Studying Abroad in Japan: Summary/Highlights of My Time in Hikone (Part 1)

I'm going to briefly go over my experience at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities.

Friday Projects: At JCMU, a cultural activity is held every Friday. Attendance is optional, and the activities are either free or cheap.

1/16 Ikebana (Flower Arranging)

The Ikebana teacher demonstrating how to arrange the flowers.

The materials we were given: flowers and branches, the iron base in a ceramic pot, and an instructional handout.

First we cut the branches shorter with a diagonal cut, then made a couple vertical snips on the narrowed end. That made it easier to impale the branches at our desired angles on the iron base.

My finished ikebana piece.

Everyone is finishing up their pieces.

Our finished ikebana pieces are put on display for everyone to see!

1/23 Koto

The teacher demonstrates playing the koto. The koto has 13 strings.

The thumbpicks.

Me wearing the thumbpick before I attempt to play.

Everyone tooks turns practicing simple songs, including "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

English Volunteer: I volunteered a few times to practice English with local high schoolers.


My group and I presenting.

Group picture (different time from previous pic)

Chinese New Year Party (1/19): I found flyers at City Hall (Shiyakusho) for this party, held by local Chinese exchange students and residents. I organized a group of 20 JCMU students to go, but because it snowed heavily that day, only 12 of us ended up trudging 30-40 minutes to the party (we were afraid to use our bikes). At the party we helped make gyoza (dumplings/pot stickers), which were taken into a separate room to be boiled. Many other dishes were prepared as well. Eventually we sat to eat and listen to a speech. There was plenty of people and plenty of food. There were also some performances, which varied in quality but were interesting. I think the language barrier proved to be too high for some of my fellow JCMU students (we were surrounded by Chinese speakers and most of us weren't very advanced at Japanese either), but I managed to make a friend.

My friend as we walk to the party.

Kneading the dough for the gyoza wrappers.

One plate of boiled gyoza. There were many more brought out continuously during the eating.

The many variety of Chinese dishes that were prepared.

Everyone working to roll out the wrappers or spoon filling into them and fold them shut.

Finished gyoza, waiting to be cooked. The round ones that look like tortellini are a "cute" version that I think is supposed to be used for wontons (or something like that). It was a guy who taught us how to do it, and some of the girls made fun of him because it was so cute and childlike. But it was also way easier to do, in my opinion.

The room, so packed that people had to stand or simply didn't fit. Everyone eating their fill and talking (mostly in Chinese).

One of the performances.

The event was mentioned in the Chuunichi Shinbun, a widely circulated newspaper, I'm told. The week after the party, the ladies in the office at JCMU called me over excitedly and told me that I was in the newspaper. That's me in the picture, despite the fact that the subheadline is "Chinese exchange students and the locals." JCMU is even mentioned in the article.

The event was also mentioned in the Kyoto Shinbun, with even a color picture! The kind office ladies at JCMU called both newspapers to get copies for us, and the newspapers got us copies for free!

Fishing (1/25): There was a local fishing event to get rid of invasive species. For 100 yen ($1), you could rent a crappy fishing pole and get a cup of bait (tiny shrimp). If you caught a fish, you brought it to the organizers, who added it to a bin and gave you a cup of sweet red bean soup in return. Strangely, the fish we were catching would probably not be eaten, although they are eaten in the US (I think one of them was a type of bass). My friend managed to catch a fish. My bait just got eaten repeatedly (probably feeding the invaders...). One brutal man next to us stomped on the fish he caught and then threw them back in--but they weren't dead! After several minutes, the fish shuddered and moved. We didn't know what to make of his actions. He seemed like a regular, since he had legit gear.

The cup of shrimp bait we each received.

Equipped with cups of bait, crappy poles, and plastic bags to hold our catch.

The river lined with regular fishers and families attempting to fish with the borrowed gear. Everyone tried to find spots not offensively close to someone else. The areas on each side of the bridge near where the organizers were set up were very crowded.

A regular, with a fancy pole and a tent to block the sun.

The hook and line wrapped up for easy carry.

The unwrapped hook and line.

The pole turned out to be extendable, and therefore much longer than we expected.

I attempted to spear the shrimp onto my hook, but it was difficult. It was easy to tear through the bodies or break the heads off. I never felt like I did it properly. I did get a good tug, but the fish got away with the shrimp. The second time I got a tug, the fish stole my bait and broke the hook too!

So exciting. Watching a red ball bob. Trying to keep my pole at a good height--I didn't want the bob to be hanging in the air, but I didn't want slack line trailing in the water either. Or did I? What do I know?

Bored, so I took pictures of the local ducks, which are not mallards, but instead are grey with black heads and white beaks.

Behind us footballers were practicing on a field.

The stomped fish.

The fish my fellow newbie caught. It flipped around wildly in the bag before it died.

The sign says, reading left to right: "Collection box--Fish preservation/Let's put in invasive fish species!/Shiga Prefecture"

We gave our fish to the organizer, who added it to a bin.

A bin for one kind of fish.

A bin for the other kind of fish.

Warm, slightly sweet red bean soup with mochi (chewy balls made from rice). We each got a cupful, and chopsticks to eat it.

The organizers' area, with the registration tables on the right, the blue bins for the fish, and the table with cups of red bean soup on the left.

Kyoto (1/26): I visited Kyoto and visited various famous sites with a Japanese friend I met at Pitt.

Parody goods

Kinkaku-ji 金閣寺 (translates roughly to "Gold Palace Temple")

Someone dressed in kimono at Kinkakuji.

Building/shrine with a collection box in front. The roof appears to be thatch with moss growing on it.

Mossy thatch roof?

Grassy thatch roof?

