OMG I just had to share this....

Ketai Blog

Hi all, I know its been forever since I posted and most of you have probably lost interest by now, but if you're still watching...

Today I finally set up a flickr account and set it up so that I can blog photos directly from my ketai (mobile phone)! I expect that I'll be working on archiving photos from the pilgrimage on flickr, but for a little instant gratification, now there is 日本携帯の写真 - please have a look and let me know what you think!

Ja ne!

NEW as of today::

Temples 19 thru 23
Temples 24 and 25
Temples 26 thru 28

Enjoy!

Will be filling in some description soon! Sorry to be a geek, but Google Earth is FUN!
-Alicia

Links fixxed - first 18 temples available

Ok, sorry for the delay on that...
The links in the previous post, for the Earth markers, have been fixed. Here they are again for ease of access:

Temples 1 thru 6
Temples 7 thru 12
Temples 13 thru 18

If you have Google Earth installed, these files will jump you right to the spot when you open them...

DOWNLOAD Google Earth

Walking in circles?

Today I'm back in Tokushima, at the Dai-ichi Hotel (translates to something like "big one"), a mere week after I left, having plowed through 17 temples in 7 days. I feel like I've been out there a month already! One thing I am getting good at is making reservations in Japanese at inns and boarding houses... sometimes its the only speaking I do in a whole day. Time goes by really slowly when you are just walking... by yourself... you know they say when you are dreaming that your mind goes through an hour of story in only a few minutes? I think my thoughts have gone on like that while walking... I'll ponder something for what seems like hours only to check my watch and realize that it's only been 10 minutes.

Since leaving the mountain, I've missed my GPS gizmo... It fell off my pack on the trail somewhere, with an inaudible thud thanks to the audiobook I was listening to. (A Short History of Nearly Everything -- I got all the way to Einstein's theory of Relativity by the end of the trail!) Without it I can only guestimate where I place my markers on Google Earth, which, if you don't have, you should download for free - GET IT HERE - because it will let you see with amazing satellite detail where exactly I have been hiking. Here are the first three packets of markers, as accurate as possible! >> Temples 1 thru 6, Temples 7 thru 12, and Temples 13 thru 18. What fun!

Hiking has been difficult, but every day finished carries a huge sense of accomplishment, and I'm sure that will compound the further I get. I expect I'll be in better shape soon, too, so the abuse will get a bit easier to take. Getting used to very basic amenities, and literally eating light - anything heavy just means I am carrying more weight on my back! I am going through money a bit faster than I'd hoped, but as I head south along the coast into the warmer climate, there should be more places to shelter for free, and I might be able to make up the difference if I'm careful. Anyone interested may sponsor a day on the trail for the small sacrifice of $60! All my temple chanting for the day will be done in the donor's name, earning you a much better shot at reaching true enlightenment... ;-D (Joking aside, if you really want to help, and I thank you soooo much if you do, there's a totally legit paypal link on my homepage, find it by clicking HERE! You can name the amount at whatever fits. THanKS!)

I am leaving tomorrow morning for Temples 18, 19, and 20. I believe I'll stay at 20 or nearby, then off to 21 and 22 the next morning. It's a longer haul to 23, and that will mark the end of the first of the four segments, this being the Dojo of Awakening Faith (historically, Awa Province - now Tokushima Prefecture). The next one is more of a test... Hope I'm ready! I know my ankles are still getting used to this!

A little background on the structure of the pilgrimage.... The island of 四国 Shikoku (wikipedia with map) is made up of four prefectures. In fact the name, 四-shi 国-koku, means literally “four countries.” The pilgrimage is symbolically and ideologically divided by these four regions, which through history have had very different characters. Some were known for welcoming henro, and some were known otherwise. Tokushima (Awa), the first part of the pilgrimage, is known for its people being very friendly and encouraging toward beginning henro, as I've experienced firsthand: on my second day, three different people pressed ¥1000 bills (about $10) into my hands as O-settai, a gift to a henro that is symbolically an offering to the Daishi himself. I've also been given sweets, pastries, coins, and even a half-full bottle of lemonade!

The second region is Tosa (presently Kochi Prefecture), known as the Dojo of Religious Discipline. Historically, the laws in Tosa have been harsh toward henro, and this combined with the terrain made it challenging indeed. This is where I'll be heading later this week; I believe I'll be finished with Awa by Friday (2/24). The first temple of Tosa is #24, but is over a hundred km down the coastline. The view will be stunning, and I'll have plenty of time to take it in. Cape Muroto is the first goal, also a favorite place for surfer pilgirms searching for that perfect wave...

Iyo Province (now Ehime Prefecture) has the most temples in it, and is the Dojo of Enlightenment (can't wait to see what that is like!) and beyond that, Sanuki Province (Kagawa Prefecture), the Dojo of Nirvana. This last stage brings you back to complete the circle, and you end as you began at Ryozen-ji, Temple 1. I hope I make it this far, but I stopped worrying on maybe the 2nd day... I care less about finishing in one fell swoop than about enjoying the journey, and getting something out of it, or making it to the end of March without running out of dough. Many Japanese don't get much vacation time, so they break the circuit up over several years, doing maybe two weeks at a time each year until they finish... If I don't get to the end, what a good excuse to come back! :-)

Enough for now, I think, but more soon!
Thanks for reading this far!
-Alicia

Fire on the mountain

So here I am, at Nabeiwaso Ryokan, 3.5km beyond the top of the mountain. Shozenji conquered, I feel much like I can do anything. This is fortuitous, considering I have 25km to walk tomorrow. Granted it is mostly downhill, following a river, nearly from it's headwaters, but most of it is on roads, a bit tough on the feet when wearing 50lbs. on your back.

