Japan: Ganbate!: Week thirteen: Gold, red, and Christmas.

Killing time at Edion

Welcome back everyone, and I hope your week went well. Another week gone, another one beginning. We're rounding into finals already, and my last real day of class is next week. Holy crap, right? Insanity! So wish me luck on just getting through and staying motivated.
On the weekdays this week, we decided to utilize our free time by exploring various parts of Hirakata, ones we travel to less often than the main area by the station. This included going to lots of weird shops (clothes, DVDs and books, food places, wherever), and just enjoying the sights of our not-so-little town. I will miss this town, even if it's kinda "small". It's homey.

Friday we went out for drinks down at Toriki again, had another good night with some awesome people I'm really going to miss. It's sad to become a regular knowing you're going to have to stop. On our way back from here around 1, we ran into two of our awesome RAs and decided to kill time with them, which was also a very good time. I hope they come to visit, they are really some of the most down-to-earth people (something that seems so rare these days).

Kinkakuji

Saturday two of my friends and I headed out to Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto, and the weather was almost perfect--a little chilly, but in the sun it was lovely. It was packed, because this weekend was the "ideal" time to see the maple leaves changed over, but even after fighting with the massive crowds of both pushy tourists and grumpy locals, it was still gorgeous. Thankfully we got there when the sun was shining, before the clouds moved in, and this is the best time to see it, so it can reflect into the water. I'd recommend checking the weather before you go, or going early in the day before clouds have a chance to move in.

Kiyomizudera at night

After Kinkakuji, we headed to Kiyomizudera to meet up with our friends, because in November and December, Kiyomizudera does an illuminations show to showcase the beautiful maple leaves (and the awesome temple). It's incredible popular, as the crowds showed. We, unfortunately, had to take the bus from hell (the public bus around Kyoto)--the bus was PACKED, butts to butts with every seat taken, which means it was warm, and the ride took forever through the 5 o'clock traffic. Kinkakuji is pretty far out there in Kyoto, so it took a solid hour bus ride (standing, getting jostled around), and then another 30 minute walk from where we got off. Then you head up the hill-that-never-ends to Kiyomizu, which was incredibly packed, and managed to maneuver (cut) past the lines until we got forced into the line to buy tickets halfway up the mountain. Luckily, this only took about 20 minutes of waiting (if that) to get up and inside the temple. But holy crap. It was insane how packed this place was. It was a constant shoving/squishing/boob-to-arm/ew-was-that-what-I-think-it-was/packed ordeal, with lots of foreigners but even more Japanese of all ages.

However, the view was totally, completely worth it. My camera couldn't capture the beauty of the leaves, the temple, the night sky, or the city in the background, but my friends camera did do a great job, so I'm featuring it at the end of the blog with complete credit to him. It was totally worth it, so if you're here in the fall, you have to go see it. I'm so sad I won't be here to see the cherry blossoms line the temple though! After reuniting with my friends (after completely losing them at the temple), we found a place to eat that was a lot like Sukiya (the meat/rice bowl place that's like the Japanese McDonald's), enjoyed our meal, and then went and grabbed some incredible, delicious parfaits. My parfait was a "Cookies and Cream Cheese"...which was delicious, but it did have a weird part--halfway down, past the cookies and cream ice cream part, was this strange lump of what I guess was literally frozen cream cheese? I ate it and at first was off-put because it tasted like frozen sour cream, but once dumped in the chocolate layer below it was good...so yeah, that was weird.

Inside Loft, the huge weird store

Japanese Santa!

Today we went to Umeda to see all the Christmas decorations, and it was a great day out. One of our RAs came out with us too, which was a lot of fun. We got Starbucks, enjoyed the gorgeous fall weather (60s), and shopped...for hours. It's easy to do in a lot of these massive 6-7 floored places, because that means there is a ton of stuff to see and try to understand (like how grocery shopping, at first, can take forever because you spend so much time just trying to figure out what the heck things are). It was a lot of fun though, and I even found a cute Kiki's Delivery Service cat plushie I had been looking for. Yay! We headed to Umeda's Floating Garden Building and their Christmas Market, which was German/Norwegian themed, which oddly enough...was mostly run by white people? Everyone working at the booths were white, selling goods and products, from kanzake (warm sake) and hot chocolate in Christmas mugs, to incense and Christmas ornaments. It was really strange. It was pretty though, decked out in Christmas lights, and we even got a picture with Japanese Santa! We went up to the top of the Sky Garden, which is very lovers themed, with lovers locks you can get engraved and hang (like the famous one in Paris), and romantic two-person seats overlooking the city. It was really pretty to see the city at night, and strangely enough it wasn't too cold (or windy), and the overall architecture of the place is pretty awesome. They gave us stars to write and hang our wishes up, and it was all very cute. Worth a visit at night. We grabbed some very tasty ramen nearby--one that even I really liked--before heading on home. It's always weird to be in the ramen shop, trying to tackle the dilemma of eating very hot noodles which require slurping to cool down, and fighting the beaten-in-manner of slurping being rude. It's something I struggle with, and usually leaves me with at least a partially burnt tongue.

