Miyajima and Kangensai Festival

This post is long overdue, since I've been pretty busy with work and adjusting to life here in Japan. I also got a promotion recently at my job, so I've also been busy learning the ropes in my new position. Anyway, I went to the Kangensai Ceremony on July 27th, so almost two months ago now. It is held every year on Miyajima, also known as Crazy Deer Island. They just wander all over the island, completely at ease with all the people.. I saw one stick its head in some lady's purse to chew on a bag they had some food in. The guy with her ended up giving the chewed-up contents to the deer, which then went back for more. He ended up wrestling it away by the horns. When I bought chicken on a stick at one of the food vendors, I ended up with a new friend following me like a crazed stalker. Just watch the video below to get a small taste of how bold they are:

The Kangensai Festival is essentially a religious-type ceremony where they load a portable shrine on a boat, play some music, and the boat sails around Miyajima, stopping at several different temples along the way. I only saw the opening part, since I had to work the next day and couldn't stay that long. For more information about what it entails and the history of the ceremony: http://www.miyajima.or.jp/english/event/event_kangen.html.

I took a bunch of pictures and some short video of the opening part of the ceremony. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't capture sound when you shoot videos. I might be looking into a new one that offers that feature, since I think the sound is an important part of the experience. Any suggestions?

The first video is of the shrine on the boat. The second video is of the accompanying boat pulling up alongside the main boat. The guy waving the sticks was also chanting, but obviously you won't be able to hear it.

After the boat set off, I wandered the island a bit more. I went inside the shrine and took some pictures of interesting things inside. You're actually not allowed to take pictures of the priests or their attendants in the shrine for some reason. I'm not sure if that's the case at every shrine in Japan or not. I did take pictures of the fortune drawing chest, where you are allowed to draw a stick with a number on it for a small donation to the shrine. Then you can take one of the fortunes from the numbered drawer and apparently tie it around some wire in another section of the shrine. According to Wikipedia, this practice is called O-mikuji.

After checking out the shrine, I went to find the pagoda that I had seen while walking around earlier, hoping to check it out up close. Unfortunately, when I got there, it became obvious that no one can actually go inside.

After that, it was getting late, so I headed back to the ferry terminal and said goodbye to Miyajima for the day. I will probably go again sometime, since the ticket I bought to go into the shrine also included a ticket to visit the Treasury Hall on Miyajima, which was closed by the time I got done there. Miyajima also has an aquarium that I would like to visit. There are also several other things there that might be worth seeing, so I'll probably end up taking a few trips there during my stay here.

Long overdue update

Sorry about the long wait between updates. After moving out of the TLF on base, my access to the internet became severely limited until I finally got it set up in my apartment this week. I've also been pretty busy getting my apartment furnished and such. A lot has happened since I last updated(almost two months ago).  Here's a quick run-down:

1. The head librarian in charge of all the Marine Corps base libraries visited our library for a week. After the summer reading program is over, we'll be abandoning the Dewey system in favor of a more browsable system. We'll be one of the first three libraries to make the transition, so she was here to get a look at the library and offer input.

2. I visited several restaurants and stores in the city. I will not be going to Hidari Uma again, but will definitely visit the Indian restaurant that I went to again(the name escapes me at the moment). Their curry was excellent and the chicken was so tender that it practically melted in my mouth. I also stumbled across Tsutaya, a store where you can rent DVDs, CDs, and manga books. I didn't try to find out if they would rent to foreigners, but I did buy some of the cheap used items they were selling. Two manga volumes and a CD for 300 yen total, minus tax. Definite score! I'll be popping in there every so often to see if they have any other good finds.

3. I went to Hiroshima for an afternoon. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, since I forgot to bring my camera along. I took some pictures on my cellphone, but I don't have anything to connect it to my computer and download the pictures. No worries though, I'll definitely be back there sometime and remember to take the camera with next time. I visited the Peace Park and looked for a bookstore where I could find some study materials for the JLPT, but didn't find a bookstore that was big enough to have what I was looking for. Now that I have access to the internet again, I should be able to locate a store before I go again. I did stumble across the underground mall in downtown Hiroshima, which was pretty surprising. I had seen the signs for it from above ground, but assumed it was just referring to an underground walkway. It's really quite large down there, with several restaurants, clothing stores, a flower shop, and a small bookstore. I also saw my first Starbucks in Japan down there.

