Wajya do this weekend? Part Deux

Listening to: Lollipop by 2ne1 (they've kind of become my new obsession >< kpop!)
Currently drinking: Drip with white chocolate

Here's a little side note before I get back into story telling about my weekend... right now is about the season in Japan for (drum roll please....) typhoons! This morning I woke up thoroughly expecting to not have to go to class and spend all day lazing about in my pj's (well, I'm still spending half the day doing that lol), but, much to my non-delight, nothing hit. I really love storms, so I'm hoping to have one in the next few weeks, but the weather is, as always, unpredictable. If you also want to keep track of Japan's storm condition you can check it out here :)

Alright, back to this weekend...
Before I start on day 2, I kind of want to talk a little more about the onsen. First of all, why doesn't America have them? They are relaxing, fun, and feel really luxurious. Yes everyone is naked, and public decency a big deal at home, but these bath houses are private, so it shouldn't matter right? Everyone was initially really nervous. I mean, this was the first time for us to be that umm...vulnerable in front of one another, but eventually we all swallowed our fears, stripped down, and hopped in. Haha, talk about girl bonding time eye roll. Before going into the onsen we had to learn just a few rules: 1) cover up your tattoos (if you have any big ones you just probably shouldn't go), 2) shower thoroughly before entering the tub, this is pretty much how it is in Japanese households as well 3) don't let your hair touch the water...it's indecent and gross (really?) 4) this isn't a rule but... if you're a lady, try not to manicure "down there" for a few weeks prior or else be subject to dirty stares from older Japanese women....

Anyway, aside from the silly rules/cultural differences, we had a great time, and were incredibly satisfied to fall asleep full of delicious foods, wonderfully clean and relaxed, and content.

Saturday was another early start as well. We all had the option to either sleep in or go to the morning markets (these are basically just stands of fishermen selling their daily catch). Seeing as I'm not too keen on the smell of the ocean, I decided to sleep in. We all met back up at the ryokan to pack and leave for the rest of our trip around 9ish. Our next stop was the giant paper lantern museum, and when I say giant, I mean these things were GIANT. This museum boasted of the largest (and most famous) paper lantern in Japan

I was thinking of hiding some of these under my shirt to take home...

We were also given a special Taiko drum performance from some of the local elementary and high school students. These kids were seriously legit, I'm not gonna lie. Everyone was obsessed with this little boy (I'm not lying when I say I was having serious thoughts about taking him home...)

Because we had so much fun watching the drum performance we were all allowed to pick up and walk with one of the paper lanterns. The little boy, being an obvious "ladies man, man's man, man about town" (it's ok if you don't get that quote), jumped right in and started playing the drum as we were walking. Serious skill points!

The biggest one, in the middle, is the largest in Japan. 

Stage performance!

This place was definitely my favorite out of all the stops. Everyone was so friendly, fun, inviting, and made us all feel really special and welcome to their town. Cultural excursion win. After one final drum circle, with Chris being super awesome rockstar,  we all headed back onto the bus for our final stop before heading home: the mini rice terraces.

Beautiful

View from the top

*yum*

It wasn't the longest of stops, but it was amazing nonetheless. The view of the ocean and mini terraces together was somewhat awe inspiring. I wish we could have spent a little more time there, I feel like maybe I would have had some huge epiphany or something, but alas, back on the bus we clambered, and back to "normal" student life we went.

Lacquer ware plate, bookmark, and handmade postcards.

Total souvenirs from the trip... three.
Total memories from this trip... too many to count.

Love you lattes <3

Wajya do this weekend?

Listening to: If it Kills Me by Jason Mraz
Currently drinking: OJ...had Starbucks on the way back from Wajima ;)


Wow. That pretty much sums up my weekend. If you didn't already hear, I just returned from a two day group excursion to Echizen and Wajima. I was looking forward to a nice time, didn't have my hopes up too high in case it turned out horrible, but I was not expecting this....

We departed early Friday morning (ew 6 a.m. wake up call ><) so we would have plenty of time for the rest of the day's activities. The first stop on our trip was the paper making museum in Echizen.

