The long way home

Note I: This is actually my last journal entry written at different points all along my travel route from plane to plane to train returning home to Maine. It comes in three parts, enjoy!


December 7th
Part I

Ah well, why not document today, since my camera's all packed up anyway? I very nearly didn't get up this morning in time to walk to Shinjuku station, but the light from underneath the door let me check and it was already 5:20! (I had set my alarm for 4:30 before, but I must have switched it off in my sleep or something. :/ ) Anyways, got everything together but my towel was still wet. Screw it, I thought, and simply stuffed it in a plastic bag and called it good. (I've traveled with semi-wet-clothes before.) So then I walked to the station, and on the way there were these two old guys on opposite sides of the road sweeping up the ginko leaves at that ungodly hour! My, and now I'm on the Express train to Nariita glancing up at the rerunning commercials and watching a dawning Tokyo fly by my window for the last time in a good long while I should think. Unless something drastic happens, of course. :) (Nao also told me before that they call that shade of blue just before sunrise Silent Blue. Mmm artsy. :D )

Plane now. Over 1/2 of the way there! It's simulated nighttime on the plane already and the Japanese guy sitting next to me already passed out a few hours ago. (luck devil.) Still over Canada I think, but close to the border. Ahh...I was going to write something befooore.....Gah what was it?...my nose is so dry....OH! Thank you nose! Right, my dream last night. Very strange. It was game-like, and there was a bunch of stuff that felt like I'd dreamed of it before, and I think I was an older man....anyway, at some point in the dream I get this awful nosebleed, and I think it strange. Then I worry about the loss of blood because I'm still on my period (truth is, I thought about that earlier yesterday when I popped a pimple too. XD)......which is also quite strange considering I'm a man. Aaaannd yea, that's pretty much it. I seem to get these torrential nose-bleed dreams on a fairly regular basis....should start charting them or something eh? Good thing I bought a calender planner! :D
I hope it's not too cold in Boston. >< (What am I saying? Of course it'll be cold in Boston!)

Oh man there's a town called Brainerd!! Brilliant, I love it. Oh, and Rhinelander. Gahaaa! Hmm, feels weird to be flying over the states again. Right now we're passing by the southwest corner of Lake Superior, town of Duluth, I think. The clouds on the horizon are like grapefruit mixed with orange juice that is just beginning to rise to the top. Hm, not sure about that metaphor, but the view sure is pretty. :)

GORGEOUS sunrise.

Part II
Aaaaand we're in Chicago Airport. Can we say, "Culture Shock" any louder? >< Ahhhh....I'm still in Japan mode, bowing and muttering sumimasen and such, and always deferring to the left side of passageways. Gah! I swear they built this airport to confuse & stress people. There's plenty of signs usually, but they're either poorly positioned or un-informative! It must be a nightmare for the poor foreign visitors. (+me. :( )
Plus all that, when I finally figure out my gate, I sit down to hear this Bio-shock like women's voice laughing and saying something about indulging your "guilty pleasures" and then I see this extraordinarily fat guy sitting a few rows in front of me staring at me while taking a bit out of his big mac. Uggghhh.....
Can I go back now? Please? :( Or at least home to Maine quicker. Only about 20 minutes left now until boarding!

Part III

I'm here! Sitting in North Station now. Decidedly more warehouse-ish and darker than South Station, but still charming nonetheless. (Kinda)

The trains are WEIRD, the money is WEIRD, the people speak in this strange language that I can instinctively understand, there's bad cheap food everywhere, $1 coins are gold with women on them, the concrete is so grey, fat people abound like the plague, Ahhhhh!!!
CULTURE SHOOCCKK!!
Frankly, it's still quite a lot to take in at the moment, That and having got up at 5:20...tomorrow morning? And not having slept since, though I almost dozed off on the crap flight to Boston but Dr. Who saved me. :D
So now I'll get back to you after a quick call to Papa and Becky and a bite to eat. :)

I'm baaack! And on the 5:00 train to Portland this time! Quick ticket change does wonders. My tum-tum is still kinda bloaty though. :P I've been farting since Nariita! I never did get to take a proper dump this morning. >< Stupid plane and your sitting for long periods of time in a highly-dry environment. Pah!
Ok, time to calculate time spent awake and traveling!

5:20am - 11:20am
11hr flight
2hr layover + 3hr flight
4 1/2hr layover + 2 1/2 hour train
=
about 30 hours. PLUS time-zone switch loosing half a day.