Ramen and fried rice

I'm still in disbelief that this whole amazing adventure will be ending soon, and I will miss Japan so incredibly much. I will miss their wonderful people who don't laugh at you even when you crash into walls or poles, I will miss the fact that they don't smell even when they've been outside sweating profusely, and I will miss their curious expressions at almost everything foreigners do.

Random~~

Suicide forest by Mt. Fuji in Tokyo

I can't believe I haven't mentioned the Japanese suicide forest yet. In Tokyo, there's a (do I really want to call it "famous"?) forest called Aokigahara Jukai, or "Sea of Trees", and it is known for people killing themselves there. The numbers are hard to track because police believe wild animals often get to the corpses before they are able to, but in 2010 alone, police records show that 247 people made suicide attempts in the forest, with 54 people succeeding. Unfortunately, the number is believed to be much higher. Japan's suicide rate is finally declining however. In 2012, 27,766 people killed themselves — a decrease of 2,885 or 9.4 percent from 2011 and falling to a level below 30,000 for the first time since 1997. The number translates into more than 70 people killing themselves a day or three people taking their lives every hour — significantly higher than the 0.5 deaths every hour caused by traffic accidents. The number of suicides in Japan per 100,000 people is two to three times higher than it is in the United States and Britain. Among the eight developed countries, Japan’s suicide rate is the second highest after Russia (The Japan Times). In this forest, the police have mounted signs reading "Your life is a precious gift from your parents," and "Please consult the police before you decide to die!" on trees throughout. There's a documentary my friend watched on this that I still have to watch, but I don't recommend watching it (or even looking up Google images like I just did) unless you have a strong stomach, because it is pretty graphic.

Overall, they have been trying (and beginning to succeed, perhaps) with deterring people from committing suicide, not just in this forest but across Japan. We all know that throughout history, suicide has not just been not frowned upon, it was often glorified (seppuku samurai death and kamakazi fighters) as a way of taking responsibility or of showing honor, so except for a few times during the Meiji period suicide was never illegal, nor is there a religious deterrent (to the mostly atheist population). But now they are trying to show people that this is not the way to go. It is an interesting, horrible battle they fight with their society, and it is one that I hope they will overcome one day. Just the other weekend, suicide or not, there was a "human accident" in Osaka on one of the train lines that caused the trains to be shut down for three hours. There are massive fines for the families of those who commit suicide on certain Tokyo train lines (because of the massive amounts of money it takes to fix the "accident" and to all those who rely on the trains promptness). Just something to ponder.

Also, I'm now curious to look into Buddhists and their views on suicide. I know most of Japan is atheist now anyway, but you have to wonder what their parents think or what the official ruling is on suicide, especially if it's supposed to be a "respect your body/respect your life" kind of feeling. Hm. More on that next week perhaps.

If you didn't see some of my link posts, GOD I LOVE JAPAN. There is a cat island, and also a bunny island. Now I must go see these places. http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/01/okunoshima-rabbit-island.html

Mkay, I think that about wraps this up, I need to head to bed anyway. Until next time everyone, mata ne, and have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Eat until you puke for me, and I am so thankful for all of you for taking the time to read my blogs, to look at my pictures, to think of me for even a moment, and know that I am so thankful for everyone and everything in my life. I live a fantastic, beautiful, and amazing life, and I know I would not be who I am, would not have all the opportunities I do, or even smile like I can, without all of you. Thank you and have an amazing holiday, yay America!

PS--Prayers to my mom, too, who has been sick this week with viral meningitis and is dealing with stupid Health Central, would be appreciated. I hope she feels better as soon as humanly possible, and knows I would be there toting on her if I could. <3