We didn't really stay in the area for too long, but most of the time was spent making our own paper postcards, and then wandering around the town for about an hour before getting back on the bus to our next destination at the lacquerware museum. Unfortunately I really don't have any good pictures of the place. We got to watch some of the processes in how they make the pieces, and then were able to look through some of their furniture for sale (some of the pieces were upwards of $70,000 yikes!). They also had some relatively cheaper items, for those of us who mainly live on Mac'n'Cheese. I ended up getting a really beautiful lacquerware plate which I will probably never use, but, you know...when in Japan...

We ended up reaching the ryokan around 5:30 and had about a half an hour before dinner. The hotel was fantastic, to say the least. We were basically treated like royalty the entire time, and the waitstaff was there to cater to our every whim and desire... I think this pretty much sums it up:

After a bit of rest, and some tea, we got ready and headed downstairs for the traditional Japanese dinner we were all so looking forward to. Just to let you know... you should be jealous :)

Everything was delicious. I mean really, really delicious. Most of it was seafood and I'm pretty famous for my dislike of anything fishy, but I made a good attempt at eating most everything and found something interesting... crab is delicious! Never thought I'd say that, but, it's true, I love it. I also had a little bit of sashimi, salmon and tuna, and chowed down on the seaweed noodles. Bon appetit! I have to say, even if it's just something insignificant, like finding out you like a food you never though you would, growth is so amazing. I don't know why I feel the need to remember such little instances, but I do know that I hope to acquire tastes for new things in life as well as in my diet.

Anyway, immediately following dinner was the drum show. I guess the best way to describe it would be heart pounding, wild, and just a little bit scary. The performers wore these disgusting yet surprisingly intricate masks that were supposed to portray each drummer's "personality."

It was the "dinner and a show" of a lifetime. Once everyone finished, we all headed back upstairs to get ready for onsen! For obvious reasons I don't have pictures up (I don't think anyone would be too pleased if I put up bath time photos lol), but I can tell you that it was amazing! Imagine two giant hot tubs, one indoor and one outdoor, where everyone sits, relaxes, and has a great time.

Day one complete. I want to tell you all about the second day, but I'll do that in another post so I don't overload you with too much shawesomeness :P

Always and forever <3 you lattes!

An oral history

Listening to: The soundtrack to Princess Mononoke
Currently drinking: Delicious watermelon juices (slurrrrrp :P)


Hello everyone, I know it's been a while since I've been on, argh forgive me again X/ Sometimes I'm just at a loss of words for what to say.... Anyway, it's the halfway point of my study right now, everything's in full swing, and, to tell you the truth, I haven't really been out much. Thankfully, the raptors didn't come get us, so we can all stop holding our breath on that. Aside from school, I've been having the "wonderful" experience of going to Japanese dentists and hospitals. In fact, I've been to the dentist more now than I have back in the states over the past nine years!

I promise I haven't acquired any sort of OCD for oral hygiene, it's just that recently my wisdom teeth have, quite literally, been giving me a serious headache. Since I have such wonderful health insurance, that covers also covers dental, here, I decided to have them pulled. Little did I know that it would be such a hoop jumping process. I've already had three initial appointments with the local dentist. Each appointment held the hope and promise that he would finally pull my teeth, but no, on the third appointment he finally told me that he couldn't ACTUALLY pull my teeth and that I needed to go to the main hospital in Nagoya, but first I needed a letter of permission to go see the doctor.

After I finally got the letter, I was allowed to go (with one of the JLSI workers) to the hospital. Here's a fun fact: Hospitals in Japan are amazing, they perform pretty much any medical service, all with the beautiful efficiency of Japanese Bureaucracy. My wait going from check in to face time with the doctor was all of five minutes, but navigating the place would have been nigh impossible had I not had a fluent Japanese speaker with me. Once I got x-rays and returned to the oral surgeon's section I finally felt the hope that I would get my teeth pulled, but no, first I have to get surgery for TMJ. Great, gotta love dentistry. So, I basically plan on spending all of June high as a kite.

Other than that, I am going on a school trip to Echizen and Wajima this weekend, which is going to be awesome <3 We are going to be spending two days in a Japanese ryokan by the beach, and we are going to get to experience a lot of traditional cultural things like: having traditional Japanese dinner accompanied by Gojinjou-daiko, fun bath time in the onsen, making traditional paper fans and lamps, and just overall having a good time! I promise to take lots of pictures so you can all be jealous of how much fun I'm having :3

<3 you Lattes!

A cultural encounter

Listening to: Fly Me to the Moon from Down With Love (an amazing movie everyone should watch)

Currently drinking: Starbucks double mocha (actually it was this morning, but who's counting?)

