T-Town with the Shums

(Get ready for another long one!)

As I said in my last post, I was in a hurry Saturday to get back to Osaka. I was super excited to see the Japanese branch of the Shumway family, and I got to zip up there on the bullet train!  It was an evening train, so I watched the countryside fly by as the sun set behind the hills in the distance.  It only took 2 and a half hours to make it there (by contrast, a nighttime highway bus would have taken 9 hours).  And Tokyo being Tokyo, as soon as I cleared the ticket counters, I got lost.

But not for long, mind you; I just went out the East exit rather than the West exit and couldn't find Uncle Doug's car waiting for me.  Eventually I ran into cousin Alex, and he brought me to the right place.  I went to bed fairly soon after arriving at their apartment (which is AWESOME, by the way, whatever they might try to say to the contrary).

The next morning we woke up early so Alex could make it to church on time; even though he is a pre-missionary, he was on the speaking circuit with the high counselor in another branch and had to be there early.  The whole family came (minus Alicia, of course; it'd be hard for her to come from Montana or wherever her internship is), and Alex did an excellent job.

In a purely ancillary note, I found out that that particular branch also happened to be where Amy Takabori, one of the Yokohama interns, goes with her family.  Talk about an unexpected coincidence running into her at church!  That means that despite our disparate locations, I've actually been able to talk to all the interns while I'm here.

Anyway, after church on the way home I caught a glimpse of the Tokyo Temple.  It kind of sneaks up on you, as it is sitting right on the street corner (I imagine the Manhattan Temple to be somewhat similar in that regard).  After returning to the apartment, we hardly had time to eat before we headed out again.  Time was short, and I wanted to see some of Tokyo, so we went first to the Edo Museum.

It is a museum that covers Tokyo's history, from the time Tokugawa took it for his seat of power in the early 1600's to its current, modern sprawl.  It was fascinating to see how Tokyo had grown from a backwater farm village to an Asian supercity.  I even got to ride in a palanquin (if only for a photo).

Even in ancient times, the Japanese were economical with their space.

I was particularly moved by the various depictions of Edo and Tokyo as they rebuilt their city after disasters.  And they had many disasters; fires, floods, earthquakes have been ever-present in Japanese history.  Yet, the people stand together and rebuild with an admirable doggedness and stubborn spirit of survival.

Of course, not all of Japan's tragedies were nature-made.  There was a whole exhibit dedicated to the ravages of war that destroyed most of Tokyo over 60 years ago.  Here is a picture of a dud from the carpet fire bombing of Tokyo.

It's sobering to see the artifacts of World War II up close like that.  I shudder to think of what it must have been like, living in that time of uncertainty, when at any given moment fire would rain down from humming wings overhead.

But enough of the scary, sad stuff.  That wasn't how the trip was.  It was pure awesomeness, and that's what I felt at our next destination, the Tokyo Tower!

It was the tallest structure in Japan until the recent Tokyo Sky Tree's outer construction was finished.  It functions as a broadcasting tower, but they've installed observation decks that give incredible views of the Tokyo area.

You can even see Mt. Fuji in the distance.  My inferior camera couldn't quite get it right, but I got a hazy picture of it.

As the night wore on, we decided we wanted to stick around and go up to the higher observation deck so we could see more of Tokyo at night.  It was quite a sight.

This picture hardly does it justice.  It was breathtaking.

As we drove home to a delicious dinner of sukiyaki, I took a look back at the tower, and found it also had some great nighttime duds.

The next day was jam packed with places to see and things to experience.  Our first stop was in Asakusa, at a famous temple called Senso-ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo.  The gateway to the temple approach is called Kaminarimon, which means Thunder Gate. The gargantuan lantern hanging from it was the biggest I had ever seen.

We passed through the gate and onto the main thoroughfare, where there was a sea of people going about the shops and restaurants.  My first thought was, "now this is Tokyo!"

