Nagoya Port, aquarium, dolphines

room post shower - Clear and bright today. Today my host mom took me to Nagoya Port. It was really cool. There isn't a beach really but there is a garden and an aquarium and an amusement park. We had intended to go to the garden and aquarium. Oddly though the garden was closed. My host mom was a bit peeved b/c she had specifically called earlier in the week and asked if it would be open on this day. I didn't really understand the explanation but we had no choice but to do only the aquarium.

Secretly this was fine with me b/c the aquarium is what I really wanted to see. On the way we passed a Red Lobster restaurant. I told my host mom that that restaurant is famous in America. I was really surprised to see it! I wasn't aware it was an international chain.

The aquarium was really cool. I could have spent the whole day there. We ate the lunch my host mom packed and then watched a dolphin show. It was a cool show. They kept showing shots of the audience on the big screen and got me more than once. It was embarrassing being on the big screen like that. All the Japanese seemed to love it though. Everyone else who got put on the screen was waving and carrying on like crazy.

It was a good day and I hope to return to the aquarium again.

mental relax day

room, - post shower - Today was the first day of break. It's golden week in Japan. I goofed off most of the day. But I do intend to do a lot of work this week long break. But I had a nice mental relax day today. :P

typical Tuesday

room, post shower - Today was rainy. ^_^ Love rain.

I had my last oral quiz of the semester. Woo!! I also had translation class in the afternoon. I have been doing work since arriving home. Tomorrow I have a two chapter test... X(

"Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

room, post dinner - Yesterday was clear.

Yesterday I went to Aikido practice and walked around Meijo Park before it started as per usual. I finally noticed how many homeless people live in that park. They all have blue tarp that they use to make tent like structures. I must have seen a half dozen just within a quarter of a mile radius. They have their laundry hanging out on tree branches. Men, women, old, young. They make friends with all the cats that wander around the park. I noticed them before but it didn't really sink in. Then yesterday it really hit me. Homeless. This triggered a chain reaction of thought that led me back to last summer. To a previous study abroad. To Rennes, France. To an echoing, haunting phrase I'd since been able to somewhat repress. "Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

In Rennes, France, last summer, homeless people lined the streets in the center of town in which the Franco-American Institute stands where I attended my classes. They would beg as you walked by. Many had dogs. It was said that if they had dogs then the police wouldn't pick them up b/c of the extra hassle of taking the dog to a pound (they were not allowed to leave the dogs behind b/c of a strict stray policy). I'll never forget one homeless person. He looked young, maybe my own age. And when he saw me passing he called, "Une petite pièce, mademoiselle peut-être?" It means, "A small coin, miss, maybe?" His voice dripped with anguish and desperation and a tiny bit of hope because before he called out, he had seen me look at him. But I just kept walking, quickly past.

Before coming to Rennes I'd never seen so many, nor been accosted by a homeless person before. I was afraid of them and I don't know why. I didn't know what to do when they would call out. It was the worst thing about France, the only bad thing. Ever since that day when that young man called to me I have regretted my actions. Other homeless people held out cups, or performed and asked for money. But he is the one that I remember the most. "Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

You're not supposed to look at them.

If you look it gives them hope that you will give them something. I couldn't help myself and I looked because I was curious. I looked without giving.

I was racked with guilt for weeks. Even as I walked away I thought of going back but didn't. I had spare change that I really didn't need. I had an apple in my bag that I didn't want and was planning on giving away to someone anyway (one of my classmates perhaps). These thoughts buzzed in my head like a giant bee as I walked away. But I was afraid, and I kept walking.

"Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

I cannot get his voice out of my head. I cannot stop blaming myself for my cowardice. Some would call him an actor. Some would say not to feel guilty and to have nothing to do with them. But I can't help it. My stomach clenched at the misery in his voice. I guess I am easily affected by that kind of thing. I had so much compared to him and I couldn't give him a thing, except for false hope. Did he feel ashamed when I looked at him? Did he think I thought him some sort of freak? I will probably never know. Even if I went back to that same exact street side (I remember it precisely) everyday and waited, I probably wouldn't see him again. I want to find him and apologize, treat him to a meal or something. Maybe just talk to him like a human being.

"Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

People have always called me naive. Some would even say that doing such things would be very dangerous. I don't care though. He was a person and everyday people like him are treated like vapor or vermin. It isn't right. I always thought it was wrong and then I did the same thing. I even WANTED to help, but I didn't. Why is it that helping is so hard? Why is it so easy to be afraid? It was a crowded street in broad daylight. Stopping and giving him an apple; stopping and chatting with him; it wouldn't have been risky at all. Why would interacting with him have been more dangerous than with anyone else on that street? We demonize those we are afraid of.

"Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

People will call me naive, foolish. But I cannot get him out of my head or my heart. The homeless people of the world; the ones I passed EVERY SINGLE DAY in Rennes; the ones living in Meijo Park in Nagoya; all of the other ones in every place on Earth; what is being done to help them? If you go by what I did, absolutely nothing. How easily we forsake our own kind.

"Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

I can still hear him...

It is a silly, impossible wish, but I want to go back to that street side in Rennes, France. I want to wait there around noon (the time I walked past him) everyday for a week, a month, a year, until I see him again and then apologize. And then I would give him an apple or a coin and a smile; the things I denied him and many others like him so many times in those few short weeks I was in France. I want to do this. Maybe it's crazy, but I have always been crazy.

Seeing those blue tarp tents in Meijo Park, seeing the laundry hung on tree branches, seeing homeless people petting the stray cats, reminded me of that experience in Rennes. I pushed it away for the moment. I went to Aikido practice, I returned to my host mom's house, I did homework, and I got up this morning and went through the day. But when I sat down to write this entry it exploded back up to the surface again like a beach ball that has been held underwater and then is suddenly released. And with it coming to the surface again I was finally able to comes to terms with my actio-- nay not actions, action means doing something; I was finally able to comes to terms with my decision to do nothing. How does one move on from experiences like these?

"Une petite pièce, mademoiselle, peut-être?"

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Today was fine. Clear and windy.

concert fun

room, pre-dinner - Today was sunny but windy. My host mom took me to a choral concert in town. It was pretty entertaining. Then we had a snack at a tea shop. Not a bad day but I need to start homework now... yuck.

Totoro Friday, work-filled weekend ahead

room, post shower - Today was cloudy. I survived my third kanji test of the week. Then we watched Hayao Miyasaki's Totoro, a movie that I love. ^_^ Had an enjoyable religions class. Tomorrow I don't have much planned. Except for homework, homework, homework and study, study, study. At least I get to sleep a bit more...

baseball!!!! and kanji?

room, post shower - Yesterday was the baseball game! It was clear that whole day and hot. Yuck weather for me. Luckily I was indoors for most of it. I went to class in the morning and had a killer kanji exam, I don't want to think about it. XP I did class work in the library up until I had to go meet for the game. We were supposed to meet in Nagoya Daigaku subway station at 5. That is the same station I get off at and walk to Nanzan from. I got there and slowly everyone started to assemble. Once everyone had arrived we started off to the Nagoya Dome.

First off I'll explain a bit about this trip. I was invited by my good friend and commute buddy Kai. Kai's full name is Kainyu Rin. She is Burmese and is studying abroad through a company scholarship in Japan. The company frequently plans trips for their scholarship students (just like my program through IES plans trips for its students; at Nanzan their are IES, ISEP, exchange, and all kinds of different foreign students). Kai was allowed to invite up to three friends. From our class she invited me, Tori, and Natalie. I was excited to get to know the latter two better b/c they have not been in my section in class. They and Kai are all in section one while I have always been in section two. Actually most recently Natalie was moved to section two in the latest section scramble but I still haven't gotten to talk to her much. There were also other students from my Japanese class on the trip and one other IES student that I know well. Any-hoo this company paid for everything which is AWESOME!! =D

