happii (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} happii) wrote,@ 2007-10-06 16:11:00 |
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| Current location: | Ankara - Turkey (unfortunately) |
| Current mood: |  busy |
日本夢 - Nippon Yume
Here's my belated entry of my 7-week "mission" in Japan. While it was rather like a vacation I prefer calling it a mission because I was aiming to achieve various things: to live independently, to improve my Japanese and to satisfy my hunger for Japan were the foremost ones. I believe I achieved the first two to a certain degree but I failed really badly at the last one. Haha, too bad!
Home Sweet Home
The period of my stay was set according to the length of the Japanese course I would be attending while accommodation was arranged all according to my preferences. I stayed at one of the guesthouses of Sakura House but not just any guesthouse! I was right at the heart of Harajuku! My house was in one of the narrow streets full of Harajuku fashion boutiques in the Jingu district. It was a 7-minute walk from JR Harajuku Station walking through Takeshita Street and a 20-minute walk from Hachiko statue in front of Shibuya Station. In the neighborhood I had Yoyogi Park, the La Foret Mall and the fancy Omotesando Street. I was practically living the Japanese pop culture!
Although the location of the house was great, I think the house itself wasn't that attractive for many people. It was an old wooden Japanese house that shook every time a helicopter passed over and had no sound isolation at all. I would hear clinging of the keys of passerby's and the thud of a fallen bottle of drink bought at the vending machine just across. Inside there were 7 rooms various in sizes, a jam-packed kitchen with ants around the garbage, a messy common area (thanks to one of my flatmates!) and a bathroom with a leaking roof and a huge shower. Huge because apparently there used to be a bath (ofuro) and later it was tuned into a shower.
My flatmates were from the US, Italy, Germany, England, Lebanon and France. Surprisingly I was the only girl in the house but it was fun to live with guys. However, the house always seemed to accommodate more people than it already did. Take the entrance (genkan) for example. There were a dozen pairs of shoes (and even a couple of platform shoes!) that didn't belong to any of the tenants. They were left by the previous tenants who lived in the house. Similarly books, food, bathroom supplies and a whole lot of junk were left over. Some of them were actually pretty useful, like the stack of garbage bags and bottles of detergent as we never needed to buy then anew.
My room was very small – around 5 square meters. It had a window and a door to the backyard but I would rarely get some sunlight. There was a table, a chair, a couple of shelves, a mirror, a lamp and a futon set! Yeah, I slept on the floor and it was much more comfortable than I imagined.
On the whole, it wasn't the cleanest place on earth but who cares? I really liked living in an old house and about the messiness, that's how guesthouses are supposed to be. If I were to go to Japan, I would choose to stay at the same room at the same house.
Sendagaya Japanese Institute
…is the school I attended. Conveniently placed at Takadanobaba, 9 minutes away by train on JR Yamanote line. I was placed in Intermediate Level I class at the exam I took on the first day. Some people in my class were studying Japanese at university and obviously they were better than me at kanji. About speaking, however, I believe I'm very much at ease. The classes were so much fun, the teachers were very professional, the staff at the reception was very kind and the field trips were so convenient that they saved me a great deal from the burden of the places I needed to see.
My classmates were from all around the world which is perfect for me as you get to hear more languages, there is more stuff to discuss and people are automatically very interesting. There were a couple of Japanese pop culture fans like me but not as many as I expected. Still I had so much fun with all my classmates. What really touched me was that they really tried to speak Japanese outside of class like during break times. But with Asian people it worked out better as the more Western people got more English started to interfere with the conversation. I really don't like using discriminative terms or generalizing but that really is the case. The reason for it deserves another long entry so I'll pass.
I found the teachers very good at their job. They were fun, professional, highly experienced and too many! I particularly liked one of them. He was absolutely hilarious! He had a very weird way of giving class. He would give the same example about himself while explaining each linker of contrast ("Takahashi-sensei is a weird but kind person"). He would make a weird sound ("nyan nyao!") when reading the blanks in a sentence. One day he told us about toilets worldwide and how they worked. We were all gonna throw up as it was so gross!
Sights
I got to see Tokyo Disneyland, Edo Tokyo Museum, Kegon Falls and Toushougu Shrine in Nikko, Kaminarimon in Asakusa, Tokyo National Museum in Ueno and the famous Tokyo Tower with my school.
Tokyo Disneyland was pure nostalgia for me as it had been ages since I had been to a Disney theme park. However, for the first time I got to watch the famous Electrical Parade at night. There was more English than I expected and it seemed that everything from the straws at restaurants to the rides was imported from the US.
