Saturday’s day trip was to Japan’s most ancient capitol, Nara (奈良), which is about an hour’s train ride from Kyoto. It is of course famous for its temples, shrines and historic sights, but equally famous for the Nara deer which roam at will through the park and around town. I was told “Nara ni wa shika ga shikanai” – In Nara, there are nothing but deer! (BTW, please see the Nara Photo album on the Photos page.)

After meeting our tour guide at Nara station, we set off to see some of the world’s most amazing places—eight of them have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites, including our first destination, the 5-story pagoda at Kofukuji Temple. Just missing being the tallest in Japan by a mere 2 inches, it was nonetheless incredibly beautiful and very impressive—and it was built in 1426. The nearby 3-story one was built in 1143 and the temple’s been here since 710. This was also our first “Deer Sighting”, with everyone eager to pet them and feed them sembei at ¥150 a pack. Luckily, the weather started out sunny and beautiful and not too hot or humid (started out, that is…).

Being a bit early for lunch, we strolled through the grounds of the Nara National Museum. One of the buildings there is a fairly rare example of Meiji period architecture from the initial westernization of Japan in the late 1800s. There’s also a somewhat more modern building where everyone had a good time with the Koi in the pond. Lunch was at a nearby restaurant where, as you can see in the photos, we ate in traditional Japanese style—and the food was delicious. (I must confess that I ate everything except my little fish, ‘cause he was still looking at me…)

Continuing on, we visited the centerpiece and crowning jewel of the city, the Todaiji temple and Daibutsu (Great Buddha). It was truly amazing, too. The building is the largest wooden structure in the entire world, and the current rebuild dating from 1692 is only a mere 2/3 scale replica! (That’s the picture above, BTW) The Buddha was cast out of bronze by building a framework, sculpting a model around it, building a mold around that and supporting it all by building a small hill around it. In went the molten bronze, and everything was dug out and polished up for the great unveiling in 746. A few fires and a recasting in the Edo period take nothing away from its impressive stature. I bought a postcard (which can’t possibly do it justice) and a charm—to grant me success in my studies!

We continued through the Nara historical park to other shrines and temples like the Nigatsu-do where every year they have a huge torch ceremony (and miraculously the wooden structures don’t burn down) and saw the great bell. The last major attraction was a visit to the Kasuga Grand Shrine, famous for its 700-year-old wisteria and row upon row of lanterns. The stroll through the cool, peaceful woods surrounding the shrine was also very moving—as you walk through this ancient place, you can’t help but feel awe, reverence and history flowing around you. Many, many things I’ve learned about the Japanese people and their character really struck home just by being in this place.

A train ride back brought the day to its end. Most everyone else went out on the town, but I came back to the dorms (grumpy old man that I am…) and ate there with Alia and Kishi-sensei. We were both pretty excited when we were able to finally carry on a decent conversation including making plans for dinner in town tomorrow, where to meet and at what time (We’ll meet Kishi-sensei downtown in front of the Junkudo bookstore at 5:00 PM for Okonomiyaki). It just keeps getting a tiny bit easier each day…

Today was our first written test, and I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive. But with a yummy breakfast like that pictured above, you’re ready for anything (although it was a bit of a surprise when the eggs turned out to be raw rather than hard boiled as they’d been previously—needless to say, I’m not much for raw eggs…).

I thought the test would be first thing, but should’ve read my schedule better. We spent the morning forging ever ahead in our lessons and into the next chapter. Keiko met me for lunch, but only Emi came with her—no troop of college girls this time. I seemed to be able to speak only marginally better than before. I just can’t figure out what’s wrong with me and this block I have that’s preventing me from conversing intelligently. It’s all there in my head, I just can’t seem to get it off the tongue. Oh well, ganbarimashou…

So the test came in the afternoon, after we’d spent the first hour doing some oral drills. It seemed to be going along just fine, but I totally blanked in a couple spots that I should have had no trouble with. I think I did fine on the Katakana and Kanji parts, but some of the grammar sections just fried my brain. Good thing I’m not really in this for a high GPA—I’m just hoping enough of it sinks in for me to get better at this language.

The last part of class was with our CPs, and we lightened things up a bit by doing origami. I finally learned how to make paper cranes! I managed to get six of them done in class—now I only have 994 more to go (it’s a typical Japanese goal to make 1,000 paper cranes). I’m hoping to take at least some of them with me to leave behind at the memorial when I visit Hiroshima. Although origami was fun and it helped in memorizing ue wo muite arukou (the song from the other day—it was playing the entire time as soft background music), I was pretty wiped out after my first week. I know totally what’s happening psychologically and the particular stage I’m in, but it doesn’t make it any easier or make me feel any more comfortable.

