Miyajima: Here I Come

I was super excited even though I had to get up the earliest I've had to in months, 6:00 am to catch the 7:18 to Hiroshima! It's 3 hours with no bullet train and we're all about cheap. It was a Monday holiday so Anne, Amy, Kristen and I went to Miyajima, which is an island shrine about 5 minutes by ferry from Hiroshima. We were kinda starving when we got to Hiroshima station and Kristen and I indulged in taiyaki--fish shaped custard in a pancake batter thing. Think Japanese creamy doughnut.

After second breakfastes (like little hobbits, yes), we took the ferry and then... Miyajima ho!

Walk this way please! To your right! (If I was facing forward there would be stone. This IS right!)

The first thing I wanted to do was pet the deer. Deeeeer! Cute, holy island deeeeer! Here, Bambi! So the first unsuspecting deer I could find, 'oh you betcha' I petted. Hehe.

I think he's used to it. Cuuute! The second thing you must do when you visit Miyajima is try momoji. Again, think of a doughnut filled with custard, sweet bean paste, matcha paste, or anything really, and then cook it in the shape of a maple leaf, and to make it even BETTER, you deep fry that leaf-on-a-stick. Yes! It makes the air smell like lightly sweetened doughnuts and bread. Also, delicious. I would love to try another flavor besides anko. It's ok, but I'll take chocolate or custard over sugared beans anyday.

Finally we rounded the corner and ta da! The famous temple entrance gates! Miyajima!

Pretty cool, right? Sometimes I think about if mankind had to start over and I was one of the people left, I think I'd be almost useless. How do you build a giant gate if the tides always coming in? Let alone be smart enough to plan it. Yep. Good thing that won't happen!

I love the kid playing close to the edge of like a 5 foot straight drop into the ocean.

As we strolled on the outside of the island, I noticed tons of little shrines and places. Even a sweet little deer stuck inside one. Maybe he was sneaky and snuck it to eat the good holy, blessed, grass... or maybe he was put there to get fattened up on the holy grass... holy venison!? Who knows.

The temple where the big gate was showing off. We didn't go in (boo) but next time I definitely will! Also, the weather was a lot warmer than the forcast said. Ahh! The sweatshirt was getting hot! And notice the tide is in!

Finally after walking around for what seemed like hours to find a restaurant Anne had gone to before, the three of us were becoming grouchy cranky campers because our tummies were rumbling. We took a stab at this Japanese looking (traditional, I mean) restaurant and sit down at a table on tatami mats and ahhh, relax. Foood!!!

It was super beautiful outside too because we could hear a little fountain trickling away!

Can we just stay here tonight? Thanks! But of course, according to me, no amazing meal is amazing without some cheesecake. Japan has this way of saying something is cheesecake but really it's a baked cakey substance that tastes a little like cream cheese minus all the good, rich, flavor that makes all the calories, uh, worth it? Lame! If you ask me... So Kristen and I set out to find coffee for her and cake for me. We found this hole in the wall and I am not exaggerating. The table they sat us at was in the very back, in this extended one room storage deal with rocks going up the back and the one, strong lonely lap that is just asking "where were you the night of ...." and "don't make me play good cop..."

It pretty much screamed interrogation room, which makes for an interesting setting to enjoy a cappuccino and slice of GOOD, REAL cheesecake. Which it better have been for 500 yen aka a five dollar slice of regular flavor! Ah, oh well! It hit the spot!

The before I devoured it picture. I like how it was stabbed by a maple cookie and is bleeding strawberry sauce.

When we left I noticed oo! The tide is out! So this is earlier:

As compared to :

Then we see that there is a ton of people in the shrine. What's going on you ask? Well, thanks to Anne who recognized the big white hat of the bride, a Japanese wedding!

The one in orange is dancing I'm guessing as prayer or blessing the wedding. I had to zoom in super to get this shot. It was cool to watch him dance to the traditional music while I learned a Japanese bride wears that hood to cover her 'horns of jealousy.' Yes, that's exactly why I want to wear that on my wedding... great symbolism. But I wondered what it meant to get married there since Miyajima's goddess is very jealous of lovers and the story is you can't bring your sweetie here or you will break up. However, I'm pretty sure every married couple/couple I saw there won't be savagely ripped apart by jealously. Hmm... still kind of interesting to wonder! Congrats to the married couple!

We topped the day off with shopping in all the little souvenir shops and when I saw this, no one wanted to join me but hey, someone's gotta be the silly tourist right? :) A 3 hour train ride later and I'm pretty sure I collapsed into my bed. What a great trip.

Fishing in Nagato!