Tokyo Disneyland was pure nostalgia for me as it had been ages since I had been to a Disney theme park. However, for the first time I got to watch the famous Electrical Parade at night. There was more English than I expected and it seemed that everything from the straws at restaurants to the rides was imported from the US.
I wasn't so impressed by Edo Tokyo Museum because it was more like an exhibition consisting of models. However there was a special exhibition about trains in which you could see rail maps of Japan from the 1900s to present which I found quite interesting because you could clearly see the improvement.
Nikko is an ancient town flooding with tourists thanks to its short distance from Tokyo. There are signs that say "Warning against monkeys" XDDDD I would consider myself lucky if I ran across a monkey! Anyway, first we went to see the Kegon Falls. They were cool but I was freezing because the weather wasn't so hot that day and even though I had an umbrella with me, I got wet because the mist was just everywhere. Later we went to Toushougu Shrine dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu which was simply A-MA-ZING! Japan is full of temples but this one was without a doubt the most beautiful of one I saw. With its gorgeously detailed wood carvings and glory it was simply unique. On the way back to Tokyo, we watched the first Harry Potter movie dubbed in Japanese which marked another memorable aspect of the trip.
Tokyo Tower is either the symbol of Tokyo or just a replica of the Eiffel Tower depending on how much you love Paris. For me I think it's the first one although I'm very much in love with Paris too. It's just, my obsession of Japan is stronger XP Anyway, it's still one of the top tourist attractions of Tokyo. The white and red paint makes it look like a modern temple rising among the skyscrapers of Tokyo. Apart from seeing the city from high up, it has a Wax Museum, very poor compared to its competitors, Trick Art Gallery, Guinness World
Records Museum and other attractions. On the whole, it's a nice place you'd go with your family on a bright weekend.
Kaminarimon in Asakusa is one of the landmarks that assure you that you're in Japan. It's basically a huge lantern that says "Kaminarimon" (Thunder Gate) on it. After you pass through the gate, you end up in a long shopping street called Nakamise. It's the number one souvenir corner in Tokyo, I think. At the end of the shops Sensou-ji temple appears with all its glory.
Since Ueno and Asakusa are close by, after seeing the Sensouji Temple, we went to the Tokyo National Museum in the Ueno Park. I thought the museum was far better than Edo-Tokyo museum because there were actually historical articles to see the oldest one I saw belonging to the 9th century B.C.
As for places I went to see by myself, I can list Kamakura, Enoshima, Imperial Palace Gardens, Government Office Building in Shinjuku, Tsukiji Fish Market and Odaiba. One of the principle cultural summer entertainments of Japan is watching fireworks. And the best place to do that is no other than Tokyo's recent entertainment spot, Odaiba! It's an artificial island connected to the mainland with the famous Rainbow Bridge with huge fancy modern buildings, shopping centers, parks, a giant ferris wheel, a bath house and a beach. Plus you can get a breathtaking view of the city at anytime of the day. When I heard that there would be a fireworks festival (hanabi taikai) held in Odaiba, I decided to go right away. Moreover, I found myself buying a yukata to wear just like many Japanese people do! I don't know what possessed me to buy it, really. Maybe its cuteness? XP Anyway, I wore it and went to Odaiba. I tried to ignore all the staring but when a couple of girls screamed "Kawaii!" behind my back, I was glad ^^ I managed to find the flatmate and his friends I was meeting among the entire crowd at the beach and the fireworks started. They were so magnificent. I even saw one shaped like a cat face! They went on for about an hour then we stayed at the beach to wait for the crowd to disperse and went home later. On the whole, it was a wonderful experience.
Kamakura is the rival of Nikko in "touristic spots close to Tokyo" category. It's most famous for the great Buddha statue, Daibutsu. After visiting Daibutsu and buying a small figure of it from the nearest souvenir shop for my mom, I set out to look for a hiking trail that would take me to Kita-Kamakura Station. I met Joe, an American from the state of Utah, when I was looking for the start of the hiking trail. It turned out that he was looking for it too so we decided to stick together and ended up as hiking buddies. Joe was a Mormon and a father of four kids. As far as I could gather from what he told me, he had the perfect American family. The funniest thing was that had learned about Mormonism just the night before at a party in Yoyogi Park. And the next day, I met a follower! We talked and talked about everything the whole way long. We were having such good conversation that I didn't realize how tired I got eventually. Besides I was wearing flip-flops think that hiking and walking mean the same thing. Thankfully, I didn't get very dirty and seeing a Japanese girl wearing high heels made me feel better.
