It’s been a couple days since I’ve been able to sit down and write a blog post. Being as such, I’m going to make this a quick one (I hope). My first weekend in Japan was one of two worlds: solitary exploration and raucous socializing.
On Saturday morning, I got up a decided to go out for another jaunt around Hirosaki on my bicycle. As I made my way out the back door, I saw a group of older folks playing what appeared to be mini-golf out on the soccer field across from the International House.
I later learned that this is a common game for older people to play and that in Japan it may sometimes be a requirement that they play in order to receive certain insurance. I watched them for a few moments, then got on my bike.
Today, I wanted to eat out somewhere different. Considering that it was the weekend and school was not in session, I wasn’t counting on getting food at school. I remembered from my time with Nahoko that there was a food court in the basement of the 7-11 depaato just a little ways from home. Yes, in Japan 7-11 is not a convenience store but a full shopping complex, complete with food court. It is traditional in Japan for depaato to have their food courts in the basement. I thought that would be a good place to kill two birds with one stone since I needed some things for my room anyway.
I got there and went inside. Since it was pretty early (around 10 A.M.), I thought I would take a look around the various levels. The first couple levels were clothes almost exclusively, then a level with video games, toys and other youth-oriented items and then a level with media - movies, music, books, magazines, even a section selling musical instruments. On the toy level, I saw some really amazing figurines for sale, some of which cost 200,000円, or just about $2000. Suffice to say, these were some nice looking figurines.
I also snapped a shot of the Wii Fit display they had, since that game has not yet come out in the U.S..
Satisfied with myself, I went down to the basement where there was a full grocery store and food court. It was noisy and bustling, but I managed to find my way OK. I bought some cleaning items and toilet paper and then went over to the food court. It wasn’t a very big food court - there were really only two options. You had your McDonald’s and a place called Boshibo, which sold real Japanese ramen, the kind that comes in the big bowl with cuts of meat and the like. I made my way to the counter and ordered one in the miso variety. I was waiting about five minutes for my food to be ready when they called my number. I got my ramen, sat down and dove right in. Here you can see what my first bowl of ramen looked like:
For the past couple days, I’d been talking online to people, checking my email, etc., at the IEC. I headed back to school to get on the computers, but when I got there I found the place totally locked. I guessed that it was time for me to find a cyber cafe. But where do I even begin to look? I decided to take out my map of Hirosaki. Almost immediately, my eye caught sight of the words “Information Center,” near the Hirosaki park. I hopped on my bicycle and settled in for the ride there. Along the way I stopped and bought a can of cold coffee from a vending machine, my first vending machine purchase. Here is the machine next to my bike:
I kept pedaling a bit further, when I saw an amazing sight: Iwaki-san (the big mountain outside Hirosaki) framed with some clouds and homes at its base. I snapped a bunch of shots.
I stared at the scene, marveling at the utter beauty of the Japanese landscape. There was a real sense of peace about the whole thing - despite the fact that I was in a city and next to a major road, the urban world ceased to exist for a moment.
I finally made my way to the information center adjacent to the park and went inside. There were a couple young women at a counter. I pulled out my map and went over.
“Sumimasen, saibaa kafe wa doko desu ka?”
The young women nodded her under standing. She circled a couple spots, including the Hirosaki train station. She told me that there was a cyber cafe inside on the fourth floor. I thanked her and went on my way.
It didn’t take very long to get to the eki, with large train tracks running underneath it. Along the way, a group of boys on their bicycles were stopped outside a store. They shouted out “Hello!” to me, to which I replied, “Hi, how ya doin’?” They must have gotten a kick out of that because they all burst out laughing.
I finally made it to the cyber cafe and sat down. I talked with my girlfriend, my brother Tom, and a couple friends that I hadn’t spoken to since I arrived. I spent a couple hours there, since stuff had built up in my inbox and I wanted to spend some time talking with my girlfriend especially. But since I was paying to use these computers, it didn’t make economical sense for me to stay to long. I said my good byes and went back outside.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon biking around, where ever my fancy took me. I started pedaling down this one particular road when I came to a small park with an enormous dog sculpture. “AtoZ Memorial Dog, 2007” a sign on the ground in front of it declared. The park also had a nice view of Hirosaki, so I got a picture of the skyline I saw.
I kept going for a while, when the roads became familiar again. I saw just down the road was a temple that Nahoko mentioned a few days ago. I decided to stop in and see what it was all about. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I set foot onto the grounds, I realized just how solemn of a place it was. I immediately pulled out my camera and took video, so you can share right along with me my first viewing of a Japanese temple’s grounds.
I will also let some of the pictures I took speak for themselves.
Certainly, this may not be interesting to people have seen many pictures and video of temples, but I have to tell you, being there in person is a whole other thing altogether. I felt the same sense of peace when I saw Iwaki-san - the urban jungle slipped away and the peace of ancient Japan took over. I think this picture sums up the two worlds of Japan: the old and the new.
The sun was setting on the day and I knew it was probably a good time to get back home. I was dead tired, too, since I was biking hard all day. I got home and made some ramen for dinner and had one of my Super Dry beers. The evening wore on, with me sitting in my room. I was growing bored, but I remembered that the Korean student I met earlier, Lim, was living upstairs and had invited me over before. Up stairs I went and I knocked on the door.
“Come in!”
I opened the door and saw Lim with a few of his Korean friends over sitting on the bed. He invited me in. I was introduced around, and we got to talking on many things. We spoke a mixture of Japanese, English and Korean (I didn’t do any speaking in Korean, though). A little bit later, a couple more people came into the small room and it was a packed house. There was me and six Korean students all sitting around, laughing, chatting, practicing Japanese and English, taking pictures. It didn’t take long for drinks to be produced and I sampled the traditional Korean alcohol called Soju. We also drank a few beers, a variety of Suntory. Long after all of Lim’s friends had left, we were still there, talking about the political situations in our two countries and the differences between Japan, Korea and America. All in all, a night well spent.
Lim and I made plans to meet the next morning to have breakfast and go out and buy a Nintendo DS game he showed me. It wasn’t really a game, actually, but a kanji training program (the kanji being the Chinese characters used in Japanese writing). Using the touch screen, the game helped you to study kanji by writing them directly onto the screen. I thought that this would be immensely useful, so I readily agreed. I capped off the night by taking a bath with some bath salts that Lim let me borrow from him. Alcohol buzzed around my head and hot water around my body. I was at peace again, the temple and Iwaki-san in my mind’s eye.