We got off the subway at the Nagoya Dome station. We walked to the stadium (which is an enclosed indoor one, literally a dome). We sat in a VIP section and got served a meal before the game started. The food was delicious! Xd We were also given little plastic bat noise makers and were told it was our job to cheer for the Nagoya Dragons with them! We were seated behind first base and had a great view. The game was great. The Dragons were losing 2 to 0 to the Swallows (a Tokyo team) up until the 7th inning when the second home run of the game was hit bringing in two runs for the Dragons. Then it was all tied up. It was still tied at the end of the 9th inning. They put up three more innings on the score board. In Japan it is done a little differently. We all agreed we couldn't stay any longer so we left as a group after the 10th inning with the score still tied 2 to 2. I still haven't been able to figure out how the game ended. :o

I got home and quickly ate and showered. I was so exhausted I collapsed in bed shortly there after. I had a great time. I got to talk with Kai, Tori, and Natalie (latter two are really cool by the way). I got to keep the cool noise maker as a souvenir (I love free souvenirs). And I took a ton of pictures. Plus the game was INSIDE. I was shielded from the sun!!!! I mean it was a night game... but still!!!

One more thing I have to mention about Japanese baseball. They have cheerleaders!!!!!! I was so surprised to see cheerleaders at a baseball game!! o_O

Today was fine. It rained all day which is my kind of weather. I have my third kanji test of the week tomorrow. I am so sick of kanji right now...

rain, research, and baseball

room, pre-dinner - Today was rainy so I was happy. :D I went to class and during lunch break went to the library and tried to find sources for a research paper I have to write for religions class. The religion section was pretty small so I am hoping to find a lot ebooks or online articles or something.

I went to translation class and then came back to my host mom's house. Kanji test tomorrow so I have to study a lot tonight. :( Tomorrow is the baseball game.

boring Monday

room, late - I just finished homework. Today was brightish and warm. Went to class, including tea ceremony. Not much else to report. Boring day but, not a bad one.

KYOTO!!

The golden temple we saw. Yep, real gold. Thought I was kidding didn't you? =D

room, post lunch - Yesterday I arrived at the main gate of Nanzan University and found the charter bus waiting. I got there early at 8:00 and we were scheduled to leave at 8:30. I got on the bus and started doing homework and studying. We left at 8:40 (after giving up on two no shows). The bus ride was long but I got a lot done and was able to talk to some Japanese students and some other study abroad students.

When we got to Kyoto and parked, the 40 of us split into small groups. It was me and Sam (a classmate of mine) and two Japanese students (we were later joined by a few other Japanese students as well). We visited the first temple and walked in the streets. We ate lunch which was soba (a type of noodle). We then hopped on the bus and went to the golden temple and visited the park type area for about an hour or so. I took a ton of pictures and got to eat a ton of amazing food!! Everywhere you went the shop keepers were pushing free samples at you, it was AWESOME!! That's just how I like it; delicious and FREE. ^_^ The streets were gorgeous too with no cars to contend with. So many Japanese were walking around wearing kimono. Males too, not just females like I usually see. I found the miracle combination of match (powdered green tea), mochi (rice cake), and anko (red bean paste). It was a free sample and was heavenly!!! Xd I really, really like Kyoto. It is among my favorite places so far.

The bus ride back was long and I mostly slept. The sun wasn't bad but it still wears me out every time. Got back at around 8:15, ate, showered, and went to bed.

Today I got up early and cleaned like crazy. I went to Aikido practice (first time in three weeks what with all the traveling I have been doing on the weekends). Before going though I walked around the near-by park like I usually do. I took a lot of pictures of cats and scenery. Then I went to the dojo.

Sensei asked me where I had been and when I told him I'd been traveling he asked if it had been my honey moon. >XP He likes to joke like that. Later I was stretching and a lingering little kid from the children's class was sitting talking to Sensei and kept stealing glances at me. Sensei said that I was just a gaijin (foreigner). He called me a bug (mushi). The little kid walked up to me and asked, "Taberaremasu ka?" It means, "Can I eat you?" I said of course and extended my hand and said please go ahead!! The kid scampered back to Sensei who was laughing. Yeah it was a good time. =) I don't why that kid asked that particular question though... Maybe that kid eats bugs?

