what about bob?

Karis and I spent Monday in Asuke, its this neat little town in the Mountains. I really enjoyed being out in the Mountains, seeing the nature all around us... we ate lunch on a rock by a rushing river! It made me so happy! Also because it was the warmest, sunniest day we've had since I arrived so it was good to be outside.

There is a lot more to the town of Asuke, but we spent most of our time in an old village where the buildings are all traditional Japanese style. We were able to try our talent at paper making and weaving bamboo. It was really really fun!

Kleenex: here its used for everything but wiping your nose! Everybody here seems to carry one of those little ten packs around with them. They use it for drying their hands, or a spill, or for napkins (they don't often have napkins at the table). Its not really socially acceptable to wipe your nose. They think its gross to put a snotty tissue in your pocket, and they are right. But I have heard numerous people snort their snot up their nose, into their throat and swallow it. Thats pretty gross too. I guess dealing with boogers is a gross thing no matter what culture you live in!! :)



So, we are leaving for Tokyo tonight (in about 45 minutes actually) so this will be my last post... hopefully its been fun and hopefully I will update about tokyo when I get back to Winnipeg. We are taking a night bus and will arrive at about 6am. We plan to go to the fish market right away and then also see the sumo stables (yes, the houses for the sumo wrestlers are really called stables)... so there will be much to talk about!!

... He is Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter! It has really been an interesting experience being in Japan over Easter. Easter is such foreign concept here, almost everything about it. The don't really know the word "easter" and most people don't know why its celebrated and what bunnies have to do with anything. I have to admit I have been stumped a couple of times with questions like "why do you have an Easter bunny?" I admit I had to search the internet for an answer to that one. I found varying answers, but the one I think makes some sense is that early Christians tried to coincide their holidays with pagan festivals so their celebrations wouldn't be as noticed. Apparently Eastre was the name of a goddness who was celebrating in spring with focus on new life and reproduction (hence where the rabbit came from). So there's a little lesson for you.

Last night we had youth at Karis' church and we had hid chocolate eggs and bunnies. When we told them that, one girl was like "What??" and she was so confused and so Karis started leading her on saying that there were chunks of rabbit in the chocolate (which actually wouldn't be that wierd for here:) ) or that it was a real bunny coated in chocolate! Ha! It was funny, but that gives you an idea of how foreign the concept is here for everything that we are used to about easter. We also dyed Easter eggs with some of her English classes. It was neat to see how excited the kids were because they had never heard of or done anything like it before. Even when the parents saw it they were asking how we did it.

Okay, back to some explanations from the other day...

Barefeet: Well, feet in general is a big thing here. You never wear your shoes into someones house, you always put on slippers. The church here has a big bin of slippers so everyone who comes in takes off their shoes and puts on slippers. But then you also have to wear different slippers in the bathroom, because the bathroom is "dirty." So, I don't know if this is exactly related but the other day Karis and I were both wearing sandles and a lot of people were looking at us and commenting or just staring.

Names of Cars: There are a lot of cars here with English names such as Naked, March, Athletic, and Latte. Most of the cars here are from Japanese car companys, I've seen a few German cars (VW's and BMW's) but I've only seen one Ford, and no other American companys. Also, the cars here are all different shapes and styles from the ones we have. Most are smaller and cube shaped. Oh yeah, one thing I didn't know is that they drive on the left side of the road here (like England) so that takes some getting used to... even for walking because I look the wrong direction to check if a lane is clear before crossing the street!