I left Fujii-dera (#11) at about 10:30 this morning, and stopped for a brief lunch at an unnumbered temple in the middle of the mountains. It was abandoned (for the season?) but thankfully had a water keg fed by a hose presumably from a spring somewhere above. There was a hut with very spare mats for travelers who would not make it to 12 in one day's trek. I ate in the sun on the front step. It was cold once I stopped huffing up the hill!

After lunch, the trail went straight up over one mountain, then deep into a valley, and again right back up the next to the the temple. At the crest of the first peak, as I was concentrating on my footholds, I finally looked up to find a set of ancient stone steps leading up to a superhuman-sized statue of the Daishi as the original henro, backed by the most enormous tree I have ever seen (barring one that dropped my jaw while walking between #9 and #10, which had 5-inch-square stone posts holding up its massive limbs), so very many times bigger than all the other trees here. It actually was the first one I believed to be true to the ubiquitous legend, "the Daishi planted it!" (He lived in the 8th century....) It also made me realize that most of this cedar forest was at least second generation; this mountain must have been clear cut at some point in relatively recent history, like much of our northeast woods, where virgin forest is so rare... It was so hard going down into the next valley, knowing I was giving up hard-earned elevation just to have to grunt my way back up the other side. That last slope was the hardest, steepest, and most remote part, and I had to stop every hundred feet or so to gasp for breath and wait for my heart to stop pounding in my ears and eyes. When I stopped, I noticed my vision was a little swimmy, as if eyes had adjusted to the scenery in front of my feet moving, moving, and so when not moving, things actually appeared to be moving away from me... I hoped I was not hallucinating from dehydration - might have been close! I lost 2kg (has to be water) from yesterday! I am officially 10 pounds lighter than the low end of my usual weight before I left home. I don't know where it came from!

I finally got up to the temple compound about 4pm... first thing I saw was the parking lot from which all the sane people begin, then walked the last 200 meters, and up the stone steps to the temple itself. Even with the sound of chainsaws in the distance, log trucks on the roads below, and the construction (restoration?) of a new temple building next to the Hondo (Main Hall), the place still had such a sense of peace, and after ringing the bell at the Hondo altar, and standing with eyes closed for a few moments, I could feel the history and the forest seeping into my consciousness. The story that gave this place its name, the Burning Mountain, has the Daishi extinguishing the flames of an awful dragon and binding him for eternity into a cave nearby. One writer reported that scholars think it was a fancy way of explaining how Shingon Buddhism had overcome a local Shinto cult. I wonder if it wasn't an allegory for something simpler. If indeed Kukai walked here seeking his salvation, couldn't it be that he experienced something like what I was feeling? That on the way up, all was burning. My mind, my body, every muscle on fire, my thoughts churning... and now, standing here, feeling the wind brush away the flush from my face, the remoteness stilling my mind, feeling it all just fall away down the steep sides of this mountain... It felt like the ultimate quenching of some crazy burning thirst. The dissolution of all of the questions I've been asking... the smoothing of all the anxiety, knowing it was all going to be resolved in beautiful order. I stood there for a long time before going to get my nokyo-cho stamped.

On the way down to the ryokan, it was so steep it was easier to jog at points... My mood was conducive to the skipping along anyway. Now, sitting here in my room after a great steambath and really good meal, I am still riding the endorphin wave that came from reaching the top, reaching a really tough goal, conquering the mountain, in the best mood I've been in since starting to walk almost a week ago.

Time to sleep, now... sore, tired, and so far to go tomorrow... breakfast is at 6:30, and I'll start walking soon after, on my way to #13....

Images from Shozen-ji will haunt my dreams: golden eagle sweeping back and forth in the air below me... deep forest shadows, green glowing bamboo groves...

Goodnight....

Day One and then some...

Realizing there is still a huge gap between Wakayama and Temple 11!!! Just to fill in some blanks, here's a brief version...

