Academic Reflection

June 17th - Higashi-Hongan-ji Temple.

For my Independent Excursion: Academic Reflection, I decided to do it on the Higashi-Hongan-ji Temple. This temple interested me from the day we got to Kyoto. Its right outside our hotel, its hige, and gorgeous. I was curious as to why it wasn’t on the excursions list. On one of the free days in Kyoto, I decided I was going to go check it out. The doors were open to the public and I walked inside and was suprised at how big it was. I walked up to the first building and took my shoes off as it requested. When I walked in my jaw dropped, it was gorgeous inside. Unfortunately i was not allowed to take pictures, so I’ll try explaining it as best I can. The entire back wall was covered in gold, it felt so grand. There was a brass statue in the center with flowers and gold objects all around. In the mantel, there were gold roosters and peacocks carved in. Which I learned are sacred. It was a very quiet and serene area, and when I turned around after looking at the display there were about 3 people on the ground praying. I went back outside, and I went to look at the dragon fountain. Personally I like dragons because it is my mom's thing that has slowly turned into my thing, and I love to send her pictures when I see them. We then checked out the gift shop. We didnt get anything, but it was still fun to window shop. There were a few halls I did not get to go into. One of them was really busy and seemed to have a service going on, so I did not want to intrude. I regret not going into the larger of the halls, but my friend was waiting for me and I felt bad leaving her in the sun. I still learned a lot, and admired what I could. After the temple, we took a look at the pop up market, and got some cute things before heading home to relax a little bit.

Academic Reflection

I will be referencing the article Higashi Hongan-ji: The Eastern Temple of the Original Vow, by YABAI writers. Link: http://yabai.com/p/4395

The temple I visited was one of two sister temples, . According to the article, it is known as the Eastern Temple of the Original Vow. The original temple was destroyed in a fire, but was rebuilt in 1895. It must have really good upkeep because it looks brand new to me. It is a Pure Land Buddhism temple, which we learned about in class, of the Jodo Shinsu sect. We also learned in class that this is a very popular form of Buddhism. It originated from Shinran, a monk, who later simplified Buddhists teachings into a simple teaching, to repeat the phrase "Praise to Amida Buddha" sincerely, for Amida Buddha is said to save people who do this.

The temple represents this well. The room I entered and spoke about above, is called Amida Hall, and the statue is Amida Buddha. According to the excerpt I read in the building, the room is decorated so grand, to symbolize Pure Land, and the wisdom of the Buddha. There is a paintings behind the Buddha portraying Jodo Shinshu's seven patriarchs. The excerpt also explained that the peacocks and roosters (other birds) I mentioned above are to represent the teachings about the path to enlightment. I find it interesting how many of the things I noticed and pointed out turned out to be significant to the history of the temple. This goes to show that the details and layout of the room was meticulously planned out and everything was done on purpose to draw attention to the important aspects, likely also to motivate people to learn more about it.

Independent Excursion: Media Reflection

June 8th - Studio Ghibli Museum

For my media reflection, I decided to go to the studio ghibli museum. This worked perfectly for me because I had just watched most of the films prior to coming on this trip, so I was super excited to find out that there was a museum in Tokyo, and I could do my assignment on it. We are so lucky to have Lauren and Eliza. They worked hard at trying to get tickets for everyone, and figured out the website and what to do when it was not looking good and not letting anyone buy tickets. We all headed over to the museum, and was delightfully greeted by the man and myth himself, Totoro. He was working the ticket booth. We gained access to the museum and they gave us a movie ticket that was a film reel of a scene from one of the movies, but unfortunately we were not able to take pictures inside the museum. The whole place was designed like a wonky house, with spiral staircases, bridges, small rooms with minnie doorways. There were lot of different rooms to inspect. One if the bigger areas looked like it would be the workspace of some of the designers of the franchise. With sketches all over the walls and scattered over desks, newspapers, pens, pencils, feather things, lamps, cigarette butts. It felt real, and was very detailed, I was super impressed. There was another room thaw was a little walk through of miniature replicas of some of the main objects or scenes in some of the earlier films.

My favorite room was an interactive display of how film works and other special effects. There was little gear operated sets that you have to crank the handle to get it to work, there was a motion picture display with a bunch of figures molded to be in different points in time that was spun on a wheel really fast so it looks like it’s actually moving. There were these layered pieces that looked 3d because of 2D drawings layered at different points in a box. There was also a film display that had rolls of film being pulled through a processor I’m assuming, and some where highlighted so you could see that when each square goes by fast enough, it looks like a movie. With all these beautiful pieces, and the light hearted music playing, I started to tear up a little because it was so cute and just made me so happy. We took a little break and ate at the cafe, then went back inside to watch the short film they gave us the ticket for. It was a short spin off of the movie My neighbor Totoro. It was the cutest thing ever. We then checked out the gift shop which was absolutely packed so it was hard to see anything. We left and a few of us tried to get these famous Totoro shaped cream puffs from this little shop but once we walked all the way there, we saw the sign that said the cream puffs were sold out. This really brought our mood down because we were looking for it all day, so we just decided to go home after that.

