Japan: Ganbate!: One month deep: I'm hungry...

Konbanwa everyone!

Well, I've now officially been in Japan for one month. I can't believe how fast time is flying by, but I am definitely feeling the absence of my loved ones (and of American food). Let's get started!

This week I did a bunch of really pretty things--Thursday night we went to the Harvest Moon Festival at Shimogamo Temple, and then Saturday and Sunday I went to different places in Kyoto.

Shimogama Temple, Kyoto

Thursday at Shimogamo Temple, a quick 30ish minute ride away, was the Moon Festival! It was really quite pretty--the moon was big and orange, the priestesses were all out, crowds of families were praying...it was nice. Saw a bunch of foreigners and fellow gaijin, said a prayer or two, saw a Rastafarian Japanese guy...yeah, that about concludes that. We went out exploring throughout that section of Kyoto, but since it was a Thursday night and everything in Japan closes early as the dickens (a point to be made later), there wasn't much to do. We found an indoor shopping mall about 20 minutes from the station we originally arrived at, found a Baskin Robins, and feasted on that, saying thank you to the Gods of ice cream for still being open. How I missed thee, chocolate ice cream and cookie dough. Mmm.

Heian Temple, Kyoto

Heian Gardens, Kyoto

Saturday we went to Kyoto and saw the famous Heian Temple. It had a sprawling courtyard and very pretty shrines, but the main feature is the gorgeous Japanese style gardens. They were so well-maintained, green, and peaceful. (On a side note, I didn't mind the $6.00 admission fee, but for a bigger family this would be hard to justify spending a lot on.) There were fish that seemed to respond to clapping (and would come up from out of the water to see what was going on), turtles swimming around, but...no birds? I see surprisingly few birds here in Japan, aside from the little ones that hop around and from the big ugly crows. I'm living in a suburb, so you'd still expect to see more birds than not. And no squirrels yet. Only a few ducks, and a little heron-like-bird. I'm just saying, it's kinda weird.

After this temple, we rode the bus back over to the main street in Kyoto, near the geisha district, and went shopping. For various reasons I wasn't really feeling so good, so after eating and meandering around the streets for an hour or so, I headed home early. I did some much-needed cleaning and laundry, always a good way to release stress.

Heian Gardens, Kyoto

Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto

Sunday I went to Kyoto with Mari for a girls day. After a long trek up a never-ending souvenir-shop-lined mountain road, we visited Kiyomiza Temple, probably the most famous temple in Kyoto. It really was extremely pretty, and I'm sure it's even more beautiful in the fall with the changing leaves, and in the spring with the cherry blossoms. I liked this one enough that I might even go back to see it when the leaves change. We'll see. Anyway, located immediately behind this temple is Jisho Shrine, a famous love shrine. This had a lot of really cute love-related charms available, and was crazy crowded. I put in my investments for a happy love life, said a prayer or two at the "wish for anything" shrine, and we made our way back down the mountain.

Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto--view from the top

"Wish for anything" Shrine

This rabbit is a messenger of the Gods, at the Jisho Shrine.

We shopped around Kyoto for places to eat, and eventually decided to have me try some omurice, which is essentially just an omelet stuffed with rice and various other things (depending on what flavor you get). I got the "Italian" version, which had cheese, mozarella sauce, ham, mushrooms, and onions. It was pretty good, definitely unbelievably filling--good considering it was only $6.00, and it counted as my lunch and dinner. Mine was an "ss" size (extra small), and it was STILL enormous...buyers beware. We did some shopping at the local malls, found some body lotion for me (finally!), and called it an early night.

Today was another national holiday, so I've spent today studying my Japanese, applying for the State Department internship for this coming summer (fingers crossed for me!), and mostly just being a bum. Sometimes you just need a nice, calm lazy day. Especially when financial aid is taking forever to give you your loan and money is wearing thin...(>_<) .

My omurice, an "Italian" style one.

Random thoughts: Things close early in Japan--usually stores start closing up around 7, sometimes 8. This includes ATMs, stores, everything except conbinis, bars, and restaurants. Oh yeah, did you catch that? ATMs...with hours. Most ATMs, especially the post office ones (the only ones that accept my Visa+ card for whatever dumb reason), have specific hours, and aren't even open on national holidays or on Sundays. Instead of just having the machine be outside, available for use at whatever time, the majority of banks have their ATMs closed off inside little rooms. Truly, this seems to defeat the whole purpose of a convenient ATM to me, but...whatever. Therefore, in a country where cards are generally not accepted well, anywhere, you better make sure you always have cash out hidden somewhere in your house at all times. Or else.

Japanese people don't wash their dishes in hot water very often. It was a totally new concept we introduced a lot of our RAs to, that hot water actually helps break up the grease and gunk. Maybe this is done to save money in houses, or maybe they just want their hot water to be used only for their baths. Whatever it is, who knew.

Japanese fashion...it's...different. Almost every girl wears heels and dresses fancy daily, regardless of how far they're walking (or biking). Wedges, platforms, kitten heels, stiletto heels--you name it, I've seen them wearing it. They throw stuff together and (usually) make it work for them somehow. If they aren't dressed fancy in a girlish way, they're dressed like they just stepped out of an 80s American flick--all neon colors, ski caps with bad "Engrish" written on them, and leg warmers. There's the "gangsters", who wear the "NY 4 LIFE" ski caps and baggy pants (that's a thing here for girls, who would have imagined). Lots of outfits that catch you off guard. Guys can be equally strange, fitting into any of these categories, and with their underwear hanging out sometimes, too! Tragic that out of all the trends going on in the US, that's one of the ones who made it over here.

School uniforms are pretty cute. If they offered uniforms that looked like these ones here, maybe I wouldn't have had (as) much of a problem with the concept in the US. I'm just sayin'.

People get home way too late. I'm not sure if I've talked about this yet, but you can be on the train at 8pm any day of the week (weekends included), and students are on their way home, and men and women are on their way back from work. Considering that most people have at least an hour commute home (minimum), the fact that they're getting off from clubs or work this late is insane--this, combined with their strict rules and kind of standoffish way of showing emotions (or, ya know, not showing them), it's no surprise they have such crazy high suicide rates. Their school systems might be a lot more effective than ours, but I think there's still a lot they could learn from the rest of the world about the importance of family and relaxation...

For those of who love one-stop shopping as much as I do, watch out when you come to Japan. Sure, you can easily pick up a lot of your "little things" at the conbini, or do all your grocery/cleaning supplies shopping at the suupa, but don't expect to be able to find your medicines, or a wide range of makeups/beauty products, as it's limited to next to nothing at the grocery stores. I suppose this would be like just having Publix's and 7-Eleven's and cancelling out the Target's and Walmart's and Sam's Clubs and all the other glorious things we have, but I wish they had at least ONE place for one-stop-shopping. I'm mostly upset about having to hunt around for pain medicine, as I've been tearing through my bottle of Ibuprofen this week, and haven't been able to find anything more than cough drops (at the conbini) and ice packs (at the suupa). No Benadryl, no body lotion (that's found at the kusuri and beauty, a kind of Walgreens store), no headache relievers. And, when I had my cold the second week of being here, all of the cold medicine I could find have caffeine in them so that people can use it before going to work. Clearly not what you want to relieve your coughing and congestion before bed.

And on that, I think I'll call it a wrap. Nothing too crazy or poetic to say this week, I'm too flat-out exhausted still. I hope everyone is doing well, and knows I miss them and I love them.

Dreaming of potato soup and baskets of chicken wings,

Katie