Adventures Up North

Alright...so it's been awhile, a long while, since my last post. Sorry about that...but let's get right into it shall we?

My winter break started with a trip, along with my host mother and two Rotarians, to the Tohoku (Northeast) region of Japan, more specifically the Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. For those of you not too familiar with Japan, the Tohoku region is famous for its hot springs, old temples, fishing industry, and giant earthquake and tsunami disaster two years ago that resulted in thousands of deaths, and mass destruction, including the meltdown of a nuclear reactor plant, effects of which are still being felt in the region today. Well, not to be dramatic or anything...

I'll start off on a lighter note, though, which is that to get there, I got to ride on my first shinkansen! I was really cool- the outside was so sleek and shiny, and the pointed head made it look so futuristic.

The inside looked pretty much like any other long-distance travel train (I think, I haven't been in too many of those). I got to sit by the window, and it was so nice to watch the outside scenery flying by! I think my host mom said we were going about 300 km per hour? I saw some beautiful snow capped mountain ranges, but unfortunately no pictures...I only managed to stay awake for about a half hour, though, before passing out like I usually do.
We arrived at Ichinoseki (Iwate prefecture) to a nice cool 30 degrees. It reminded me of home! I even saw snow for the first time since last winter. One of the Rotarians, Koike-san, was originally from the area, so we met up with her brother, who ended up chauffeuring us around for the first day.
On the way to our first destination, we stopped by this refugee house that had been built by another Rotary club (I think, but I did see this house at some later point on TV, so it is possible that it is of much greater significance than I could understand) right after the disaster occured.

One of the Rotarians (turns out he was my club's president-who knew?) and I decided to take the climb to the top (through the use of rather steep stairs and ladders), and were greeted by this view from the top:

I had been told that, due to the proximity to the ocean (which you can see in the top left corner), this area had been devastated during the disaster, so at first I was a little let-down (yes, I realize that this was extremely insensitive of me), by the utter normality of the landscape. Where was the torn landscape, the piles of rubble that I associated with the aftermath of an earthquake and tsunami?
But my attitude quickly changed when Inoue-san, the Rotarian I was traveling with, pointed to the ocean on the horizon and said, "You couldn't see that before the tsunami hit."
That's when I realized the nature of my ignorance. I had only been paying attention to the earthquake, and, due to my lack of knowledge about tsunamis, and not even thought about the kind of damage they could cause. While the earthquake may have toppled the houses in this thriving coastal village, the tsunami swept everything it touched, houses and all, into the sea, leaving behind this barren, country landscape.
There was, of course, still piles of rubble and dirt left behind, but seeing as it had already been more than a year since the disaster they had long since been cleared away, although clean-up workers are still not sure what to do with a majority of it, so it's still pretty easy to find huge piles of rubble waiting in secluded areas of affected towns.

Like so

I forgot to mention earlier that one of the main reasons Rotary invited me along on this trip was so that I could witness the aftermath and, on their orders, take as many pictures as possible (which I was planning to do anyway). The point being that once I returned to that US I would make their case to my Rotary in hopes of their contributing to the relief effort (and I hope they are not the only ones*). I agreed that pictures are a good way of convincing people to help, but what I really wanted was a picture of something more shocking, that I wouldn't need to explain in order to make my point.
I found what I was looking for as we approached the coast.

The structures of the buildings above and under this were too strong to be swept away, but the tsunami accounted for everything else of the inside, leaving behind these empty shells.

This used to be a supermarket

This apartment building gives you a pretty good idea of how tall the tsunami was: only the first four floors were damaged.

We drove around the area for a bit, me asking the driver to stop everytime I wanted to take a close-up picture of something (I'm afraid I annoyed everyone else somewhat with this), and finally we came upon this:

This big guy was washed in from the port, like many boats from that time, and has remained sitting on the side of the road ever since. 

And just to prove how big this thing was, here it is compared to me

Although the tour of the physical aftermath was more than enough for me to start planning in my head my speech for my Rotary when I return, it wasn't my club's main reason for our trip up north. The Tokyo Kanda Rotary had actually been sponsoring an orphanage in the town of Kesennuma (close to where we had just been touring), for children that lost their parents in the earthquake/tsunami. We were to visit the orphanage for their Christmas performance, and present them with presents from the club. I was hoping that we would be able to spend some time at the orphanage, doing volunteer work or something of the sort, but unfortunately they had nothing of the sort planned. The show itself, however, was quite adorable.