That covers everything I can think of right now. Until next time!

Finding an apartment and going to Hiroshima

This week has been fairly eventful. I've been busy all week, between a special training class that ran from Monday to Wednesday. I got to meet several new people through the class and learned quite a bit about some of the rules and procedures at the new workplace. After work on Wednesday, I finally got the chance to see the inside of another apartment not too far from the base. Unfortunately, by the time that the one I saw on Wednesday was available, someone had taken the slightly larger and more expensive apartment. However, that wasn't too big of a deal, since I ended up liking the apartment I saw on Wednesday more anyway. I told the realtor I was interested in the apartment and now I just have to go to the housing office here on base to get the contract done.

Afterwards, I went with my coworkers to Yamada to look at their selection of things like laundry machines, microwaves, and refrigerators. Half the time my one co-worker was trying to tell me I didn't need all three(she was particularly adamant that I didn't need a laundry machine since there are laundromats in town). I told her I had no particular desire to be lugging my laundry back and forth to the laundromat on a bicycle or on foot. Apparently, having a laundry machine is considered something of a luxury for Japanese people. I don't think the ones I liked were even all that expensive, but she was always saying that they were. I got back at her though when she was looking at rice makers though. Most of the ones she was looking at were on par or more expensive than the microwaves, to give you an idea.

Meanwhile, while I was apartment hunting and generally enjoying life in Japan, my sister was being faced with a personal tragedy as her husband had a seizure and was put in an induced coma because he wasn't breathing on his own. Sadly, it was determined that there was no chance that he would recover since he was too far gone and essentially brain dead. My sister made the tough decision to keep him alive on life support for one day to allow his friends and family the chance to say goodbye.
Please keep my sister and my mother in your prayers, along with her husband's family. My mother flew out to Minnesota as soon as she heard the news so she could be there with my sister.

Today, I went to Hiroshima to visit the immigration office there and change my immigration status since I received my ID card proving my employment here on base. I hadn't had a chance previously because of the special training class that I had to attend. Hiroshima is quite a remarkable city. It's a shame that I didn't have time to do sight-seeing since I was on official business, but I did get to mark some places to check out little as I was walking through the city to the immigration office. I saw a lot of interesting looking stores, the Hiroshima art museum, the outside wall of Hiroshima castle, and a rather uniquely designed shopping mall. I would go back just to take pictures of the shopping mall, it was that interesting. Coming on the castle in the middle of all the modern buildings surrounding it was a surprising contrast. I also saw some more creative manhole covers. The ones in Hiroshima are different than the ones in Iwakuni. Perhaps each city has its own unique design? Stay tuned for more pictures when I finally get around to taking a more leisurely visit to Hiroshima. Probably not this weekend, since it is Golden Week and there is a big flower festival being held in the city this weekend.

Exploring the City - Sunday

On Sunday, I decided I wanted to pay a visit to the bookstore that had been on the map the guide had given us on our quick bus tour of the city. I looked at the map and determined what was nearby to give me an idea where to get off the bus. Since I saw that it was fairly close to the train station in the southern part of the city, I decided to get off there and walk the rest of the way. With my new-found Japanese bus skills, getting to the train station was easy enough. Finding the bookstore proved to be a greater challenge, since I had neglected to bring the map with me, instead relying on my memory to guide me. Obviously, I should have paid more attention when looking at the map. I wandered around the train station to see if there was someone to help me. I briefly thought about asking one of the taxi drivers chatting there to take me to the bookstore, but decided against it. I looked at the map in the train station, trying to see if I could figure out where the bookstore was. While I was looking, two sisters(and I mean the Catholic kind, or maybe the Mormon kind, if the Mormons have sisters), came up and asked if they could help me. I told them I was looking for the bookstore and they pointed me in the right direction, adding that it was by three Pachinko parlors. If you're curious how I know they were nuns/sisters, they were wearing badges that said Sister X and Sister Y(no habits involved in that bit of deduction).