I left Wakayama by ferry on my birthday, Friday the 10th. Crossing the Seto Inland Sea took a little more than 2 hours, and then, what was supposed to be a 20 minute walk from the ferry terminal to the central train station of Tokushima, Shikoku, took even longer than that. By the time I finally got downtown, I was persuaded to take a room in the city because it was far too late in the afternoon to go off to Temple 1 and begin walking. As it turned out, I spent 3 nights at the Hotel Clement (nice digs for cheaper than a Best Western!), and spent the time getting through all the issues I had about being without a real plan, being 31, being alone, etc. etc... It was harder than you might think to take that final step and begin in an entirely new mode. On the second day, I took a train over to Ryozen-ji (Temple 1) and bought all the henro gear to outfit myself for the journey: the Nokyo-cho (arguably the most important - the book in which you receive a stamp for each temple you visit - this becomes your record of the entire pilgrimage), the Kongo-tsue (walking stick with a bell - this symbolizes the Daishi himself, as he is said to accompany each henro on the trail), the funny hat (which in Japanese is actually called an umbrella - haha!), the sash, the robe, and prayer beads. I also stocked up on incense, which is supposed to be offered at each temple, and the all-important fudo, or nameslips. These are in some ways the heart of the pilgrimage; each one bears a short sutra to call on the Daishi's spirit, and you include your wish or prayer, your home, and your name, then leave one at every temple's Hondo (Main Hall) and Daishi-do as a legacy of your offering and focal point for your wish. I have so far been filling mine with wishes for practical things, for instance, for learning the way of the henro, for finding out what Buddhism means to me, for determination, for stamina, for direction... for quick healing of pain! I think of these less as prayers and more as meditations... It's tough to describe how I, very pragmatic in approach to religions in general, am trying to find a way to work within this esoteric paradigm. I find myself standing at an altar, next to folks earnest in prayer or chanting, I have my hands together, I am bowing to an image of Dainichi or Yakushi Nyorai (different incarnations of the Buddha) or even Kobo Daishi, the patron saint of Shingon Buddhism and this very pilgrimage, and I am wondering what on earth I am doing... Am I a henro or a Preten-ro, as a fellow traveler wrote on his website...? I have ended up deciding that while I am not about to jump in and start beseeching statues for my salvation, I do find a spiritual component to this journey, and maybe I feel that my actions at the altar, as a personal meditation of sorts, will help me focus on emulating the qualities that these saints and deities immortalize, might bring me closer to their nature, and to fulfilling my own wishes, rather than seeking grace from a sculpture.

And so it goes. Temple 1, 2, and 3 on the first day, Monday the 13th. I stayed at the Bandou Ryokan on the first night, eating cheap from a nearby grocery store. I think I was the only guest in the inn. The second day covered temples 4, 5 and 6 - I wanted to go to 7 where there was supposedly an onsen (hot spring) nearby, but they were booked, so I stayed at Temple 6, Anraku-ji, the Temple of Everlasting Joy. They had their own very nice onsen bath right in the temple dormitory - very nice! Dinner, breakfast, a private service and a chance to touch the Yakushi Nyorai, with the blessed mitten as a souvenir were all included in the ¥6500 lodging fee. Best deal yet!

The following day (the 15th?) I hit number 7 early in the morning, then on to 8 up in the hills, 9 back on the plain, 10, nestled way up in a valley, and then nearly back tracking to make my way down the flood-wasteland of the Yoshino River's levee toward Kamojima at the bottom of the mountain. Quite a walk. The last leg of the day was the bridge that carried me across the massive riverbed into Kamojima itself. I counted my steps, and got to 1273 upon hitting solid ground on the other side!

This brings it about up to speed... for more about Kamojima, look to the bit of intro in the previous post... Best thing about it was borrowing a bike from the ryokan and riding all over town - must have covered more distance in two hours just exploring the town than I had in 3 days walking... I felt like I was traveling at light speed! Wheeeee!

some catching up...

Today I am waiting out the rain before I begin the trek up to #12, Shozanji. It will be a long day, and I am still entirely spent from yesterday's push to make it to "base camp" at #11: Fujii-dera, Temple of Wisteria. I am not staying at the temple proper, but had originally planned on a spot halfway between 10 & 11, a rural ryokan called Kane Moon, or something phonetically similar... I ended up opting for a place closer to Fujii-dera, in the town of Kamojima, a business hotel called ACCESS. The place was brand new, and very modern, and not bad at only ¥5500, with free breakfast, free coffee anytime, and a web-surfing computer for free use in the lobby. I ended up finding my own connection thanks to the HWL2A, even if low bandwidth and slightly temperamental... Too bad I fell asleep too early to make much use of it!

I decided to stay another night, but they were booked, so I've moved about a mile up the road to the Ryokan Yoshino (the name of the massive river that creates this flood plain), a bit closer to the temple. Now I'm just around the corner, so my first accomplishment will come early in the morning! (Nice when you don't have to walk for 2 hours for the gratification of reaching the next temple!) But I won't reach 12 until much much later in the day: it is 12.9km from #11, and all in the mountains. And we aren't talking rolling hills, these are steep, rugged, volcanic formations, with lots of channels and valleys, so it will be a lot of up and a considerable amount of down. Which means that by the time i get there, I might have covered the elevation twice! Ugh.

I guess I will be missing the wisteria season, but that's fine with me; I'm glad to be traveling now while its still cool, no bugs, not too many people on the trail. And if it's this difficult to make hotel reservations now, I can only imagine what it must be like in the height of the henro season. I've already had to change plans twice because the place I wanted to stay was booked. It tends to throw a wrench into my well-rehearsed questions and answers when I'm told over the phone that there isn't any room. Usually it ends up just being a bunch of awkward pauses until they get that I don't understand, and say in simple terms: Dekimasen! Or literally: Can't do it. But surprisingly, I am picking up a lot of things I just didn't know before, even without explicit explanation. Now I can understand the difference between a night with 2 meals, and just a simple stay-over, and I know how to ask for another night in the same room. You can't imagine how much anxiety these simple things caused the first couple of days!

