Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Golden Temple and the Golden Arches

This past week we had two holidays so I only had three days of class. Needless to say I didn't do much posting, or really anything. I was supposed to go to a field trip on Thursday but that didn't happen because it rained so instead I went with my host family to an all-you-can-eat restaurant (they even had Tokyo Pot all you can eat stuff!) and then to a hot spring which aside from all of the male genitalia hanging out, was actually really relaxing. Sometimes sitting in really hot water watching a big screen TV, outside at night is really comfortable. I would do it again.

Friday, I stayed at the university almost all day long just to pay the initial price for the trip to Hiroshima. I am going there the second week of October to hear one of the last remaining survivors (that was actually old enough at the time to recall what happened) talk about his or her experience at the time of the dropping of the atomic bomb. As an American I think that this is something that I should see and I am very grateful to have the opportunity to listen to this person speak. Afterwards on Friday though, I went to my favorite ramen restaurant where you can get a bowl of ramen and a plate of gyoza for 4 dollars. Then we went to an Izakaya (a Japanese bar) and hung out for the rest of the night until it closed, at which point we walked all the way in the opposite direction from our final destination to a convenience store and then back in the other direction to a park where I hung out until I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I didn't have a choice but to leave.

Saturday, I went with David, Raghda and Hart to Kyoto to go the Golden Temple aka Kinkakuji Temple. We spent forever figuring out how to get there and sitting on a bus waiting for it to finally arrive. Finally we made it to the temple, stopped at the bathroom, Hart and I decided we wanted to eat and so we left before looking around. We walked all the way down to a Big Boy, sat down there, found out it was nothing but hamburger patties drenched in strange red sauce and ditched without telling the attendants (not my most polite moment in Japan). We made it about a block away, gave up and got food at a McDonalds (where David, being the picky eater that he is spent 5 minutes trying to order exactly what he wanted the way he wanted it with a McDonalds worker that spoke no English, or in his case Spanish). We finished, walked back to the temple and found out that it actually closed at 5:00. We had gotten back there at 4:55. So 2 hours worth of travel by bus and train only to go to the Golden Arches.

After that Raghda decided that we should go exploring so we wondered around while David complained (not really haha) about how Americans always want to go to McDonalds and never want to see real sights or try anything new. After walking all over, we found out that we weren't anywhere close to where our train stop, but David still wanted to try and walk there haha. Then we vetoed him and found another train and took it back to the station where we had started our "adventure" in the first place.

Then we agreed to go meet Raghda's friend in Kyoto, where they led us around for an hour or so without finding any food at all and with Raghda complaining about how it was awkward the whole time and how every time she mentioned to me that it was awkward I would just smile and act like nothing bad was happening. I was already kinda grumpy though so I made it more awkward by just saying I was gonna go back to Hirakata and they wouldn't have to worry about me, which prompted everyone to say the same thing and then we left Raghda's friends in Kyoto and went back to Hirakata where I promptly bought the fried rice and gyoza that I had had my heart set on all day. After that I went to Karaoke for three hours and then called it a night.

Finally we arrive at today. I got up early this morning, caught a train by myself (kind of a surreal experience when you are the tallest, blondest person there) to Fushimi Inari where I met up with my Religion in Japan class for some onsite learning. I actually went to the top this time, which Sam and I didn't do last time we were there, half because we were supposed to be somewhere soon and half because we thought that we pretty much had gotten to the top. It was pretty awesome, I have to say. Lots and lots of these huge red gate things, and tons of fox statues. Then I wandered around with Etienne (sorry if I messed up your spelling, man), Dina and Estefan over to Tofukuji temple which was really huge and also a very interesting looking temple. Finally we headed back to Hirakata and I rode home. So hear I am writing a blog post when I should probably be doing homework or telling my host family that I am home haha.

Well I hope my life story was interesting enough for you.

Later.

1 comment:

  1. Pretty cool, Jake! Nice blog, fun stories ... post more pictures. Your Dad gave me your blog address, we find your adventures very interesting. Lucky Dog!

    BTW: Every time I hear about you in Japan, the 1980's song 'Turning Japanese' by the English band 'The Vapors' pops into my head - horrible song, have a hard time to convince myself not to hum it. :)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmJ-VWPDM4

    Uncle Dale

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