Thanks to the information, I headed off on my merry way to the bookstore. I hadn't gotten very far on my way when all of a sudden, one of my Japanese co-workers pulled up beside me and asked what I was doing. I told her I was heading to the bookstore and she offered me a ride. I got in and then she was trying to remember where it was. I told her that it was by the three Pachinko parlors and she instantly knew where I was talking about. Speaking of Pachinko parlors, I had heard a little about them because of my interest in Japanese culture, but I hardly realized how ubiquitous they were. They are literally everywhere in the city. I could probably tell you where at least ten are located, based on the little exploration I have done so far. My co-worker was on her way home from hiking Three Peaks, which is apparently a popular mountain to hike in the area. I heard some people I was walking by the other day mention they had been there also. She took me to the bookstore, I thanked her for the ride, and got out.

In the bookstore, I wandered around a bit, taking it all in. There were a surprising amount of people there, all standing around flipping through various books. I would hardly call it a welcoming atmosphere when I compare it to the bookstores I have been to in the States. It was overly hot and there were no chairs to be seen anywhere, just long narrow rows of books. There was also a music and movie section, but there weren't any chairs there either. Japanese movies also tend to be very expensive. I've seen movies as high as 7000 yen, which is about $70. Most seem to be about $30 - $40. In case you think it was just the bookstore price, I have seen movies that high at several different stores already, so it must be fairly normal. I was looking for books to study for the JLPT, but their selection was limited to books containing copies of past exams, so I passed on those. The person I asked for help understood zero English, even the acronym for the test, which I thought would be more common knowledge, since even the website uses that acronym(the books I saw did too). Only when I used the Japanese name for the test did she understand what I was asking for. I ended up buying three manga volumes, which were reasonably priced, and headed home.

Exploring the city

Not much of note happened during the week, aside from doing some more apartment hunting. I have some good leads and should be able to make a final decision this week, when one of the apartments I'm interested in is finally open to be seen. I think I'm leaning toward that one, despite not having been inside. The pictures looked good, and the two rooms are larger than the other leading apartment, although the apartment itself is smaller.

This weekend I took the chance to explore the city a little bit, mainly the downtown area near the main local train station on Saturday. There are a lot of restaurants and family-owned businesses in that area. There are also some chain stores, like McDonald's, Daiso(a 100 yen store), and Wants(which I didn't go into, but is apparently like a department store). I did stop and buy a CD that caught my interest at one of the family-run stores. So far I've been liking it a lot, despite it being a little on the expensive side.

I also went back to Yamada, the store that I said was like Best Buy, but louder, in an earlier post. I have to say that impression was slightly mistaken. It's more like a cross between Best Buy and Target. Besides electronics, video games, and movies, they also have stationery, toys, household appliances, and other stuff. Afterwards, I had lunch at an Indian restaurant that was recommended to me by a co-worker.

While walking around, I saw some interesting sights. Perhaps the most memorable was actually in the street itself. Well, actually covering a hole in the sidewalk.

Japanese man-hole covers

Yep, the Japanese flair for artistry extends even to things most people would probably never even think to look at twice in the ordinary course of events. Shortly after taking the pictures above, I got the opportunity to take a picture of one of the historic buses that the city keeps in service for whatever reason.

While I was looking around at the family-owned stores, which seem to have been built literally around a road that has since been closed off to street traffic, at least running in one direction. However, you'll often get traffic coming through on the intersections running in the cross sections between the enclosed strip mall. Japanese drivers can be quite scary in their driving habits. They play fast and loose with anything you might consider normal traffic regulations. I've seen some pretty crazy things walking around town. The craziest so far has been a pizza delivery guy driving a motorcycle through an alley that two people would be hard-pressed to walk side-by-side in. You really have to pay attention to cars and bicyclists while walking around.

Since space is at a premium in Japan, you really have to think about looking up for places, even when you think the place should be on the ground floor. In America, it probably would be, but there is a lot of upwards development in Japan. There are also a lot of places hidden in surprising nooks and crannies of places where you wouldn't think to look for a business in normal circumstances.

There are also some places that you wouldn't expect to see in Japan. For example, I've seen a Mormon temple and this place:

Yes, that's really a YMCA building here in Japan. And sometimes the Japanese try to imitate American places, but just get things a little off:

 

 

 

Get your haircut and maybe have a drink?

And sometimes, you just get things you have no explanation for:

The apartment building of many colors

I'll post about what I did today later. I think this post has covered enough already. Please leave a comment if there's anything you'd like to hear more about.

