Change

So, as you might have guessed, things have been picking up around here, and I feel a lot more spiritually and mentally healthy. Also, this is the Sunday of our first "regular" 2-day weekend in a few weeks and I have yet to start my homework, really, which I count as a good sign because it means I'm getting out and doing things :) And man, is that true.

As I related in my last post, last weekend kept me busy enough that I had a little bit of catching up to do with homework this past week (which really just means that I did it at a regular rate like a regular person, reading in the few hours between classes and doing my Japanese homework the night before instead of like 3 days early), so I spent a lot of time with my nose in books and not a lot of time speaking Japanese. However, I got to see some very impressive documentaries--half-hour segments created by graduate students from USC--and hear from the makers, thereby getting inspired to be bold and try my hand at anthropological film-making rather than simply taking photos. Shortly after deciding to make this change, my subject of course changed too, and I intend to make a film on Christian churches (perhaps only one) in Japan.

Speaking of, I was able to adventure to the far side of Osaka with a friend to a tiiiiny church that just started as a branch of the Tokyo Church of Christ. Of course, it was pretty awesome just getting there,starting 15 minutes late, making three or four train line transfers, walking into suburbia from the last one, AND arriving at the church twenty minutes early, but I've gotta say, this friend of mine can really pick 'em (churches). Or God can. Both, I guess, but in any case, we met two other international students at the service, one from America and one from Germany, and they both attend school in Osaka. Also, several members speak pretty good English, and one of the main dudes (still not totally sure of his position) is married to an Australian woman who translated the service for us! Of course, she had two little rugrats to manage during the service as well, so her translations were rather distracted and somewhat simplistic, I felt (because I could actually understand some of the Japanese!), but I was very engaged, for the most part. Also, we got to sing hymns in Japanese (no accompaniment, just a pitch pipe to start), which I actually KNEW in English, and understood some in Japanese! I can't remember the song titles now, but they were famous, and it was all just really exciting :) Then afterward we walked to a nearby supermarket to buy lunch and returned to eat and chat with everybody. There was one guy, Darryl (dunno about spelling), from Indiana, who has lived in Japan the past 13 years or so, and I spoke with him a lot, but I was pleased with the amount of conversation I could make in Japanese (and I think singing the hymns and following along reading the Bible is REALLY going to help that) :)

All in all, it's super exciting, and at the moment at least, I don't even care that it's over an hour away.

But I haven't even mentioned Saturday! Or Friday! Saturday, I went to Fushimi Inari Shrine in the Kyoto prefecture with my Religion class, and even though it kind of seemed like we rushed through it (my professor HAS been there like a million times), it was pretty cool. I read online that it's about 233 meters to the top of the "mountain", where the lower, middle, and upper shrines are located (kind of anticlimactic really), which doesn't sound like much to my fellow Alaskans, but there were a LOT of stairs (kaidan)...and it got pretty hot by the end of it, at 1 in the afternoon.

These orange things are all "torii", a sort of sacred "gate"; at this shrine, these structures are put up when a company donates a large sum of money, which is supposed to be a sort of "guarantee" (as in, if it works great, if not, oh well) of prosperity 

This is the view from the halfway point, I think--at the top, there are too many trees to see anything.

From the other direction, you can see the company names inscribed on the torii

Since Inari is said to be represented by a shape-shifting fox, the ema or prayer boards pictured here are in the form of a fox head (with individual artistic embellishments, of course)

Inari the "fox"

The woodsier section--I like :)

Even at the top of the "mountain" they have these gift/food shops!

Sooo, even though Inari is supposed to be a Shinto god, there are Buddhist statues at Fushimi as well...

Delicious waffle fish filled with custard, cornflakes, whipped cream, and strawberries with chocolate drizzled on top--tourist-y shrines are like state fairs, except better :) (no rides though)

Near the station, post-hike

After touring the shrine, a friend and I wandered around Kyoto looking for an ATM and a got a university crossing guard to WALK us to one like, half a mile from his post...dunno why that's like, okay, but it was really nice :) Then we went into downtown Kyoto and wandered the shops of Gion, and finally ate lunch and had a nice cold beer at a sweet ramen place with really weird music (ill-fitting? idk, a really random assortment).

Part of the autumn middle-school activities, possibly for Sports Day (taiikunohi)? Happened upon it accidentally--forgot the name, but it ends in kai, I think.

Ramen shop :)

Beer and food tickets--you buy them through a vending-machine type thing in front of the store, then hand them to the waiter!

Holy fashion statement.

One of the many shopping districts in Japan (in/near Gion)

The mini cactus I bought at the 100 yen shop! (Yes I know I can't take it home with me.)

Center of the shopping district (they're pretty much village-sized)

But that wasn't all--as tired as I thought I was when I got home around 7:30, I managed to recoup in the next hour and half or so and go out for my first karaoke experience in Japan--MAN is that different. Like, you get your own room, drink all you can (even though I'm pretty sure the drinks are like 90% water), and have to be tech-savvy enough to figure out how to search for the songs/artists you want (or else get one of the hostess people to show you how to work it and speak to you in English, like we did, haha). 1440 yen (about $14.40) for 3 hours and a room, so next time, it probably will be more than two of us...still, 720 each wasn't bad. And we got to sing Avril Lavigne, ABBA, Adele, Aerosmith, Avenged Sevenfold, Snow Patrol, LES MISERABLES, and...well we couldn't really figure out the Japanese ones, haha. Oh and my friend and I made our first Japanese CD purchases, purely based on the cover art and the fact that they were all under 500 yen :) Pretty awesome, haha.

(no pics of this, sorry guys :P)

As I said, though, I haven't done my homework yet, and it's almost 5 o'clock here, so the last thing I'll mention is that my first after-school meeting with my Japanese prof went VERY well--we covered 6 days worth of lessons in 60 minutes :)

So! Life is good. Changes are being made in my relationships and thinking and lifestyle (more running, though not enough to balance out how much I've been eating I don't think, unfortunately), and it's really good. I mean, there are still ups and downs, and there's sadness amidst the joy, but I'm excited about the future. And I hope I can be more coherent next time! Although probably not, haha.

Anyway. Peace out scouts. Mata ne!

Oh! Also--songs that were in my head today: You Get Me - Zoegirl, Stories - Superchick (blast from the past on those two, right?), and Give Me One Reason - Tyrone Wells. Also, Florence + the Machine, all day errday.

That's all for now :)