Academic Reflection

Because the museum was highly Totoro themed, I’ll talk about My Neighbor Totoro. The movie, has a realistic set based in Japan. It talks about real life issues and has a lot of aspects representing Japan. To name a few, the main characters house is set in a rice farm town, with the traditional style houses with the wood and paper paneled doors and windows. It also display the main mode of transportation being a bus, and having the working father travel far into town. I would say these are pretty accurate representations of some parts of Japan from what I’ve seen.

We took a trip to a rice farm which consisted of a small town on the outskirts and the rows and rows on farming land, it looked very similar to the movie. The bus transportation is accurate because public transit is very popular here, and the farther away form the busy cities the more scarce the transportation.

As for the clothing, I cannot speak on if it was accurate or not because I believe the movie was set in a different time. The unrealistic parts were definitely the mythical creatures of the forest, and flying bus cats and soot sprites. But who knows, they could be real too and we just dont know it.

June 20th - Osaka Day trip

Today was our last excursion, and it was to tour the city of Osaka. I feel like a good last excursion, and one of my favorite days. We took a nice long ish train ride i to osaka, sitting next to and across from my friends. One of the guys started a group listening session on Spotify and invited me and casey to join. It was fun getting to listen to everyones different music but it was very annoying when it would constantly kick me off the session without any notification. So it I’d just be listening to random music like a fool. After we stepped out of the station we all broke for lunch. Someone found this good curry place so we walked all the way there, but there were only 5 seats so Sebastian, Julie, Chelsea, girl sam, and Casey all got to have the apparent “best curry of their lives”, while the rest of is walked over to this Katsu place. Me, Eliza, and guy Sam all got chicken katsu and it was delicious. My favorite of the others I’ve tried so far, however the beef katsu was good too. We then took off towards the main attraction, the American core area. While I will say it didnt remond me much if America, it was actually really cool. It was a packed city with huge buildings with 3D signs and models all over them. There were gigantic moving crabs, a crazy chef, a suspicious spider man, a few dragons, sushi, and more. There were little food carts and restaurants, and you bet after our sad last “gatorup” and “okay thats it for today”, you bet me and Sam marched over to the strawberry car to get some snacks. I got a strawberry ice cream, and a strawberry mochi. All really good, the ice cream hit especially hard because it was so hot and sunny out. Then our little group decided it was time to go thrifting, which of course I was excited about.

We were walking over when me and sam literally just stepped foot i to a mcdonalds to throw something away and came back out and everyone was gone, like poof in thin air. Julie who was in front of us also lost them so us three got together and checked out Zara. Since I am a broke girly, I did not want to get anything at zara so I found the others at a thrift store chain called second street. We hit up all of them within a mile radius I would say. I found a few good things, but what I’m most proud of is helping nico, who did not have faith in the thrifting ways, find some cool pants. His luck just kept going up after that because he found other nice stuff too with some help from uncle sebastian. The group was deciding between going to the famous aquarium or to the team lab in Osaka. Vishnu, Sam, and Julie all decided to go to the aquarium, while the rest of us decided to keep shopping then go to team lab. I think everyone found at least one thing. It was looking a little bleak for Raj at first because he couldn’t find anything he liked enough, but low and behold at the last store we went to, there was a beautiful Dior sweater calling his name. We were happy with the outcome and then rushed to team lab. Team lab was very calming, and some of the exhibits were interactive. We decided that was a good end to the night so some of us went back ti the hotel and us others got food before heading back. With all the shopping I did since being here, I will definitely need to by an extra bag. Today was very bittersweet because thrifting is one of my favorite things to do and the fact that everyone came and had a good time made me really happy, but I just kept remembering how we wouldn’t be able to do this again and after today thats it. Im going to miss this, so called “weird but cool”, group of people. Ok sorry for the long post, if you’re still here reading this, I appreciate you. Ok done.

Academic Reflection

Soo urban planning? From the reading I gathered that Japan likes to tear down and rebuild their buildings instead of trying to preserve them. I think this is interesting because there are pros and cons, obviously tearing down and rebuilding is way more costly but in the end they are always updated and more money can potentially be made off it. For trying to preserve older buildings is just about the exact opposite. Its probably the cheaper option, but the buildings are usually not completely updated but they have a past and character.

Another thing that is different about Japan from the US is the individualization of the buildings. The streets are lined with buildings that look nothing alike. It gives the streets more life, I like that. This was definitely seen in Osaka with the crazy decorations and tall and short buildings, and so much life. I really enjoyed it here

June 19th - Nara Day trip

Today, I got up for breakfast. I was surprised to find it was eggs, salad, sausage, yogurt, and bread… just kidding, because it is the exact same thing every day. However, I was excited to go to nara and see the deer. I love deer. We got there and there were deer everywhere. They were really cute. They liked to harass people when they had crackers and Nico got bit. Chelsea got chased by ten deer. I almost got jumped on. We all stepped in poop. Then we walked and saw ginormous Buddha statues. Then, we walked some more and saw another ginormous Buddha statue, but it was the biggest of them all. Then we toured some lanterns, and of course Vishnu got lost. We decided to have a cute girls day for the rest of the day and visit little shops in Nara for thrifting and hand-crafted items and cheesecake. We then went home on the train, where Sam is currently transcribing everything I say because her phone is dead and she is bored. Sam is the most amazing and wonderful person I have ever met. She is so beautiful and great in every way. (Aulora told me to write that I promise.)[No I didnt]

Academic reflection

From the reading, I found it interesting that there are multiple different stages of enlightenment to becoming a Buddha. I dont know how people spend their whole lives doing this but I applaud them for it, it takes a lot of dedication and a strong will.