Week One Part Two

On Sunday, I went to visit a local church, Calvary Chapel Iwakuni. Since it was Easter, it was packed pretty full. The service was nice and I got to take part in a church picture that they take once a year after Easter service. After the picture, they had a potluck with lots of delicious food. I hung out for a bit and mostly talked to a pair of missionaries that were assisting the church. I also talked to the pastor for a few minutes before I headed back home to do laundry.

Monday was the scheduled orientation for all the people new to the base. I woke up bright and early and headed over to the meeting place. There were probably about fifty people in attendance. The first part of the morning consisted of many presentations, ranging from fairly short to somewhat long, mostly about what to expect from life on base, some of the more important offices, and the rules for people on base, some of which only applied to the military people. After all the presentations, there was a brief information fair, where people from many of the other offices and service providers on base came with papers to hand out and information to give. Most of the information was fairly inaudible, since everyone was competing to be heard over one another. I visited the few booths that were of interest and applicable to me, since many either focused on families with children or military members. Then we were given an hour for lunch, so I headed off to the food court to grab some grub before heading back for the second part of the orientation, the tour of the base and the city.

We all boarded the bus and headed off to explore the base while our tour guides gave a quick overview of the buildings as we drove by. We only made two stops on base, at the gym and the lounge for the Single Marine Program. We got a guided tour of the gym, which being on a military base, did have many useful facilities. They have everything from a pool to a place where you can rent all sorts of equipment for sporting purposes for free. The SMP lounge wasn't quite as exciting to me, since I would never be able to return again, so I took a quick look and headed over to the nearby Marine Mart to grab something to drink and a light snack before we headed off to the city.

We were joined by a new tour guide for this part of the tour, a member of the Cultural Adaptation team, who gave us all a small map of the city with several points of interest along our route labeled. She tried her best to give us a quick description of some of them as we drove by, along with a brief tutorial about how to ride Japanese buses(which of course I already knew, given my experiences on Saturday). The bus stopped at the local train station, where we broke into two groups, one to take a tour of the train station and the other to have some free time to do some shopping at the nearby stores. My group was the first to go into the train station, where our guide explained how the Japanese train system worked, including how to get to Hiroshima. That information was actually useful, since I'll have to go to the immigration office there, hopefully soon, to change my immigration status so I can stay in Japan. After that, it was our turn to go shopping. I was really tempted to buy a kendama at the 100 Yen store, but I refrained, at least for the time being. A 100 Yen store is basically the equivalent of a dollar store in the States.

Tuesday was back to work and some more training. And that takes us to the end of week one. Look for more in a few days.

Japan - Week One

It's hard to believe it's only been a week since I arrived in Japan. For me, my adventure in Japan really started when I arrived at the gate for my flight  at the international terminal of the Los Angeles airport. Naturally, it was at the far end of the airport, but when I got there, the announcements the gate attendants made were done in Japanese first, followed by English. That was the first hint that I was leaving America behind. When it came time to board the flight, I got another culture shock, as we were all herded onto a bus, which drove a fair distance to our waiting plane. Along the way, I saw a giant plane painted with characters from Hello Kitty. I was extremely grateful that we passed it by and I wasn't submitted to the indignity of arriving in Japan in such an extremely uncool fashion. My only regret is that I wasn't able to get my camera out and snap a picture as proof of the weirdness. I did manage to snap a picture of a Pokemon themed airplane while I was waiting at the Tokyo airport for the flight to my final destination to prove the phenomenon was real.

After landing in Iwakuni, I was met by my boss, who gave me a quick tour of the base. I ran some small errands and then simply crashed into bed. Wednesday was almost entirely given over to running errands like filling out paperwork, picking up some needed things, and taking a look at a potential apartment. Seeing two dead cockroaches on the floor quickly squashed my desire for that apartment. They weren't little cockroaches either, but big honking ones, just laying there on the kitchen floor.

Thursday was my first day on the job. I got a whole bunch of information crammed into my skull and met some of my co-workers. Afterwards, the two Japanese ladies working in the library took me apartment hunting, where I saw a much nicer and cheaper apartment, albeit without furniture, but also fairly close to work. Unfortunately, I still need to get some paperwork done to change my immigration status before I can even apply to rent an apartment. Afterwards, we went out to an okonomiyaki restaurant called Sobatamaya. Okonomiyaki is a traditional Japanese dish that is often referred to as a Japanese pancake. In my understanding, it would be more accurate to call it pancake-shaped stir-fry with cabbage. However you think of it, it's pretty delicious, at least in my opinion. We started off sitting Japanese style around a low table, but ended up moving to the counter area because some lame foreigner couldn't get comfortable sitting at a table like that, no matter how hard he tried. I disavow any knowledge or relationship to that guy, just for the record. Thanks for the awesome welcome to Japan, Shuho and Yuri!