We battled the crowds up to the temple and went in, completing various rituals like washing our hands and mouths with water outside the temple, tossing coins into huge coffers and such.  It was fun going with Doug, Chikako, Alex, and Allen.  Particularly Allen.  He always had such interesting questions about what we were doing.

See? I'm not just making stuff up; I was actually there.

Our next stop was Akihabara, an area of Tokyo famous for its electronics.  There were electronic stores of every conceivable kind in every direction.  It was like if Radio Shack fused with Home Depot, then exploded into a thousand little stores.

What's that white guy doing in my picture?

On a whim I walked into a video game store, and I found this.

Japanese FFVII for 15 bucks.  Curse you, stupid region coding! You've stolen my chance for enjoying my favorite game of all time in a language I hardly understand!!!!

We didn't stay that long in Akibahara, though, as we were raring for some lunch by this point.  Luckily, there was a Kaiten-zushi place nearby.  Kaiten-zushi is a sushi restaurant where the sushi is put on color coded plates and sent around the restaurant on a revolving conveyor belt of sorts.  You simply take what looks good, taking into consideration the color of each plate (as that indicates the price).  You can also simply ask the sushi chefs for whatever you want.  It was utter heaven eating there!  I doubt sushi will ever be the same again.

They also serve desserts like jelly and oranges (yes, oranges are dessert).

After stuffing ourselves to the limit, we went to another famous part of town called Harajuku, which is known for being the hang out place for young people.  As such, it is (normally) a haven for people to dress up in all the crazy Tokyo fashions and spend time together.  I was expecting quite a showing of the bizarre get-ups I had heard about, but hardly anybody was dressed up that day.  I got one picture of an outfit that I am told is the "lolita" fashion.

There were other oddities to be spotted, though, as we we made our way down the main street there.  Some of them would have made great souvenirs had I the money (and space in my suitcase) to acquire them.

And here I thought superhero mix-ups were simply a Chinese thing.

Two words: "nightmare fodder."  Donnie Darko, eat your heart out.

Eventually we came to the end of the road, which conveniently led to the entrance of the Meiji Shrine, where the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken, are honored.  It was a complete 180 from where we had just been.  We went from the crazy hustle of metropolitan life to the silent stillness of the shrine in a matter of a few dozen feet.  Though that might be jarring to some, the juxtaposition to me was fascinating.  Two opposite facets of Japanese life coexisting in the same locale with no conflict whatsoever.

The broad gravel avenues stretched beneath the trees filled with the shrill voices of cicadas.  Pathways extended off the main trail to various smaller buildings.  Again I was struck by the Japanese concept of the spiritual essence of nature.  It is so....well, fascinating.

One of many poems written by the Emperor and Empress.  These signs are scattered throughout the shrine.

It began to drizzle, so we headed back to the car.  We ate dinner at a fancy restaurant called Gonpachi, which is famous for grilled skewers and soba (and also for being the set for a huge fight scene in Kill Bill), and then I had to reluctantly go back to the apartment to pack my things for the trip back to Osaka. 

I can't believe this time in Japan is almost up.  Despite all that I look forward to when I return (not the least of which is actually being able to kiss my wife goodnight), I feel so...connected to Japan.  This experience has been nothing like my mission, but I feel the same sense of kinship to the people here as I do to the Korean people.  I can clearly see the wisdom in the Lord reserving my experience in Japan to a post-mission internship.  Not only have I had opportunity to indelibly link myself to Korea through the peerless experience of a mission,  but I have been given the opportunity to bond myself to Japan through a completely different lens.  

There's no doubt about it.  The rest of my life will revolve around this small corner of the world.

