Temples and shrines with Keiichiro and Keiko!! (long post)

Ugh sorry I'm behind guys. I'll write about my day today tomorrow, because as I'm finishing up yesterday's entry right now, my eyes are itching with sleep and it's a school night. :(

Saturday, February 1:

Omg, so this morning I unearthed a giant Toblerone bar in my suitcase!! I completely forgot I packed it! Just when I was craving chocolate, it appeared. I'm sooo happy!! :D

(It's size compared to my computer!)

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was call my parents on the phone because I haven't talked to them in a while. 

My dad told me "ohayo gozaimasu!" Holy crap, he's better at Japanese than I am! Yesterday at breakfast I told Miyabi and Yuko "oyasumi nasai" (aka good night). Fml.

We had cereal and salad for breakfast. Aaand a hard boiled egg! I love hard boiled eggs. And it was brown. Brown eggs are so much better than white ones.

Oh, and my bonsai is doing wonderfully, thank you very much all my friends who have no faith in my plant raising ability. Although I think I've been watering it too much, because this morning when I watered it, water spilled over the sides. And when I got home today, it was still swimming in water... Aghh. I don't want to kill it!

Ribbon kept hiding under my kotatsu this morning, haha.

(See him, under there?)

It was such a nice day today! It got up to the mid 50s. On my way to the station it was super bright so I broke out my sunglasses for the first time.

When I got to the station, I caught the local train to Nagoya Eki. I got there 15 minutes early. I was meeting a friend of a couple from Nagoya who are in the Japanese Conversation group I'm part of at Tech. His name was Keiichiro. He told me to meet him under the golden clock tower.

There were soooo many people there because it's a popular meeting spot. I'd told him to look for a blonde girl in a pink coat lol.

While I was waiting, I took a picture of this cool silver statue made of metal.

(It looks like a Hershey's kiss!)

Keiichiro showed up at 11 and his friend, Keiko, showed up shortly after. They were both sooo nice! I gave them Texas chocolate and they loved it! Also, they both spoke very good English, even though neither had ever been to an English speaking country.

First, we went to eat at a noodle place in Nagoya Eki. Keiichiro suggested I get the tempura set, so I did. Keiko got the same, and Keiichiro got the curry ramen. The tempura set had a shrimp tempura and a butternut squash (I knew Japan had squash!) tempura over noodles, a bowl of rice, little yellow vegetables we have at home a lot that look like daikon but are crunchy, mashed potatoes with carrots inside, and this creamy egg soup stuff (that Keiichiro and Keiko swore had no milk in it) with radish, chicken, and shrimp inside. The soupy egg stuff came in an itty bitty pot with a lid! It was so cute!

I took forever to eat my noodles because they were hot and because I'm really good at eating noodles with chopsticks, but not as good as the Japanese lol. I felt bad that I finished like 20 minutes after the other two, but they insisted it was fine!

While we were eating, Keiichiro asked me if I like osake and when I told him I did, he was like, "Yokoe san (the man of the couple who are our mutual friends) told me you are fun to drink with. You get really happy."

Hahahahaha!

I was like "ehhh?!?" I can't believe Yokoe san said that! It's hilarious though. I'd totally forgotten I'd drank with Yokoe san and we played a Japanese drinking game haha.

Then Keiichiro was like "I want to drink with you." Lol. 

I was like, damn I like this guy!

After Keiichiro paid for lunch for all of us, we walked to the subway ticket area. Keiichiro gave us all one day passes where we can ride any subway lines we want all day! It was awesome! It really saved me money too, because although we stuck to stations in my route for the second half of the day, we didn't for the first half, so it was nice not having to pay then! :)

We rode the Higshiyama line to Kankuozan. Originally, we were going to go to Nagoya castle, but when Keiichiro said that, I told him I'd already been (he had asked me when we were emailing about where in Nagoya I'd been already, and I completely forgot to mention the castle!), so he changed plans. I felt really bad about it, though!

There, we got off and walked outside. We walked down this street that leads up to the temple. In the fall and spring there are festivals and the street is lined with festival booths! There were so many shops along the street selling cute things like beads and buttons. They were fun to look at. :)

Then we got to the temple!