I also found it interesting that once you reach the 9th level of enlightenment, a Buddha can create his own universe. We learned that, to become a Buddha, it would take 3000 to 13000 eons of life cycles. According to Professor Smith, an eon is described as the amount of time it would take for a mountain to be completely brushed away by a bird brushing the mountain with a feather, that flies by once a year. So a long long time.

June 18th - Manga Museum

Today was a pretty lightly scheduled day, with just the manga museum planned. That was perfect for us though because that means we would have time to rent kimonos. We got to the manga museum a little early and waited outside for the doors to open. Upone entering the museum I was a little underwhelmed because I thought that the first room was what the whole place was going to look like. I was pleasantly mistaken, it became cooler the farther we went in. There were walls and walls of different manga, but my favorite room was the room that was like a timeline of manga. On all the walls there were manga organised in ascending order my the year they were produced. There were also separate instalments in the middle with different themes. I found a few manga of the animes I really like, in the 1990's section I believe. I hurt my own feelings by reading the last chapter from the show Nana, I was not prepared for what I founded out and had to hurry up and put the manga away. I was heart broken. But I kept moving and checked out other areas and rooms, and then we had to go to a picture show performance. The presenter was very lively and fun. After the museum, we were done for the day so my friends and I went to a cafe and I had the best coffee and croissant that I've had on this trip so far. Then us ladies trecked to the kimono rental place. We got all done up and then met the guys outside. Everyone looked so good, it was adorable. We took pictures by the temple and then took a stroll down the street, and found a family mart and took pictures there too. After we returned our kimonos, me and Casey joined the guys at the rooftop bar in the area that I did not get to go to the last time. Chelsea, Julie, and Sam were all pretty tired so they went back to the hotel. When we got there I will say the RB did not dissapoint. The view was absolutely stunning, all credit to Raj and his RB radar. We all chit chatted and had a good time before heading back to the hotel. Before we could even get halfway home Vishnu and Raj convinced us all to go out because Vishnu had not been out with us yet. It was a lot of fun, and I think Vishnu had a good time.

Academic Reflection

After reading about the background of manga, like the different art styles and what they mean, it was interesting to actually be able to see this progression from the timeline walls. Going from gekiga's serious and mature style to the development of the kodomomuke's cuter more silly style. And topics going from war to drama and romance.

It was also easy to see the clear division between the boys and girls manga. Boys shonen typically being about action, adventure and fighting, and the girls shojo being about romance and drama. It is seen from the art styles and colors displayed on the covers and manga panels. Girls manga would be in colors like pink and purple, and very light in color, with a softer cuter drawing style. Whereas the boys manga was sharper and had loud colors, and the art style was more aggressive and less cute.

June 17th - Free day

Today was a relatively chill day. I slept in a little bit, finally. Then since everyone was out doing their thing for the day, (Chelsea, Casey, and Julie, went to Universal Studios, Eliza went to Hiroshima, and the guys had a guys day), I decided to text my beloved friend, so I thought, Sam to see what she was doing. I trampled all over her solo cafe hop plans because she felt she had to invite me along out of pity (jk she loves me). We went to this little restaurant in Kyoto Station and shared an omurice, it was really good! Then I got my first special startbucks drink since being in Japan, it was lemon cake one. It was okay. We then went to head over to the Higashi-Hongan-ji Temple, and it was actually really cool. It was huge, and the rooms were covered in gold. Right outside of the temple was a popup market. It had a whole bunch of tents, with hand crafted items, jewelry, clothes, etc. I got these cool t-rex skeleton earrings and Sam got an adorable black cat coin purse. We then went back to the hotel for some recuperation as we both got really tired. About two hours later I brought Sam along with me to go thrifting. She hates clothes shopping, but she braved it anyway for me, how sweet. I do hope one day she can mend her relationship with thrifting and find glorious stuff. We went home after that for the rest of the night for an easy end to the day.