It started off pretty traditional- with a short sermon by the head of the orphanage, accompanied by the six cutest acolytes I've ever seen (although, I admit, I haven't seen a whole lot of acolytes in my life)

It was followed by this band performing some popular anime songs (not very Christmas-y, I'll admit)

Though this little guy singing Doraemon was definitely a show-stealer

He did, though, have some competition from this guy, who was playing the hammiest kappa (Japanese water god) I've ever seen, in a skit that involved three fishermen and some village girls rescuing a princess from him, although in the end it was the ninja bodyguard that did all the work.

The rugby club followed them with a performance of a traditional Kiwi rugby dance. Or, for people like me, the one from Invictus.

These guys finished off the show, and I will say that that one girl in the middle (who is well on her way to becoming Japan's next superstar) stole the attention from every single one of the boys in that group.

 At some point in the middle of all of these, Koike-san went up on stage to make a speech about Rotary, and I handed out presents to these two little boys chosen to represent the entire orphanage- the rest would be given out privately. After the show ended, our group had a meeting with one of the orphanage directors, and then we were on our way. I was kind of disappointed that we couldn't spend more time there, but maybe another time!

But my trip was not finished there!
The next day Koike-san decided to take me and my host mom for some sightseeing around the area. She hired a driver who had considerate knowledge of the area, and he even had some English pamphlets about the different places we went for me to look at.
Our first stop was a glass-blowing factory in Ichinoseki. Now, having spent many of my days in Celo, I was no stranger to the art of glass-blowing, but I will admit that the results never cease to impress me.

The two guys in the workshop at the time seemed to specialize in making these little guys

 I probably would have taken a picture of every single creation in there, all of them equally amazing, if I hadn't been reminded of our driver waiting for me.
On the way to our next destination, our driver stopped for a minute to let us Tokyo-ites to experience the beauty of snow. And while none of us, with all of having lived in the north for part, or all, in my case, of their lives, were new to snow, it was easy to appreciate it's beauty just the same.

I mean, how can you not love the look of freshly-fallen snow in the midst of nature?

From there we moved on to the real attraction of the region: a series of historically-significant temples and shrines.

The first was Takkoku no Iwaya Bishamondo Hall, an ancient temple built (to state the obvious) into the side of a cliff- for protection purposes I believe. Due to the sacred statues on the inside, I couldn't take any pictures, but there are places on the inside where cliff just takes the place of wall, which definitely added to the coolness of the interior. There also used to be a giant carving of Buddha's face on the cliff next to the temples, but it was destroyed awhile ago by an earthquake. 

Next was Motsuji temple, which actually used to be a massive complex of temples and the sort, which have long since been destroyed. While the main hall has been rebuilt the main attraction of this place is still Oizumi ga Ike pond, with its garden in the center, the beautiful landscape (probably more so in the spring) around which the complex was built. Although with its island in the center and the fact that people frequently take walks around its perimeter, it reminded me much more of a Japanese version of Jamaica pond.

Although it was my first time seeing this, it's actually a common site at many big temples: the giant incense pot. You're supposed to fan the fumes over yourself for cleansing, assuming you can get close enough without choking in the ridiculously strong smell (which the Japanese seem to be immune to).

Our last stop was to the Chuson-ji temple complex close by. This was the biggest tourist attraction of the three seeing as it has achieved World Heritage-status due its main temple, Konjikido, which houses a large 3D scene of the Buddha and his followers (in three sizes, I might add), all made completely of gold (again, no pictures). As well as the mummified remains of 4 Japanese lords beneath it...

Pretty sure this is the outside of Konjikido, but then again, there were alot of temples in the area...

We ended the tour with a late lunch of the area's specialty mochi. I got a variety plate of seven different flavors, each of them equally delicious.

My favorite was the black one, which was a mixture, I believe, of flax seed and honey. But I also recommend edamame mochi (the light green one) to anyone that can find it. And yes, there was also mochi in the soup.

After that, we caught the shinkansen back home, finishing off that trip up north.

But wait, there's more?

Yes, there is! In order to keep up with the Tohoku theme of this post, I'm going to do a little time skip (don't worry I'll fill in the rest in another post) to January 2013, when I took another trip up north, this time in the company of my friend Bianka, her host father, and some members of the Tokyo YMCA.

