through all the hoops it had, that they didn't accept credit or debit cards.

Actually, Japan in general doesn't use credit cards that much. But it still kinda stung--I mean, here I was, willing to spend money, and the website wouldn't let me!! What made it worse was the fact that the type of Japanese bank account I have won't let me transfer money out of it because I'm not a Japanese national.

Fortunately, I had Hiromi (one of the R.A.s here in the dorms). Like me, she also has a very nice Nikon DSLR (digital single lens reflex) and we have bonded over cameras. ^_^ Hiromi helped me out by using her bank account to buy the lens and having me pay her in cash. Yaaaay! I'll be getting my camera by Wednesday next week at the latest!

Nothing much has been happening--I'm keeping kinda slow this week. I was going to go to Toji today, but the weather made me turn back. Happily, though, I'm heading to another one on the 25th, and going museum exploring in Kyoto with my friend Abby who just came back from her big trip in Kyushu!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Sumi-e


So, this week has been rather slow, for I have been spending the majority of my time in the sumi-e classroom, backing and creating sumi-e.

First you walk into the CIE building and climb up four flights of stairs. By the time you arrive, your legs are feeling the starting burn and you nearly collapse at the top. “Boy am I out of shape,” you’ll think, before proceeding to the back of the building where you’ll open a lavender door. The scent that hits you as you walk into the room, will only be noticeable if you’ve spent a week or two not doing sumi-e. It’s a spicy, pine-like scent that envelops you and makes you feel at home. 
You then notice the amazing view outside.
 
But what is sumi-e? you ask. Sumi-e (sue-me-ay) is the traditional ink and brush paintings. “Sumi” refers to the ink used, and “e” means picture. Sumi is created by the burning of oil and collecting the dusty residue and then mixing it with glue to create an ink stick. You then grind the ink stick with a bit of water in an ink stone to create ink.
From there, you use little dishes to water down your ink to appropriate tones, and then you start brushing away!
Mita doing sumi-e
  
(You can also use watercolors for color, but then you have to spray your painting with something that is equivalent to hairspray to keep the color from running when you back it on stronger paper.)

In the class I took last semester I learned and practiced many different ways:
(please ignore my poor cropping skills and the weights I used to keep my pictures from curling…)

Bamboo:




Plum Blossoms:

Marsh Orchids:

 
 

Chrysanthemums:


 

My Midterm:


Mountainscapes:

 

Pine Trees:
 
 

Other Trees:

 

My Final Project:

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Osaka

Okay, so today I ventured into the metropolis of Osaka to figure out how the heck I can fix my poor camera.

...it's looking like the hassle of getting the part to fix the lens would actually be more trouble than buying a new lens...

The camera store I went to (lauded for being the best camera store), didn't have the part I want and the sales associates I asked just gave me confused looks (though this could be because of my Japanese skill level as well...)

Still, the day was not a complete bust. I stopped by an awesome kaitenzushi stop and had a delicious meal for cheap, along with stopping by yet another used book store.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Why I Love Used Bookstores

Well, actually do I really have to explain?

Today Tilly and I went to an used bookstore and I found some great finds! Of course, they're all in Japanese, but what better way to practice? This way, I'm also getting to use my electronic dictionary a whole lot more and I'm learning new vocab!

For example: 「しかし奇跡は起こったのだ」 means "but a miracle occurred" and 「いわせる」 means "to astonish or amaze".

I never knew that before~! :3

Plus each book was ~$1.50 a piece. It was such a great deal!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Kappa Sushi

So I finally made it to the popular destination with Kansai Gaidai students, the kaitenzushi restaurant, Kappa Sushi!
My current roommate, CC
Me and Ayaka (one of CC's Japanese friends)










So, I've talked about kaitenzushi before--it's translated as conveyer belt sushi and involves choosing the sushi of your choice as a conveyer belt brings it from the kitchen and through the restaurant. At Kappa Sushi, if you make a special order using the computer, it will be sent to you via a mini Shinkansen. It was so cute~!