This temple was interesting because it was a mix of Japanese and Thai! So there were statues of gods that had elements of both Japanese and Thai, and both Japanese and Thai writing.

(Cool 5 story pagoda)

There was a hand washing place with giant ladels where we washed our hands. I shared my hand-towel with everyone.

Then we walked up to the main part of the temple where there was this big pot of incense. The incense was in the form of little skinny sticks that were burning. Keiichiro asked me if we had incense like this in America and I didn't think we did, so I told him about the incense in the golden ball on a chain that's used in church.

Apparently we got lucky today, because there was a reading of the Buddha book going on. Usually, nothing is happening inside. It looked super boring, though.

(Up above)

The cool thing, though, was there were fortunes sold in here. I'd told Keiichiro that I really like temples and shrines and fortunes, so he showed me where and how to get an omikuji (fortune).

Here it is!

Keiichiro, Keiko, and I all opened our fortunes at the same time. 

Keiko got Daikichi (really good luck - aka the best fortune!)

And Keiichiro and I got Kichi (good luck).

(The inside of my fortune)

Keiichiro and Keiko helped translate my fortune for me. They did their best even though most of the time they had a lot of trouble coming up with an English equivalent. 

For love, it said I will meet the person I've been waiting for... Ooo I wonder what that means haha.

And for that person I've been waiting for, it said they'll be coming soon.

Most of Keiichiro's were worse than mine, which was weird because we got the same overall fortune. But it said the person he's waiting for will come, but be they'll be late lol.

As we were leaving, this huge bus tour group from Ichinomiya came, so we headed out of there quickly.

We had seen this sign while we were waking that pointed to "Yokiso (Northern Premises)" so we decided to go see it. Keiichiro asked me what the word "premises" meant and I was like "uhhhh..." haha.

I told him it meant "area" and maybe "boundaries". But I honestly wasn't too sure lol.

When we walked in, the guides gave us pamphlets (I got an English one lol). Then we walked along the side of this old bungalow house to look at the displays inside. 

Keiichiro was telling me about how the inside was where this guy lived who owned this huge famous department store. I was starting to feel kind of sick, like I'd eaten too much too fast, so it was hard for me to concentrate on what he was saying, so I hope he didn't think I was bored.

The Ichinomiya tour group was there too!! Ah so we waited for them to go through the shrine area first and then we followed.

There was an Inari shrine

(See the dog statues on either side?)

Then we went up to look inside!

(More dogs inside!)

And then we got to walk through a bunch of torii! Keiichiro said they weren't actually red, even though they looked red. They were some other color that was a mix of red and orange.

(Keiko and me)

After walking through the torii, we came upon a pond. We weren't allowed on te bridge, so we had to walk around the pond.

There were koi in the pond!

(Looking back on the torii)

There was a super old house that you could go and look inside. Inside was a tea room like the one at Nanzan. It had an incredible view!

(See the torii in the background?)

Then we went over to this garden area where one of the guides was chilling. He showed us these yellow berry things, but said we couldn't eat them. 

Then we headed back to the station and rode the subway another stop to Motoyama, which is where Keiichuro lives. He took us to this bookstore, "Village Vanguard" which he described as a "really weird bookstore" haha. 

By this time, I'd been to te bathroom twice so Keiichiro and Keiko knew something was up. But after the second time, I'd assured them I was fine, because I get sick like this after I eat a lot (I have a really sensitive stomach) and usually after two trips to the bathroom, I'm fine. But as we entered Village Vanguard, I knew that wasn't the case this time. It was only getting worse.

I was really dizzy and lightheaded. And I was cold but covered in sweat. Keiichuro was pointing things out to me an talking about them, but all I could do was nod. Then we reached an area with items related to Miyazaki's latest movie and Keiichiro was telling me about it. All I could manage was "Oh, Hayao Miyazaki..." before I legitimately almost fainted. I was having trouble standing up, but thankfully I saw a sign for the bathroom, told Keiichiro I was going, and stumbled in. It was so, so bad.

I felt better afterwards and finished looking around the store. Keiichiro said we should not go to dinner and drinking tonight like he'd been thinking. I told him I'd be fine, but he said he'd felt off that morning anyway. But I worried he was just saying that to make me feel better.

The store had really cool stuff, though! I would like to go back and look again at a time when I feel better. 