After Joe and I said goodbye to each other, I took the train to Enoshima, a small island connected to the mainland with a broad bridge. It reminded me of touristic seaside towns in Turkey. I took a peek at the little temple at the end of a lively street that I tramped up and down several times to buy the ideal manekineko from the various souvenir shops. I ate some local snacks for dinner and headed back to the train station to Tokyo. In the train I made a mistake by sitting next to an old man who took great interest in me when he found out that I spoke some Japanese. He was a history teacher and a member of a political party. He talked on and on about history and at some point he even made a remark that Japan and Turkey were allies as both of them had fought against Russia which reminded me of the mentality of old Turkish people. I realized once again how similar we could be to the Japanese in some aspects such as this one.
Towards the middle of my stay, my classes were held in the afternoon and suddenly I ran short of time to visit places as school would consume my whole day. However, thank to the suggestions of a fellow flatmate, I visited the Imperial Palace Gardens and the Government Office Building in the skyscraper district of Shinjuku. The Gardens are a patch of Heaven in the middle of a busy metropolitan and the building offer a splendid view of the city, a toyshop and an expensive café on the top floor.
When a friend visiting one of my flatmates said he was going to see the Tsukiji Fish Market, I knew I had to tag along with him as there was no way I would raise my lazy ass and go there at the crack of dawn by myself. As the fish market closes around 8-9, we woke up at 4 am to go there. It was really freaky to see all the fish freshly caught from the ocean. Some of them were still alive! What I didn't like was that tourists were constantly on the way of the fishermen. They were blocking the narrow passages to take pictures and preventing the workers from doing their job. After we had finished seeing the market we went to the most popular sushi restaurant of that area. Boy, it was popular as we waited for ONE HOUR to get in!
Food
When it comes to food, I'm extremely picky. However, almost in an attempt to rebel against the conservative eating habits and tastes of my country, I'm in love with Japanese cuisine! Something I found really interesting is that I realized that I really loved some stuff that I was told many Japanese didn't like such as caviar or natto (fermented soybeans) Anyway, Japanese cuisine, like everything else in Japanese culture, is very unique.
I had sushi a couple of times, one at a very touristic kaitenzushi place on Omotesando. Other than that I had soba, tempura, yakitori and shabu shabu for the first time. Soba is I think my favorite kind of noodle because I'm not a big fan of the vegetables in ramen. Tempura was delicious but it was so heavy and oily for me that I had to spend a couple of hours sleeping to digest it. Yakitori is close to what we call shish kebab but in a more Japanese way. Shabu shabu definitely deserves its high price. I never knew thin slices of meat could be so delicious when cooked only in boiling water.
My greatest gastronomical discovery during this trip was the "festival dish", okonomiyaki! It was absolutely delicious. It's kind of an omelet cook on a tin plate. In some restaurants, the waiter brings the ingredients and you cook it on your own, while in some the okonomiyaki is served on a plate already cooked.
Obsessions
Since I was living in Harajuku, I could pretty much satisfy my obsession of Japanese youth culture everyday by walking through Takeshita Street. But I also have interests that I can't satisfy in the cute and crazy shops of Harajuku. So that's all from my obsessions. Or… is it?
Take the Rose of Versailles for example… The fandom of this old historical shoujo anime/manga series is the mothers of the youths you see walk around Harajuku and Shibuya. Purely, out of luck, I found a huge stand dedicated to it at Kinokuniya Bookstore in Shinjuku. But I had another place in mind to shop for RoV goods. Power Ambitions Showroom located in Nagayama which is an hour away from Shinjuku with the rapid train on Keio line, serves as a museum and shop for RoV merchandise. The saleswoman was quite surprised to see a foreigner coming all the way from Turkey to visit her shop. I spent a good one and half hours there and left with a huge smile on my face.
Another thing I had in mind was buying Kodemari's RoV doujinshi (fan written manga) I contacted her and asked her how I could pay her and receive her work. Seeing I was a foreigner, she was kind enough to give me easy instructions. A couple of days later, I received her doujinshi and started reading using my electronic dictionary as my Japanese wasn't so good to understand it. Though, speaking about Japanese language, I did something really amazing that I'm very proud of. I shopped at Yahoo Auctions Japan! Thanks to Jim Breen's WWW JDIC, I managed to read the instructions to bid and pay and bought a RoV CD and two gorgeous posters!
When I was in Kinokuniya bookstore, another surprise was waiting for me. While I was drooling over the RoV goods, I saw a notice announcing the special Harry Potter event in the honor of the release of the last book! So as the event said, I was ready in front of the bookstore on July 22 at 8am. Because of the time difference in between, it would be midnight in London. I got my copy, went back home and started reading. I finished the book in three days which is a record for me, for fear of spoilers. One of my flatmates had already downloaded one of the internet leaks and read the book but thankfully he didn't utter a word about it and I could finish my book in peace. It was the greatest happiness any devoted Harry Potter fan could ever reach.
