Massive Picture Upload

Hey Everyone:

There's actually not much to update at this point, so I thought I would finally catch up on some photos that haven't quite made it onto the blog quite yet. This will be a massive photo dump on my part (four new albums!) but I should now be up to date with my photos for your viewing pleasure. As a quick check in on my part, things are still going well, although I am actually looking forward to coming home in a few weeks. I am working on getting my final papers done a bit early so I'm not completely stressed out at the end of the semester, and the weather is finally starting to get really wet (yay rainy season!). Activity wise, things have been pretty mellow lately, so I think it is high time for a more culturally related piece. This week, as I said, will be basically a photo dump, but since next week is Independence Day weekend, I think I'll take the time to reflect on what I've learned about Japan, myself, the US, the world, and (probably most interesting) what I am thinking of the current presidential race (you ARE keeping up with it, right?). But enough about that, let's get on with the photos!

Ohanami Bus Trip, April 28, 2008

Yes that's right, April. I went on this bus trip on the Monday of Golden Week right before my trip to Sapporo. This was one of the school sponsored trips to show the students some famous landmarks in the area. Our two major destinations were Kakunodate and Lake Tazwa. Kakunodate is a really famous old samurai town, and is called the little Kyoto of the north. It has a well maintained samurai district with houses well preserved and good displays of armor, weapons, and local wood craft. It also boasts a beautiful two kilometer trek along the river that is lined the entire way with cherry trees. The idea was to be able to admire the beautiful sakura and enjoy the cool samurai town. It was a fine idea but ended up not so nice. The sakura had by that time already fallen, the hanami season having come a full week earlier this year than in previous years. On top of that, it was rainy and damn cold the entire day, which really dampened my spirits and made me very reluctant to take pictures, although I did eventually do so once I found myself in some of the samurai houses. I got the impression that in better weather, the place would have been downright beautiful, and in sakura season simply gorgeous, but as it was it was pretty miserable. The displays were pretty cool though.

After some time in Kakunodate, we then took a trip to nearby Lake Tazawa. This is the deepest lake in Japan, and as many things in Japan has a legend associated with it. Beautiful Tazawa was afraid of losing her good looks and asked the gods (kami) for a way to remain beautiful forever. The kami told her to drink the local water, which she did with great fervor. The water caused hr to become bloated and grotesque, turning her into a dragon. When she saw her now hideous form, she threw herself into the lake and burrowed as deep as she could to hide herself from lookers-on, and that is why the lake is so deep. Anyway, the lake itself was beautiful, and we saw the iconic golden statue of Tazawa in her human form. Interestingly, there were actually some still bloomed sakura trees, probably because we were a bit further north and because it was still really, really cold. We took a short bus trip around portions of the circumference of the lake before heading to our third stop, a huge skunk-cabbage forest. These were also supposed to be in bloom, but had by this time already been well past their prime, and were simply a huge sea of green foliage. I treated myself to a stick of kiritanpo, and Akita delicacy which consists of cooked rice rolled over a bamboo spit, basted in a soy sauce based dressing and then cooked over charcoal. It wasn't that bad, and at least it was hot.

Album: Ohanami Bus Tour

Lake Towada Bus Trip, June 8, 2008

This was the second bus trip, this time to the Copper Mine Osarizawa, Lake Towada, and Oirase Stream. It was actually really nice weather on this trip, but of the literally 12 hours we spent out that day, we only spent about 3.5 hours actually enjoying the sites; the rest of the time was traveling from place to place, which was a real bummer. The Copper mine was interesting, and once again brought me way back to freshman year of high school with Mrs. Paul and different rock classifications. The second stop, Oirase Stream, was totally my favorite. We drove along most of it, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I unfortunately could not get good pictures of it as we traveled, although I did get some when we finally stopped for twenty minutes (no lie) to enjoy one of the *less* beautiful parts of the stream. It reminded me very much of Ithaca's many gorges, water falls, and overall beauty. I would have gladly walked the entire 10 kilometers of the stream all day instead of driving around all of Tohoku, but that's just me. We left way too soon, and I put the location on my list of places to visit again if I'm ever in the area again. After the river we stopped by Lake Towada, which is another large caldera lake surrounded by beautiful mountains. It was all in all an okay trip, just way too much driving and not enough enjoyment of the actual sites.

Album: Towada-ko Bus Tour

Happo-Cho, June 21, 2008

As some of you may remember, I signed up to visit elementary school kids to teach them English, entertain them and teach them about the US. I had a blast last time and this time was even better as my language skills had improved much over the past weeks. We were very involved all day and I didn't have many good opportunities to take pictures, though I did manage at lunch and at a later activity where we all spoke about our home countries (I focused on Philadelphia). The kids were really great, and my favorite part was teaching about thirty 1st and 2nd graders how to play "Duck, Duck, Goose" (a huge hit). After our time with the kids, we then went on a short fishing trip in the hot sun, and the only thing I caught was a nice hunk of seaweed. Pretty hilarious.

Album: Happo-Cho, June 21

Yukata Workshop

My final addition to this massive montage of media (alliteration!) are pictures from a workshop where we learned how to put on yukata, a summer kimono with lighter fabric, and much easier (at least for women) to put on. It wasn't much different from when I put on my kimono for the Tea Ceremony, just no hakama (and THANK GOD NO ZORI). I don't have many pictures of myself in the yukata, but I do have plenty of my crazy friends. The women's yukatas were actually quite nice, but I was a bit disappointed with the selection for the men. I am thinking of buying a yukata as a souvenir as it is much cheaper than a full kimono and still looks classy.

Album: Yukata Workshop

That's all for this week. Enjoy the pics, and I look forward to writing again next week!