So between the last time I posted, and now, I've covered some real distance. The night I spent in the youth hostel in Nara, for starters, was quite an experience. The place was recommended highly, and I could see why - for a hostel it was in great shape, and clean, and the staff were very friendly. Even my bed was comfy! But the thing about hostels: the roommates.... I shared my room with a 73 year old lady who claimed to have traveled the world in her better days. I hoped we'd have a lot to talk about, she wanting to brush up on her english vocab, and me, working on my japanese... But after we got talking, it became clear that there were some pieces missing. It got really weird when she started muttering and cackling and (!!!) throwing things at me! I got assailed with a wadded up shopping bag, and some random paper trash... I really couldn't figure it out, but she didn't seem angry - she seemed just thrilled to tears with my reaction... I was so confused, and she just kept laughing and laughing, until finally I got up to leave. "Doko iku no?" Where you goin'? she asked me. I muttered I might have a bath, and ran out.

After a cigarette in the dining hall to cool off, I went to the public bath up the hall. Japanese style, where you sit on a stool and shower/bathe, and then hop in the tub with everyone else. When I got there, I was shocked at two things: 1, how COLD it was in there - you'd think they were using it as a walk-in cooler! And 2, my bathing buddy. The old coot had beat me to it. She was just getting in the tub when I came in. I, however, was not about to appear squeamish, and so, freezing my buns off, I grabbed a stool and pulled up to one of the faucets. I had a hell of a time getting any hot water or any pressure, and she just laughed and laughed at my futile efforts. When I thought it couldn't get any worse, she started using her wash bucket to shovel water at me from the tub. Just flinging it at me. I was at such a loss as to what on earth to do. "Onegai shimasu!!!" (If you please!!) didn't seem to do any good. Eventually I lost hold of my manners, and just yelled "DAMEDESU!" which is a not very careful nor polite way to let someone know that something is just plain wrong. She just cackled and started mocking me in this childish singsong voice - dame! hahaha, dame! She was going wild with glee, splashing and throwing water at me, and squealing with delight. Finally, I realized that the reason I couldn't get any pressure was that she had the main faucet in the tub going full blast, which was only necessary because she was emptying the tub as fast as it was filling. I somehow managed to convince her to turn it off, and got halfway through my shampoo and conditioner routine before she cranked it back on again. Eventually, I gave up, and just got into the damn tub, curled up in the fetal position, and shut my eyes. Ignoring her seemed to work at least a little. She only got in and out of the tub 2 or 3 more times, and I wondered if she wasn't trying to show me up in that the showers worked just fine for her... I just sat still and didn't say a word, until she finally left and I had all of 5 minutes to myself before the attendant was knocking and telling me it was time to close the bath for the night.

After I left the bath I went back to the dining room for another cigarette (I don't usually smoke so much!) and there was my new buddy, having a bite to eat, along with a young guy on vacation from school. They were talking a bit, commenting on the tv and whatnot, and she acted for all the world like the sweetest most with-it grandma in all the world! I couldn't believe that the crazy bit was just an act for me!!! She looked at me with a little twinkle in her evil eye, and went on chatting pleasantly about the weather with Kato-san. I made it upstairs before her, and put everything I had in my bunk and closed the curtain. I was not coming out, I was not going to talk, I was going to have some peace if it killed me. I left as early in the morning as I could!

After a first night like that, it's a wonder I didn't turn right around! I guess it's a good thing I don't have any place to stay in Tokyo, or I might not have made it this far...

So this brings us to Thursday, the 9th... I spent the entire morning on trains, transferring here and there, on my way to Koya-san. Actually, I fell asleep on the train out of Nara, and as it was an express to Osaka, I ended up riding the whole of the Osaka loop line to get back to my station... I suppose if you only had a half hour, it is not a bad way to see Osaka!

As the train headed up into the hills, it started to snow. Once we were up on the high ridges, every tree was frosted in white, and the ravines dropped away from the very side of the tracks. It was just stunning, but my pictures can't do it justice. The tracks twisted in and out of steep valleys and around the ridges so slowly that it added a real suspense to the ride. The track was only one lane wide, unlike most that I've seen here, and so we even had to wait for about 10 minutes at one station for a train coming down the mountain to pass us. After what seemed like forever, we reached the bottom of the cable car. Now, this is not like what we think of a cable car at home, no gondola or anything like that. It is a sort of trolley car built like a set of stairs, and it sits on a track with a 45 degree angle, with a 4-inch diameter cable that hauls it to the top of the track. If it sounds perilous, you should have seen it! (Pictures soon!)

I got to the top, and the little bus station, at about 1:45, and spent the rest of the day exploring the little town that is Koya-san. I remember thinking that it seemed a little bit like the japanese version of Millinocket in winter. Except that almost the entire town is consisted of over 200 temples of the Shingon Buddhist faith. The roads were narrow and covered in snow, and the "downtown" consisted of one intersection, a couple of diners, a souvenir shop, and the information center, which was about as informative as my elbow. The clerk kept telling me I was looking at the wrong map if I wanted to go to the Okunon-in (Holy of Holies) where Kobo Daishi is entombed. The problem was that the map I was reading had actual trails printed on it, even if the marked route was a separate hike, it included the area I wanted, but the tourist map he was insisting on had no such detail. I am glad I took both, I would have gotten lost without the detailed trail map. The problem with some people trying to help is that they think that all foreigners must be stupid.