Everyone but Alia and I went out for a night on the town, but I was content to just relax and unwind. While not wanting to just completely forget everything I’ve done so far, I wasn’t especially interested in spending the evening studying and reviewing. I know it’ll still be there tomorrow…

Speaking of tomorrow, we’re off on another class trip to Nara, the first capitol of Japan. Known for the many temples and the equally famous deer, it should be a great time. Be sure to check back for new photo albums—and I hope to get at least one vidcast and hopefully a new podcast done before Monday.

Weather report: rain—and just when we need it on the day we’ll be out and about…

Morning class was another opportunity to get a lot more stuff crammed in my brain. I don’t know how I’m going to survive at this pace! It seems that no sooner do I get my flash cards made for the current vocabulary and pull out the relevant kanji cards, then we’re on to the next chapter. I knew it was going to be an accelerated experience, but wow…

We got done a bit early, and were on our own for lunch before the field trip. Alia and I ate at Makudo again, and I’ve now officially eaten at McDonalds more since coming to Japan than I have in the previous year at home. It’s just easy and centrally located—and you get all-you-can-drink free refills, which apparently isn’t particularly common except for tea.

Today’s main event was a shopping excursion to Nishiki Market, where we had to go into the shops and ask what various things were, how much they cost and what they were used for—should’ve been easy, right? Well, not exactly. I tend to still clam up in public, and had a surprisingly difficult time of it, though I managed to complete the assignment. We were each given ¥500 (around $5.00) and had to purchase something. I blew mine on something that I never get at home: roasted sweet chestnuts—and they were yummy! They brought back a lot of memories, since I think the last time I ate them was when I was living in Italy.

After the “official” part of the excursion was over, we were free to go our own way. I sort of engineered going off completely by myself and had a rather philosophically enjoyable time. I guess I’m somewhat of a loner by nature, so I was already feeling the need to get away. I like just wandering off alone in completely alien surroundings just to prove that I can handle myself just fine without freaking out. I visited a huge, 5-floor bookstore for a while, mostly reading the signs to figure out what the sections were. I also strolled through the exclusive Hankyu department store (but didn’t buy anything, natch…). It was just endlessly fascinating for me to watch the people and what they were doing—people shopping, school kids on their way home, shop owners taking care of customers, bishonen passing out fliers for clubs, you name it. I felt completely safe in this wonderful country, and never once was afraid I’d get lost or wouldn’t be able to communicate if necessary. Besides, I was protected by the de facto “Gaijin Safety Zone”! Rode the bus back without even a hint of being lost and had dinner at the dorm.

And then? Study, of course! We have our first exam tomorrow, incidentally…

Nothing special to report today. I’ve settled into my regular schedule already, and it seems both like I’ve already been here for ages and that the time is flying by way too quickly. Every single class is filled with so much, and it’s a constant struggle to try and remember it all—I haven’t succeeded yet.

Our first corrected homework assignments have been returned, and mine had a certain amount of “blood” on it. My first test was also less than stellar—I’m actually quite famous for my stupid mistakes, though Kishi Sensei and Ikushima Sensei are less likely to let them slide. If I could just remember everything that I did wrong and then actually not do it again, that would be a major milestone.

Yasu (my CP) met me for lunch a bit late since he was coming from a class. It also took him ages to get through the line and buy his lunch so we didn’t have much of a conversation, but at least I felt like I seemed a little more awake and able to talk. He was wearing a suit (which seems crazy in this humidity) since he was off to his internship in the afternoon.

The afternoon class was spent getting ready for our Kindergarten visit. I seem to draw bad luck, since I was once again elected spokesman and “chairman” for the event and have to do the initial group introduction. I guess everyone wants to keep me on my toes. Alia, Kevin and I will be playing Simon Says with the 5 year olds—about 50 of them—and we’re going to do it in both Japanese and English (kids learning English at age 5? Wish I’d done the same with Japanese…). It’s gonna be crazy but no doubt a lot of fun.

We wrapped up with an in-room practice session for tomorrow’s visit to Nishiki Market. The CPs all took the roles of shop owners, and we went round to each of them asking the name of the store, what various things were, how much they cost and what they were used for. After wrapping up my tour of the 6 shops, I spent the next 15 minutes or so chatting with one of the CPs and for the first time didn’t feel completely tongue-tied. I actually felt pretty good abut my [very, very basic] conversational abilities.

