Monday, August 21, 2006

Happy Birthday to Lezlie (it's your birthday in the USA right now). Hope you have a great 22nd, wish I could be there with you! Lots have happened since my last entry. This one will probably be quite lengthy. I had a prefectural (same idea as a state) orientation from Wednesday to Friday afternoon – everyone that is in my prefecture had to attend. It was a good opportunity to meet a lot of new people and see how all the folks I met at the Tokyo orientation were doing. It was basically just a bunch of workshops and information that I will stash away into my closet and then go on a treasure hunt for to find again when i need them. It was okay for the most part. It was held at a government building and it had really horrible rules. Girls and boys were separated by floors – boys were not allowed on the girls floor at all. Then, we had a curfew at 11:00pm. Everyone needed to be in their rooms and not allowed to socialize or go anywhere besides the bathroom. They actually had a guard to make sure that this was followed. We're all at least 21 years old here – as old as 40 – do you think we really need to have a curfew? So bazaar. My first night there I had a little bit too much to drink which made my second day not so enjoyable. The second night, I laid off the booze and watched a Japanese movie called Pulse. It reminded me a bit of the ring, which was originally a Japanese film before Hollywood turned it American. If you are able to find a copy of Pulse, I do recommend seeing it. I didn't fully understand everything but it was a good, creepy movie nonetheless. There are English subtitles - no worries. My last day there was short and then a group of us headed to Sendai City, which is the capital of my prefecture. We paid for a hotel room and roamed around. There were 7 of us in total but we often broke apart and gathered back together. It was nice to be in a city after being so rural and isolated for so long. The 7 of us all are within 40 minutes of one another. We started drinking at our hotel room and then went to get sushi for dinner. It was the best vegetarian sushi I have had since being here – I was thrilled. Proceeding dinner, we started going to the bars – the first one we attempted going to, the bartender would not let us in. As we were leaving, we noticed blood splatters on the floor – it was pretty nasty and creepy. We booked it out of there and ended up at a bar called Eleanor. I had a lot of fun at this bar – it was nice and relaxed – not tourist central, just a little cute bar – but expensive. After that, we went to some restaurant/bar – this one was okay. I was having fun at first, but by the time it we left I was more than ready to get out of there. After that, we went to some dance club – which to me, sucked. I left early and ended up getting lost. I tried finding some English speakers but no one I encountered spoke English- so I started just showing my hotel key to see if they recognized the name – no luck. Finally, I flagged down a taxi and thankfully, he drove me to where I needed to be. This kind man did not even allow me to pay for the ride. Again, a sign of the great Japanese hospitality to foreigners.

In the morning (Saturday), we all went our own ways. Three of us – Brian (22, from Wisconsin, lives about 20 mins from me) and Dave (21 from UK, lives about 40 minutes from me and myself decided to check out this place called Matsushima since it's on the way back to Ishinomaki on the train. Matsushima is the #3 on the list of the best things to see in Japan. To give you an idea – According to my Lonely Planet guide, “Matsushima Bay features around 250 islands covered in pines that have been moulded by wind and rock formations that have been misshapen by the ceaseless slapping of waves, resulting in uncanny monuments to natural forces. This conglomeration is one of Japan's Nihon Sankei (Three Great Sights).”

We arrived in Matsushima and found a place for $2.00 USD to store our bags – which was great. Checked out the map and got ourselves acquainted with the place. The first thing we saw was this beautiful walkway. Along each side of the path were huge cedar trees (which by the way, are my most favorite natural aspect of Japan thus far). There is a famous temple that we paid 7000 Yen ($7.00 USD) to check out. It's name is Zuiganji. Some history on the temple-

“Zuiganji's formal name is Shoto Seiryuzan Zuigan Enpukuzenji and it is a Zen temple. It was founded by Jikaku-Daishi Ennin in the Heian period (828), and was named Enpukuji. It originally belonged to the Tendai sect.

In the middle of the 13^th century (Kamakura Period), the feudal lord Hojo Tokiyori had Hoshin Shosai change the Japanese characters of Enpukuji from Tendai Sect Temple to Zen Temple but the pronunciation still remained the same, Enpukuji. The temple prospered during the Kamakura and Muromachi period under the protection of the central government but declined during the feudal wars between 1447 and 1600. At the beginning of the Edo period (early 17^th century), Enpukuji was revived by the feudal lord Date Masamune (he is like the staple man of my area).

In 1604, Masamune began restructuring the temple. Quality lumber, such as cedar, was brought in from Mt. Kumano in Wakayama Prefecture and all the best carpenters were gathered from Kyoto and Wakayama. The entrance and corridors of the main building and the Zen kitchen (Kuri) have now been designated as important national cultural assets. In 1636, on his deathbed, Masamune entrusted the famous head monk Ungo – Zenji to take over his work and continue developing the temple. By the middle of the Edo period, more than 30 temples had been built, including Entsu – in , Yotoku -in and Tenrin – in. Matsushima was officially recognized as a “Temple Town”. Of course, after 360 years of wear and tear the walls became very jaded, so in 1985, a 10-year project to restore and preserve them began. This was completed in 1995.