Cherry Blossoms: Or "Sakura" as they are known here. They bloom every April and they are a big, and I mean BIG, deal here. The part that is different from home (other than the trees themselves) is how much the Japanese take time out to view them. Every year, almost everyone goes to take a trip to see some cherry blossoms and have a picnic. They even have a special word for having a picnic while watching cherry blossoms (hanami). There is such a love of beauty and nature here. For examples... Beauty: In food its more important that it looks good than the taste. So much of the food has intricate details and great presentation. Nature: If something (a rock or tree for example) is particularly beautiful it will get a special place in a garden or temple grounds, just so people can admire. To sit and watch the beauty in the world is a really great part of the culture here that I hope I can take home with me.

so i've been in Japan for a couple of days now... and i feel like its both so similar and yet so different from home.

here are some ways that Japan is different than Canada:

Toliets. Yep. First of all, the "western style" toliets all have "washing features." When I first got to Karis' house and went to the bathroom it had a panel of buttons on one side so I thought that one of them meant flush (of course I couldn't read anything because it was all written in characters). The water started spraying up at me! No matter what button I pressed, water sprayed and it still didn't flush! Finally I had to close the lid and go ask Karis! It was quite a mess!

Then there a Japanese style toliets, where essentially you squat. Yesterday on the bus tour we went on (which went to some really Japanese parts of Japan (ie so english letters on anything, no western anything)), I had to use the Japanese style toliets! I was able to do it, but I still can't use them "properly".

The other funny bathroom thing about the bus tour, is that it was really important to go to the bathroom every stop, even if the stops were all only 30 or 60 minutes apart!

Vending Machines they have them everywhere for everything! Including vending machines with french fries and chicken huggets!!

Some others things I wanted to comment on were:
bare feet
names of cars
cherry blossoms

and my new motto (stolen from Karis)
"I'll eat it if I can!"

But I have to go so I will try to explain more later!!

This is one of the first picures I took after I arrived in Osaka. I am on the train, heading towards Kyoto and I started to see cherry blossom trees! There is one right in the middle of this picture (its very hard to see but I was so excited to be here and to see the trees in real life). They only bloom for about two weeks so that was perfect timing, too.


This is some yucky fish food they tried to feed me on the plane!! I figured I wasn't in Japan yet so I didn't have to try anything I didn't want to!! The guy beside me on the flight seemed to really like it though... he ate his bowl plus his friends. I almost offered him mine, but I didn't know if that was nice or creepy so I didn't say anything. Maybe he wanted to ask for it but was scared!! Ha!



This is me on the train to Kyoto. At this point I have been traveling for about 22 hours and I was really tired. I almost feel asleep but I knew I couldn't because then I would miss my stop and where would I be??
I had some trouble buying a ticket. Its so hard when you don't even recognize the characters of the language. I got to the machine and started pressing buttons but none of them made any sense to me!! So I had to wait in a line where I could actually talk to someone. That was challenging too, but we made it through.
Have you ever seen a Serta Sheep? Karis thinks my eyes look remarkably similar to a Serta! :)




We went to this beef bowl restaurant when I arrived in Nagoya. This is a chicken bowl and my first official meal in Japan. Neither of us are actually sure of what the brownish stuff at the bottom of the picture is, we think maybe it was a ground meat of some kind? What did I think of it? Well.. um... it was cheap so that was really good! (The train getting here was SO expensive!!)

So I finally found Karis! I made it to Nagoya. I was about 45 minutes later than we had planned but that's all good! We found each other! We went to walk around Nagoya for a little because I needed fresh air! Unknowingly, I had stepped onto a smoking car on the bullet train so I sat with a chain smoker for 37 minutes! It was gross! I could have gotten up and gone to the next car, but I had a huge backpack and two other bags so I didn't feel like moving. Nagoya is a city of about 3 million people, so it was pretty cool with big flashy billboards and stuff. It was still another hour to get to Karis' place in Toyota.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, its been busy. Maybe that's just an excuse, I don't know. Anyway, I am going to Japan!! 3 more sleeps! I am going to visit Karis for two weeks and I am really excited!

I am leaving on Saturday, at 7am and then I don't arrive in Osaka until 3pm on Sunday. Then I have to take two different trains before I meet Karis in Nagoya. I will be traveling for 20 hours or so. I am exhausted just thinking about it! I am nervous about navigating the Japan Rail system, but Karis thinks I can do it!

Basically, I am writing to say that I hope to post a lot while I am in Japan! I will hopefully have many daily experiences to tell you all about and hopefully I can include pictures! So stay tuned... more will follow in the next couple of days!