Practice went well and I got back fairly early. My host mom fed me and we ate outside on the back porch. Then I continued the cleaning I had started in the early morning. I am just finishing that up and then I will start homework (it's never done, homework). Also today I will renew my commuter's pass and talk with my parents online. Busy. Xo

lots of work, more to come, and another trip

room, pre dinner - Chilly today. The only other things I'll mention for this past week was our oral presentation and our test in Japanese class. Glad they're over but there's still more on the way. Tomorrow is Kyoto trip. :D

another week's worth...well just a weekend's worth...

Big Buddha. :P (The Todaiji temple in Nara)
Cherry Blossoms!! (In Yoshinoyama)

room, post shower - It is getting colder again here... weird.

The trip to Nara was really fun. First we went to a temple named Jikouin and were served traditional Japanese green powdered tea and a sweet in a sort of tea ceremony type thing. The temple had a beautiful garden too. We then were served lunch in the dinning hall and it was the first time I have eaten black rice. It tastes almost exactly the same but is a purply color. :d I thought of my sister when I saw it because her favorite color is purple. [I miss my sissy!! >_<]

Then we visited this epic temple, called Todaiji, that had deer walking around everywhere. You could buy special crackers to feed them but we didn't do that b/c we were on a tight schedule. The temple had a huge buddha statue in it, many pictures were taken.

Then we drove up a mountain and checked into our Japanese inn. We had dinner and a bunch of us partook of the onsen they had. An onsen is a large community bath type thing. Like a cross between a bath and a jacuzzi. They had an outdoor one and it was really fun/interesting to be outside while, well... in one's birthday suit. :o

I braided my friends Erin, Jayla, and Melinda's hair while our friend Nia watched (Nia likes watching that kind of thing). Finally I got to bed along with my roommates Jayla and Nia. Our futon were really warm and comfy just like futon always are!

Breakfast was hardy and yummy. Then we had over four hours to walk around the small town. There was lots of stuff to do. You could see shrines, temples, scenery. You could also walk around the rows upon rows of outdoor shops. Japan is in the middle of cherry blossom mania right now (they only bloom for a short time) and supposedly this little town of Yoshinoyama is the best place to view them. Jayla, Nia, and I looked at scenery for a while, then watched a parade, then explored the shop area (Jayla kept buying stuff...). We ran into our friends Leigh, Maria, and Erin (who were rooming together at the inn) and joined up with them and continued to walk for a while. Actually earlier we had run into more people we knew several times but we hadn't stuck together. The streets were small so big groups weren't convenient to travel in. But we did end up joining with Leigh, Maria, and Erin to visit a temple before heading back to the meeting place. It was really fun but unfortunately it was also really sunny too. I had on my sunblock as usual but sometimes if I am out in the sun too long I still start to feel really ill. We had to walk for 20 minutes or so to get to the bus and I was really starting to feel woozy. I know I got a little sun poisoning... I hate the sun. >:( Otherwise though it was a really pleasant day.

The bus ride back to Nagoya was long. I had done homework on the way there but I mainly slept on the way back (stupid sun). Leigh and I ride the same train from Nagoya train station so we rode together until she got off at her stop a few before mine. My host mom picked me up. Actually it turned out I had about 45 minutes before she was supposed to come and get me so I walked all around Kōzōji station because I love exploring and such. I found a book store, and lots of other cool little places. I wanted to take pictures but... Sai (my camera) was out of juice. (So was my phone which is why I didn't just call my host mom to come and get me sooner. Yeah everything died on me at once...) Just as I was headed out of the station to wait for my host mom a teenage kid on a motorcycle whizzed past me and then attempted to screech to a stop before crashing into the stone wall at the end of the station concourse. He fell off and skidded quite a ways with the bike on top of him. His friends at the other end of the long concourse were hooting and hollering and a near-by Japanese guy and I exchanged bemused smiles. Not everyday you see Japanese punk teenagers joy riding in a relatively empty train station. The one that crashed was moaning in pain so he might of hurt himself pretty badly. I'm not sure if they got in trouble or what b/c I high tailed it up to the outside ground level to wait for my host mom.