The Okuno-in is the mausoleum at the very back of a vast cemetery that climbs up into an ancient cedar forest. The trees there are massive, and the silence is beautiful. In the snow, it was just idyllic. I spent more than an hour sitting behind the temple there, facing the tomb in the back, waiting for my candle to burn down, waiting for dusk to fall so that I could see the Hall of Lanterns, as it is also known, in its full glow. A little after 5pm, the monks started ringing an ancient bell and chanting sutras. One at a time, they came around to the back to say their private prayers to the Daishi. I began to wonder if I belonged here at all, or if I was an unwelcome intruder. I just sat quietly with my head down and tried to be inconspicuous. Eventually my fears faded as I heard a clack clack clack and looked up to see a pouty princess in purple stiletto cowboy boots with rabbit fur trim come sashaying down the corridor with her pierced, spiked, and disaffected boyfriend. I knew I had no reason to worry!

I caught the bus back to the cable car around 6:30, and after coming down, caught the train to Wakayama, on the Seto Inland Sea. I had no place in Wakayama lined up, since all the hostels turned out to be ridiculously far from town, and so I hung out in the downtown area by the station for a while trying to make a plan. With help via cellphone email, I hoped I could book a room from the internet, but nothing can be prepaid, so I waited... trying to decide what to do. A slightly creepy salaryman kept popping up wherever I went and trying to take me out for coffee, and I kept blowing him off, saying I was waiting for my friend. Eventually, after a little bit of polite chitchat, I stopped in at the police box I had been keeping within sight, and asked if they knew a cheap hotel. I was referred to the City Inn, and I could see it from where we were. So I was off, and I was glad to leave that guy well behind me.

On the way up the street, I noticed a very cute little hotel on a side street so I thought I'd check the price and see if it was reasonable. When I got into the lobby, there was no front desk, just a big lit-up board of pictures, one of each room - and they had no windows! I was in a LOVE HOTEL! YIKES! I had almost made it out the door when a lady came out and tried to convince me to stay by offering an overnight price that was cheaper than the posted hourly rates. I thanked her with a smile and left! City Inn Wakayama, here I come!

The City was really old and shabby, the kind of place that's just dripping in history, about which you are not at all curious. I got a tatami room big enough for 4, and it was nice just to have space to myself. I enjoyed the QUIET bath, and spent the evening with a free internet connection. I celebrated the turn of my 31st year with treats from Mister Donut. Yes, as some are glad to know, they have Mister Donut here too! d(^o^)b (two thumbs up!)

Ok, gonna post this now, so it appears in digestible chunks!!

From the beginning... Nara, the old capital

        Yesterday I left Tokyo to begin the biggest risk I've taken in all my life. It took a bit longer to disengage myself from the city than I had thought it would... I had expected to leave on Wednesday night of last week, and put it off to finish my term papers. With one deadline of Saturday, and another for Monday, I must admit I took every last allowable minute. Keep in mind that during the same timeframe most of the close friends I've made since moving to Tokyo were leaving for home, some never to return, so I had to balance time between writing and seeing people off... I will miss them all !!!

        So I moved out of the homestay on Sunday evening, and then stayed with Atsushi Sunday night so that I could finish my last paper... I wrote all night and well into the day, and finished 22 pages by about 3 o'clock - the campus closes at 4:30! By the time the day was over, I was too burnt out to even think about making arrangements for the overnight bus trip to Nara. Another delay...

        Finally Tuesday I was ready. Made the reservation, spent the day chilling by myself and packing and repacking my backpack, each time a little lighter! Around 7:30 I headed into the city by train, to meet Antonio (heading back to Spain soon - safe travels, my friend!) for dinner before leaving on the bus at 11:15pm. I got to Shibuya station, one of the biggest craziest places in the city, kind of Times Square times 50, stepped off the train and emailed (by cellphone) to announce my arrival, and then realized in a whoosh that I had left my PACK on overhead rack in the train!!! OH MY GOD, how could a person be so OBLIVIOUS???

(you dont have to laugh quite so hard...)

        Panicking, I spent an hour tracking down the right office, and after another hour of waiting, my pack was found right where I had left it, only problem was that the train was now an hour away. No matter, I was happy to know it was still there!! I guess no one would steal something they could barely lift....

        By the time I got to the other end of Tokyo, picked up the pack, and made it back in to Shinjuku Station, I had 20 mins before the bus left. Antonio and I, having lost the opportunity for dinner, commemorated the event with a "combini-beer" while waiting on the sidewalk.

        I slept most of the ride and arrived in Nara at about 6:30 am, before ANYTHING was open. Well, 2 places were open. McDonald's and Starbucks. Those of you who know me will appreciate the irony of that fact. I ended up finding a 24hr internet & manga room, and spent ¥1000 for two hours and free coffee.

        So today has been full of temples and shika (sacred deer that overrun the place). I got chased by a pack of them when I stopped for a snack in the park. My first site was Kofuku-ji (ji means temple). There was an impressive 5-story pagoda, but the grounds were underconstruction for new landscaping or something, so not too pretty.


        In addition to Kofuku-ji, I saw the awesome and famed Todai-ji, home to the biggest Buddha in Japan, the Daibutsu (literally, big buddha - what an understatement!) The thing is so incredibly huge! The building that houses it is the largest wooden structure in the whole world, even at two thirds of its original size! (Pictures soon!)