June 16 - Arashiyama Bamboo Forest

Today we had a fun day planned to head to the bamboo forest and apparently see monkeys?? I'm excited because I actually really like bamboo, it is satisfying to look at and I love the creaking sound it makes. I also used to have a fixation on monkeys when I was little, specifically spider monkeys, but close enough. Professor quickly warned us about a "small hike" we had to do today, so I figured my shoe choice would be okay. The bamboo forest was beautiful, and there was a man playing some drum type instrument and the sound was so dreamy, I could listen to it for hours. We then started on our "small hike" which turned out to not be very small, but what felt like at least a mile of 50 degree incline all the way up. I definitely was regretting my shoe choice by 1/3 of the way up, but they went with my outfit and beauty is pain. It was worth it once we got to the top and saw the monkeys all monkeying around [I know you all reading this will hate that ;)]. All the monkeys were super chill, but one of them snuck up behind me and jumpscared me so I screamed and dropped my sunglasses. I thought for sure it was going to attack me but it couldnt have cared less. We also got to go into a cage and pay 50 yen to feed them either apples or peanuts. I went with apples and it was the right choice. Once the monkeys saw what I had they came from other people to me, and then started rejecting all the peanuts. I felt bad for the people next to me so I gave them some of my apples to give to them. After that we all took group pictures with the banana, and a few people made terrible monkey and banana jokes. We split up for the day, then a group of us descended the mountain. We came across a playground so obviously we had to go play. Me and Eliza, and Vishnu and guy Sam all went on the seesaws. Raj and Nico must have thought they were too old to play because they just kept walking. We all then went down and met up at a pretty little cafe. The drinks were actually terrible but thats okay because the point of going to a cafe is to try new things, chit chat, and for the aesthetic. After this we were all pretty tired so we decided to head home.

Academic Reading

I learned that more than 50% of forests in Japan were protected for scenic beauty and public health. I got to see this at the bamboo forest, there walls protecting the forest , but we were still allowed to walk around through the paths. I like when nature areas can remain safe and the public can still appreciate them. I feel it helps to raise awareness of the forest areas and the dangers they face, and also raised money to take maintain such areas.

The reading, The Shrine in the Fields, is a poem/ story about Prince Genji's and Lady Rokujo's love affair. In the poem, the girl describes the scenery she is in and nature, and you can tell she is really admiring and appreciating it. I feel this way walking though nature preserves as well. It is hard not to appreciate something so peacefull and so beautiful. Just existing, nourishing the Earth.

June 15th - Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kyoto National Museum

We started off today bursting into guy Sams room at midnight to sing him happy birthday, then we went to bed. We woke up with no quiz due, to my surprise, especially because at breakfast when professor smith found out it was his birthday, he said "oh we'll have to have a quiz then", definitely got me with that one. We then sang him happy birthday again at our group meeting, and the hotel gave him a complimentary pair of socks, I know Vishnu was a bit jealous because he didn't get toe socks for his birthday but he stayed strong like a champ. We took a walk to the Kyoto National Museum, where we were informed we were not allowed to take any picture. This was unfortunate because the statues in the first room were amazing. There were two enormous statues of Kami probably, posing and standing on something that looked like a lion, on both ends of the display. In the middle there were these other large statues of other beings, that were slightly terrifying because they had hyper realistic eyes that stared into you. We were also assigned the task of finding an object in the museum that stood out to us or that we resonated with. So off I went looking at all the exhibits. This was pretty fun to me actually because I like museums and reading the stories behind some of the cool items. Just when I thought I was done and about to walk out I realized there were around three rooms I had not seen. In one of these rooms was a particularly interesting item that caught my eye. It was an extremely shiny bucket. This bucket had no surface imperfections, scratches, or chips, and was perfectly polished, it felt unnatural. I didn't pick this item for my assignment because what am I going to say about a shiny bucket. We also got to go on a guided tour of the Kyoto Imperial palace. It was very hard to hear the guide sometimes but I got the gist of most of it. During these short intermissions of not being able to hear the guide, Raj had the fun idea of trying to see who could find the biggest rock. The layout of the palace was actually pretty cool and functional, and I thought the pond area was really pretty. We then left and a group of us shopped around, and Nico and Xander discovered a cool object called a loofah and a process called exfoliating. I hope their shower experience is forever changed. Since it is Sam's birthday, I think there is karaoke planned for later which he seemed to enjoy last time. I hope he has a great birthday.

The item I picked is called Yoshimo and Tatsuta. It was a large room divider, with a beautiful mural on it. It depicted tatsuta shrine in autumn and yoshinos zao's hall in the the spring. It was extremely detailed, from the surrounding scenery like trees and water falls, the buildings and shrines, to the villagers and pilgrims carrying on a normal day. The linework was very satifsying, I looked closely at the details and it was just done so well. It would be a great piece for someone missing home, or in need of a cool view.

Academic Reflection

Unfortunately, on the Imperial Palace tour, we were not allowed to enter the buildings so we could not see inside or the the set up of them like how the reading described. We learned that the roofs were made of hundreds of layers of wood from cedar trees which is reserved for presigeous building, and that paper windows were used to let in light but still keep privacy. And as far as I could see there was in fact little to no furniture. We also learned that to prevent fires from spreading, some corridors were removed. I guess they got tired of rebuilding it after being burnt down.

I found it interesting from the readings that the town had specific rules for different classed of wealth. Like how only very noble family could have houses facing great avenues, and everyone else lived close together on smaller streets. Everyone was responsible for keeping the streets clean. All this in the effort to maintain beauty. Which does not seem too far off from fancy neighborhoods now, with their strict HOAs.