And there you have it. Not bad actually, I thought it would be worse. So I should be getting to Portland soon, then I can call Becky and we can see where we at and how I can get to her place. I saw snow on the way up too! :D Woohoo!

Well then, I bring this account of travel to a close. G'night!
~Kira

Note II: This being the day after and sitting in Becky's apartment, I thought I'd add a little note on Jetlag so far. I'm a bit sleepy now and had a bit of a rough time getting to sleep last night, but Otherwise I woke near 9:00am and didn't feel too groggy, I think I'll be ok till I get that melatonin at home. Oh! I should call Papa soon. Well then, I bid you adieu as I have lots of work and recuperation to do! Fare thee well!
~Kira

The last stretch

I can't believe I'm almost done! Again I'm faced with the prospect of not wanting to leave Japan, but also wanting to return to Maine with friends and family. This time, however, I believe the idea of going home far outweighs the desire to remain in so hospitably beautiful a country, no matter how much work awaits me at school. ><

Thus, I have good news, and bad news. The good news is that I'm finally leaving Kyoto as my 1 month apartment stint is up, so It's off to Nara for one night, and then to Ise and Kumano from there.
The bad news...is...well, I sent a large package (about 10kg) home two days ago, but because of it's weight and girth did not comply with airmail regulation standards for packages to America. So I had to send it by sea/ground mail, which is going to take about 2 months which places it's arrival around the end of January 2011. I'm worried because the particular post office could only give me the lowest insurance amount, but I gave them Jake's company address in Japan to send the package to in the event of a mistake or rebound.  Still, I'm glad I had sent another package previously perhaps half the size and weight of this one before, and it did arrive home safe and intact, so there is hope. I just have to stop worrying about it! ><

Anyways, I promised my sis I'd post a few pictures and such here, though I'm saving most of the good one's for my final collection. I must have over a thousand by now! Man it's going to be hard to sort them through.

 Atop Ginkakuji ground walk.

 Kitano Tenmangu small shrine. I think it's an Ise subshrine judging from the design. Will check.

 Umm...Arashi-yama, walk to bamboo forest.

Located in some important dead guy's garden legacy. The droppings are amusing, but I don't think this one works anymore.

So there you have it! The past week or so I've been ranging around Kyoto, mostly finishing up loose ends. My favorite things in Kyoto that I've discovered would have to be.....

Inari, always.:)
Zen, a vegitarian Korean/Japanese health food restaurant near Kitano. Their like, 15 grain/seed/nut mix rice is AMAZING.
Atlas Club, organic brown rice restaurant in Nishiki food market area. Fantastic food. Good price.
Uhhh....it's a fairtrade shop on one side of the main Kyoto Uni. Campus. Nice place.
Gojo Guesthouse, cute place to stay. Though the showers are a bit....fungly....
Kitano is quite beautiful, probably my second favorite after Inari.

Aaaand that's all I can think of right now! I just wanted to add that...list of things I like. Helps the memory. Well then! Iiiit's...about 10:30am right now, gotta get out to Nara! Sad though, I just learned that the Imperial Palace is open for viewing today! Ah screw it, I'm getting tired of all this sightseeing and historical place visiting. (same thing really, but it sounds better, maybe.) Time for a smidgen of good old Nara R&R!! Really, when it comes down to it, I love Nara so much more than Kyoto. :)


Cheers!
~Kira

The good and bad of the weekend

What a rollercoaster weekend!! I can't really get into the nitty gritty details here, but I'll give you the synopsis.

Basically, the lady, Ivon, who lives in the same apartment rental, is a bit.....unstable, to my observations so far. Friday night I accidentally ended up walking with her to Fresco as she related to me (albeit reluctantly) her life's story, though she held a lot back from what I could tell. She can't really trust anyone. She also believes she's being stalked by a dirty fat Japanese man in a helicopter that she sees hovering up in the sky over the house or over nearby somewhere frequently, though for the past few days I haven't seen any of it. Her phone was also being tracked she says, combined with her violent past and spending the past decade or so circling the globe three times or something, she has got a lot of issues. Possibly bi-polar or slightly mad I think. (keeps apolagizing for her rude behavior from previous conversations, calling me young and naive and in denial of the realities of the world, which is partly true for most people, but the way she used the term..) She seems nice sometimes but then explodes in a mess of anxiety or frustration. Never quite normal though, her Japanese accent is ATROCIOUS. Whiny to the point of me wanting to rip my ears off, and completely wrong intonation. Her English isn't far from the same mark. Anyways, fact of the matter is that she is horrible at communication and shows manipulative tendencies whether she's conscious of it or not. Better exemplified perhaps, by the following:

So she offered me a ticket to a tea ceremony at Kinato Tennmangu (big shrine in Kyoto) this Sunday (also Shichi-go, celebration of children 7 years old) and gave me the ticket last night explaining that she might not make it. I never concretely stated that I would stick myself to our arranged time of between 12-1pm meeting at the shrine, because I was no longer meeting her. Plus I had no idea where this shrine was, though a map quickly sorted that out. (Though I still got lost and ended up one block too soon off the bus.) So I finally find it and wander around the shrine for a bit looking for the tea ceremony entrance and when I find it, I see Ivon sitting with a blond haired lady in the waiting area! I tap her on the shoulder and plop down besides all smiles and stating I'm glad she made it, but she doesn't say anything. I introduce myself to the woman next to her, who is from Germany and lives across the hall from Ivon (been in Japan only three weeks or so working as a bio-chemist. Coool.) and as I'm about to skip from introducing and add Ivon in the conversation, she gets up and leaves. I ask Kristian (the German lady) why she left and she said maybe she has to use the toilet. So we continue chatting and when Ivon comes back, she sits a few benches up turned away from us. I call her name after a bit but she ignores me. Later she calls Kristian out of the pavilion and covers the side of her face when she's talking to her, everything about her body language now is aggressive and closed to me. I'm still trying to be friendly, so I just pass it off as her being moody again or something. So we're called soon to go in, and everyone files into a tiny sitting room where everyone is zaseki (sitting on feet) and mostly quiet, two people behind us kept chatting. When I finally work up the courage to ask Ivon if she's ok, because she hasn't said a word to me the whole while, she has a mini-explosion and explains that I wasn't SUPPOSED to arrive at the same time as she, that she PLANNED on then going to the ceremony at a later time to avoid me with her friend. I was frankly baffled, and asked her why she didn't just say so the night before when all she said was that she might not make it. She then made very rude gestures with her face and hands and said wasn't it OBVIOUS by her behavior the night before? Uh, not really since you're like that ALL the time. Un-trusting and withheld, like a reflex. I made a point to ignore her for the rest of the ceremony. She said something about being pretty physically fit, but I can tell that there is something terribly wrong with her head, and she should probably see a psyco-therapist or something along those lines instead of keeping running from country to country from her own misfortune. After I'm done writing this I can tell you I am never going to mention or speak to this women beyond a fleeting greeting or polite excuse to be somewhere else because I have HAD it with her manipulative behavior and poor social skills, and I don't mean that in a kind way.

Well, that felt good to get off one's chest. Because of all this nonsense I'm behind in my schedule! I'm staying up later than usual tonight for sure and getting a chunk of my paper done tonight for sure. Perhaps watching a movie in between as break. :) Though my Saturday anxiety-fueled run-around has inspired me to draw up a plan for visiting Ise sometime this next week. An overnight too so that I'll get to see the whole complex the following day. It's farther away than I thought!
God, I feel like a need to go to the sento tonight and scrub away the madness of the past few days. >< Perhaps a good mental scrubbing and a touch of yoga will provide similar benefits.

Good photos will be up soon! The fall foliage is just about at it's peak, and my is it lovely...

Alrighty then! Take care!
~Kira

On work and, well, more work

It never ends really, there's so much to do. I'm planning a day trip to Ise tomorrow, the first of a few I'll be likely to take before I leave Kyoto. I'm thinking my hiking trip in Kumano will be much shorter than I had originally anticipated, it's just finding lodging down there that worries me. Still, I've got plenty of time to check things out and make arrangements. Gotta call Atsuko-sensei too! Though I believe she's back in the states by now.
I've been working on filling most if not all of my gift list as well, since I'm going to be sending a final package back home (airmail this time, it's been over a month since my sea-faring package was sent though I won't start despairing until I get back to find it isn't there yet.) full of gifts I can't carry around with me everywhere and extra stuffs. Goodness I miss having a proper kitchen. But, I think I've found the fine line between staying in touch with people back home and enthusiasm for my work and adventures in another country. Only recently had I realized this is the longest I've been away from home in a foreign country! It really isn't that hard when you've been studying the country in question for a while, connections are also very helpful. But I digress. Work. Right.