The Graves of Koyasan

This last weekend was as jam-packed as any I've had since I arrived here.  I'll have to split up the telling into more manageable chunks just to get through it all.  I'll start with Saturday morning, which was a trip down south to Koyasan, the mountain headquarters of one of the principal sects of Buddhism in Japan, called the Shingon sect.  The whole of it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Though it's called Koyasan (meaning Mount Koya), it isn't exactly one mountain so much as a collection of hills and mountains, each one having long and detailed histories.  As such, we only saw a couple places.  The first stop was at a place called Jison-in, the starting place for the faithful who embark on a pilgrimage of the many many temples here.  It was famous for being the temple for the mother of Kukai, the founder of the Shingon sect.  As women were not allowed to visit the temples ahead, Kukai had her mother stay at Jison-in, and would visit her several times a month.  In time, it became known as a women's temple, where prayers for children and families are offered.

Here's an example of prayers that people write on small planks that are offered by priests.

On the grounds sits a large fountain in the shape of a lotus blossom.  I asked Brother Suzuki (who had come with us on the trip) why the lotus blossom is so prominent in Buddhism.  He replied that one reason could be that despite the fact that the plant begins its life in the scummy quagmire on the bottom of a pond, it can blossom into one of the most beautiful flowers.  It is essentially the symbol of human potential.

After this we drove up the road to our next destination, which was an area called Okuno-in, the largest graveyard in Japan.  It is said that there are over 200,000 grave markers in this area acting at remembrances for everyone from the rich, powerful, and influential to the commonest of folk.  It was a reverent place as we walked down the path.  Despite hearing about it, arriving there still took my breath away.  There were so many graves.

The stone torii gate in front of the tombstone acts as the border to the sacrosanct crypt within. 

Many of the grave markers bore a similar pattern in construction.  They consisted of Five stones stacked one atop another, with the five elements etched into them (in ascending order from the bottom stone: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void).  Though most of the markers in this pattern bore the Buddhist lettering for such, this one here had them in kanji.

As we walked down the path we found grave markers for many notable individuals in Japanese history.  Here are the graves for several of the Tokugawa family members (the leaders of Japan from the 1600's until 1868).

We also saw a grave marker for Oda Nobunaga, who first attempted to unite Japan under one rule following the turbulent centuries of civil war during the Middle Ages.  He was, in a way, the spiritual predecessor to the Tokugawa shogunate and is a central figure to Japanese history.

Notice that I said it was a grave marker, not the grave marker for Nobunaga.  He actually has a mausoleum all to himself elsewhere in Koyasan; this is just a marker for him in Okuno-in.  As it turns out, the location of the remains (which have almost always been cremated in Japan) is less important than having a marker there for them.  In that sense, calling them grave markers is a bit misleading.  There are even markers for companies.

They also make memorials for groups of people, such as this one, which is for the Japanese Marines who died during World War II.

The price to have your memory enshrined in this graveyard is astronomical.  Currently the most expensive lot is rented for over $200,000 a year.  In the past, however, faithful devotees who didn't have the coin to buy a grave marker instead planted a tree for their gravestone.  These trees, which now cover the entire area, are gigantic cedars, stretching a hundred feet or more into the sky.  They probably have a circumference approaching 10 feet around.

I got the chance to learn about a phenomenon I had noticed before in other places but until now had no one to ask.  I found small statues scattered along the trail that had what looked like bibs on them.  Some were hardly more than rocks with cloth strapped on.

I was surprised (and a bit sobered) at the answer I was given, though.  These are representations of Jizou, a deity with stewardship over children, particularly children who die before their parents (either through accident, being stillborn, or as is now often the case, through abortion).  The bibs are gifts from grieving parents asking Jizou to protect their children's spirits, as they didn't have the opportunity to gain experience in life.  

As we were exiting the grounds, I was surprised to see three Korean graves.  In contrast to the Japanese custom of cremation and small stone markers for graves, the Koreans bury their dead in grass-covered mounds on hillsides.  Whether these here in Koyasan were representative of Korean Buddhist adherents as a whole or were for specific Korean patrons, I'm not sure, but I was impressed that they were enshrined in such a thoroughly Japanese location.