June 14th - Fushimi Inari Shrine

Today we got to visit the Fushimi-Inari Shrine. We have had to get up for breakfast at 7:30 am pretty much every morning and then meet downstairs later at 9:30. It is definitely hard getting up that early every morning, but it is kind of nice to have the extra time to get ready. I noticed we have been leaving at the same time everyday which is later than we did in Tokyo. I feel like this is so we don’t get stuck in rush hour, and we usually end up having a lot of time left over after our excursions so no need to rush. This shrine had a LOT of stairs, and it was extremely humid, but not too hot, so we were sweaty but not over heating. I still thought I was going to pass out half way up though. It was definetly worth it being able to walk through the hundred of tori gates lined up, and the view at the top. Some where along the way there was another shrine area, and there was a set up of two rocks where you make a wish and if you try to lift up the rock and its lighter than you expected the wish is said to come true. It was heavier than I anticipated... After we split up for the day, a group of the girls decided to go down and look for food because we were all starving. We split up half way down when me and Eliza stopped to look at the gift shop. She found these pretty tori gate earrings. We then went down and walked around the food stalls, and tried a bunch of things. I tried okonomoyaki, and candied strawberries for the first time, and I also got a huge crab meat stick, and lemon soda. Eliza got a wagyu beef stick, lemon soda, and candied strawberries, it was all really good. We then walked back down to the entrance and I bought myself a better fortune charm, and then we met back up with the other girls. We were in a little cafe when it started raining. We left after a few of the girls had these really pretty bowls of ice cream. Overall it was a nice day.

Academic Reflection

The reading talks about certain procedures one can do when visiting the shrine. One example being a prayer where everyone chants a shinto nori prayer, clap, bow twice, then bow to the east, and they quietly speak a private prayer. Another example being collecting a fortune from the box. I have been lucky enough to experience both of these, in some way. The prayer part was slightly different, at Sensoji Temple we were instructed to make a donation, clap twice, bow twice, make a prayer, then clap again. At this shrine, I also got a fortune, it was averagly good. I did get to witness people praying and doing the ritual. The article also mentions how popular Inari shrines are. I saw proof of this just walking down the streets of Kyoto, smaller shrines with foxes dispursed throughout the city.

With Inari being the god of fertility, rice, harvest, an industry, it is a very popular shrine. On the sides of the giant passage tori gates stood large foxes, each with something different in their mouths. One of the foxes had a sheath of rice, one had a jewel, and one had a greenery key, to represent the god. I thought that the little easter eggs were cool. One of the most popular parts about this shrine is the hundreds of tori gates all lined up, which I found out businesses paid to have a tori gate put up to promote good business. This goes to show how seriously the gods, shrines and temples are to the people here.

June 13th - Free day

Today was a lot of fun, kind of to my surprise. I got very little sleep, and woke up around 6:30 and still had not decided if I wanted to go to universal or not. I decided I was not going and was going to go back to bed, but was convinced by Raj. So reluctantly I got up and got ready in 5 minutes and went downstairs to meet up with everyone else (Eliza, Sam, Vishnu, Ana, and Emily) and then met Raj and Chase at the starbucks. I had just gotten my ticket on the way to the train station and was nervous it was not going to work because the app said it was invalid. We all ended up getting in with no problems and also successfully got the super nintendo world tickets that we were all hoping for. I was going to message Nico and rub it in his face, but I decided to choose peace and friendship over violence, so I deleted my message. We first went on the Hollywood dream rollercoaster that lets you pick a song to listen to while you ride, I picked Shake it Off by Taylor Swift. The song was a good choice as it pumped me up and I was dancing along, the ride was a lot of fun. We then went to Super Nintendo World at our specified time, and let me tell you it was breath taking. There were only two rides, one of which was a vr like ride where we are in mario cart, very cool, the other is not worth mentioning. After mario world we decided to go on the Jurassic Park ride, which is a rollarcoaster that hangs you face down. Terrifying. The whole ride I was just thinking about how my whole body weight is resting on the safety bars and that at any moment it could open and I could plummet to my death. Therefore, I did not really get to enjoy the ride, but we did see guy Sam on the way up on the rollarcoaster and met up with him after. Vishnu was clearly physically affected by the intesity of the ride, as we had just eaten before hand, but he managed to hold it together. Everyone wanted to go on the Jaws ride, so I decided today was the day to face my fears and break the promise I made to myself years ago, that I would never go on this ride, as I have a very weird and specific fear of anamatronics in the water. Possibly submecanicaphobia, but I wont self diagnose. Girl Sam was kind enough to hold my hand throughout and Vishnu tried to scare me more, but I wouldnt expect any less from him. After that we went to a cafe and got these mario themed strawberry shortcakes that were really good, but me, guy Sam, Raj, and Vishnu were tired so we went home after we finished our snack. After the long day, I am back in my room, and ready for bed. I dont have as much energy as I did in my youth. Overall, great day.