When class was over, I went to the 100 yen store (like a Dollar store) to buy some indoor slippers (try doing that with American-sized feet), a new wallet (my US one was too small to hold the larger yen bills properly and a pair of chopsticks (oddly enough, there weren’t any in my room). At dinner, I sat with Kishi Sensei and Ikushima Sensei—and sadly felt terribly incompetent again all of a sudden. My brief 15 minutes of success had taken it all out of me I guess…

Tomorrow will be fun with the Nishiki market field trip, so stand by for more new photos!

Well, today went a lot better than yesterday. I’m sure that some of what I talked about in Monday’s journal entry was just the initial shell-shock of being thrust into the thick of things. Today’s lessons went fine and I didn’t feel quite as big an idiot as I did before—a good sign, no doubt.

My lunchtime turned out to be quite entertaining. Keiko-san, my CP, showed up right on time outside my classroom with one of her friends who’s also studying English. No problem—I said that would be fine. We decided to go eat at “Makudo” (McDonald’s, for those of you who don’t know) and it seems like we kept picking up more and more of her friends on the way. By the time we were sitting down and eating it was me—43 year old gaijin with gray hair—surrounded by seven college girls! It was really a lot of fun talking with them, though I mostly did a lot of heavy-duty listening. I’ve never ever gotten so much attention at home!

After lunch was the gymnasium tour. I’m keen to get into the weight room and continue post-surgery rehab on my knee using the weight machines. Using the bike will be good to help burn some calories (it’s really funny—as you exercise, the display shows a little bowl; each time you burn enough calories, it fills up a little more. When it’s full, you’ve burned off one bowl of rice). The thing I didn’t understand was the stairmasters given that KSU is built on hills and there are plenty of steps to have to go up every day. I’m going to try to come in the evening after classes and dinner, though I also want to come sometime and watch the Kendo club practicing.

In the afternoon, I had my moment to shine when we studied kanji. Of the ones in the current chapter, I already knew all but three. I keep saying if I could just read and write this language and not have to speak to anyone, I’d be fine. We then began learning a Japanese song—a very famous tune that most anyone would know even back at home, but in Japanese it’s Ue wo muite, arukou. That was fun—now I can sing at least one Japanese song at Karaoke! If I have time and am brave enough, perhaps I’ll sing it for you in the next audio podcast. (PS—If Bill-san is reading this and knows the English title, post it as a comment onegaishimasu.)

The “famous” part also came in the afternoon. An entourage of people from the local radio station (Alpha-Station) came to class and wanted to have each of us record taglines to use as bumpers over the summer on the radio. We said things like “You’re listening to Alpha-station” and “Alpha-station 15th anniversary”. Me—a natural ham—put on my radio announcer voice and gave of my best. I don’t know if Paul-san was pulling my leg or not, but he said they might want me to come in for an interview—now that would be awesome! So anyway, they’ll put our voices on the radio and our names and photos up on their website—who knew we’d be getting so much attention…

And then: homework, of course…

And of course by this I mean, the day that classes actually began…

It started of as bright and cheerful as any other day so far—the sun was shining, life was good—until I showed up at the classroom and learned just what I’d let myself in for.

I suppose that sounds a bit dire, and it’s not that it’s going badly or anything, but it just made me realize how much of a gap there is between what I know about Japanese and what I have yet to learn. Our morning teacher, Kishi Sensei, led us through the usual introductions and then dove straight into our topics for the day: potential verbs and the use of “し” (shi) in connecting multiple reasons to an explanation. We learned a bunch of new vocabulary, and it seems that every time I was called on to do something I drew the short straw and got one of the words (especially verbs) that I didn’t know. Sigh…

I met with Yasu (my Monday/Wednesday CP) and we had lunch in one of the student cafeterias—the Ramen was good and inexpensive. Once again, I was immediately aware of the great gap in my abilities to speak and understand and felt like an idiot half the time. I know that this is always the case when one picks up a new language—especially adults—because it’s absolutely impossible to even begin expressing yourself at the same linguistic level you normally use in your own language. It was fine though, and fun watching all the other students. Yasu showed me his speech for the upcoming English speech contest (at which we’ll be “celebrity judges”) and it was really great! I had only a few tiny suggestions and know he’ll do a great job. He’s pretty excited because the winner of the contest gets ¥50,000 in prize money—around $500.