Did I bore you enough? Ha. The temple is absolutely stunning – it is by far the largest temple I have seen (I've only been here for 3 weeks though). There are 10 traditional Japanese rooms. I do have pictures of the outside, which is white, but the inside there were no pictures allowed. Many of the walls were gold background with pictures of humans gathering around trees, animals like peacocks and animated flowers. There was a room that was the mausoleum for Samurai that committed suicide once their leader – Date died. All the rooms really look the same except for their wall paintings. I could never distinguish the difference for what rooms were used for except the signs on the walls informed me. One room was used only for Date clan relatives, another room was considered the “main room” (maybe like a living room, I'm not too sure) and the other room I remember was used exclusively by feudal lords. There is a corridor that was used as a kitchen as well. Then above each room, there were these intense hand carved sculpting's. They are called “transom sculptings.” They are hand carved out of wood and each one was different – each had different significance. The bird sculptures are to symbolize good fortune. Some of these birds are pheasants, cranes, and peacocks.

After the temple, we headed to Seiryuden which is an art museum. The outside was created to represent a sake brewery. The museum contained 30,000 items which are considered national cultural treasures. Most of them are artifacts from Zuiganji's temple. Some items that were in there were paintings, statues, letters, calligraphy, and ancient things like cups. I didn't really know anything that I was looking at because it was not a bilingual museum. Across the way from the museum was a Buddhist altar. It was really nice in there and many Japanese were praying. My first impression was wow, this must be really holy. Then to the right of the altar was this poster of some woman advertising something. I had to laugh and think wow, even temples can't escape the wraths of capitalism.

The whole reason we really wanted to get to Matsushima this weekend was to see another temple named Godai-do. This temple is on one of the islands and is open to be viewed every 33 years – this being the year of viewing. We ran into some people we knew (us westerners stick out like sore thumbs amongst the thousands of Japanese) who had just gone through Godai-do. They didn't highly recommend it. It cost them $20 USD to stand in a line for an hour or more and then get rushed through the temple in 3-5 minutes. To us, we decided that even though we won't get this chance again until we are 55, it just seems ridiculously commercialized to do something like that. As much as it would have been cool to say, I was in Japan and got to see Godai-do, it's not worth it so much. Others may think differently.

After that decision, we walked down the beautiful Cedar tree pathway and saw some caves through the trees. We headed over there and checked em out. These caves were used by Zen priests to go pray in. They were quite high and I don't know if they were natural or if they are man made. We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed up a 25 minute hike to try to get to the “best viewing spot” of those 250 pined islands. We headed up to Saigyo Modoshi No Matsu Park which literally means “the pine tree which compelled Saigyo to depart from Matsushima”. There is this pine tree (that we saw) where a chance meeting between Saigyo and a young Zen monk took place. It evolved into a debate about Zen principles and Saigyo lost that debate. He felt depressed and so he left Matsushima. Interesting history? Ha. Anyways, I blabbered on about the history because that most stunning view that we were hoping for was not there because it was so foggy. We saw 2 of the 250 islands. Bummer. I'll be back there again, don't you worry.

We hiked back down and went to Entsuin aka a Zen garden really. It holds the mausoleum of Date Masamune, a dry landscape garden, rose garden, cemetery, and a pond. If there weren't so many people there, the place would be absolutely tranquil. I want that garden in my backyard. It was amazing – one of my favorite places I've been to. Entsuin was built in 1646 by part of the Date clan. It is also considered a national cultural asset.

That was the end of our tour of Matsushima because we were all really tired from our night before in Sendai and the weather wasn't particularly wonderful. There were a few things that I didn't do that I would like to do later. You can go out on some of the islands, or take a boat to go between all the islands, or see a Japanese tea house, or check out other museums/aquariums, an observation tower, more shrines, etc. If you come visit me, it's pretty much guaranteed I will take you here. It's so close, beautiful and culturally significant.

It felt good to get home after being gone for 3-4 days. Saturday, my house actually started to feel like home. What a great feeling that is. I wanted to do laundry since I haven't done any since getting here. I tried figuring it out but it just would not work. I knocked on a neighbors door and asked for help. Since we couldn't understand each other it took about 40 minutes until we got it figured out. My laundry machine is ghetto and I think it broke my hot water. I have to turn the water on for each 3 stages of the cycle that involve filling my machine. Otherwise, it leaks all over my floor. How nice. It actually really sucks because I can't just throw laundry in and leave. I have to be here to turn my water on and off. When I realized this, I did 4 loads of laundry since I knew I wasn't going to be going anywhere.