June 12th - Kiyomizudera, Gion Tour, sick day

Today I woke up with a raging headache and was feeling pretty tired from coughing all night, and my voice still hadnt come back all the way, so I stayed home. I would say poor chelsea (my roomate) but I'm pretty sure she slept through all of it, thankfully. It was definetly a long day for planned for everyone, I am sad that I missed it. My exciting day consisted of laying in bed for a while, going to 7-11 to get money from the atm, going to the pharmacy to get vitamins for chelsea and I, then back to 7-11 for food. I figured by the time I got back the cleaning ladies would be almost done with my room but when I walked up one of them was still in there, so I walked down to the cafe area to eat my food and hangout for a while. After another hour I walked back up to check the progress and my door was still open and the shower drain was taken apart. So I decided to do laundry. I finally found someone working on the bathroom in the room next to mine so I asked her if mine was done, but she said no and then ran over to finish it I believe, so I went back down stairs for a little. When I went back up it was done, and I think I probably should have told someone that I was planning on being here for the day but still wanted my room cleaned but I was scared because of the language barrier. I finally got to sit down and relax a little bit and take a nap. I was feeling better after my nap and could talk a little more. A big group of other student went to a pretty rooftop bar near where the excursions were for the day, and I was invited, but by this time it was dark out and I was nervous to make the trek alone and I figured it would take me too long to get there, so I didnt go. I definitely regretted this decision because it looked super cool and I definitely missed hangout with everyone, since it has been pretty hard to socialize after loosing my voice. I did end up going out with everyone later that night, which was a lot of fun. Me and Raj werent sure if we were going to go to universal the next day as we had not bought our tickets yet, but we said we would go if the other went.

Academic Reflection

Reading the poem in Shintokumaru about the goddess Kannon, I was a little bit confused when they referred to them as a he, as Kannon is generally referred to as a woman. I thought this was just a mis translation, but then I kept reading and it explained that it was translated correctly and described like this on purpose. The article also talks about sekkyo performances, and I found it interesting that the early versions did not have a script, the actors were given a general overview and a few phrases and then improvised the rest. I think this is cool because each perfomace would be different and you never know what you're going to get.

After reading Enlightenment Geisha, the story of the geisha seems to be a story of striving to triumph. Starting out with a bad name and reputation, women were branded with as an unsult. Accused of things that they protested were true, until finally the Meji era brought change. Women who were branded as geisha started to engage in "civilized activies", like attending school, reading, sewing uniforms for police, leading to social tranforms about educated women. First steps in a long battle for equality for women, something I am quite passionate about myself.

June 11th - Himeji Castle

Today we had a long trip to the Himeji castle. It took us around 1.5 to 2 hours by train to get there. When we walked out of the train station we could immediately see the castle. It was looming over the city, and was just a short walk away. We got there and took a group picture with two guards, they were very nice. The place was huge, I had no idea what to expect but it was kind of like a maze. We walked up so many hills to get to the entrance, and then from there, there were so many stairs. We entered first through the surrounding buildings. The views were amazing, and there were so many rooms with different aritfacts and stories. It had a very cozy atmosphere, and all the rooms were decently sized. It felt like a really long halway with rooms on the sides. There was an interesting part where there was this large reinforced door that would close off the rest of the building, it was separating the womens quarters from the rest, and the door was to be sealed to protect the women. Before I knew it we were inside the castle, which had no shortage of steep stairs to climb. It was like a series of small square rooms leading up and up. The view was incredible, we could see the entire town below and the moutains. We then climbed back down and hungout in the court yard for a while and took some pretty cool pictures.

Academic Reflection

The reading, Castle Towns and Daimyo Authority, talks about castle towns, their establishment and controversies. Castle Towns are pretty much what they sound like, towns centered around castles, run by Daimyo lords. James Mc Clain explains that many historians belived castle towns were under strict control by the Daimyo, and they had strategic planning of the locations and repressive control over the towns like the kinds of markets and artisan activities allowed. I can see how this played out after visiting the town and castle; the castle had a perfect view of the town and sat perched up above on a mountain. It would be easy for them to monitor areas and send people to investigate, and how it would be intimidating to the towns people knowing the castle is always watching.

In the castle I also read about Princess Sen. Her story was very sad to me. She was first married off when she was seven years old... I dont understand how in any time period this was seen as okay. She ended up commiting ritual suicide for their marrage year later. She then decided to go for a love match with Tadatoki, in line to be head of the Himeji Castle. She remainded there and had children with him, for the remainder of her time. Within a span of a few years between each other, her son, husband, and mother all died. She really went through a lot.

