Sunday, May 6, 2007

Man, You Trippin'!

Thursday, May 3
Today, I got to get lost; as I expected. I was to go to Shiga, an area near Kyoto, home of the largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa. I was to meet my friend Kenji, who I had previously went to Kyoto and Round One with for the first time. I knew that I would get lost on the way there because he had to type an essay in his cellphone message about how to get there. So at 8:30am, I began my jouney.

The first leg of the journey was simple. I took a bus to the station and got on the ever-so-familiar Keihan train to go to Tambabashi. From there, Kenji had given me multiple warnings of which trains not to get on at the station. The train he told me to get on had signs pointing to it everywhere, hence giving me no trouble to find it. From there, I went to Kyoto station. At this point, Kenji's instructions told me to ride the JR line to my goal. Unfortunately, this station was at least the size of an airport, making his one sentence explanation very unhelpful. In fact, he was even lost when I called and asked him where the hell I was. After a good while, I finally discovered my destination with the help of various staff. Strangely enough, I had to go downstairs to reach the gate despite the fact that both Kenji and one of the staff said I would have to go upstairs... The last part of my journey took me to Oumihachiman in Shiga. The train conductor was almost impossible to hear since his voice was so quiet, so I had to watch what station was coming next. When I finally arrived, I happily got off of the train to find Kenji waiting for me outside of the ticket gate.

Our first stop was Lake Biwa. As we drove to the lake, I surveyed my surroundings. Shiga was much more rural than the other places I had been. Much of the land was devoted to growing rice. When we reached the lake, we were both famished. We drove around for awhile until we found a restaurant near the lake. It had a rather neat menu. It was here that I finally had my first helping of curry rice. We also had a nice view of the lake.

I had been thinking about the factors about my overnight stay with Kenji. Previously, he had been living in an appartment near the school, but now he lived so far away. It seemed odd that he would make this move by himself, so I asked him if my theory was true. As it turned out, I would in fact be staying with his family, not just him. This of course made me a little nervous since I would be indebted to people I haven't even met yet.

After lunch, we dropped by Kenji's house to deposit my bag before going off to karaoke. His Grandmother was there since she was 86 years old and couldn't really go anywhere. Their dog, Rin, was also there. At first, Rin didn't seem to like a stranger coming to the house. The Grandmother acted about how I expected; greeting me and then taking on a motherly role with Kenji asking if such and such was done and what we are going to do. The house itself was much bigger than I had anticipated. I had always heard how small Japanese houses were, but with the exception of the narrow hallways, the house was actually quite big! Just beside the house was a small temple that was managed by the family. The temple lacked a bell because they had to give it to the government during war time in order to make guns. Buying a new one would be very expensive.

Next, we went to karaoke. After that, we went back to his house where we played some games with my Nintendo DS until the family came home and it was time for dinner. And so I proceded down the stairs to meet the father and mother of my friend. Kenji's dad was a high school English teacher before he retired, so he would occasionally talk with me in English. These speakings were preceded by him saying 'ah!', tilting his head to the side, and staring into his mind while he put the sentence together. Despite his slow compiling speed, his sentences were very clear and easy to understand. Kenji's mother, like his Grandmother, spoke only Japanese, but with two English speakers around, I was able to keep up with what she was saying and respond back.

For dinner, the family planned the interactive experience of rolling sushi. As commonly thought of by foreigners, there was raw fish provided, but only as one ingredient. Since I was not keen on trying such things, I just stuck with the other ingredients, which were plentiful. After dinner, Kenji and I took the dog for a walk. This was my third encounter with Rin and by this time, she had gone from barking at me to jumping with excitement when I came near. This surprised everyone because Rin had taken a liking to me so quickly. After our walk, Kenji's sister finally came home. By that time as well, the family had prepared a bath for me in order for me to experience a Japanese-style bath.

First, I had to take a shower to clean myself. The shower was absolutely wonderful since there was actually water pressure as opposed to the gravity-based shower at the dorms. After that, I was to enter the bath in order to warm myself. It felt nice to be in the hot water, but I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do in there, so after awhile, I exited and got dressed again.

Next, the family wanted to hear me play piano. At this point, I hadn't played piano at all for three months with the exception of the short time I played for Kenji prior to his family's return. I did what I could to remember songs. For the most part, I was successful in playing.

It was becoming time for bed. I was to share Kenji's room. I noted that our countryside location created a lovely cacophony of frog noises outside the window. They were very Japanese frogs because they would all start and stop together. When they stopped making noise, it was like a window of sleep time. By the second time they stopped, I fell asleep.

Friday, May 4
Today started out with another walk with Rin. After this, we waited for the grocery store to deliver food as is custom to that particular town. While we waited, the Grandmother showed me some of the calligraphy that she used to write and asked me to take one. I chose the one that read, " White Clouds Flow Freely Without Roots," which is a Zen concept that the clouds can flow without anything holding them back. From there, we made our farewell from the household, but not before taking a group picture.

I went with Kenji, his father, and his mother. We had to drop his mom off at school where she taught as a contract worker since she had already retired from her real job. From there, we went to see tanuki statues, which are statues of raccoons. There were many stores to look at in the area. After window shopping some, we went to a museum of tanuki figures and from there, we went to lunch. I was very hungy. After lunch, they took me to the station where it was time to go.

The trip back was much easier than the trip there. Kenji pointed me to the correct train to go back to Kyoto Station. From there, there were a plethora of signs that pointed to my destination. In fact, the actual journey there was much shorter than the journey I had originally took. At this point, I had some trouble getting a ticket since the machines I went to would not take my 10,000 yen bill. After asking about it, I was pointed to the green machines that would take my money. From there, everything went smoothly all the way home.

Nabil wanted to hoist me away again that evening, but I elected to stay and do nothing since I was tired from my travels. I stayed at home and chatted with some Japanese friends online.

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