This time it was only a day trip, and the only reason I can think of why Bianka's host dad would invite me along is the fact that I was constantly at his house for the three months that Bianka stayed with them (what can I say? It was close to my school).
The reason we were accompanied by several YMCA members is because the main purpose of our trip was volunteer work. Ohara-san (Bianka's host dad and a Rotarian) co-runs, with the head of one of Tokyo's YMCA's, a chorus that sets up sing-a-long-type events for Tohoku survivors, mainly the elderly, I believe. That day we were to join them for another sing-a-long with a group of elderly earthquake/tsunami refugees.
We got to Sendai pretty early, and caught a bus to Ishinomaki (again, in the Miyagi prefecture) so we could do some sightseeing. And by sightseeing, I mean witnessing more of the aftermath from 2011.
Our only stop was to Hiroriyama Park, on top of a giant hill overlooking Ishinomaki port.

The city of Ishinomaki was one of the hardest, with almost half of it having been inundated by the tsunami.

From the top of the hill we had a stunning, but almost eerie view of the Pacific Ocean, stretching into the horizon. It was almost easy to imagine the ghost of the tsunami rushing towards the shore, something many of the survivors that ran to the hill for safety would have seen in real life.

Our guide, a member of the Ishinomaki YMCA, showed us pictures of what the port had looked like before 2011, and then pointed to the land below us. It was the exact place he had shown us in the picture, but it was just like my last trip, everything was barren, except for a large graveyard near the edge of the hill. 

*I apologize for the poor quality of this photo-my good camera died

After that, we took the trip down the hill to see part of the town up close. We first stopped by a little memorial (well, little except for the giant sign that read "がんばろう！石巻" Perservere! Ishinomaki) that was made by volunteers from the relief effort.

 The other thing we saw was a nearby school, Kadowaki Elementary, which survived the earthquake, only to catch on fire due to a massive pileup of cars that ended up next to it.

I don't remember much of what our guide said about this place, but I think he mentioned that the children made it out alright. I really hope...

Even more eerie than the empty shell of a burnt school was the giant graveyard next to it. Thankfully, it had been there before the tsunami/earthquake.

You can still see the car pile nearby

After that, we headed off to set up for the sing-a-long, which was actually pretty fun. We got to learn some old(er) Japanese songs, and they even made Bianka and me sing for them (I sang "Amazing Grace" while Bianka sang a Hungarian folk song).
And, in no time at all, we were off. But I will make sure that Tohoku still gets its due attention. I find it kind of sad that as soon as the media forgets these places, the rest of the world does too. Even Fukushima, which had nearly reached Chernobyl standards, has been forgotten by some. But the problem hasn't been solved yet! So I hope that the people that read this will remember that Tohoku, and any other place that has been struck by disaster in the last year or two (Haiti is still struggling), is still in need of help.
*Now, I don't know that much about trustworthy donation organizations, but I thought this website might be helpful to anyone that wants to donate (although the Red Cross one ends March 31).

Sorry for this rather depressing post! But I'm hoping to catch up on all my blogging now that I'm on break (I finished my sophmore year here!), and before my upcoming 10-day Rotary trip to Western Japan. Wish me luck!

じゃあね！

Bring on the Holidays!

Today I'm home from school sick, so I decided that it would be a good time to write my next blog entry! Here goes:

December started off with my first visit, along with Maxim and Veli, to Harajuku, Tokyo's famous center of outrageous fashion. And when I heard the fashion there was diverse, they weren't kidding. You can find pretty much any style that suits your tastes and/or your wildest fantasies, from punk rock to lolita. The only thing I have not been able to find is non-heeled shoes, although it's hard to find that in Japan, period.
The Harajuku girls/boys also attract alot of visitors to the spot. These are people, mostly teens and early 20s, I'd say, that call Harajuku home. Their outfits seem to have materialized straight out of their imaginations, and can make for some pretty stare-worthy results. I unfortunately don't have any pictures, for fear of looking like a creepy stalker, but try to imagine of mix of Amy Winehouse and Nicki Minaj (maybe throw in a little Lady Gaga for good measure) and that should give you a good start (and I'm not just talking about the girls).
And for me, even the crowd was an attraction- the sheer size of it on the way to the area was amazing! It was like an ocean- I'm pretty sure if I had stopped, I would have been carried away.