I did see these "Made in the USA" marshmallows, though, haha.

And this fail of a title on a cat book:

Then we saw mini UFO catchers for 100 yen. One had the bear and bunny characters from Line (the texting app I have that everyone in Japan uses) and I had told Keiichiro before that I had Line and he did too, so he played it. He was really good and won two of the bear character! He gave me one.

(It's reading a book! So kawaii!)

I figured out the bear comes off the green thing and is a earphone plug.

So I took out my subway sandwich one and put in this way cuter bear! Keiichiro and Keiko both had phone cases that prevented them from being able to put the other bear in their phones, so Keiichiro asked if I had a boyfriend back home to give it to lol. I told him he should keep it. I mean, he was the one who bought it and maybe he can give it to his wife.

 After Village Vanguard, we went to a daibutsu! My second daibutsu. :)

The entrance to the temple. Keiichiro told me the difference between temples (otera) and shrines (jinja) is that shrines have torii out front.

We could see the daibutsu when we walked in. Damn he was huge. I think he might have been close to the same size as the one in Gifu.

 We went over to see inside the temple first. 

(A different depiction of Buddha)

(Entering the temple)

(The ceiling was so cool!)

And now for a photo dump of the inside of the temple:

(Close up of the fucking awesome ceiling art)

And then we walked over to the daibutsu!

(We found this kitty on the way and it kept meowing and following us around)

(Giant ass Buddha hand)

(The giant Buddha!)

(Still following us)

Behind to the daibutsu was a dog shrine. The kitty followed us all around that too.

(Inside the shrine)

(It was next to a bamboo forest)

And guess who else was following us? The same tour group from Ichinomiya we had seen at the last station!! They were here too haha.

After the daibutsu, we walked back to the station to get on the Meijo line. 

Keiichiro was saying he had a stomachache now and he stopped in the bathroom. He thought maybe it was the spicy curry, but I was thinking more along the lines of food poisoning...

 Then we headed to Atsuta Shrine, which is one of the biggest shrines in Japan! On the train ride over I asked Keiichiro about his son. It turns out he's one year old and just learning to walk (awww!) and he showed me a picture.

(Look at dat gorilla climbing up the side of that building. So kewl)

And then we got to the shrine! There were all these cars coming out of an area near the shrine and Keiichiro told me people took their cars there to get them purified (like blessed) lol.

(Wooden torii at the entrance)

There were a bunch of these wooden torii throughout the shrine and we had to bow twice before walking through each one of them.

(Lots of Ema! I've been wanting to see these because they're what I associate most with temples, so it was cool to see them! According to Keiko, a lot of them had prayers to do well on exams)

(Pond with giant rocks that looked like turtles)

We stopped in a omiyage (souveneir) shop, and even though I told him not to over and over, Keiichiro bought me this omiyage to share with my host family, because I told him I'd never tried it. It contained "monaka", which is anko (red bean paste) between two wafer shells.

(Huge drums of osake. Another thing I'd been wanting to see haha)

(Sacred tree. Keiichiro said it's over 1000 years old!)

(That stall/tent thing had ikebana (Japanese flower arrangements) on display)

Then we got to the main building.

(We got to see a purification ceremony. Those people were being purified)

(Cool lantern)

At the main building, we threw in coins (I threw in a 1 yen coin lol) and then rang this giant bell on a rope. Then we bowed twice, clapped twice, and bowed once more.

After that, we continued through the shrine.

(Another building)

(And another)

(400 year old building with a straw roof that's now covered in moss)

And a 300 year old wall:

(Giant stone lantern)

As we were leaving, we were walking along a path. Keiichiro was saying something about it in English, referring to it as a road, but then he asked me if that was a good word for it, a road?

And I told him we usually say "path." So then he wanted to know the difference between a path and a road lol.

I told him a path is used for something that won't fit a car, that you walk or ride a bike on and that a road is what cars go on. Idk if that's the legit definition since I'm not like majoring in English or anything, but that's how I think of it lol.

Keiko wanted to go to this paper shop she knows, so we went there. I'd been feeling a lot better since entering the temple and was back to my talkative self, constantly keeping up a steady flow of conversation.

So we got to the kamiya (paper shop) and I was pleased to see it was pink! Keiichiro had never been in a paper shop so it was his and my first time!