After the rains last week the days have been increasingly sunny and crisp. Things are indeed warming up a smidgen again, but that's because we're expecting more rains next week of course. There isn't much going on in November in Japan really, besides gearing up for the holiday season, New Years that is. I forget when Golden Week is again...should look that up.
Well, I should get back to typing away. I'm almost at the end of my last book on Shintoism and today is my marker for getting a final rough rough draft of my paper done, and finishing my second portrait. I couldn't paint anywhere outside last month because of the effing mosquitoes! I almost got eaten alive in Arashi-yama that day, yeesh! Still, it's only recently been chilly so I think I'll wait a few more days before I venture into the hillside shrine regions to paint again. I really want to go back to Inari and paint some tori or statues. It really is a beautiful mountainside, especially the back-side paths that I did not stray too far down since a kindly tourist hiker informed me that he had been hiking for hours already from the beginning of that trail, and It was already beginning to get dark. But that's for another day, today is e-mail updating, checking lists, finishing small projects, and a bit of planning.
For consolation's sake, here are a few picture teasers of Jidai Matsuri, the last big festival in fall in Kyoto, basically called "Festival of the Ages" which involves a very long procession of people in historical Japanese costume! Fantastic stuff. And here you are, for viewing pleasure. :)

                                                   Where the parade ended, Heian Jingu.

 I'm pretty sure he wasn't sleeping, but maybe he nodded off for a split second when I shot this. ;)

                                                      Beautiful horse...<3 Meiji era, no doubt.

And that's all for now! I've got lots of organizing mailboxes and sending of mail today. I'm off!
Take care,
~Kira

Oh my goodness! Where has the time gone!

I completely forgot about the blog! Gosh, just goes to show what bouncing around from place to place in another country will do to a person. :) Well, anyways I will return to this project with all due respect (I have been keeping my daily journal, of course!) and resume with a brief account of my exploits in Osaka!

There really isn't much to do (without traveling an hour at least) in mid-town Osaka as far as Shintoism or painting is required. There's one major shrine that I've been to, Sumiyoshi-taisha, which is the head shrine dedicated to the Shinto god of war, and subsequent gods as well, including the god who watches over those out at sea. So, yea, I've been reading a lot, wandering through the shopping mecha that is the Namba area, including Namba Parks and mall, America-mura, and Ebisu/Shinsaibashi-shopping arcade. Whew! After walking all day to various places one's feet do tire quite a bit. I think my left ankle today decided it has had enough. Tomorrow I'll stay in then, do some painting and finish my internship presentation/slideshow so that I can move on to beginning the rough draft of my Shinto paper.

I am officially....three weeks into "My" fall term! Which began on September 24th, and ends on December 7th! It's nice to work on one's own, but still, it takes a lot to stay focused! I'll admit, these past few days I've been wandering into town instead of slaving away on the keyboard, which I do need to figure out how to balance, it seems I'm ever only out walking around or shut up in the guesthouse common room foodling away on the computer or with a book. Hm. I'll work that one out later. It's only 8:30pm now, and I've been sleeping in lately, (partially due, I suspect, to the rather thin bedding.) The good news is that there's a monthly apartment complex in Kyoto that I might be able to rent! The highest room goes for about 40,000 yen. (about $400) per month, which is at least a third less than what I would be paying to stay at a guesthouse for 2500 yen nightly. (yesh..) Which is great because that will put me into the perfect time to go down to Kumano and spend a week hiking before taking a break back in Nara and then taking the train or bus all the way back to Tokyo and spend a week at my friend Nao's place! Woo! Now to just get all of this organized on paper and not in my mind where it will most likely delude me to the point of procrastination disaster, and we don't want that. No indeed.

Well then! Gosh, I haven't been taking any pictures at all! That will have to be remedied. I'll be working tomorrow morning, and then I'll go out and about taking pictures and whatnot since tomorrow is my last day in Osaka before I pack out for Kyoto! (which is only like, what, an hour away? I'll probably take another day trip back in sometime later.)

 So until my next post, which will be sooner rather than weeks later! (I apologize! There will be pictures too. I can promise you that.)

