queens

hi. i don't have a lot of time right now, but I added more pictures from my trip to Nikko- it was amazing. I will write about that and also the DRAGSHOW I went to last night.

www.dropshots.com/aly_fox <- check it ooouutttt.

Lazy Sunday

Hullo hullo. The past two weeks have been fairly uneventful, so I have been going into Tokyo and simply walking around and observing/people watching. Last night I was in Harajuku and Omotesando and saw a couple super models walking around, which was surreal. It is getting quite chilly and it is raining, so I am staying put today. I just disovered that you can read the New Yorker online for free!

That, and the fact that I talked to Annie on the phone (hey you) and had some conversations on AIM really blow my mind. We live in such a global society! It is not unusual for my roomates and I to sit around, each of us on our computers, doing a variety of things, but mostly using it to communicate. Its funny; we are communicating with others all over the world yet our own communication is limited becuase we are in front of the screens.

Ah. I wonder what I would be doing if I wasn't in Tokyo, say if I was somewhere else in Japan that wasn't so modern. If I was in Burlington I would probably be working at the library, lets be honest. I miss home and Burlington... and hanging out in houses. But, I have less than a month left and I know home and Burlington will be there when I get back.

We only have one day of class this week. We are going to Nikko to scope some temples and sit in hot springs and be tourists, and then its Thanksgiving! My fantastic roomate Sarah and I made reservations for a million people at a Thanksgiving buffett. It won't be the same (no scrabble, no football) but it will surely be delicious.

Oh, and Dad, I just saw that Christopher Guest (as in Spinal Tap) has a new movie out. "For Your Consideration". If you don't see it, when I get back its a date.

Swing battabattabatta swiing battaa

I had the distinct pleasure of attending a riveting matchup between the American and Japanese baseball Allstars the other night. I am a HUGE fan of baseball, let me tell you... haa, joking! But it was cool to see a couple of Phillies (Ryan Howard and Chase Utlley...right?) It was a boring, uneventful game for the first few innings, and then by the 7th the Americans were beating the nihonjin by double. So I felt satisfied, and left.

In one of my classes here we watched a film about, amongst other things, Japanese life values that carry over to baseball. One example is, in a nutshell, the Japanese are a collectivist society (whereas America is individualistic)- they place emphasis on groupism, on working towards the collective good. In baseball, that often means there isn't a set strike zone, because instead of having a clear winner, having a tie is more desirable, as it shows that both teams worked well together, and one isn't entirely better than the other. I was thinking about that quite a bit while I was watching the game; some other things I noticed: though the game was in Japan, the announcer was speaking English... the field seemed much smaller... beers were more expensive...

Before the game (we were quite early) we rode a rollercoaster! It was the first time I rode a real rollercoaster, and it was amazing. We were vertical going up and could see the city all around... and then dropped super fast and went through the ferris wheel and a hole in the building... all while being surrounded by the megalopolis. IT WAS SOOO COOL.

I realized that the remainder of my time here is a little more than 6 weeks. Its sad, but that just means I have to make the absolute most of it. Hopefully Okinawa or a ski trip fits in there somewhere, but if not, thats ok too. Tokyo is massive and there are still plenty of things to see/do/experience...

Pictures... not detailed and from all over the past month... visit:
http://www.dropshots.com/aly_fox

I will be more dilligent, I swear!