They had tons and TONS of paper! It was like a fabric stores except the rolls of fabric were rolls of washi (Japanese paper). There were so many different patterns and colors. It was so cute! And there were postcards and bookmarks and stationary and okashi no kami (paper to use for snacks in tea ceremony).

(Cute paper mâché daruma dolls and owls)

(I had trouble understanding this because the first word is "tsumaranai", which I know means "boring." But Keiichiro explained that's the literal meaning and in this case it means "whether you like it or not.")

(Cool crafts made of swirls of paper)

(I loved these painted shells!)

Keiko bought this paper that was like crocodile skin for the paper boxes she makes. While she did that, Keiichiro ran to the bathroom again. We all thought it was weird that he and I got so sick but Keiko was fine, especially when she ordered the same thing I did. She said she had a really strong stomach though.

When he came back, he was feeling much better, so he decided we'd go to Kanayama Eki and get dessert there.

(Front of the paper shop)

So we got back on the Meijo line and rode to Kanayama. On the way, Keiichiro asked me about the pronounciation differences of "dessert" and "desert." It took me a bunch of times of saying the two words over and over again before I realized an easy way to explain: in "dessert", the accent is on "ssert" and  in "desert" the accent is on "de." I also told Keiichiro about the verb "to desert".

Then I quizzed him, asking what has sand and what you eat after a meal and he pronounced them right!

I really liked that he was giving me insight into all the ways English is hard that I take for granted because I'm a native speaker.

At Kanayama we walked outside to where all the restaurants are. I've only ever been in Kanayama to switch trains and thus had never explored anywhere else around the station. But it turns out there's an entire outdoor mall area with a bunch of American stores and restaurants.

We were going to go to this pancake shop on the second level that looked really good and I was excited about because it had apple pancakes on the menu, but it was really crowded.

So we went back down to the ground level and went into this Hawaiian themed restaurant. They had a whole bunch of different types of waffles! It was like Heaven on Earth.

Then Keiichiro ordered this for all of us to split. 

(I'm salivating just looking at it again)

YOU GUYS, THIS MAN KNEW HOW TO PLEASE ME. This fucking waffle combines my two favorite things - fruit and waffles! It came with really good syrup too. Holy shit, it was an intense foodgasm. I seriously could have eaten the entire thing myself. 

When we were done eating, Keiichiro had me call Yuko to tell her I'd be home for dinner (even though I'd never told her I'd be missing dinner) because he didn't think either of us should drink tonight since we'd both been sick. It was 5:30, so I'd be able to make it home in time for 7 pm dinner because I was only an hour away.

But I'm glad he did, because Yuko told me to try to get home sooner because they had 6:30 reservations at a barbeque place! She hadn't told me that! Ahh, that meant I had to leave immediately.

Keiko paid for all of us (so nice!) and then they gave me okashi they'd bought for me at Village Vanguard while I was dying in the bathroom.

(Lol, exciting bookstore)

Then we all made a date to drink on March 7. They told me the bag contained sushi shaped okashi to eat when drinking, lol. I told them I'd save them for when we all drink together.

Then we all parted. Keiko was walking home, Keiichiro taking the subway, and I was taking the JR.

The next train was to Nagoya so I took that. Then I went up to the platform where I needed to catch the next train at 5:50 to Ichinomiya. It was 5:49. When I got up there, I saw the sign said that side was out of service. Crap! So I ran over to the other side, and just as I got up there, the train's doors closed. It sat there for a few seconds with closed doors, me internally crying, and then it took off.

The next train wasn't until 6:00. Fml. I was gonna be cutting it close. I figured I'd be home around 6:25.

However, at 6:00, the train still hadn't come. It ended up being FOUR minutes late (which is unheard of in Japan!) and leaving the station SIX minutes after it was supposed to. What is up with all these problems with trains I've been having lately??

So yeah, needless to say, I reached the bike parking area at 6:20. I was like, ok, if I bike super fast like I did that one morning, I can be home by 6:28 (well plus a few minutes of getting on and off my bike and paying at the bike parking).