"Rest Area"

Fortune-dispensing machines

A bin to throw away your fortune in.

Fortune-dispensers for foreigners.

My fortune. "No. 17"...sounds mass-produced. Which is normal. At other shrines, you typically shake a box full of numbered sticks. A stick falls out of a hole in the box; you show the number to the shrine's priests and they give you the corresponding fortune. So all fortunes are numbered.

The English version of my fortune. Notice where it says "Your fortune: Quite Good." Omikuji, these fortune slips, are usually split into categories of fortune rankings: extremely good, quite good, good, bad, quite bad, extremely bad.

The Japanese version is in red on the back.

Depending on how good/bad your fortune is, you tie your omikuji to stands like these on the left, or sometimes on the branches of trees. Or you take them home with you, or throw them away, I guess. I'm not quite sure.

These two kindly let me take a photo of them dressed up in kimono for their visit to the shrine.

If you think parallel parking is hard, try to park in this garage. And don't even think of buying a taller car.

We stopped at a cafe to eat green tea-flavored cakes and drink black tea. Green tea-flavored sweets are a specialty in Kyoto; you'll see them advertised everywhere.

An art museum we passed on the walk between temples.

A blue heron and some white ducks. I've only seen ducks like that in Beatrix Potter's illustrations. How strange to come to Japan and finally see them in real life.

The rock garden at Ryoanji Temple.

Decorated sliding doors opened to let in light and air. The floors are covered by tatami mats made from woven straw. At Ryoanji.

I've never seen so many water buckets lined up in preparation for fire. The value the caretakers of Ryoanji have for the temple is clear.

A model of the rock garden.

A garden with interestingly pruned trees.

A tree with mysterious bottles sticking out of it.

A public restroom with a kimono-clad female figure denoting the women's restroom.

Many traditional style houses have figures such as these outside the doorways. The raccoons in particular are common. On the upper right, the poster is advertising Boy Scouts.

Roofs with solar panels are seen more frequently in Japan than in the US.

A building foundation

"Let's keep our town clean"
"Cleaning up poop is an owner's responsibility."
"Household Pet Consulting Office"

Oni, demons, guard the entrance to some temples.

This temple had many stickers on the doorway. They look old, and like they have names of people or stores or something on them.

A toy store we passed.

It would be a strange sight in America, but in Japan it is common to see regular apartment buildings, houses, and stores side-by-side with temples and shrines.

We decided to take the local train to Arashiyama Station, but as we were entered the train station, we encountered some amateur filmmakers.

The machine next to the door is a payment and change machine. The top accepts coins and cards (bus cards and IC Cards, not credit/debit cards), and the bottom (on the right side) accepts bills and converts them to coins.

Arashiyama Station was having a temporary exhibit of kimono fabrics. The fabrics, of various patterns, were wrapped around poles that lit up after dark.

Before we went home, we bought some omiyage, souvenirs, to bring home and share with friends/family. This is konpeito, which is colored, flavored sugar stars.

I also bought nama yatsuhashi, which are triangles of mochi with filling. The box I got had plain mochi with strawberry filling, green tea mochi with red bean filling, and cinnamon mochi with red bean filling. My American friends liked the strawberry ones, but they were all good.

Concert (2/2): One of JCMU staff members is a musician who practices at a facility several stations away. Several JCMU students and I went to watch him perform in a concert.

Statue of a local famous historical figure.

The performance hall had a pipe organ, to our surprise and excitement.

Fascinating sculptures near the station.

After the concert, we went to kaiten-zushi, "conveyor belt sushi."

Hamburger sushi. Not my favorite.

At this store, when you finished eating five plates, you could slide them into this slot to play a game.

On the computer screen, which is used to order food, the game begins!

A little animation plays, during which a battle occurs (volleyball?!). But we lose this round.

And win another! Inside is a sushi keychain.

Each booth has a gatcha-gatcha machine, which dispenses balls with sushi keychains in them when your table wins the game. On the belt, plates of sushi follow namecard plates that name the food, riding through the restaurant. On the upper conveyor belt (currently empty), orders made through the computer arrive, brought quickly and stopping at the table.

Setsubun at Taga Taisya (2/3): I heard about a local Setsubun celebration occurring at a large shrine in the area, so I persuaded the JCMU director, teacher of our Japanese literature class, to take us to the celebration. Setsubun is an annual Japanese celebration. One activity is to buy a 15cm-long sushi roll called ehomaki, and eat the whole thing without talking while facing the lucky direction for that year. Another activity is to throw beans out the door or at someone wearing an oni mask, saying "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (Demons, out! Luck, in!)

Taga Great Shrine (Taga Taisha)

The entrance to the shrine.

In front of the shrine is a street full of old fashioned stores selling food and wares.

Someone bought these cookies and gave me one. It appears that this blue-pink-blue on white stripe pattern is a trademark of Taga Taisha.

Right inside the entrance to the shrine is this very steep bridge.

Before the big performance, lots of specially dressed people are gathered in the shrine. They are important locals, I hear.

The crowd slowly gathers in the courtyard surrounded by a catwalk.

The performance begins! Here are the oni!

The priests face off against the oni. The oni shoot spiderwebs, but are repelled by priests throwing beans at them. Many people in the audience are filming the performance.

Despite the onslaught of spiderwebs, the priests slowly force the oni back towards and past the stage to other side of the catwalk.

The oni defeated, this parade of people lines up around the courtyard.

They hold mysterious boxes as they chat casually, waiting for the signal.

It begins! Some of the men loft white-fletched arrows at the crowd. People leap to catch them.

Then they throw hard white rocks at us! Apparently these are mochi, dry and hard, to be cooked at eaten later. People gather as many as they can, some trying to fill plastic bags.