Take care, :)
~Kira

Birthdays and Food Poisoning

This story begins with a certain someone not applying for a proper Visa before she came to Japan. Then, a fury of ensuing misfortunes befell that someone in the form of missing documents, several trips to the Immigration Bureau in Tokyo, printer problems and lack of such a device, and numerous other events and situations which failed to remind this someone of her impending date by which her first tourist visa was set to expire. An emergency visa renewing trip was then put into place, however, she completely messed up and failed to comprehend that her father had made the arrangements at a Hong Kong Disney (free hotel room with points) for OCTOBER instead of what she thought she said, September. All of this was not realized until exactly one day before she had thought she was leaving for the Narita Airport. One angry Papa then was somehow able to change the flight and she herself found a safe and semi-inexpensive hotel somewhat near the airport, and off she went, feeling guilty and sorry for herself that she messed up so badly and made her poor recovering Papa suffer more stress than he needed.

China proved hot and insufferable smelly. When she arrived at the Hong Kong airport, it was very late and she did not make it to the hotel until almost 1:00am. The first experience she had of Chinese people was when she went into a grubby convenience store by the bus stop, and being rudely commented on by two hoodlums outside. She quickly went out and to the public waiting area, and desperately hoped that her bus would come soon so that she could get to her hotel room and rest.

The bus finally arrived at midnight, and it too was smelly and cramped. She tried to sleep a little, and only about 40 minutes later she arrived at the hotel. So tired was she, that she forgot to inquire more about the price of the hotel and what she was being billed for, so anxious to just get the key to her room and rest. Eventually, she did get there and took a much needed shower and went to bed.

The next day was spent mostly in the hotel room, watching Tv, a movie on the computer and using up all the battery without being able to charge because she did not have a chinese plug adapter, and wandering between the two hotel towers in a mall that was situated conveniently between. She was tired from traveling and tired of all the bland quality of stores and restaurants that seemed to only be present in this area of Hong Kong. She does not like Chinese food at all. Too heavy. After a day of doing almost nothing, she went to bed early so as to wake up at 4:00am to catch the first bus to the airport at 5.

It might have been that flight's airplane meal, it might have been the curry crab thing she had the night before at a cheesy greasy chinese cafe, or it could have been the convenience store food she bought right before her bus back to Kawaguchiko. It was probably the airplane food. They say it takes 6 hours or so before it hits you, and the timing was about right. She spent the 2 hour bus ride in agony as her stomach would complain in waves of pain and pressure. Nothing would abate it, and it only got worse when she actually got to the station. But all was well when she called Natsuco and asked her if she could pick her up at the station right away and explained the situation. She was in tears, it hurt so bad, she felt like she was going to throw up too. After Natsuco took her back to her place, she had to make herself throw up, then Natsuco gave her some medicine, mint tea, and water, and left her on a futon in the living room where she began to feel better after a few hours and managed to catch some sleep.

Three days later she still gets stomach pains sometimes, it hasn't been completely flushed out yet. But the good news is that her birthday was a blast. Natsuco even splurged on some meat for sukiyaki that night, and it was indeed a fun and delicious meal. Natsuco also got her some chocolate macadamia nuts as a present which she is eating right now.

Kira is going to bed now, and she is very, very tired.

Goodnight.

(p.s. This is posted a day after it was written because Kira had a little uncounted for excursion in Fujiyoshida when she went to see a festival. More stories soon! :) )

busy busy August

Well! It's been quite some time since I've updated this blog huh. There's been butt-loads of work and new people around here, and it's quite a lot to deal with, this has just slipped my mind. Regardless, I will be easier to update from now on, since things are rolling more smoothly now and the big dates (14 college student stay and harvest festival) are going to pass by.

There are many stories to tell and far too many pictures to post. Most are of no significance (cats yowling outside my tent, accidentally taking the hardest path strait up koyodai from the Saiko lake side, lots of sweating...) but the farm events will probably do.

Pumpkin!! They just sort of popped up in the potato field (formerly sheep pen, might explain why) and kind-of took over a little. We've got an even bigger and brighter one out there, but Na-chan wants to save it for the festival. :)

Then there's this little guy! I was just sitting around 6:30am just putzing away at the computer when, WHAMO, bam into the glass. I don't know how I knew it was a bird but lo and behold, this little guy sat on the concrete for ten minutes or so catching his breath (more likely brains). I was able to get real close too. First wildlife that I've seen so close too. I can never catch those mythical boars that eat up our eggplants and zuchinni. :/

Today actually we're expecting 14 Japanese college students for a few days. Oh boy. I have no idea which college or why they're coming here, but I suppose it's more about seeing the farm and helping out, maybe like a field trip. I'll find out soon I suppose. They're arriving at 2:00pm.

Oh! It's lunchtime. So hungry. I'll post again at the end of the week no doubt. I'm expecting a lot of cooking and cleaning in the next two days.

All the best,
~Kira