I really wanted to go fishing so my friend Keigo took me and Amy, the newest Benda teacher, to Nagato for fishing! We drove an hour to the city where we went to the awesome beach this summer and he took us to the fishing docks. After we bough bait and Keigo set up our lines, he asked if I knew how to cast. Duh! I'm a Minnesotan girl! I've been doing this since I was three! I casted off the edge and voila, within 60 seconds I was reeling in a small fish. Go me! Except it was a poisonous fish! Keigo said not to touch it (it's in the spikes) and he unhooked it with the help of the fishing bucket. Here's Keigo saving the day.

Sorry little dude! So here is me with my proper first non-deadliest catch fish. We mostly caught aji, and they were small but apparently the larger mama size ones are good to eat and tasty.

It's a strange way to fish by putting frozen shrimp in the blue bucket bottom and a couple of hooks up the line. In Minnesota I am the Crappie Queen and I maintained the same title in Japan, every time I casted, I pulled up a new fish! Within no time we had a small bucket of, well, mostly Casey-fish.

But that's ok! Amy beat me by catching two fish at one time twice! So I'm sure everyone was fed up with me constantly yanking fish out of the water and Keigo gave me a different pole to try. More like trolling but in an ocean, I let it sink between the rocks where he said there must be big fish and what do I catch? A TINY PUFFER fish!

So when we finished the fishing we needed some lunch! But of course we let all the fishies go because they were babies. Then after that Keigo took us to a trout farm! It was gorgeous! I not only wanted to toss a line in the water, but really wanted to see if I could swim in it too. If only it wasn't prohibited.

One little trout in the water swimming. Where's Waldo!?

There was also a little dragon fountain that you could also drink the water from! I'm a Chinese zodiac dragon, coincidence? HMMMM....

The last thing was waving bye to the buddah in his tree fort. What an excellent day. About time I got to do something exciting! Weekend of the month!

Shuji--Calligraphy

Well recently I won't lie and I've been in the slumps because this city combined with this job can make for a very depressing time. The work is so that we can't make plans to join a club or anything because classes could change and have changed. Then on the weekends I don't want to commit because it's my me time and traveling time (if I have the mula). After being depressed I couldn't join Japanese class and I came all the way to Japan (that actually REALLY irks me, jeeze) I asked my students if they knew where I could take a calligraphy class. I don't want to learn Ikebana (flower arrangement), Taiko (Japanese drum), but I figured calligraphy might actually be cool.

I feel guilty asking students things for personal gain but when two of three were late I took the opportunity to ask my class of elementary teachers if she knew of one. She didn't and soon Naomi and Tsugie were rushing in, and she asked them. Well I was surprised because they journal about their weekends every week and not once has Naomi talked about calligraphy class but, surprise, surprise, she takes one on Saturdays and called up her teacher right there! I was in! So Saturday I went to Nomura-sensei's house and it was just the three of us. She doesn't know English so I can actually kill two birds with one stone, hooray! That's actually a good thing. It was kind of like being hit in the head because for once I had to understand and speak Japanese with no other option. Nomura-sensei was super genki, which in Japanese means energetic or healthy, I think it's more accurate to say that than just 'energetic'. She's very animated and happy spirited and I learned a lot in a short period of time. Such as 'pretend you are holding an egg under your arm' and 'DON'T MOVE YOUR WRIST' and 'You are great!' but it sure didn't feel like it after all her barkings of 'rerax, rerax' because my shoulders were too tense while I was writing.

After the class and lunch, Naomi took me to a calligraphy exhibition at the city hall where I got to see Nomura's work and other awesome pieces. This one is Nomura's and is for her granddaughter. It was painted with baby hair for the brush since I think she didn't live very long. Sad but beautiful I think.

Then this one was one of my favorites. At first I thought it was a flower, but it's actually "tanoshi." It's the kanji for "fun" and boy, does it look fun :) After the exhibition, there were tables of kids doing calligraphy crafts and even though I just started studying that morning, Normua and Naomi challenged me to sit and try it! I had a little audience and I messed up once and needed to start over, but by the end I had a cute little "aki zora" or "autumn sky" kanji written on pressed paper and ready to hang on display. Very fun. I hope I see improvement though... HA!

And lastly, this is for my brother, look at all the bonsai trees in the front of Nomura's house! Her husband grows them all. I hope I can go back soon!

The California Wedding of the Century!!!

After my birthday, I took some vacation time to fly out for Christian and Lisa's wedding! We've been waiting so long for this day! It was so worth the long flight. Since the ticket cost about an arm, I brought Christian and Lisa Japanese candy for a present. Aloe vera yogurt flavor kit kats, fruit juice kit kats, plum caramel, CALPIS (not cow piss, but that's why it failed in the U.S.), and lots of goodies. So here they are after I have turned Japanese :)

The rest of the week was followed with wine tours, social gatherings, swimming in pools, and enjoying all Cali has to offer. I see why my brother loves it out there. Although I'm not sure I would like such hot summers and snow-less winters. The wedding was splendid and there were no problems, no broken seams, no disasters but to give credit where it's due, Lisa did say she's been in/at enough weddings to have seen everything and was prepared for all. Yay! The other highlight of my trip was seeing my boyfriend after a 4 month hiatus of only facebook and skyping. Because, what's a wedding party without a wonderful date? :) I love you even if your glasses are crooked!

