Post-Wedding Japan (with pictures coming soon)

Hello all, so it's been a week since I've gotten back to Japan after being home for Rob and Casey's wedding (congratulations, guys!) and it's certainly strange being kicked around between the two cultures. Before the wedding I couldn't wait to go back to America, and then as soon as the wedding was over I couldn't wait to come back here.

But I had definitely forgotten how much of an outsider I am here, which is something that still bothers me actively, but since there's really nothing I can do about it, I've started to get used to it a little. And, of course, those Japanese that actually know me don't treat me like an outsider at all, so it's a process.

And then there are days like yesterday, where I remember that Japan is easily the most excessively entertaining place I've ever been. For example, for 15 bucks you can play video games in what they call "4d." You are given a fake gun and enter into an area built to actually look like the locale of the video game. You're wearing 3-d glasses and the walls are screens projecting 3-d images of monsters that you shoot at. Essentially, it feels like being inside the video game. (I didn't play, but it was explained to me. 15 bucks is 15 bucks, after all).

More interestingly for everyone not as nerdy as I am, we took a school field trip this weekend to Hiroshima and visited the peace park and museum, and heard from a genbakusha (a survivor of the atomic bomb) who was gracious enough to tell us her story. We then went by way of ferry to a small island called Miyajima which is famous for a large torii gate in the middle of its bay (one of those red wooden classic-japanese-image things, I'll put up a picture in a bit) as well as the wild deer on the island, which are so tame you can walk right up to them and pet them. It was a beautiful place, totally old school, but of course very touristy.

Yesterday two friends and I went to Osaka with 3 Japanese friends where they were holding a matsuri (festival) and there were just tons of people there. I've realized since being here that Kyoto is really not very large at all, but Osaka is on par with New York or Chicago. Kyoto is more like a Cincinnati. We saw Asahara (a Japanese Olympic runner) race some little kids on a track, held a large iguana, and got dressed up in samurai gear for a few pictures. We ate some taco-yaki (fried octopus) in America town and then went and rode the giant ferris wheel which you can see all of Osaka from. A very cool day. Today is a national holiday (Sports day...) so I'm just hanging around home, eventually to do some homework.

And that's it for now. I finally have a way to connect my camera to my computer, so now I just have to remember my flickr account information and I'll have tons of pictures up soon.

Thanks for reading, see you all later.