So the weather in Japan has been becoming more and more beautiful on a daily basis. Every morning the sun shines in my room and helps me to wake up with a big smile and a positive attitude. Needless to say, summer is my favorite season (besides the fact that my birthday is in August). Anyway, yesterday the sun decided to wake me up bright and early, and I didn't really have much to do, aside from study, so I looked around for things to do. 

Thankfully, Catherine reminded me that the Cultural Exchange party was going on, and that she wanted someone to attend with her, so up I got and away we went. It was initially really awkward, it felt like all of the foreign students were put on display for the local community members to look at, somewhat zoo-like, but eventually we all relaxed, and everyone had a good time.

All the best food was put out.

Community and students together :)

Some awesome I-House girls.

These people played traditional Japanese music.
They played so beautifully...

Some local high school girls who have been taking
English for twelve years!

Traditional Japanese drums and dance...sooooo cool.

All in all, the morning was great, and it only took about an hour and a half, so I had plenty of time to spend the rest of the day galavanting about in the sun....seriously it's the best. 

In other news, tomorrow I am going to the main hospital in downtown Nagoya to get my wisdom teeth pulled, so if I'm not too drugged up, I plan on posting all about Japanese dentists/hospitals. But...we'll see how much pain I'm in :/ 

Thanks for reading and love you lattes!

To all the beautiful, strong, fantastic, wonderful women in my life

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

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HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

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HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

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HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

HAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERSDAYHAPPYMOTHERS

Re-evaluation

Listening to: Landslide cover by the Dixie Chicks
Currently drinking: Self-made white chocolate coffee

I don't really know how to say this without making it sound like a pity party, but here goes...

Everybody knows that long distance relationships are hard, hell, regular relationships are hard. I know in one of my first posts, Stop, Pause, Rewind, I talked about several different options for myself and my current boyfriend, the Pirate, or Captain as you may know him. Eventually, we came to the agreement (we, as in I, chose), that we would stay together and try to continue our relationship for the duration of my stay in Japan. This has been the most difficult part about being abroad.

What happens when communication starts to disappear? What happens when the person you visualize a future with starts to become a little fuzzy, and your relationship direction becomes a little less clear? How do you open up serious communication via internet, especially when that communication is becoming weaker and weaker? I feel like I need some sort of relationship map, with clear starting and end points, and exact directions on how to get from A to B, because being lost sucks.

Photocredit: Coffeestops 2.0

The worst part about it is that I can feel myself being pulled in two directions. One part of me wants to walk down the path of commitment and perseverance while the other part sees freedom as a way to clarity. The question is, is the part of me that seeks freedom really just looking for assurance from the man in my life that I am actually someone he cares about? How do I tell what is rational from what is emotional. Can a decision about a relationship be rational at all, or is it all emotion based?

I have so many questions, all of which have been leading me to re-evaluate my role in this two person play. I know that I am the type of girls who thrives on attention, but at the same time would get bored if my partner was too clingy and lovey dovey. I thought I had found the happy medium with the Pirate, but recently I've been questioning how well I really fit into his life, as well as his personality. Maybe I'm just making everything too damned complicated... shouldn't relationships be easy?

Anyway, I've been mulling over a couple of ideas for when I return to the States, and hopefully, when it's time for me to return, I'll have my mind more made up. I really do hate it when everything is up in the air (at least on my end). I feel like I need to get grounded again, so I can find the right path, and get back on track with the girl I am in a relationship, as well as in life.

Always,
Love and lattes <3

Some, not so great, things about Japan

Listening to: If I had a Million Dollars by the Barenaked Ladies
Currently drinking: A nice tall glass of water, but I had a beautiful double mocha with Julia earlier today :)

A couple of posts ago I talked some of the things that I love about Japan, trust me there are a lot more, but today I'd like to focus on some of the things I don't appreciate so much. As you may have figured out by now, I generally don't like to focus on negative thoughts and feelings in this blog (ok well maybe once), but I also think it's necessary to talk about the negatives as to keep things in perspective.

1) Some of my least favorite things about Japan are all of the "isms" that are generally accepted in Japanese culture: racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, they all blatantly run abound in Japan.

