姫路城と四国

This Thursday and Friday all of the exchange students in the KUINEP program went on a field trip to Himeji Castle and Shikoku Island. It was a really fun trip. First stop was Himeji Castle which is absolutely massive. It's about 90 meters from bottom to top and while that may not seem that high by modern standards, the whole thing was done 500 years ago, all in wood, by hand. That night we got to stay in a traditional ryokan that had an artificial onsen on the roof. It was really cool, but a bit weird being waited on hand and foot. Also yukata and futons are sooooo comfortable. It's crazy how good the sleep was that night. The next morning we visted the Konpira Shrine which is built into a mountain and is 1368 steps from the bottom to top. After this the final stop was the Nakano Udon School where we learned how to make udon noodles. The area we were in is famous for it's udon noodles and after eating lunch at the school it's easy to see why. The noodles were great and so easy to make. Afterwards we got a nice graduation certificate scroll which is currently hanging up on my wall. All in all a very enjoyable field trip.

俺のチャリ

This is my bike. In Kyoto everyone rides bikes and they're so convienient. I picked it up the 3rd day I was here and it's been indispensible. Really cheap too. Brand new for 7500. It's already paid for itself at least twice. Thing is this is the kind of bike that if I rode in Toronto I would get my ass kicked. Hell, even my friends would probably kick my ass if I was rolling around Toronto with this. Basket, bell, and even a little tray at the back that I can put stuff on. So sweet.

Drowning in New Words

This week marked the finish of one month of Japanese classes. In the past month I've learned close to 500 new words, at least 40 grammar patterns, and probably close to 200 kanji. The only problem is being able to actually retain all of this new information. I've been exposed to so much so quickly that I'm lucky if I remember 200 of those words. I probably only am really comfortable and remember about 10 or so of the grammar patterns. I have been surprised by my kanji retention though. Even if I can't write all of the new ones I've learned I can usually recognize them when reading and I know the correct pronounciation. Hopefully as time goes along it will be easy to retain all these new words. The pace at which I'm learning these new words will probably start to slow down soon as my vocabulary builds up so that should help a little bit. Gotta study more! Focus!

キムタク？！？！

Last night's party was off the wall. We probably had about 40 people and the split between Japanese and exchange students was pretty close to 50-50 I think. It was a pretty normal Western-style house party which seemed to be a pretty new experience for many of the Japanese people, but I think everyone had a real good time. Rather than give a detailed description I will use bullet style highlights. Partly because I'm lazy, partly because I don't know if I remember enough to do it the other way.

- Introducing basically everyone to Jello Shooters, it must just be a North American thing because even the Europeans didn't know about them.

- Maru (really cheap sake that comes in milk carton containers) and Tequila - a deadly combination

- Aaron falling on his floor then getting hit on the head with his skateboard as it fell from the shelf that Tetsuo pulled over.

- Andy's disappearance for nearly an hour. Getting a search party together to try and find him only later to discover him puking in what he though was his room, but wasn't.

- My semi-drunken make-out with Yuko. Nothing else happened.

- Rocking with Ken and Kitai.

- Dancing with Momoko and teaching her how to bubble. She kept calling me Kimutaku too which was weird but a huge compliment. Kimutaku is short for Kimura Takuya, one of, if not the biggest male Japanese idol. I can't see any kind of resemblance, but I'll take it.

- Going to bed at 5:30.

I'll just let the pictures say the rest.


Maru!


Andy and Ken


Rika and Momoko


Crowd of people in my room


Ken, myself, and Kitai chillin


Masahiro, the girl who liked Masahiro who's name escapes me, and Yuko


Aaron out of commission


Kimura Takuya, I don't see the resemblance

ホストボーイになった。。。

A few days ago my friend Diana, who is head of the Kyoto University foreign student union sent me a mail about a party being held Friday(tonight) by 京都光華女子大学 an all girls university on the other side of town for new foreign students to Kyoto. If I managed to get enough people we would get free taxies there and back. You tell a two floors of guys that an all girls university is throwing a free party for new foreign students and the response is naturally incredible. We had a good 20 people or so from Kyodai who were jumping to go which was more than enough to secure the free taxies. Aaron, Masahiro (not an exchange student but our good friend who we asked to come), Rowan (from New Zealand), and I were in the first taxi to arrive and when we walked into the bulding where the party was being held we really couldn't believe our eyes. At least 100 girls, probably closer to 150 just sitting there waiting for us all to arrive. As we walked, and I'm not kidding when I say this, they all were on their feet cheering for us. This is when I turned to Aaron and said "Oh my god, we're going to be host boys tonight" and his reply "Is this heaven?"

It really was. Free food, drink and ladies as far as the eye could see in every direction. None of us have ever been in any kind of situation like this. Normally you'd have to put some effort in while trying to pick up a girl, but here they're just basically throwing themselves at you. Not that I'm complaining, it was just a bit overwhelming and surreal. The stereotype of the shy Japanese girl was definitely not true tonight. All night girls were coming up to me asking for pictures, asking for my number and asking me all kinds of questions. Every guy in there who was looking for a number walked out with at least one. And while there was a tiny part of me (about 1%) that felt really weird about being a host boy, shipped in and fed in order to entertain a bunch of girls, the other part of me was soaking it up.

Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera, and Aaron forgot to put his memory stick in his so we have no pictures, but we're hosting a party tomorrow in our res and it should be a wild night.

文化の日

Today was Culture Day so we had the day off school. Andy, Aaron, and I thought it would only be fitting to do something cultural it being Culture Day and all so we went do to Gion and spent the afternoon there. Gion is a really old entertainment area of the city. Tons of old architecture, temples and shrines are still there and it's the area to go to on a night if you want to blow lots of cash quite quick either on the expensive restaurants that fill the area or if you're looking to spend a night with the accompaniment of a geisha or maiko. Gion is also quite possibly the coolest place in Kyoto just to wander around that I've been yet. Ever since I knew I was coming to Kyoto I've been awaiting my first trip to Gion. It was really busy today because of the holiday, but it didn't detract at all from the beauty of the area. It was really everything I had expected and even more. I'm definitely going to have to make another trip back there on a less crowded day and potentially at night. Walking through Gion really late at night would be incredible I think. And of course I took plenty of pictures.

Spiders

The spiders in Japan are huge. Right outside of our residence in the area where we all park our bikes there are at least 6 or 7 massive spider webs. When I say massive I mean massive. One in particular is about 6 feet high and about 3 feet wide at it's largest.



That shit is gross!

In other news I am wiped. Got home last night at 3:30 from a great night of karaoke with the Doshisha boys and girls. Pics to follow.