Friday was a fairly uneventful day. I went to work, where I learned a lot more about my job responsibilities and procedures. After getting off, I relaxed in my hotel room in anticipation of my big plans on Saturday.

Saturday was my real first solo excursion into town. I walked to the local bus stop, where I took the bus to the train station, where I changed buses to take me to the Kintai Bridge, a local landmark of some renown and one of the three most famous bridges in Japan. A round trip ticket from the train station to the bridge is 500 yen or about $5.

There is a fee for crossing, which can be paid for by itself or combined with a trip up to Iwakuni Castle, which is on a mountain just beyond the bridge. I strongly recommend springing for the package deal, which is fairly affordable and comes with discounts for some of the other attractions in the area, including a 20% discount on a visit to the Iwakuni art museum, which is located in the complex just beyond the bridge, near the rope-way up to the castle. Unfortunately, I only noticed the discount coupon after going into the art museum. I blame jet lag for failing to notice the coupon, by the way. Be prepared to be handed a lot of brochures along the way when you visit attractions in Japan, since each stop seems to have an informational pamphlet for you to read. And yes, they do have English and Japanese versions, in case you were worried about that.

After crossing the bridge, you emerge into a traditional looking area, with all sorts of ice cream places and street vendors selling food, including lotus root croquettes,a local delicacy. There are enough things to see in the area that you can really make a day of it in the area. Besides the bridge itself and the castle, there is also an art museum and a small enclosure where two white snakes, local to the area, are kept. On one side of the area beyond the bridge is a temple, complete with a Japanese garden. The garden was really peaceful and isolated. I was able to sit there for a good five minutes before anyone else came along, which was really surprising, given how many people were there. On the opposite side is a graveyard, along with another temple, if I remember the maps correctly. I didn't actually go on that side because it was getting late after I explored the one side and I wanted to get back before it got dark. That plan didn't actually work out(more on that later).

Iwakuni art museum

 

Japanese garden

After I visited the art museum and looked at all the cool weapons and armor on display on the second floor(including some really weird looking helmets with crab claws and bunny ears coming out of the top), I headed to the rope-way to take my ride up to the castle(there is also a hiking trail that takes you to the top, for all you cheap/athletic types). Even with the rope-way, you still have to hike a little way to the castle, either along a paved road leading to the top, or along a more rough path on the right side. I took the paved road up and the more natural path coming down so I could see what both were like. On the paved road side, there is an abandoned well you can stop and look down into a little.

A little ways beyond that, you arrive at the castle itself, which is quite a nice-looking building, even if it is a bit on the small side.

The interior is a museum with various Japanese artifacts on display. The top level is an observation deck, from where you can see pretty much the whole town down below. It's really a stunning sight and well worth the trip up there.

Kintai bridge from top of castle

After coming down, I explored the surroundings a bit more, then headed back to the bus stop to get back on base. I stopped in a souvenir shop and bought a set of postcards to commemorate the trip along the way. I made it back to the train station okay and with some time to kill, explored some of the shops around the area. I stopped in at this excellent local curry place and got a bite to eat. I was surprised how affordable the meal was, only about $8 in American money. Here's a picture, just to make you jealous:

Ordering food in Japanese places is surprisingly easy, even if you have no knowledge of Japanese. Many places have plastic models that you can point to for ordering. The curry place had English menus. Otherwise, the menus also usually have pictures for you to point to and order from.

After enjoying my delicious meal, I returned to the bus area so I could head back. Unfortunately, I ended up getting on the wrong bus and was forced to wait for almost an hour outside the bus terminal before a bus back to the train station came along. Probably I could have walked back in that time, but I decided not to risk it since I had almost no idea where I was. Eventually, another bus came along and I headed back to the train station, only to have more time to wait. I checked my map of the downtown area and decided to check out the electronics store listed there. It was basically the Japanese version of Best Buy, only a lot more loud, in every sense of the word. After checking out the insane prices on Blu-ray movies in Japan, I headed back to the bus stop and got on the right bus this time and was home in short order.