By this point we were approaching lunchtime, so we got back in the car and drove over to a small Buddhist hostel of sorts called shukubou.  They are used as lodgings for visitors at a temple, and in old times one could live there while spending time at the temple.  Nowadays it's a way to experience life in a Buddhist manner.  For us, that meant shoujin-ryouri.  It's the word for Buddhist cuisine, and since non-violence is a key precept in Buddhism, that means strictly vegetarian.  Despite the lack of meat, the meal was quite delicious (save for a couple rather...interesting dishes) and gorgeously prepared and delivered.  

Now, had this been any other weekend we might have gone back out to look at more stuff, but I had to get back stat, as I had a ticket for the shinkansen to Tokyo, and I was not about to miss out on the rest of the weekend with Uncle Doug, Aunt Chikako and family.  More on that leg of the trip soon!

Puttin' on the Ritz / Trip to Korea...town?

Boy, things are really winding up.  My role as evening instructor is finished as we head into the final three weeks of the internship.  I am now solely responsible for the morning class students, many of whom I will see on Monday for the first time since the start of the internship.  Our Saturday trips are all planned out from now until the end of July.  And what is it that was planned for this week?

How about playing dress up? Yay!

Okay, but seriously, apparently last year the interns here (they were all girls last year) had a dress-up party and got all decked out in kimonos and took pictures and stuff, and so the coordinators thought it would be fun to do that again this time around.  Since there are two strapping young men as interns this year, however, they brought some some fancy mens clothes for us.  And they were pretty darn cool.  Behold!

 Bow before us, peasant, or feel the wrath from the Fans of Authority we grasp!

Even though it's pretty darn hot here, we made a quick jaunt next door to the shrine to take more pictures.

We couldn't stay outside for long in that garb, though, so we quickly went back in to change out of the formal garb, though I did just snap one of me and my sideburns, with which I have been becoming reacquainted recently.

It's been awhile, there, Mr. Chops.

The rest of they day was left up to us interns.  I had been wanting to go to the Koreatown located in Osaka, so we figured out how to get there and left after lunch on the train.  It was the farthest we've gone away from "home" on our own, but all in all it wasn't that complicated.

I knew we had arrived when I saw a sign in Korean for "Ms. Yoon's Hair Salon."  This got my hopes up that I would find a thriving village of Koreans with whom I could converse and reminisce.  What I found was a small Korean-esque shopping center, filled mostly with clothing and bedding stores, and most of the stores were all Japanese anyway.  There were a fair number of Korean restaurants, but we had already eaten lunch and weren't feeling particularly hungry (plus the price tag on the dishes was outrageous!).  About the only thing worth taking a picture of was this spiky lamppost we happened upon.

He looks like he's in to death metal, but I don't know of any death metal lamppost bands.

Eventually we stumbled upon a small mom n' pop kimchi store, with a couple of guys advertising their homemade products.  I took a small sample of chapchae (veggies and noodles) and found an excuse to talk in Korean to the guy ("wow, this stuff is really good!").  As I expected, he was surprised that this pasty American was speaking Korean. Ahhh, I thought, those were the days, when everyone I spoke with was surprised that I could speak their language....  We had a short conversation, but the fact that I could speak in Korean with a Korean was very refreshing.  

On the way home, Sarah wanted to make a small detour and visit a park near the church, called Hamadera Park.  The late afternoon breeze was blowing in from the bay, so the air smelled of the sea.  It was also partly cloudy, so the sun wasn't as hot.  It was actually quite comfortable, walking around the park on a July afternoon.  Enough to fake a nap for a photo.

We walked right up to the bay and spent a few minutes watching rowboats amble by, trying to catch a glimpse of the occasional fish jumping out of the water.

We continued winding through the park, and eventually came across a playground with the longest slide I have ever seen.

Even more unique was the fact that it wasn't just a long piece of sheet metal.  It was actually made up of small, multicolored rollers.