Sushi via Shinkansen
The most interesting thing I ate tonight was something that translates as "Cheeseburger Sushi"...let me tell you, what they put on it was not cheese! It was surprisingly sweet, as well.
Let me tell you--that orange stuff isn't cheese. I don't even think it's fake cheese. I have no idea what it is, other than disgusting...


So, what really impressed me was the constant supply of green tea. All you need to do is pour a little powder in your cup and press it against the black lever under the conveyer belt for hot water. 

It was delicious and cheap--a single plate is only around 100 yen (cheap here, at least!). 

Monday, January 9, 2012

成人式 Coming of Age Ceremony

So, today was the public holiday: Seijin no Hi--the Coming of Age Day.

This day is for all who turned 20 years old last year (or recently this year), because 20 is the age of majority in Japan. It's basically a ceremony with many speeches from bigwigs who encourage the "new adults" (my bad translation) to continue to help and become good Japanese.

However, seijinshiki (the ceremony itself) is more known for the colorful furisode (long-sleeved kimono) the the new women wear--the colors and patterns along with their elaborately tied obi (the sash that holds the entire ensemble together) make them look like giant beautiful butterflies.

Unfortunately I do not have a furisode that fits me properly, so I wore Western clothes. I almost wish I hadn't gone. I stood out like a sore thumb--the only person in Western clothes, the only foreigner, the only one frantically tracing kanji in her electric dictionary as she tried to understand the brochure...

And then the actual ceremony started. But, it started with some middle school aged girl orchestra/band playing this:


I almost died containing my laughter.

Surprisingly, when we were asked to stand for the National Anthem and the City Anthem, no one actually sang, which surprised me. What also surprised me was how all the important speakers (the Mayor of the City, an important local businessman, etc.) were all video recordings.

But what surprised me the most was the reactions of everyone who was in the room along with me. I have noted before that Japanese women tend to flock, but before now, I have never equivocated them to starlings.

Now I do; during the entire ceremony, all the women were basically chatting to each other and completely ignoring what was going on before them. It was kinda distressing--I mean, this is a huge ceremony and most of the participants were flat-out ignoring what the city had been putting on for them. Basically, I was reminded of the chattering of starlings.

But, despite this, I feel it put on a good show--even if I felt like a crow in a flock of peacocks.

There were some girls in my dorm who did dress up:






They went to professionals to have their furisode done--but they did the hair themselves!




Also, I have finally finished my SUPAH SEKRET CRAFTY PROJECT
Here it is!


 Hand stitched and actually mostly done for the better part of last week, but I needed to find his eyes...

Who is he?
He's a plushie of a character from one of my favorite movies: How to Train Your Dragon.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Photo Dump!

So, during the time period of B.C. (Broken Camera, and we're still in this era!), I used the camera attached to my phone to take some pictures. Of course, these pictures were stuck on my phone until I had the time to email them to my computer.

So, without further ado, please take a look at some of the adventures I went on with Okaasan!

First off, on November 26, Okaasan and I went to a nearish shrine that was famous for...healing cancer, I believe? Famous for cancer? I can't remember exactly what Okaasan told me, and I didn't quite understand it all when she told me. Anyways, here are some shots from the shrine. What I remember standing out the most to me was the turtle garden, filled with turtles.



The Main Entrance

The Shrine Bells--first you make a donation, then you ring the bell by shaking the rope, then you pray

It's the turtle garden!

The turtle garden is also a shrine to a Water God!


Then I got the opportunity to go to Osaka-jou (also known as Osaka Castle). I think Okaasan just wanted to drive (she likes driving around), because the park was absolutely too far to walk in the time limit I had, but I managed to take some far off pictures of the castle as well lots of pictures of the gorgeous leaves.
The building rising in the background is Osaka-jou

The ginko trees (called inchou in Japanese) were a delicious buttery yellow golden color that was a feast for the eyes

The setting sun highlighted the autumn leaves in a perfectly lovely way, I think







The colors were gorgeous. Some of the colors were highlighted by being taken though my rose-tinted glasses.

Sorry these are late, but I finally had time to load them all up! And can you believe that the Osaka-jou pictures are from December 4th?!

Kansai region...your seasons amaze this Wisconsinite.