        Later in the afternoon, I went to the Nara National Museum and was given a compulsory tour in English by the lonely old guy sitting behind the desk. He was very kind, but I think I knew more about some of the pieces in there than he did!! (And that's not a lot!)

        Spending the night in a cheap youth hostel (thats a whole other story!) and off for Koya-san early in the morning - really really have looked forward to this part of the trip for so long!

        Stay tuned! - Alicia

Re: Hey can you email me

So this morning i got up and made it to breakfast for the first time
since vacation started... We left right after breakfast for Asakusa
(the traditional area of the city to the northeast) and began our
'pilgrimage' to Sensoji, one of the most famous temples in Japan. It
is home of the Asakusa Kannon, in art history, one of the coolest
pieces I've studied, and in general one of the most important
bodhisattvas in the whole Buddhist canon. The whole 10-block area of
the temple is crowded with rows and rows of 6ft wide shops and food
vendors, and as nuts as it all seemed because of the throngs of
people visiting for Oshogatsu, or the New Year ceremonies, I'm told by Otoosan it is very much like this all year.

On the way home we toured through a district that sells everything
under the sun for do-it-yourself gourmets and restaurants, including
the plastic food that everyone displays in the front of their
eateries - more expensive than you'd think! I was drooling over all
the cool stoneware and bamboo steamers! Was trying to figure out
which things wouldn't be too heavy or too large to ship home... ;-) I
guess I'll keep dreamin'....

Next we stopped in Ueno, a huge city center, one of the biggest train stations in the city, and surrounded by tons of shopping arcades,
izakayas, open-air markets, and the gigantic park that is home to
several museums including the Tokyo National. I followed Okaasan
through an enormous fish market full of things I would never buy with
dinner in mind, like live octopus, and whole sundried turtle for
about 60000Y or more than $500 each.

We came back to the home neighborhood, Kagurazaka, and struck out at 3 restaurants - all still closed for the holiday week - and ended up
having lunch in a tiny Chinese place upstairs from a locally-renowned niku-man (steamed buns with meat inside) counter. Chinese niku-man are a favorite here, and so the restaurant is always crowded
because it is run by the same folks that make the famous buns.

All in all not a bad for being home by 2:30! Now its really really time to hit the books; japanese exam in the morning, even if it is
the first day back! I'll be heading shortly to a nice coffee shop
nearby where the second floor is always quiet. Nice place to study...

More soon...
-Alicia

Scavenger Hunt

9/19/05
On Monday morning we all met at the campus and were split into groups and turned loose on the city. It was a bit intimidating at first, but I suppose it was a great way to see a bunch of stuff, get to know a few classmates, and get used to using the subway system. We had a really good time, thanks to the people in our group all being rather cool and laid back. Some groups did not gel so well, and I doubt had as much fun.

I got some really cool pictures of the city that day, and it was actually one of the last days I took my camera out with me. It was SO HOT, we were all sweating to death, especially with all 5 of us crammed into a purikura (photo booth) for the obligatory group picture. I think we did a lot more walking than we needed to, but we saw a lot more like that than we would have if we'd spent the entire day on the subway.

By the end of the day, we had hit a huge list of sites: Yasukuni Shrine, the Budokan, Tokyo Dome, Akihabara (Electric Town), the seedy open-air market at Ueno, Tokyo Central Station, the Imperial Palace gardens, Tokyo Tower, Shibuya, Spain-zaka (don't ask me what the hell that was...) and Harajuku. We didn't make it to everything on the list, but we did get to have lunch and beers at an itzakaya in an alley under the train tracks near Ueno. I have to say, that was the most fun of the day. After meeting back up with the big group back at campus at the end of the day, a few of us ended up going back to that same neighborhood to have a couple more beers. I guess the owner of the place liked us, because he sat in the far corner of what little bit of pavement in front of the counter was staked out for seating and kept sending little sampler plates of delicious stuff over to our table. None of us were quite sure of the etiquette required in that kind of situation, but the guy seemed full of smiles, so I guess we didn't screw up that bad!

I left a bit before 6 to make it home in time for dinner. I was quickly catching on that Okaasan is an excellent cook, and I didn't want to miss whatever she had in store for me. I had been nervous that I might find some stuff unpalatable, but I've been thrilled with almost everything she's put in front of me, and even eaten things I never would have dreamed of trying. For instance: little soy-pickled dried baby fishes, about 2 cm long - they taste like fish jerky. Or, even tinier little white wisps of fishes, too small to have features except black dots for eyes. These were served with breakfast. Mmmm. Tonight, I ate squid sashimi. I've also eaten some really tasty small grilled sakana (fish) cooked whole - you even eat the bones! There are only a few things I've had to pass on. One was the aloe-flavored yogurt. (Ech.) Another was the surprising way the sukiyaki was served the other night. Sukiyaki is a flame burner on the table over which a pot sits and cooks a whole mess of yummy stuff like shaved beef, mushrooms, greens, onions, etc. This part - delicious! But along side, you are given a raw egg to scramble a bit in a little bowl, and you are supposed to pick bits out of the pot and swirl them in your raw egg to cool them before chowing down. No thank you! I felt guilty, but I just couldn't do it. I've been trying hard to push the boundaries of how I can stand an egg, because they just don't care to cook them very much here, omelets or otherwise, and I've been forcing myself to eat even the runniest of egg dishes, but just plain raw, I could not do. I was relieved that Otoosan seemed to have a little joke on me, when he said something to the effect that Americans couldn't eat egg sashimi and giggled. But overall, the food has been one of my favorite parts of this whole experience so far, so I'm sure I'll have more to tell later!