So here are pictures from the wedding. I didn't catch the bouquet and Tony didn't catch the garter, but Christian also overshot it so it hit the wall and he had to do it again, but that's okay. Since I was a bridesmaid (one of 8!) I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures because I was busy walking down the isle or being in the photos so I hope one day I can see the missing links between pre-wedding and departing.

Woo! Go Chris! Lisa's a catch!

Finally, love you too bro. :)

Birthday Tacos :D

It was interesting celebrating my birthday for nearly 48 hours. On September 15th it was my birthday in Japan and September 16th in the US because of the time difference. Wee!!!!

Well the actual day of my birthday was 80% good. Classes were super until one of the last ones and my little monsters became demons. I almost wish we'd punish criminals by making them teach naughty kids ESL. So after that disaster and loosing my cool, I forced my jr high girls class to have cake and tea with me for conversation and then book work. Yay. So Saturday night I needed to have a proper get together. All the lovely ladies from Benda came over for my Dorito tacos. Doritos + beef + cheese + sour cream + lettuce + salsa + a very ugly purse = a very good time.

Hair Cut

Since Chris and Lisa are getting married, I wanted to make sure I don't look back on the pictures 10 years from now and go "ohhh Casey, look at that dye job..." So I decided to brave it and ask a local salon, Hair Hearts if they could do foreigner hair. They said yes, so I said ok! Gimme an appointment Saturday!

For the hair cut I was brave. I showed him a picture of Katherine Heigl and he showed me some Japanese models. Then he went to town. I liked it but I liked it better after I could style it and put some volume into it! Hoooray! Then it was highlight time. However this is an important difference in vocabulary. Highlights in Japanese mean "Give me a lighter color than this all over my head" while in America, we think small pieces of high dyed lighter, if done well looking like natural summer hair. He was all ready with the gloves and applied some dye to the back of my hair at my neck when I asked what he was doing, where was the foil? 30 minutes later, I think he got what I wanted him to do and I basically shut my eyes and let them do what they thought I meant. I figured hey, either it looks like crap and I cry until it looks good, or they do a good job, so either way this will be fine. I think they used a toner after the girl washed my hair and ran to get MIYAZAKI-SAN, but hey, I'm okay with that as long as it looks good. And yes, when it was blow dried, it was great. Oh and Japanese haircuts are greater than America. It's standard to get a massage and shampoo and style. Yes please :D I'll go back just for the neck and head massage!

This is my friend Yurika. :) She works at the mall. I speak Japanese to her and she wants to learn English but, she's got a ways to go. Such a sweetie. Meccha kawaiiiii!

買い物した。：）I went shopping.

This weekend I had a mission. I was going to go out and get the things I've been wanting for the past month. Things I sudo-needed and sudo-wanted...

Needed:

Silver shoes for Chris and Lisa's Wedding (yes, it's a bridesmaid requirement. Oh darn.)

Wanted, but maybe kind of needed:

New towel- the ones in my apartment are... scratchy :( And I want to feel as smooth as a baby's--

Nail polish, last time toes were painted it was June. They aren't so cute anymore...

Shoes- my sandals are near death

Clothes- a never ending battle to be cute.

Saturday I tried my luck at Sunpark and got a new outfit by the time I left, but the shoes were no where in sight. The store selling shoes had silver, sure, but not my size, or price range if they weren't on sale (I'm talking 80-150 dollar heels. Sale please,please,please). So here is outfit number 1!

Shirt 2990 yen + tights (originally 1250 yen, paid 258 yen) = WIN!

Today I tried my luck again to finish my list and here it goes!

Towel! Aww so sowft and fwuzzy. 699 yen.

SHOES!

3000 yen, originally 8000 yen.

Red shoes. I'm not in Kansas anymore right?

500 yen, originally 1990 yen. STEAL.

Billowy shirt

I wish I had this all month to deal with the 100 degree heat. Yes. You heard me. The temp is usually 88 and the humidity brings us to a grand total of 100.6 usually. GAH! Nevertheless, I asked the clothes store girl and it's okay to wear this through September. I said "Oh, it's not going to be cold for me. I lived in Minnesota" aka Hokkaido to the Japanese.

I've started to realize I hate wearing pants--I mean jeans. Tights feel so much more comfortable and breathable. If only my homecountry didn't get cold, I might convert but I'm sure I'll get used to them again. I'll take the cold over the heat any day!

I also got some nail polish but who needs to see that? I thought so.