Photo Dump: Religions Field Trip

That's Eric and I in front of the unused site at Ise, where the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu no mikoto oomikami, is housed. The shrine alternates between two neighbouring plots of land, and is relocated from one to the other every twenty years so as to avoid the pollution that comes with habitation. You're not allowed to take pictures of the actual shrine.

Not last weekend but last last weekend I went to Ise, Tenri and Nara. Prof. Hermansen, who teaches a history class and the religions class I'm enrolled in, guided a fieldtrip to some holy places in Japan. Some important, some merely interesting.


These giant barrels are full of holy sake for the gods. These particular drums are outside Geiku, the lesser shrine at Ise, where the god who serves Amaterasu her meals is enshrined.


When we went the shrine had beguin a six-year process of collecting wood in order to relocate. These worshippers halp to collect and deliver it. This is still Geiku, the lesser of the two shrines.

This is the sacred river that surrounds Naiyu, where Amaterasu herself is enshrined. In olden times, people used to wade across in order to enter the shrine grounds, purifying themselves in the process. Nowadays there's a bridge.

Professor Hermansen translated for our Japanese guide (on the left). At the moment, he's explaining how the humongous boulder he's gesturing at (not pictured) is a kami, a god or spirit.

This is Tenri, a city built entirely around the new religion of the same name. It dates its foundation to the early 1800s, when its female founder came to be inhabited by the true creator deity, who had been away for some time and returned to find the world corrupt and filled with evil.

This is the building that houses the Jiba. Followers of Tenri believe that the first humans were created here, almost a billion years ago. The Jiba is a statue consisting of 13 slabs of stone, symbolizing this in some esoteric fashion. We stayed the night in Tenri, in one of their dorms. It was really cheap.

In the morning we went to Nara. This is a pagoda there.

Gemma, one of the new exchange students from Oxford, who absolutely fell in love with all the deer.

A prayer is written on a piece of paper which is then plastered over the openings of these lanterns.

A maiko, the daughters (or wives) of the kami at a shrine. Way back when they would have to be virgins. These days, it's just a part time job. This one asked us (very politely) to stop lazing about in front of the shrine.

Prof. Hermansen and one of the Oxfordites tried to figure out if people were still donating these big lanterns. Turns out the one they're looking at is from 1993.

An Anglican church in Nara. Among my weirder experiences while in Japan - saying the Apostles Creed in Japanese.
I sort of wonder how Anglican it really is. When the Tokugawa-era anti-Christian policies were lifted at the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868) a small number of secret Christians came out of hiding. The Pope sent some missionaries to test if their beliefs had remained pure after 250 years of persecution and isolation. Finally, they were declared non-Christian.

Some things I've done and some things I've don't.

Haven't had a lot of pictures on the 'ol blog in a while now. 'Bout time to go siftin' through some archived pictures. Saddle up.

Around the end of March I went to Kyushu with my (old) homestay family. It was a Japanese-style vacation, which means we spent one night at a hotpsring (Western-style room) and raced from one scenic spot to another for most of the day. We spent about 20 minutes in Huis Ten Bosch, a manufactured 17th century Dutch city on the Kyushu coast. (and yes I had to double-check the spelling) This is the hotel there, a prime spot for the increasingly-popular Western-style weddings.

We were travelling with Kazumi's parents (my homestay father) who live in, or perhaps just near, the city of Kumamoto, also Kyushu. This is the family shot I took. From left to right: Mom, Kenta, Dad, his Mom, his Dad. They're very nice, but I had some trouble understanding Kyushu dialect.

Koi no bori. Little cloth carp that Japanese people hang outside their houses like streamers for Children's Day, the 5th of May. Also sometimes, and confusingly, known as the Boy's Festival. In Japan carp are a symbol for strength and power; they are said to leap over waterfalls; there is a fairy tale, a strange one, where a carp swims up a waterfall and when it reaches the top is transformed into a dragon. There are normally three carp - a family with a small boy-carp - but this particular set, seen in front of a house a few doors up the hill from my new homestay, had a fourth, a black one, bigger than the others. With unknown meaning, even when I asked my homestay mother.

We went to the beach. Soccer was played, friends were made, heads were shaved. Nuff 'bout that.

We had a triple-birthday-smorgasbord of fun at an All-You-Can-Play-Park in Kobe. The intrepid duo pictured were among those who aged recently. That's John on the left, of Hotlanta, Georgia, and Michi, of way the hell middle of nowehere, Japan.

Jason, who you see with his best game face on, was the third. He was, shall we say, somewhat inebriated. He may have tried to lift me a few times. Jason is very strong. Jason succeeded.

The train back. One sleeping Jason not pictured. I think everybody's too funned-out to smile. And Mandy, on the left, is of course texting. That's Pat in the middle, whom we have met before.

Matt and Funny Words

I have a new favourite phrase!

The phrase: 江戸の敵を長崎で討つ。

Pronounciation: Edo no kataki o nagasaki de utsu.

Translation: To enact revenge on someone in an unlikely place.

Literal translation: To attack your Edo enemy in Nagasaki.

What fun!

The Kishis

This past seven days was Golden Week, a time in the Japanese calendar when non-festive holidays accumulate like nobody's business. I had school only on Tuesday and Wednesday, and have generally spent my time avoiding studying, seeing friends, and spending way more money than I have any right to. Last night was especially bad. I saw Babel, which is like $15 WITH the student discount, and ate out twice, and went to an arcade/fun-park/bowling-alley. We'd been planning to see Spiderman III, but it sold out while we were queueing, and I somewhat thoughtlessly recommended that we see a movie about language confusion of which only a quarter is English. The rest was Arabic, Spanish, JSL, and conveniently, Japanese itself, all with Japanese subtitles. We were with some Japanese students who could follow most of it, but maybe got less out of it since the Tower of Babel is a little outside their eidos. Jo(h?)nathan, a new exchange student, basically gave up trying to follow the story. As for me, I spent most of my time being perfectly in tune with the motif, less so the plot. I don't know if that means I understood the movie better, or worse.