Meeting the Parents

9/16/05
After another full morning of orientation, we were given a few hours to chill, and I spent them gift-wrapping the o-miyage (souvenirs) from home for my new host family. I was really looking forward to meeting them; they looked really kind in the photo I was given on Wednesday.

We were all herded into an auditorium and lined up on stage, where we had to take the microphone one at a time and introduce ourselves to the audience of all the host moms who had come to pick us up. It was a little awkward, because it felt like we were being paraded about, and not many of us knew much of what to say, except, I'm so and so, Hajimemashite! (Nice to meet you.) My new host parents speak almost no english, except for a choice word or two, and my limited Japanese vocabulary always seems to disappear at moments under pressure (ie. oral examinations and, now, meeting my new Okaasan.) We didn't have much we could say to each other, and so she just chatted away in Japanese, maybe thinking I understood her. She had a little electronic dictionary, and was looking up words nonstop.

Because the apartment is close to campus (unlike many others who have to ride the train for an hour or even more) we were supposed to walk, but my stupid carry-on was prohibitively, grotesquely, heavy. She telephoned Otoosan, who came and picked us up.

I was still feeling a lot of weight from the night before, there having been no resolution, no way to solve the fact that my life at home had just been blown to bits. The fact that it was entirely my fault made it even harder to cope with. I spent the first few hours just trying to smile and nod when ever I heard a word I recognized, but I was dying inside.

My host parents were so incredibly kind to me those first couple of days. I know I must have seemed horribly disappointed with the whole situation, because of the distress I was in, and I was so aghast that they might think I was ungrateful or unhappy with the arrangement that I made my very best effort to explain what I could of the messed up situation, by looking up words in my little pocket dictionary. I think I left them entirely confused, and thinking I was just daft, and a bit homesick. Oh well, I tried.

It turns out that I must have gotten my story across well enough, because I found out in a round about way through my classmates that all the host moms like to gossip. By Monday, half of the group new all about my sordid soap opera, thanks to the hostmom hotline. Guess that is a lesson well learned.

Flight to Tokyo

9/13/05
The flight was seemingly never ending. I think I sat in that one seat for something like 14 hours. I only slept for about 2 of those hours. Caught a few lame movies on the mini-viewer, and watched Hitchhiker's Guide two or three times, I think.

9/14/05
When I landed in Tokyo, it was mid-afternoon, and I felt like wet cardboard. I walked with my insanely heavy carry-on (I will never to do this again without wheels on my damn carry-on) and my laptop bag, and my pillow, for what seemed like miles, but I suppose it couldn't have been more than a mile, or a mile and a half, at most. (The airport was HUGE!) Customs and immigration were a blur, but easy enough. I finally made it to the point where all the CIEE people were corralled in a little waiting area, and we all sat there bleary-eyed for close to two hours waiting until everyone arrived. I bought an electrolyte sports beverage called Pocari Sweat from a vending machine, trying to fill my gatorade craving, and was rewarded with something that tasted remarkably like the name; not much flavor, a little salty... Well, at least now I know better. By the time they put us on a bus, and told us it was more than an hour's drive to the hotel, I was barely cognizant enough to look out the window.

We got to the hotel, checked in, and were thereby informed that we were on our own for dinner. I was not especially hungry, but I wanted to eat something just to try to feel human for a little bit. Most of us ate dinner in one form or another from the 7-11 on the corner near the hotel. That's right, my first meal in Tokyo was from 7-frickin-11. A tad disappointing. But, they had an impressive range of noodle cups and bentos, so I just tried to pick something that looked like it wouldn't kill me, and make the best of it. I took a bowl of noodles with broth packet back to the hotel room, and tried to heat it in the microwave. Then I figured out that the "microwave" was actually some kind of safe with a digital lock. Yeah, I felt a little dumb. And, I had to eat cold noodle soup. I didn't care that much, I was too tired.

9/15/05
We all met in the lobby early for the brief walk to campus and our first orientation session. In retrospect, the amount of important information that we've all had to figure out on our own since then makes the stuff they armed us with seem rather meaningless.

Later, we all piled back on the bus for a nighttime tour of Tokyo and dinner at a cool place that served everything on a stick. We got to watch them prepare each different item in the center of the dining area, and dole out skewers of this and that to everyone. It was all very tasty. Before heading back to the hotel, we went to Roppongi Hills, a new tower complex full of shopping malls and clubs, a huge hotel, galleries, and a spectacular observation deck on the 52nd floor. Our tickets to the observation deck also got us into an exhibit of sprawling miniature cities, Tokyo, New York, Shanghai, etc. New York is completely dwarfed by Tokyo. I was floored. Manhattan took up one conference-size table, and Tokyo took up two rooms! I snapped two pictures before I was informed photography wasn't allowed. Our tickets did not, unfortunately, gain us access to a special exhibit of Da Vinci's Leicester Codex, on loan from Mr. Gates himself.