Can you see the people stretching all the way down the sidewalk? And this is just a fraction of it...

The entrance to Takeshita Street, probably the main street of Harajuku

Oh, just some mannequins we found in a store...and yes, the second one is wearing a Spiderman mask and reindeer antlers

Well, this brought back memories...

Just a sample a some of the clothing found while walking down Takeshita St.

I forgot to mention in my last blog post that I tried to make cornbread for Thanksgiving to, you know, share my culture with my host family, but it didn't work because...my host family doesn't have an oven. My host mom said they have no need for one, as the Japanese never used to bake (and she is of the age where she is still a very traditional person). It was possible for me to have used their microwave oven, but following the same logic as before, they also do not own any baking pans.
But I was determined to have my cornbread made, even if it was too late for Thanksgiving, so Bianka's host parents kindly let me borrow their kitchen (of course they got some cornbread in return).
The cornbread actually turned out rather well, albeit a little crumbly, but we just slathered on some nutella (courtesy of Bianka's host sister--how I missed it!), and I think it tasted just fine! And my host family liked it, so I think it was a success.

いただきます！

The next day, I had some free time after my Rotary meeting, so I met up with Bianka and we decided to go visit the Emperor's gardens, which happen to be pretty close to where my Rotary meets.
It was December, but since the Japanese winter doesn't really start until January (we just had our first snow two days ago!), all the trees were still in autumn colors, making the whole place very beautiful!

We still had some time after that, so we decided to stop by Ginza, one of the more high-end shopping districts in Tokyo. We did see a LOT of designer stores (although honestly, those are everywhere in Tokyo), as well as some of the more *ahem* interesting things that come from a designer's mind (and seem to appear more prevalently in Japan, as it is quite a hospitable environment for the more...unique).

Like this Christmas tree decorated with apples and bananas

Or this...um...well whatever this thing is

A few days later, my entire grade went on a field trip, organized by our gym teacher, so we could learn/practice a sport that we don't really get to do in school. In this case, either bowling or skating. It was so much fun! I was in the beginner class because I haven't really skated since I was like 5, and I'm pretty sure I just clung to the wall and/or,but-most-likely-and the milk crate the whole time, so it doesn't really count. But it was actually really easy to pick up! After about ten minutes my friend and I didn't even need the wall. By the end we were all racing with each other, and I didn't even fall once! (Ok, maybe almost once, but that was because my friend decided to "sprint" and ended up crashing into me from behind.)
The best thing about Japanese school trips is that they let you go home after the activity is done. No going back to school "so we can finish off the school day." So my friend and I went out for lunch and then decided to go hang out at her house. It was pretty funny- near her house there was this massive bridge that looked like those highway ones that go over big rivers, but it ended up just being a footbridge. When I asked her why they needed such a massive footbridge (in the middle of a park, by the way), she answered simply, "Because there's a river."

That following Thursday was my Rotary club's Christmas party. It was really nice: the president dressed up as Santa and acted as a sort of MC for the night, one of the members played guitar, and there was even a pretty good magician, who I ended up receiving a plastic rose from after he threw it and it got stuck in my hair...

And since it was pretty close to my birthday, I received both early birthday and Christmas presents from numerous Rotarians, some of whom I've maybe talked to like twice the entire time since I got here. I also ended up drawing the names for the huge raffle at the end, and was payed for my services with a giant bag of throwback Japanese snacks. It was pretty sweet (no pun intended).

The beginnings of my "loot." After my real birthday and Christmas, it has now tripled in size and takes up an entire corner of my bedroom.

Also, at the party, I got to meet my "oldie," I guess you could say: an exchange student from Malaysia who was hosted by my club 6 years ago and is now going to art school in Tokyo. We even shared a host family (my first one). It was really cool hearing about her experiences (she went to the same school as Bianka, and Eva, another exchange student from my district), and both her English and Japanese were amazing.

With the exchange student from Malaysia, my club's outbound from last year (she went to Argentina), and my third host mother, whose daughter is currently on exchange in New York.