June 10th - Kinkakuji, Daitokuji

Today I had my last japanese breakfast in Japan. It was a bit different than at hotel Edoya, it was not buffet style. There are plates already made for us set at the table and we just sit down in front of one and eat. The salmon, rice and soup were good. There was a side of bonito flakes I think, but there were whole small fish and that kind of freaked me out a little. Our excursions for the day included the Kinkakuji, which is known as the Golden Pavilion, and a few temples at Daitokuji. The Golden Pavilion was beautiful. The water surrounding it and the little islands with trees, and the way the temple sat in the center, was really pretty. Then in Daitokuji we saw a few zen temples. The first one we went to was very peaceful, and we got a guided tour. She explained to us the meaning of the zen garden and how it represented water flowing to an ocean (nirvana). The rivers had specific rocks in them which had names and represented certain things. There were boats, turtles, cows, mountains, and more. The cow could not reach nirvana because she was facing away from it. The ocean had no object in it because it represented complete nirvana. The guide then brought us to this room and showed us these famous sayings for family and how to live your daily life. The whole experience was beautiful, we were all really happy with it. We went to another zen temple with similar gardens, it was also beautiful. We then went home, and I took a nap.

Academic Reflection

I learned a lot with today’s readings and excursions. According to canons of Medieval, the reading, the Golden Pavilion was burned down because the beauty of the real temple could not live up to the beauty in his head. Visiting the area makes me think about what he could have possibly imagined, because it such a beautiful area. I also thought about how the temple must have changed at least a little bit when it was rebuilt and what it could have looked like before. I also thought about the different materials that have been used to rebuild the temple, and to paint it gold. Im sure as time went on, cheaper and cheaper materials have been used as the gold exterior.

I also learned about the zen gardens and life style of the buddhists from the readings and the excursions. Theres an argument about if zen gardens should be called garden’s because they are bare with just rocks. I think anything can be called a garden, especially after visiting some and seeing how beautiful they can be. Personally I love stones and the color grey, some people dont. I do agree with the reading though about how the buddhist teachings to be pessimistic. I feel life is what you make it.

June 9th - Travel to Kyoto

Today was a pretty lax day. We got up decently early to eat breakfast and then get checked out of the hotel at 9:15. There were a few stragglers who must have forgotten to set an alarm because they were still sleeping when we were all downstairs ready to go. It happens to the best of us, they definitely needed the sleep. Once we got going we took a train to the station where were to board the shinkansen. The first train we took was during rush hour and we all had an emense amount of stuff with us so this was difficult. We all basically split up and ran to different cars to try and fit before the train took off. Once we made it to the shinkansen stations, we were released to get food, but it was a very big and confusing place and some of us got lost. Once we finally boarded the bullet train, we got settled and I was lucky enough to be sat next to some of my friends. The row in front of me turned their seat around so they were facing us so we could talk and play uno. The only downfall to that is, my voice is completely gone and my way of communicating is by typing what I want to say in the notes app. They all loved to make fun of me for it. The view from the train was amazing, we started seeing more mountains and hills, and rice fields, large towns, and small towns. Everything zipped by so fast, makes sense why its called a bullet train. When we finally arrived to the Kyoto Stations, there were so many of us, and a lot of us had to grab a bunch of stuff, by the time me and two other students made it to the doors, they closed and the train took off. Luckily Leina was with us and she helped us figure everything out. We had to go all the way to Osaka and back, but because we were on the Shinkanses, it was a very short trip. We finally met back up with everyone and then checked in to our hotel where we got to relax for the rest of the day, and do our readings or whatever else we had to do.

Academic Reflection

Reading about the shinkansen and its origins in The Shinkansen's Local Impact, put the train ride into a new perspective for me. It was cool finding out that I took the same trip the original shinkansen did in 1964, from Tokyo to Osaka. I'm sure its not exactly the same route, but I can still imagine it was and what the surrounding areas must have looked like back then. Im sure it was much more rural and the train was definitely the center of attention, and the new coolest technological advancement. Whereas now it is just another mode of transportation.

I also read that the development of the train required people to be relocaded for contruction. So that means their houses were detroyed and also led to economic issues. It is crazy thinking about that because coming here now, it is evident that everything was built around the train systems. Since it became the main source of transportation for many people, and there were many many different lines and destinations created, it is very handy that there are stations and stops everywhere.

June 8 - Free day

Today was another wonderful free day. Although I am still a bit sick, and almost completely lost my voice, I still had a good day. A group of us students had bought Studio Ghibli Museum tickets a while back, before we left for this trip. They are extremely hard to get because the tickets for foreners sell out almost immediatly, with queues up to around 3000 people. No one could get tickets because it kept kicking people out once they got to the part where they buy the tickets, so some of us lost hope. Luckily a few students figured out a way to use the Japanese VPN and go through this whole process to get tickets, so they bought them for the group. After they went though all that trouble to get tickets, I had to go. I wore a mask in crowded places just in case. The museum was adorable, with Totoro there to greet you when you first walk up. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures inside the museum. There were stairs everywhere, and different themed rooms on every floor. Some of the rooms were made to look like a creators work space with the sketches everywhere, the smoked cigarette butts, and pencils laying around. There was this projection room that had cool representation of how the movie was made and how film cameras worked. After walking around for a little bit we decided to go get food at the cafe and then go to the gift shop. I got a soot sprite keychain and a few note card with Totoro on it.

After the museam, a few friends and I went to get some food. We were mostly looking forward to getting these Totoro shaped creme puffs that were supposed to be really good. We walked all the way there to find that they were sold out of the cream puffs. That definitly put a werench in our moods. We were going to go to the Mori Art Museum also, but after the whole cream puff fiasco, we just decided to go home. And here I am, home, and ready for bed. Thats all.