Post-Nagano

Nagano, meaning "long field" is in the mountains of Japan, north west of Tokyo, six hours away by bus. It is absolutely gorgeous, and famous not only for skiing, but for having an abundance of fruit crops, primarily apples and grapes. We had a jam- packed trip, as it was a field trip organized by my program, and though it was tiring at times, it was absolutely worth it. We started out bright and early on our zillion hour bus ride and of course hit major Tokyo traffic. After a pit stop we hit the lunch spot where I experienced apple ice cream (kind of a wierd, artificial flavor at first, but surprisingly good). When we were leaving the lunch spot we saw the magnificent peak of Mt. Fuji- literally peaking out of the clouds... it was awe-some. We arrived at Matsumoto Castle, the picture here, and hung out there for a little more than an hour. It is the oldest wooden castle in Japan, and has a billion floors. I climbed them all, and the view was really nice. We left the castle in tact and proceeded to our hotey- a Japanese Ryokan. No chairs, no bed, no shoes. Tatami mats, futons, sliding doors, the works. It was really comfortable and the food was great. I was in the smaller (and nicer) ryokan, the rest of the group was about 60 meters away in another ryokan. We were in the land of hot springs, and the town had ten public onsens, including all of the onsens in the individual ryokans. I got the feeling that soaking in hot springs is a senior activity- I saw my fair share of nakey Japanese ladies and everywhere our bus went we were upped by three senior tour busses. I guess that is how Japan is "dealing with" (their words) the "problem" (also their words) of the senior citizens- packing them on tour busses and letting them soak in hot springs. Interesting tidbit- almost a perfect 20% of Japan's population is a senior citizen!


The next day was funnn- we went to the Zenkoji Temple (the grounds are pictured here) and you know, hung out, experienced zen, the usual... haha just kidding I haven't experienced zen yet. It was such a beautiful fall day, it was very calming walking around the grounds. From there we went further up in the mountains and learned how to make Soba- my teacher even called me soba-sensei! and pointed out that I was ichiban: translated, number one, and future soba master. I suppose when I retire I can come back here and make soba noodles for the rest of my days. It is a bland food, but we ate our product for lunch, and that is always satisfying. After we digested we got back on the bus and headed to the NINJA THEME PARK. I wouldn't have applied the "theme park" to it, but boy, was it fun! The most fun was the Ninja museum- most of it was figuring out how to get through the maze; secret doors, moving pictures, etc. One of the rooms in it was at a 35 degree angle so it was completely tilted. I felt like I was four years old the whole time I was there! It was really cold up in Ninja land, we were quite high up in the mountains, so after we tired ourselves out we got back on the bus and went back to the ryokans to onsen it up and relax.

The third day felt like a million years, as the whole program kind of partied it up the night before. We went apple picking and made mochi- the product pf pounded rice rolled in stuff. It tastes good but just sits in your stomach. The whole day revolved around eating so after mochi making we proceeded to lunch. I couldn't eat much but it was a mushroom feast (another crop abundant in the area). We then went on a museum tour in Obuse. Obuse is REALLY cool- it was basically re-created in the past eight years by a graduate of Penn State, a white woman. For a couple reasons this is amazing- one, the Japanese are a very closed society who revere being Japanese and do not easily take in outsiders. Two, it is a patriarchial, passive agressively male dominated society. This woman completely revamped the town after working there for the Olympics, and continues to do so. It seems to be revolving around a sake brewery, so I supported the cause. The museums were cool too; the series that I love, the 36 Views of Mt. Fuji, was actually featured in one of them. WAHOO!

Before we returned to Tokyo WE HUNG OUT WITH MONKEYS!!!!! We also learned how to do traditional Japanese Taiko Drumming and did a little drum routine. I didn't find my calling there... I don't think.

I apologize this is a very detailed account of the trip, but it was fuun. It was great to see a part of Japan that revolves around something quite different than the corporate center of Tokyo. And of course... there is nothing like mountains, fresh air, and fresh picked apples!

edamame and other soy related things

This actually has little to do with soy products. I ate edamame for dinner...

This week was good. The weather here is fabulous... leaves are changing, humidity has ceased, sunshine is abundant. I did not have class on Tuesday and went far outside of Tokyo to the beach. It was really dirty, but had a fantastic view. Unfortunately, it was a little cloudy, so we couldn't see Mt. Fuji, but it was still lovely.