Now that night, I found out that I had a district Rotary meeting on Saturday, which I was required to make a cake for. But like I mentioned earlier, baking a cake is virtually impossible in my current home, so after alot of panicking and miscommunications, I ended up making cookies with Bianka (Hungarian-style gingerbread- they were so good!). After awhile Maxim joined us as well, although he ended up buying his own cake later anyways. We made a ridiculously large number of cookies, in a number of shapes, like Christmas trees, gingerbread men, and dinosaurs, and we decorated them with dried fruits, nuts, and sprinkles.

And Bianka's host sister nicely packaged all of them for us!

It turned out the cakes were for an auction at the party/meeting to raise money for...I'm not really sure what. I think maybe future activities for us exchange students?
There were some really beautiful cakes, mainly made by the Japanese outbounds, that surprisingly didn't sell for very much. And then they got to our box of our totally in-elegant, homemade cookies, and they sold for...10,000 yen (about $110). I've got a REALLY nice counselor. And to top it all off, he immediately GAVE THE WHOLE THING TO ME for my birthday! Thankfully, Bianka had the smart idea to hand out all the little packages to everyone there. We ended up with one package each, which was all I needed, and everyone else seemed to enjoy them!

Our Rotex president acted as auctioneer. And I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the cake he's holding is shaped like a bear. It was sooo cute!

Also at that meeting, the future outbounds found out what country they will be going to next year. There are two girls going to the US and one's even coming to the east coast (although I'm not sure where yet). I was kind of jealous that their exchange experience is just beginning and mine is already about halfway over. Time is going too fast!

That Sunday was when my host family decided to celebrate my birthday, but I don't really want to go into detail about it here because it wasn't exactly a...highlight of my exchange. Let me just say it ended with my host father passed out drunk on the toilet...
However, that afternoon I went out a little bit with Veli to Shinjuku and Harajuku. And we did see something very interesting there:

**Right now, my internet doesn't seem to be able to handle uploading the video of these guys "dancing" (aka awkwardly moving their legs, in the spirit of Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks), so I will try again in about three weeks when I move to my next host family.**

Apparently these guys (all of them on the older side of life) are there all the time, dressed up as stereotypical 50s gangsters, with the leather jackets, slicked back hair and everything. I've hear someone say that they were more 50s gangster than the actual 50s gangsters. And all they do is "dance," although I'm fairly certain that's not how they danced in the 50s (correct me if I'm wrong though).
We also met a very interesting Scotsman who tried to convince us that the Devil is going to rise up soon out of Jerusalem because of something to do with our computers.

I will also present you with some Japanese English we found at the train station:

The Japanese like to keep their train rules dramatic

Oh, and I did get a nice cake that day too.

The day of my actual birthday wasn't as bad. Most of my friends remembered and some of them even gave me presents! Some of my favorites a Totoro picture frame (my friend gave it to me wrapped like a leaf-so cute!), and a Japanese version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which I happened to love when I was little.
After school, Bianka surprised me by meeting me at the train station. She treated me to ice cream, gave me my present (Disney-themed earrings!), and then we went back to her house to watch a movie. All of that made me feel good enough to get through my host family forgetting that it was my actual birthday that day...

But moving on! The following Saturday was our last day of school before the break! We only had two classes that day, and spent the rest of the time wiping down everything in the classroom, from our desks to the blackboard. Then, afterschool was my kendo club's Christmas party! We all brought snacks (I brought a huge bag of Nerds that my mom had sent me earlier), and the captain bought a piece of cake for everybody! Well, actually, everyone called it cake, but it was really more like mousse.We did a present swap, I got a grow-your-own-rice-kit from one of our coaches, and everyone performed in a little groups. Me and the other two first years sang "Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer"- me in English, one of the girls in Japanese, and the other played the melodica- what looked like one of those toy keyboard pianos with a tube attached.
Unfortunately, I had to leave early because I had to get to the Rotex's Christmas party. For this party, they invited the inbounds and outbounds, but I think it was really more for the Rotex- there were so many there, many of whom I had never seen before.

I don't think this was even all of them.

We didn't really do that much. There was a present swap there too (I got a hot pad shaped like a lamb), the outbounds sang Christmas carols (the inbounds were supposed to do something too, but we couldn't come up with anything in time), and we even got to see some of the Rotex do the "Party Rock" dance, which they were surprisingly good at.

Well that about wraps it up for this post! Next up: my trip up North!

じゃあね！

*Note: I actually wrote this post about a week ago, but Blogger refused to upload it. We're onto our second snow tomorrow!