Our afternoon teacher, Ikushima Sensei (生島先生）kicked off with introductions again and we watched 3 episodes of the (in)famous “Yan-san and the Japanese People” (やんさんと日本の人々) video which was kind of entertaining and brought back some nostalgia from last semester at Pierce. It’s completely different, though, when you listen to it here and have to actually understand everything—it was a good exercise in just how fast Japanese people speak! The next topic was to begin planning what we would do with the children at the Sumire Kindergarten when we visit them on July 6. Now that’s going to be nerve-wracking—we get to have little kids talk rings around us! Actually, it’s going to be lots of fun and we’re going to sing some songs and play games with them in English and Japanese. Finally, we ended up with the afternoon CPs and rotated around through the room just talking about things, asking questions and generally practicing. Though that’s tough and uncomfortable—at least for me—it’s really beginning to help.

Back to the dorms, completely wiped out, I spent the rest of the evening studying, doing my shukudai (homework) and running a load of wash. While completing my written homework, I even learned a few new kanji on the fly and am fast coming to the conclusion that that’s how I remember things best. It’s strange, because learning kanji is such a daunting task for most people—I guess I really am a visual learner after all.

So—we’re off and running!

What an amazing day!

Our biggest event so far was today, when we had a walking tour of some important Kyoto sites. After taking bus and subway, we began in downtown Kyoto at Karasuma Shijo and Kawaramachi—a prime shopping and retail zone—then through the Teramachi shopping arcade. There was so much to see, that I quickly began going on overload. Some of the Language Partners (henceforth and forever to be known as LPs) came with us as well as Kishi Sensei (one of our teachers) and it was fun rotating around through the group as we walked, talking to everyone. Didn’t do much actual shopping (well none, actually) but saw lots of things to come back and do including an all-you-can-read manga shop where you pay by the hour and get free soft drinks. I also found great shops selling sensu (fans) for which I learned the new kanji.

And then lunch! For the first time, I got to eat Kaitenzushi, or “Revolving Sushi”. It’s basically an endless conveyor belt of sushi and other dishes that move slowly and conveniently past your table and you grab what you want, all for ¥100 a plate (just under a dollar). I ate something called Chawanmushi for the first time—it’s sort of an egg custard with crab, shrimp and other goodies inside—yum! The service, by the way, was amazing. We ran out of small spoons at the table, so our LP rang the little intercom, asked for more spoons which was followed by a P.A. announcement for the same and within 30 seconds we had more spoons. I love such efficiency…

Continuing the walking tour, we went through Pontocho and over to the Gion district. These are the areas where the famous Maiko and Geiko live, work and entertain (we in the west know them as Geisha). Amazing old buildings, very traditional ambiance—and very fast-moving Maiko. I was only able to get one mediocre photo of one as she zoomed inside the most famous of the tea houses at Gion corner. We too walked through all too quickly, and I’m definitely going to make a point of coming back here for a more leisurely stroll after classes sometime.

It was then a short walk to Yasaka Shrine, which was the first time I’d ever visited a shrine—complete with rinsing my hands and mouth at the fountain as I entered. It was beautiful and peaceful, though also quite crowded. Lots of vendors selling all kinds of things, including your fortune—even a juggling act which was quite entertaining. I then for the very first time got to go up to the shrine proper, toss in my coin, shake the rope to ring the gong (and wake up the gods), clap twice and offered my prayer. It was pretty cool. Well, except for the weather which by this time was once again quite warm and humid, but again vending machines for cool drinks are ubiquitous…

From there, we continued up hills and down dales through more fascinating historical areas, shops brimming with every kind of souvenir and merchandise possible. Even saw the departing guests from a wedding, the ladies all dressed in Kimono. Finally at the top we came to sort of the centerpiece of the visit today, Kiyomizudera.

Kiyomizudera is a world heritage site and amazing spot overlooking the entire city. The temple was first built in 798, but the current one we saw was only a reconstruction—built under Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1633…! The building itself is fascinating, being made entirely without nails or any such bracing, yet suspended over the valley floor on huge beams. The stroll continues down into the little valley, where we got to drink water from the sacred spring through the use of long ladles held out to catch the water—guaranteed to bring long life and excellent results in your studies! (BTW, the photo above is of Kiyomizudera.)

The last leg was a bus ride back to Kyoto Station—a huge building complex with something like three shopping centers, a hotel, numerous restaurants, a rooftop garden with incredible city views—oh yeah, and the trains like the Shinkansen. I can see why it was so controversial—it’s like something right out of a sci-fi movie—but the architecture is nevertheless fascinating and impressive. It was then a short subway ride back to Kitaoji shopping center (where we bought groceries the other day). I bought a few necessities and we had dinner at a small Italian Cafe of all places—but the food was good and inexpensive, since we don’t get dinner in the cafeteria on Sundays. A bus ride back to campus and then a long-awaited shower!

It was a pretty strenuous day, but my first real glimpse at the amazing riches this city has to offer. Tomorrow we actually get down to the business of studying Japanese.