I was too big to fit, but Sarah went ahead and rolled (?) down the slide for fun.  By that point it was nearing dinner time, so we hopped back on the train and went home.  This Saturday, a relaxing contrast to the typically hectic tourist-y Saturdays I've been having, was quite welcome.

Hooray for Independence Day!

The 4th of July is just not the same when you're not in America.  I recall spending Independence Day on my mission doing absolutely nothing to celebrate it.  I remember being on a bus in Gimpo my first year out and thinking, "Oh.  Today was the 4th of July.  Fancy that."   I then pulled out some pass-along cards, English class fliers and cards with our contact information and went to work.

This time, I found myself once again away from family on the 4th.  This time, though, I was determined to make something of the day, and my fellow interns agreed.  So we dedicated our English class on Monday to Independence Day!  We had plans for fireworks, big ol' barbeque in the church parking lot, carnival-style games (a la Freedom Festival in Provo), etc.

And then it rained cats and dogs all evening.

So we were relegated to cooking up the hot dogs and hamburgers (which were, not surprisingly, itty bitty Japanese-sized items) on grills in the kitchen.  Oh well.  At least we were able to celebrate the gluttony part of the holiday!

Here are a few pictures I snapped of the event.

Sister Suzuki graciously provided the vittles.  Thank you! 

Elders Jackson and Wright, soaked to the bone (they didn't have umbrellas).  We gave them comfort food. 

Asumi wolfing down a hot dog (impressive, given that she's about the size of Tinker Bell).  Mamoru seems to be giving her some well-deserved props. 

Kouki flashing the peace sign as Koushin pounds down another dog. 

Behold! our Independence Day Feast!

Kishiwada Danjiri Museum

This summer is breezing by! It's already the last month of the internship.  There are only a handful of weekends left to do stuff!  This weekend I went to see Super 8 with Taylor and Sister Sugimoto.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Although I didn't know it was an alien movie at first; that was a surprise.

During the week we went to the Kishiwada Danjiri Museum that is all about the major festivals they hold here every September and October as a commemoration of the harvest.  A danjiri is a massive cart shaped like a shrine or temple and houses a kami. The festival entails pulling danjiri through the city streets, all the while yelling and thumping taiko drums and bells.  They go tearing through the streets and whip around corners at (sometimes literally) breakneck speeds. I mean, these people go crazy pulling this things around. Each section of the city has their own danjiri, as well as their own signature coat that they all wear.  Eventually everyone congregates around Kishiwada Castle (which, despite being almost in my backyard, I only recently went to see; details to come later).

If you want to get an idea of the scale of this event, take a look at this clip I pulled from YouTube.

At the museum, some of the oldest surviving danjiri were on display.  One of them was covered in lanterns, though, as that is what they do with them after they congregate at the castle.  The celebrations continue into the night, with each district's danjiri is adorned with lanterns bearing the district name.

Here's one a little less covered in flaming red canisters.

Check out that woodwork! It's AmAzInG! Oh, and this one's almost 200 years old.

On the next floor up was a collection off all the happi coats that are worn by the people in the various districts in Kishiwada during the festival.  Curiously, because the Satos live so close to the castle, their neighborhood is considered to be part of the castle grounds proper and as such weren't a separate district and didn't get their own coat when these coats were first designed.  

There was also a replica of the lower and upper parts of a danjiri for photo-ops.  The lower half has two taiko drums and a bell, which are what make such a ruckus while they fly down the streets.  I got to play on it and hammer out the danjiri groove.

It goes thump-thumpa-thump-thumpa-thump-thumpa-thump-thumpa? Okay, I think I got it.

I sincerely wish that this festival happened in July, while I'm here.  If it were feasible to somehow return in September to see this festival, I would do it in a heartbeat.  This is honestly the coolest way to celebrate the harvest I've ever seen.  

Lookee! I'm the crazy guy on the top of the careening float!