Sunday

Brian and I agreed on a time to meet at my post office so we could explore together since I still don't have a car, phone, or Internet. It ended up being one of my best days here. He took me to try to get a cell phone – but I couldn't because my temporary Gaijin papers weren't good enough. He showed me around Ishinomaki since I still haven't really been there except to the Board of Education. We decided to check out the “green spot” on his road map. We found what is called “Hiyoriyama Park”. We parked and walked around a bit trying to find a good view. We eventually found one by climbing to the top of a playground. I took pictures of Ishinomaki, but again, the haze didn't make for great pictures. We didn't stay long – but once I have my car and am confident enough to drive up a hill that steep of a grade in manual then I would like to check out what else it has to offer. I saw a few other trails that turned that maybe leads to water or something.

After that we headed out to Wakuya to see remnants of an old castle. I'm not sure if we actually found the castle – but we think we may have. We definitely found the museum and so we paid the $2.00 and went in. Again, it wasn't bilingual so I am not too sure what we were looking at. On the way out, the man offered us pickles. Pickles here are much more different than pickles at home. They are sooooooo salty. They are not pickled with vinegar, but maybe salt water. We walked around a bit more around the castle/museum and took pictures. After that, we went to Homac – Wal*Mart like store. I picked up a few household items I needed. Then, we headed back to Monou – we had spent much of the day just driving and seeing our area. We parked at my house and went for a walk to this shrine that we saw while driving me home. We don't know if it is still open but it was really cute. After that, we stopped at the liquor store where I bought some Yellow Tail wine. Mmmmmm. Brian stayed for a bit and then left. I spent the evening trying to figure out my hot water thing because it's broken. It's still broken.

Now, it's Monday and no one has given me a schedule so I have no idea if i am supposed to be at work. I wrote this thinking that maybe someone would stop by my house to let me know. I got up early to get ready in case someone stopped by to pick me up for work. It's nice that I don't have to be at work, but it still sucks because i can't leave because I don't know what the heck I'm supposed to be doing right now. Oh, there are so many unanswered questions still. Today is payday though – I got paid to do absolutely nothing so far. Haha! Classes start in a week. I am nervous!

I feel completely defeated. No one stopped by today to let me know what is going on. I don't know if i am supposed to be at the BOE or if I'm supposed to be at my Junior High School. It is the most beautiful day I have seen since Tokyo, the sun is actually shining and since I didn't want to leave my house because I wanted to wait until someone stopped by to let me know what is going on; I decided to place a lawn chair outside and sit in the sun. I also feel guilty that I am getting paid for doing nothing, so I brought out my Team Teaching Handbook and read the entire thing. I took notes, bookmarked pages that had great ideas and hilited suggestions. After that, I got out the new ALT(alternative language teacher) handbook and read some more suggestions and things you can do in the classroom. After sitting outside reading these books, getting an awesome tan, I decided well today has been productive, maybe I'll make a really good dinner. I went through my “How to remain vegetarian in Japan guidebook” and picked a meal that didn't look too difficult to make. I also planned on inviting Brian over for dinner to thank him for taking me around for 8 hours yesterday in his car and saving me from my solitude. I hop on Basuketto-san and navigate the back roads to my overpriced grocery store (the main road is suicide on a bike). I spend over an hour finding the ingredients. Spending 10 minutes trying to find how to read Paprika in Japanese before realizing that the spice bottles have subtitles in English. So, I pick out my half dozen spices, find the cheapest ones, grab a few other things I need, low fat yoghurt now replaces milk for my cereal because they only sell whole milk here (gag), my 6 slices of white bread, because they don't sell more than that nor can I get any other type of bread (which is convincing me to buy a breadmaker soon maybe), my 6 brown eggs that they keep unrefrigerated, my overpriced vegetables, spaghetti noodles which cost me $3.00, some can that i think could be spaghetti sauce, olive oil, tofu, onions, garlic, and that was probably it. All the while being stared at – when i make eye contact with these people, instead of smiling at me, they turn away quickly. I couldn't find black olives or raisins (the recipe called for it). So, I spend $30.00 on my groceries which consists of dinner for tonight, breakfast for the next few days and hopefully enough bread for lunch for the next 3 days. I get home feeling pretty good, excited that my trip was successful and that I figured out most of the back roads. I try to figure out how I am going to call Brian (since I have no phone still) and then look and realize, I have no oven. I'd say at least $20 of my grocery store visit was to make this oven recipe. What I purchased is so insignificant to be used in other ways. It's this corn and tofu casserole with a bunch of spices and eggs. I'm so aggravated. The only way I can release my feelings is through writing this and hoping that someone reads it. It's not even 4:00 so I'm sure something more will happen today – i'm still hoping someone will stop by so that I know what the hell my schedule is. I'm so annoyed – everyone else has their car on the road, a cell phone or a land line, cable TV, internet, etc. I don't know why it's taking so long for everything to be settled for me. I just want a routine.