Update!

I don't have much in the way of Japanese cultural experiences this time. I did go to my first onsen (public bath) with my host family recently, and that was very relaxing, but filled with naked.

I've got finals this week, just two, on tuesday and wednesday, and after that I'm pretty much free. I'm leaving friday night for a hard earned 4 days of skiing, which I'm looking forward to with my entire being. This year is going to be the least skiing I've done since I was 5 years old, and that means I gotta cherish every moment of it. For those interested, there's some information about the mountain here:

http://www.vill.nozawaonsen.nagano.jp/info/english/start.htm

It's called Nozawa Onsen (the town is also filled with onsen, the public baths, including one that only monkeys, not humans, may enter) or for those more hip to the Japanese language, 野沢温泉。

The snow conditions are not looking great at the moment, unfortunately, but I'll take what I can get. Perhaps now would be a good time to try some telli, I'll see how that goes. I promise to take lots of pictures, too.

That's it, for now. I hope you're all doing well! It sounds like Vermont is getting a bit of snow. Lucky...

More Photos!

Took me long enough...

More Japan!

Most of these pictures are from Tokyo, when it starts getting green again, it's back in Kyoto.

Two posts in two days?! Say it ain't so!

Yes, that's right, I had ANOTHER cultural experience worthy of mentioning here, and I'm ready to share it with you all. This time it's about food, specifically, "how the hell did i eat all this stuff without throwing up all over the table?" No, actually it was all delicious, but, tonight for dinner we went to the same restaurant we went to for my birthday (which makes me think I may have eaten this all before and just not known what it was) but I ate the following in this order:

1. Chicken heart
2. Chicken esophagus
3. Chicken cartilage
4. Ostrich
5. BEAR MEAT, RWARRRRR!
6. Frog
7. Horse. No, just kidding, my host family ate it but I refused, mostly for Pam's sake

I have to say, eating bear meet made me feel like a man. It wasn't that great though, for future reference, too chewy.

I don't know what else to say about that, it all kind of speaks for itself. I've often been surprised at what I can eat, though. Spinach, for example, has grown on me quite a bit. Never thought that would happen.

I should clarify this whole thing, too.

I have a host brother, of course, but I also have another, older host brother who does not live at home but in Hokaido, the northernmost island of Japan. He came here for the weekend (my first time meeting him) and so there's been festivities since saturday. He's really cool, he's an artist, and very interesting, and has treated me like a family member since the moment he arrived. His wife is here as well, and while I haven't talked to her as much, she seems every bit as out there and with it as he does. Quite a cool couple.

I guess this post is kind of short, but I don't feel that bad since I posted yesterday as well. Hope you're all doing well! Sorry to those I missed on skype this week, the weekend has been very busy.

Getting my hair cut.

So I've sort of been waiting for one of those cultural experiences that would really make a great story, and today it came. I got my hair cut.

Whenever I'm about to do something in Japanese that might actually require some explanation (such as how long to cut my hair, what style I want, etc.) I always worry a little bit. And then there's the problem that I never talk while getting my hair cut, I just think it's kind of weird. So I was worried I'd get a chatterbox for a barber and then have to think the whole way through.

We'll get to that in a little bit.

First thing when I walk in, two gorgeous women, perhaps the two most attractive women I've seen in this whole country, greet me with smiles and seem quite adamant that I understand just how attractive they are and that I should not go to any other hair salon because of this point alone. Well done, ladies, it worked. They asked me if I wanted a stylist, a pro stylist, or a super stylist. What? I went with stylist and was told I would have to wait a half an hour. I didn't have that much time so I asked who I could get now, and 2 minutes later I was sitting in the chair with my own super-stylist asking me what I needed done.

I said something to the effect of, "I want my hair shorter," knowing there was no way I was getting out of here without some trendy Japanese hair cut. I was brought to get my hair shampooed and was wrapped in like 8 layers of towels and a heated blanket. They even put a towel over my face, which added to the surprise when my not my super-stylist but a woman I couldn't see began talking to me. Thankfully, when the towel came off my eyes, she was, of course, beautiful. I was then brought back to my seat and told to wait.

A third person walked up and combed my hair a little bit and I wondered, "if my super-stylist is so super, couldn't he have done this himself?" but before I knew it I was getting a massage. A really good massage. Japan 1, America 0.

After 10 minutes of relaxation, my superstylist came back and started cutting. Only, instead of scissors, he used a razor blade. He did talk to me a little bit, but when he heard I was from America, he excitedly called over his super-model friend to talk to me, as she had just been to los angeles about a week ago. Yes.

When I was finished, it didn't look as horrible as I had feared. I definitely got a Japanese interpretation of the word "haircut" but it turned out all right. I thanked super-stylist and the attractive women at the door. Then I thanked them again. Then I stared at them for a few seconds and left.

I'm not sure how long I should wait to book another hair cut for next weekend.

Pictures!

I finally did it! Here are the first 118 pictures of my trip. I have about 70 more, but kodak is making me upload them 1 by 1 (and don't tell me I'm being an idiot and that I can upload 60 at a time, I know for a fact that this is either my computer or kodak's fault, not mine).

So when I regain my patience I will upload the rest, and from here on upload them in smaller batches to make my chore a little easier.

So here it is, the first album:
Japan!

So I have some bad news

I was completely wrong about being able to upload pictures. I still have to find the right cord, but I am continuing to take pictures, so at some point you'll all be treated to a bajillion of them. The last few weeks have been fairly routine, lots of "I hate it here" times and lots of "I love it here" times. It's pretty give and take, really.

Recent interesting things? Well my host father loves salsa, and he made some of his own today after I translated the ingredients from a tostitoes jar into Japanese for him, and he was thrilled. I tried to convey to him that one eats salsa with tortilla chips, but he insisted on Pringles. Why, I don't know. To eat them we didn't dip, instead we used chopsticks to pick up the salsa and put it on the chip and then eat it. It was very tasty though, so I put up with the unusual way of eating and scarfed down all he gave me.

It's finally getting a little cold around here. Oh wait, no it's still 70 outside. And I heard they had snow in Vermont last week (whhhaaaaattttt). The colors of the leaves are just barely starting to change. It's great weather but I do kind of wish winter would hurry up and get here.

Last night a few AKP friends and I stayed over at a Japanese friend's house, and she made Taco-yaki (little fried balls of dough and octopus) which is huge in Osaka and in the general area of where I live. Then this morning we went to the aquarium which was really cool, 2 huge sharks and some cool rays, as well as penguins, dolphins, etc. I mean, maybe that's not surprising since it was an aquarium, but I guess it's been a while since I've been to one.

I still haven't joined a club, but I never seem to have free time anyway, so I'm not worrying about it for a little bit, although I've been looking in to doing some pottery, especially since my host father is buddies with a really famous (apparently) potter in the area, so I'm going to do my best to get over there soon.

My landscape gardens class is still really insteresting, and by the end I'll have a ton of cool sketches to show, maybe I'll take pictures of them and post them on the internet.

I don't have a whole lot of interesting news at the moment, so for that I apologize, but I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive. I'm sure something really cool and interesting will happen soon, and when it does I'll be sure to write about it.

Take care, everyone.

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.