2) Not only are the Japanese intolerant to most other races, they also hold "whiteness" in high regard. Many beauty ads targeted at teenagers show skinny, young, white females as the ultimate ideal of beauty. I've talked with many of the girls in my classes, and, even though I love the attention, I find it just a little unsettling when they talk about how beautiful I am because I have, mostly, natural blonde hair and round, almond shaped eyes. 

Nicole Ricci is a favorite here

3) Not being close to nature. Most of the people in Japan are concentrated in the larger, more industrial cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya, Osaka, etc... Back at home I can hop in my car and be at a beautiful camping sight fifteen to thirty minutes later. If I want to go camping, go to the beach, or just even be out in nature in Japan, I have to make a several hour trek outside the city. I miss being so close to the water. I also really miss trees :(

View of the sunrise in Anacortes, Washington

4) I also dislike the fact that the pressure to be sickly skinny here is so completely normal. I mean, I thought it was bad in America, but Japan takes this infatuation with thinness to a whole new level. While American women are definitely getting fatter, and obviously need to take their health into consideration, Japanese women should not overlook their own health concerns. Not consuming enough calories is harmful to the immune system and restricts the body's ability to grow and heal. In America, my size four is definitely on the smaller side of average, but I can barely fit into large size pants here... many of my friends (who are completely healthy and have an average body weight) can't fit into the clothes here at all; jeez Japan.

Hello eating disorder!

5) On a lighter note, I also find it quite distressing that it is almost impossible to find good Mexican food here. Of course, any sort of "authentic" food not made in its country is not going to actually be original, but I still feel like America has a large enough Hispanic nation that the food there still has enough traditional and ethnic flavor in it to be at least a good semblance of what "real" Mexican food tastes like. Many people here don't really understand my obsession with finding things like tacos, burritos, fajitas, etc... but they also weren't raised in my family, where the weekly trip to Azteca was a ritual of our young lives. I did find one shelf in our local grocery store with a pack of six, small taco sized, shells for $4.00, so sometimes I will spring a little more to make my own version of deliciously cheesy quesadillas, but it's still not the same. I eagerly await the day I, once more, can chow down on a giant gooey burrito (no innuendo intended).

I might be salivating a little bit... just a little

Ok well, I tried to end on a positive, at least slightly funny, note. Japan really is a wonderful place with a lot to offer. Every country has its ups and downs, some more serious than others, and the best we can do to work on these problems is to talk about them. Is there anything about America, or your own home country, that you wish you could change, or, on the opposite end, will miss about Japan when you return home?

Goodbye Golden Week

Listening to: Imagine by the Beatles
Currently drinking: Self-made white chocolate mocha


Golden Week is now officially over *sigh*. We returned from Kyoto yesterday morning, after a tad bit more shopping, and actually, I'm a little relieved. It seems kind of counterintuitive, but vacations somehow always end up a little bit taxing. Personally, I find it the most stressful to be surrounded by so many people and all the unfamiliar things. What's funny is that "returning home" for me now is going back to I-House in Nagoya. The relief I feel just being back here makes me wonder how I will react when I truly return home to America...

Anyway, I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures from the Golden Temple in Kyoto, as well as some other random goofy moments.

Tuesday night we all wanted to go out to eat, but, because it was Golden Week, all of the restaurants were full. We eventually ended up eating at Sukyia (a Japanese fastfood chain) and then grabbing drinks from the closest combini and drinking at a park down by the river. We actually had a great time, and the view by the water was incredible!

Entrance to the Golden Temple

This little girl really wanted to ring the bell,
so her mom helped her ^^ so cute! 

The top part is plaited in gold... how cool is that? 

This path was blocked off, but I really wanted to walk on it! 

Panorama of the lake and temple

View from the top of our hostel in Kyoto

The best croissants I've ever eaten! If you ever go to Kyoto
you have to try Choco Cro <333 (trust me, I'm an expert in croissants)

Beautiful silk purses, a little too expensive for me, but I still
had to get a picture :)

This store was like a Japanese Hot Topic, except there weren't
any 13 year old girls trying to look cool in
their All American Rejects  t-shirts...

I apologize that's all I have for now... I really want to go back to Kyoto before I return to America because I just feel like there is so much more of the city that I have yet to see. If you have any questions about where I stayed, where I shopped, what I saw, etc... please feel free to comment below or send me and email at info.sakuranohana@gmail.com.

Always and forever, lattes of love!