June 7th - Mt Takao Day Trip/ sick day

Today I woke up with a fever and body aches, not fun. I was not feeling good, so I stayed home. I went back to sleep for a little after my roommate left, then I got up and started doing laundry. The washers and dryers here are not very good, they only wash each load for 30 minutes and I had to dry my clothes for 90 minutes. I spent 1000 yen on laundry lol. Then I took another nap, pretty boring right. I was excited to see how the Takao day trip was going through my friends instagram stories, it looked like a lot of fun. The weather seemed to be much better than it was yesterday so thats good. I am a little sad that I missed the trip but there was no way I could go hiking in my shape. I was feeling a little better later on so I went to dinner for a friends birthday. I also went to karaoke after because I thought I was feeling better, and didnt really want to walk all the way home by myself. It turned out to not be the best idea because I ended up loosing my voice :/.

Academic Reflection

Unfortunately since I didnt get to go out on the trip with everyone I cant relate the reading to the trip. But I can still talk about the reading. The reading The Green Archipelago by Conrad Totman, talked about the environment, and the forests of Japan. According to this reading, instead of the plentiful grean forests and mountains, Japan should be a poor, eroded, empty, lowland, peasant society. But because of years and years of the hard work from humans, Japan is the industrialized, green, populus city that it is today. I belive this, and see it with my own eyes everyday I spend here in Japan. It makes sense to me how this place should be bare and brown, with how humans naturally use and destroy things. If not upkept and regulated, the human population would continue to grow, and to accomodate this, humans would need to clear out more space for housing and for food and supplies.

It is interesting to see how the hundreds of years of creating regulations and rules has lead to what we have today. It is clear by walking around that Japan values its greenery. There is definitely a line between rural parts and the city parts puts it into perspective. Seeing the mountains up close and how green they are and well kept gives me an idea of the types of codes for this kinda of area. This is the same for the city area; obviousy much much less green, however there is still life among the crouded streets. There are many trees planted along the walkways and in different areas, where you can tell the plants or trees are well taken care of, because you wouldnt think a lot of these trees and plants could live in such a busy area with contant foot and car traffic, less sunlight, more pollution. I feel that is what is different from America, is that our big cities seem to lack plant life. Makes me appreciate Japans way of doing things a little more.

June 6th - Hakone Day Trip

Today was a long day, very long. We left the hotel around 8:20 this morning and didnt get there until around 1:30. We took this train, supposedly the steepest train, up the mountain. It had to zig zag all the way up, and the last train that just went straight up. We walked into the station and outside into an amazing view of the mountains. It was outside on this patio with a glass window railing. We then took this lift further up the mountain to where the volcano was, the view was amazing. At the volcano, they are known for their special black hard boiled eggs. They are boiled in the volcanic ash to get their cool color. It was actually freezing up there and super windy so we were all dying because we were all under dressed. So after exploring the gift shop and taking a group picture next to the egg, we all ran for the lift station. We took another lift down, where we then borded a pirate ship that sailed us across the water. This was also a cool experience, and we could see the Hakone shrine sitting in the water. When we got off the boat we walked to this Daimyo exhibit, and it started raining so most of us bought an umbrella at the little shop at the entrance. Mine lasted 20 minutes because a gust of wind got it and flipped it insideout and bent all the wires, but I kind of fixed it! And then Nico broke it again, and then I fixed it again and didnt let Nico touch it and it lasted until I left it at a train station to go back to the hotel. After the daimyo exhibit, we took a bus close to the Hakone shrine area. It was beautiful, but there were a lot of stairs. We finally made it down to the Hakone shrine but there was a huge line to take pictures, which took forever to get to and we ended up spending the rest of our time here. We took one group picture and then booked it to the bus stop where our class got separated becaus there was not enough room on the bus. We eventually regrouped and got on the trains to get back home. We ended up getting back home at around 9:30 pm. I started feeling ill earlier in the day but it was manageable until about the train ride home. I got to my room and went straight to sleep.

Academic reflection

Visiting Hakone was a cool experience because there was a lot to see in one day. The reading, A Curious Institution by Vaporis, talked about the daimyo and how the passage of women was heavily regulated by the sekisho. We got to see a representation of this at the daimyo exhibit. There were plenty of sculptures of people doing different tasks and carrying out a normal day. One of the sculptures showed the a person inspecting a woman to check if they were a wife or daughter of a daimyo. They were positioned on the walkway outside the house, and the person was behind her checking her hair or her neck. They also kept the women as hostages to have control over the daimyo.

Another part of this exhibit had the passage gates that Vaporis talked about, blocking off parts of the city that were liked gaurded by soldiers. One of the employees at the exhibit explained to us that at these gate some people would try to hop over and sneak though. Likely to also smuggle things in or out, or to get the the wifes and daughters. It was cool seeing this in a life size depiction after reading about it, it puts it into perspective and actually lets me accurately visualize it.