It occured to me that I haven't actually posted any pictures of my new homestay family, and that maybe introductions were in order. It also seemed like a good chance to take advantage of some pictures I had taken last week when I made Mexican food for everybody. So without further ado, the Kishis (pronounced like the plural of Quiche!).

This is Eiji, he works in something related to welding, I don't entirely understand what it is. He spends a lot of his free time fishing with his friends. He drinks a lot of sake and shochu when he's home. These days he's building a deck in the backyard, but it's raining today so instead he's spent the entire time in bed. Not that I blame him for that - Japanese men really do spend way too much time in the office.

This is Yoko, my homestay mother and a devoted housewife. I am incredibly indebted to her for agreeing to make me vegetarian food while I'm here, since it's kind of a nuisance. She spends a lot of her time asking me questions about English, which she is studying. This probably would have annoyed me, more than it does, if it was the beginning of the year, but because I already have opportunities to speak Japanese I'm trying to be helpful where I can. She also makes a lot of assumptions about foreigners, by which I mean Westerners, that I am trying to correct. (we had a conversation, not 20 seconds ago, about how not all foreigners eat french fries all the time) This is generally a problem I have with Japanese people, but more so with her than usual.

This is Junko, and if she knew how to find my blog she would totally beat me up for posting this picture of her. She's my homestay sister, currently working at an international kindergarten or pre-school a little east of Nishinomiya. Like Kenta, she speaks good English, and is very "foreign" sometimes in the way she thinks. She has a good number of rich Indian friends who buy her clothes and food. She is older than me, but wouldn't want me to tell you by how much. (which maybe is indicative)

There's also another daughter, Yuko, who graduated recently and is working at a trading company in Tokyo. I've only met her the one time when she came back for Golden Week, and she left this morning on the bullet train. She was sick the whole time she was here, and not photo-ready. She spends a lot of her time reading fashion magazines.

Photo Dump: Camping in Nagano Prefecture

I went camping last weekend with Pat and his homestay family. (and their dog) I haven't been camping in a long time. It was 懐かしい. I spent a good deal of time thinking about Georgian Bay, and blaming Japanese urbanism for blotting out the stars. We spent the days touring the area and visiting hot springs, and the nights roasting konyaku and agedofu over a portable campfire. We went hiking on the top of a volcano.

We were in Nagano Prefecture, which is where everybody goes skiing in winter. Most of the snow had melted by now, but it was pretty high up so it was still pretty cold. Our first night it went down to below zero. Our third day, I came back to Nishinomiya with a cold. Go figure.

A Kind of Weird Story

I had one of my strangest experiences in Japan last night. One of my best experiences, but still, very strange.

I'd been nicking for real Indian food for a while. My new homestay mother has been fantastic about making me veggie food, but I could have really gone for some paneer or authentic naan. So Junko has these rich Indian friends that work part time with her at her kindergarten. They were all going out Sunday night and I was invited along.

They took me to a club. I don't mean like a dance club, I mean like an English gentleman's country club but in downtown Kobe and instead of white owners and brown servants it was brown owners and yellow servers. I felt like I was viewing some bizarre version of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, as through a glass, darkly. Truly strange it was.

But delicious. I ate so much I almost burst this morning. Amazing.

What I did on the internet this morning.

One of the big problems with the internet is its ability to eat up time. I have, for instance, a phone call to make and an email to write. But instead I eneded up doing this:

CBC.ca --> Confusing the virtual world with reality by Heather Mallick--> The readers strike back by Gary Kamiya --> caliban's role? on shakespeareforums.com + Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats + Drink-soaked Trotskyite Popinjays for WAR --> Revisionist Photos: Removing the Horrors of the Third Reich From the Pages of History --> Various emails to various people regarding things I'd discovered today.

It's terrible. On the other hand, through the wonders of multitasking I managed to meet several of the new exchange students that have appeared on campus since last week, who, like the rest of us have gathered at the communal watering-hole of the computer lab. Their names are Patrick and Gemma and I think there's another one named Susanna who lives in Munich but goes to Oxford, but I haven't added her to Facebook yet. Plus, I need to learn where Munich is. (I suspect Germany, but I may be wrong and it may be in Ireland or something)

Anyway, must run to class. New teacher and everything. Japanese language. I'm hoping I've been bumped up to Level 3 and just nobody's bothered to tell me.

The Lucky Strike Problem (also, Hanami Photodump)

I have a pack of cigarettes in my front pocket. I haven't started smoking, mind you. I've just run into an interesting moral dilemma.

It started near the end of a 花見 (hanami, flower-viewing party) I threw last night on the banks of the Shukugawa near my home. Like 20 people came and it was a ton of fun and when it got late and we started to clean up there was a pack of Lucky Strikes that somebody had left on the tarp. There were only a few of us left, and nobody wanted them. Now somebody had paid good money for these, and moreover, the pack was practically full. By giving them to somebody I could reduce waste and increase somebody's utility. It was, apparently, an economic problem.

But of course I don't really like cigarettes. The other option was that I could simply throw them away. It would be a waste, true, but not much of one since ultimately it'd be like throwing away a pill of cyanide. I feel like this is what I should do. But at the same time, why throw away something perfectly good?

I guess it's sort of a weird moral dilemma. Maybe I shouldn't think so much about it.

Here are pictures from the hanami. Enjoy.