Once home I ate and showered quickly and went to bed soon after, still feeling very drained by the sun.

It's late so I'll pick this up tomorrow.

another day

room, pre dinner - Today was windy (which I liked) and sunny (which I did not). It was late start day so I got sleep in a bit (always nice). Class was fine. We got a lot of details about our impending oral presentation. I'm really dreading it. I, along with all the IES students, will be gone this weekend on a trip to Nara. So we can't prepare for it over the weekend. I have Monday to prepare (and late Sunday but I'll be so tired I doubt I'll do any work). I want to try and do some today and tomorrow as well but I have so much other work to do. It is that time of the semester I guess (it's the same in any country). I am going to stop using so many parentheses now...

I had history of tea ceremony class in the afternoon which was good. I am now finished with some of my work but still have a lot to do. Tomorrow is Friday, and then, NARA!!!

a week's worth of stuff

room, pre-dinner - I have been unreasonably busy this past week so I apologize for the lapse in entries.

On Tuesday and Wednesday nothing out of the ordinary occurred. But on Thursday my Japanese class went on a field trip to a park to look at the blooming cherry blossoms. We also had to write haiku about the experience. My haiku got heavily praised by the sensei that graded my paper. X) The sensei passed out sweets and it was a pretty nice trip. Friday was busy but uneventful.

Saturday was a field trip to Hida-Takayama. There were a ton of shops and I purchased a wind chime for my wind chime collection. It was up on a mountain so it was snowing on and off which made yours truly quite happy. :D There was also a preserved village of traditional Japanese houses, very cool.

Sunday my host mom, a couple of her friends, and I went to Nagoya Castle to look at the cherry blossoms and take part in two tea ceremonies. I was really fun. One of my host mom's friends bought me roasted chestnuts! It was the first time I'd ever had them and they were tasty indeed. :d We had lunch and then went home.

Monday was largely uneventful. Tuesday was the same except on the way to school I saw a group of construction workers doing stretches together outside. It was so epically Japanese. :3

Today I had to do a physical because all students who are going to be at Nanzan University next semester have to do one. It was on campus. I ran into a girl who is in my history of tea ceremony class and we stood in all the long lines together. It took forever because all the freshmen were doing it as well on this day. My x-ray went smoothly except the guy saw my hair which is very long and said, "Doushiou...?" Loosely translated to, "What should I do?" It couldn't be in the way of the x-ray so he didn't know what to do with it. It was adorable, but I just did what I did the last time this came up and laid in on my arm. I had to bend my knees to line up right with the thing, guess their usual patients are shorter than me. The girl I was with ran into a problem when it was time to take her x-ray. Her blouse had a medal clip in it that was part of the design. The technician told her it wouldn't work, that she had to take it off. Well she was horrified about being naked from the waist up in front of the male technician (don't blame her). So I lent her my shirt. I put on my jacket, zipped it up, and squirmed out of my long sleeved tee-shirt and gave it to her. I then held up her jacket in front of her while she put it on (would have used my jacket but seeing as I had literally nothing on underneath it...). She was so grateful but I said not to worry about it. It was a rather poor set up and we hadn't been told to bring a tee-shirt with us or anything. I just fortunately happen to always have on a tee-shirt like shirt on. We had to remove any under layers and leave just a loose shirt on to take the x-ray of our lungs (to make sure we don't have TB). I just had this type of x-ray in December so I could COME to this country and now I am having to do it again less than six months later. I was ticked off the first time b/c they are other less irradiating ways to check for TB. Japan is so freaking x-ray happy; it really is no good at all. I'm going to start glowing if this continues at this rate...

The rest of the exam went well but altogether (because of all the people) it took almost two hours. I am back home now and I have a bunch of homework to do as per usual. Hopefully I will be able to keep up better with these entries from now on.