I took photos of the sprawling lights of Tokyo, trying to get exposure and focus fine tuned, until my batteries died. None of the shots came out that well, because I don't have a tripod, and had to opt for the shaky long exposure to get any color. Only one or two photos are clear enough to bother sharing, but I'll never forget the view of such dense neon that just went on and on and on... I couldn't help but feel a little giddy at the idea that this insanity was going to be my home for the next year.

The rest of the night, back at the hotel, was a hell of relationship disaster, homesickness, and heartache. I went to bed spent and ruined, wondering how I would ever feel well enough to face the beginning of this year, or the next day, for that matter.

But don't worry, it gets better... ;)

Seattle

I realized that if I don't get some posts up relevant to first impressions they might be lost forever. Dates here won't match up, but I'm going to try to start at the beginning! And once I've caught up... should be easier to keep current.

So at the beginning of my trip, I stopped over in Seattle for a few days, to decompress from frantic packing and preparations, and visit with my friend Rachel who's been living there for a few years. I flew on Friday, Sept 9th, (seems so long ago now!) and left Boston in the late afternoon, so the flight followed the sunset for hours. The time difference was only 3 hours but lack of sleep for days in advance left me very susceptible to jetlag, it seemed. I landed at SEA-TAC at about 9pm, where Rachel and her boyfriend met me and took me back to her place. It was hours before we made it back, as there had been a nasty accident on the highway - I had seen it from the air, and wished I had thought to suggest an alternate route!

Seattle really impressed me with the way it is such a hoppin' city and yet is mostly constituted by quiet neighborhoods full of funky houses. It srtuck me that most people seem to put a lot of effort into landscaping their yards - the overall effect gives everything a bit of a storybook feeling. Rachel's house was in just such a neighborhood, and the house is very cool! I can see why she and her housemates have been in that same place for years - I wouldn't want to give it up either!

From her place, we walked a few blocks toward Green Lake (a man-made pond with a park around it) and had gigantic burritos at a neat little mexican place. It was such a treat to find good food so late at night - in Bangor, nothing is open past 9! On Saturday, Rachel took me downtown to try to get some errands and things knocked off my list, and we ended up both getting haircuts. I wanted to compliment the transition to a new lifestyle with a bit of a new look. Well, I got more than I bargained for, because a bit later I got attacked at the department store and subjected to a makeover at the expensive makeup counter. The result was a pretty impressive contrast to my usual look, but note that in this picture, I am wearing my skeptical face!


On Sunday evening, we went sushi-bar-hopping! What fun! We started at a kaiten (conveyor-belt style) place called Blue C, which had a Tokyo JR theme, with all of the plates ringed in the colors of the different train lines. I wish I had studied the names a little better, I might have given myself a head start learning how to get around here! We didn't have conveyor belt sushi, but sat in a little balcony bar looking down over it, and enjoyed designer martinis and cheap Happy Hour sushi!

From Blue C, we walked a bit further up into the Tremont neighborhood, and went into a really fancy place (name??) where we stuffed ourselves on the best sushi I've ever had. The pear martini was a really good match too! After dinner, we walked around a bit and stopped into this place called Postmark Gelato - this place was great! Really excellent gelato, and a great collection of funky, wacky postcards. I stocked up, but will have to go there again on my way home next year!

Unfortunately, a lot of Seattle escaped my camera - we rode buses everywhere, and the clouded window of a city bus does not frame the best shots. But hopefully the few I got will be enough to give a cool impression of the city...

Monday evening, my last night in Seattle, Rachel and I treated ourselves to a high-class meal. We went to the Brooklyn (I think that was the name!), a nice bistro with a rich art-deco kind of feel to it, and ordered the most decadent things we could find on the menu: roasted oysters, crabcakes, filet mignon, seafood ravioli, etc. Everything was so incredibly good - when I get a real job someday, I'm going to be sure to go back there!

Leaving Seattle was kind of hard, and not only because I was really really leaving this time, or because Seattle was a ton of fun (which it was!), but because we did not have a ride to the airport this time!! Rachel helped me schlepp my year's worth of luggage across town and out to SEA-TAC all by bus, not counting the parts on foot. It was kind of a nightmare! (Thanks Rachel, you are an angel!!) On the way to the airport, I got the briefest, vaguest glimpse of Mt. Rainier out of the bus window. It was SOOOO much bigger than I ever imagined it would look! The scale is incredible, it takes up like a third of your view of the horizon! Maybe next time, I'll have a chance to get a clearer look at it.



Thanks for putting up with me Rachel! (Me and my soap operas, that is!) Looking forward to visiting again! ;-)

Update...

Hello to all...

I've arrived in Tokyo, and am going through the hardest stuff... It's really really hard. I'm not a happy camper right now. Sorry to disappoint...

To be fair, I have to admit something: I've ruined my relationship with Billy. We've broken up, following his realization that I've been in the process of discovering that I couldn't go on with him. He found out in the worst way, as I was not honest about my feelings. If any of you know him and care about him, please let him know.

Please forgive me, and pray for me that I will sort this out soon, and be able to pick up with the best adventure I ever imagined, and begin to find the positive things in being stranded in an unfamiliar culture without the ability to communicate.

I'll try to post more cheerful stuff soon.

Feeling kind of lost,
Alicia