I biked the fastest I have ever biked in my entire life! I was sweating and out of breath by the time I got home. Yuko came over while I was taking off my shoes and I told her "gomen nasai". She said it was alright and told me to change into old clothes because barbeque is messy. So I changed out of my skirt and tights and into my jeans. I didn't get a chance to check the time, because everyone was ready to leave right after I changed, but I'm pretty sure I made it home after 6:30. Oh well.

When we got to the restaurant, they seated us immediately. When I hear barbeque, I got all excited because I was expecting pulled pork sandwiches and American barbeque. I completely forgot about all the times I watched Naruto in high school and the characters went for barbeque. In Japan, you sit around a charcoal fire out and they serve you raw meat and you grill it yourself.

(Front of the restaurant. I liked the paper lanterns)

(Cool tapestry with the kanji for "meat")

(Charcoal grill)

(Big gas pipe it was connected to)

(One of the menus)

So we all took our shoes off and then sat on cushions on a raised seating area with a pit for our feet (yay, no sitting on my knees!).

Then we ordered drinks. I was happy because I got to have melon soda! Miya got the same. In class one day I said I liked melon soda and Kandou sensei laughed and said I was like a kid. But my host family thought nothing of it!

Then they started bringing in a huge variety of raw meat that I think Yuko and Ken had pre-ordered.

(Cooking the meat)

I didn't like most of the meat, I think because it was beef and I don't like beef. It was also super fatty. I had to pull off a bunch of fatty parts. I only liked one type of meat that we got. But we also got salad and rice and edamame! The salad was my favorite. It had corn and other good stuff in it and the dressing they had to put on it was delicious!

You pressed a button to ring a waitress if you wanted to order more. Ken kept ordering more and more meat!

Finally I guess he'd had his fill, because we paid and then left. 

Also, during dinner, I showed everyone the Yokiso pamphlet (they had never heard of Yokiso) and my fortune. I was also telling Ken about going to Osaka and Kyoto in two weeks for my break and I was saying "to Kyoto" (pronounced "toh kee-yoto") (aka "and Kyoto"), but Yuko thought I said "Tokyo to" (pronounced "Tokyo toh") (which is a way to say "Tokyo also"), (you know since they both sound the same - "to kyo to") so she was surprised and was like "Tokyo??" Because I'd only told her Kyoto and Osaka. 

Lol. I realized what she'd thought I said and explained to her and Ken and we all had a laugh. Oh, the Japanese language. So confusing.

On the drive back home, we passed this store Don Quixote that my sister told me about that I've been wanting to go to. So I watched the way back home from there and realized I can probably ride my bike there. So I'm going to do that this Thursday or Friday when I don't have school.

Back at home, I was in my room, when Miyabi asked if I wanted dessert. Whaaat?? We never have dessert!

My stomach was still feeling a little queasy, but I was like what the heck. So I brought in the monaka from Keiichiro to share with everyone. They were really excited! They turned out to be make your own monaka!

Each of the little things inside was two packets bound together by a sticker tape thing. The top packet contained the wafers and the bottom packet contained a slab of anko. You put the anko between the two wafers to make the monaka.

(My monaka. Mmmmm)

It wasn't as sweet as I was expecting. But maybe that's because I ate it after the other desserts Yuko bought from the supermarket (which were very sweet). Yuko was surprised when I said it was "amakunai" (not sweet) because she had thought it was really, really sweet. Lol.

The other sweets that Yuko bought. The cookies and cream mochi were for Miyabi. I was jealous. I'm gonna have to buy those for myself sometime (they're from the Seiyu supermarket across the street). I got to have a square from both the wafers with green tea ice cream inside and the chocolate wafers with chocolate chocolate chip ice cream inside. Funnily enough, even though I don't like chocolate, I liked the chocolate better because it was sweeter. The ice cream tasted more like anko than chocolate and I liked the hunks of chocolate inside.

Then I got to have that apple jelly. It had a strong taste of apple, but I really liked it!

Then I did kanji practice for a bit until it was my turn to shower and then I went right to sleep.

Btw, last week I asked my project work sensei (who teaches the 400 class) if I could have the kanji worksheet the 409 students got so I could learn more kanji. And yesterday in class, she didn't give me just a worksheet, she gave me an entire kanji workbook!! Ahh she's so nice!

Anyway, tomorrow we're going to Ken's mother's house to celebrate her birthday! I'm excited!! :)