I also had a really neat experience having dinner at my friend's host family's. They were SO NICE and the food was de-lish. The family consisted of a husband, wife, and two girls ages 7 and 10. The little ones did not speak English, but the 10 year old was studying it so she could understand. The parents spoke english, and the dad was like "phriadelphria? EAGLES!" I thought that was pretty awesome. We had tempura and oden (a japanese cold-weather stew) and then played a zillion games of rock paper scissors over coffee. The winners got to pick their chocolates from the box o' chocolate first... their method for rocks paper scissors was a little different, haha, but it was fun. After coffee we played board games! We played Apples to Apples first (in English), and it was really interesting because that was one of the ways for the girls to learn English- the mother would write out the Japanese eqiuvalents on clear tape and stick it on the card. It was really impressive watching the girls play. And my god could they write kanji fast! After Apples to Apples we played Blokus- it is SO fun. I am bringing it back to the states. Its like chinese checkers and tetris combined.

For my Japanese class on Friday we had tea in a lovely garden... that was class. I learned a lot. not. But the tea was good!

Last night we were hanging out in Ginza and missed the last train! Last time we were there it was poppin, this time, it was dead. We sat outside of a convenience store and sang and argued about basic human nature until 5 am. In America, we would have been arrested for loitering. In Japan, its just fine!

Kyoto suki desu

That means "I like Kyoto."

An amazing city, called the City of Temples, it has this really neat feel about it- its like what I imagine an old world European city is like, only Japanese, and with a whole bunch of shrines and temples sprinkled about. It is set up in a grid, which is really nice, because it was easy to get around, and very walkable. We explored Gion, the old part of the city (and saw a few Geishas in full makeup walking around!) and downtown Kyoto. The temples and shrines we visited are as follows: Kiyumizu- Dera, first built in 783 ad, last reconstructed in 1633. It sits on top of a hill and has quite a bit of grounds surrounding it. We were there at sunset, and because we were on top of the city, saw an breathtaking sunset over Kyoto. We stayed right next to Sanjusanden- do, built in 1164, burnt to the ground in 1249, and then reconstructed in 1266. This and Kiyumizu were tied for my favorites. Sanjusanden- do is the largest wooden building in Japan, but inside is what makes it amazing. There are 1001 golden statues of the buddha of mercy lined up in rows. It was really impressive. I think there were probably 3 missing from the middle of the left side, perhaps for restoration, but still- there were 998 golden buddha images! On the floor level in front of the buddhas there were 28 statues evenly placed apart of various buddhist guardians. Absolutely worth the trip. The first temple we actually went to was Kennin-Ji, which we kind of stumbled upon. At first we thought it was just a nice park, because we entered on the far side of the grounds, but were pleasntly surprised to find ourselves on the grounds of an unadvertised, nor nearly as crowded temple. On the ceiling of this temple there was a large dragon mural that was painted there about 4 years ago, which was totally rad. The last big place we went to was Nijo-Jo, or castle. The grounds were huge and peaceful with moats and gardens and just absolutely austere beauty. The castle itself was really neat too, because they were constructed with "nightengale floors"- floors made pruposely squeaky so as to here assasin ninjas stealthing about. The screens and paintings in the castle were in their orginal form- from 350 years ago!



As great as a time I had seeing everything, we literally only skimmed the surface. I would imagine one needs at least a week to get a good feel for the geography and all that it has to offer, which is why I fully intend on going back. A little outside of the city there are short hour hikes you can take to other shrines/temples/palaces, and I didn't get to see the Golden Temple. Saturday was a great food day as well. We got room service (my friend let me crash in the hotel room with him and his sister in a really swank hotel) for breakfast- maybe my first normal breakfast since I have been here, and for lunch we went to this GREAT restaurant. We thought we were getting a kaiseki lunch (a huge ordeal with every consistency and flavor brought out in a specific order) but we got a set lunch instead, that was creative AND very tasty and had a lot of un-Japanese flavors. We must have been there on gluten day, because it was incorporated into every dish. After that we were full for like seven hours, but all the walking around did work up an appetite, so we walked to the other side of dt Kyoto to a conveyor belt sushi place that was 126 Yen a plate (about $1.04 an order) and it was REALLY GOOD.

So basically, Kyoto is an awesome city. I can't wait to go back.