When I was commuting from home to school, I always took the wonderfully useful JR Yamanote line. It was on the TV screens on the train that I saw the ad of Sanrio Puroland, a theme park of Sanrio characters (Cinnamoroll, My Melody, U*SA*HA*NA, Keroppi, etc. and of course Hello Kitty) for little kids. Guidebooks absolutely have no mention of this spot obviously as it would attract the attention of only the crazy cute-obsessed Japan fans like me ^^; So I decided to check it out. The place was roaming with toddlers accompanied with their mothers. And there was me still smelling of alcohol with a slight hangover from clubbing the night before. Now, that's one great contrast! But the park was so much fun and irresistibly cute. I watched several shows and one of them had a surprise for me. I had took my seat on the front row and looking at the pictures I took on my camera when a lady was giving the preliminary announcements about the show. The moment I heard the word 'Takarazuka' I automatically lifted my head. As much as my Japanese allowed me to understand she had said that the performers were Takarazuka actresses! So I ended up watching a Takarazuka performance by 'accident'!
Before I arrived in Japan, I had stumbled upon a site introducing two anime museums in Tokyo. Naturally, I decided to visit them. The first one was Toei Anime Museum, with a collection of Toei anime figures and other merchandise, a timeline of Toei anime history and a studio room to show how anime is put on TV. The second one, Suginami Animation Museum offered broader entertainment facilities. A library of anime DVDs and manga, a studio where you can draw and animate your own anime, a move theatre and a small shop made it a more worthy of being called a museum.
Of course the most famous anime related museum is without a doubt, the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Dedicated to the anime movies of Ghibli Studio which is best known for the masterpieces of the Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki, this museum features a permanent exhibition area with sketches and storyboards, a special exhibition area, a playground with a life-size Cat Bus toy, a shop, a restaurant, a café, a movie theatre. It was a bit of a disappointment for me considering that the tickets run out months ago. Luckily, they save a certain amount for foreigners everyday. At the entrance to the museum, the staff asked me for my country. I think they ask that to all foreigners for statistics. That's how popular this museum is. But it's worth going there to see the yearly updated short anime movies. These movies are created for the Ghibli Museum alone and are not distributed in any other way. The one I watched was Mizugumo Monmon. It was simply adorable! I fell in love with the genius of Ghibli once again because who else would have thought about making a movie about the love story between a water spider and a water strider?
JPOP also got its share of this trip. I knew I had to see at least one of my favorite artists perform live and the date of the OLIVIA's 'Share your treats' concert was just perfect. I bought my ticket about ten days in advance and went to CLUB QUATTRO in Shibuya where the concert was going to be held on the big day. OLIVIA was simply gorgeous. She was wearing a white shirt and a grey skirt with blood stains on. She was so at ease on stage. She talked about her tour in Paris. I thought her speaking was a bit weird. She would insert a lot of English words and the weirdest of all was that she didn't pronounce their Japanese readings. Nevertheless, she was so cute! What I liked best about the concert was that her voice sounded exactly the same as in her records. And there was no playback really.
Osaka and Kyoto
I went to Osaka and Kyoto for one weekend shortly after I arrived. Reason? Simple: The Rose of Versailles. Since I had some more time before gong back to Tokyo, I decided to go to the Costume Museum. Just like the title suggests, it was supposed to feature costumes from ancient Japan. Places like this always attract my attention but I find them disappointing almost always after visiting them. So this time it wasn't any different. Far from being a museum, I found a small "flat" with small Japanese dolls dressed up and put into a "doll house" that was meant to look like ancient Japan. There was a "fitting room" where we could try a princess outfit. I took pictures wearing the outfit, chatted with a very enthusiastic lady working in the museum and headed to Kyoto Station to go back home to Tokyo.
I had read that a special exhibition about The Rose of Versailles was going to take place in Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum in Takarazuka, Osaka. Since Takarazuka is also the hometown of the all-woman theatrical troupe, I knew I had to go there.
The distance between Osaka and Tokyo is around 550km which takes only 2 hours and a half by bullet train. I arrived there in the morning and went straight to Takarazuka. It looked like a cute little European town by a river to me. There was a path called Hana no Michi leading to Takarazuka Grand Theatre surrounded by shops that sell Takarazuka merchandise like mostly CDs and DVDs of performances, posters and postcards of top stars and other pretty decorative stuff. I took a peak at the theatre but didn't see any plays. It's a pity that they don't perform Rose of Versailles this year. When I was on my way on Hana no Michi to Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum, I came across the famous RoV statue. It really was a great coincidence because I kept seeing pictures of it on the net but had no idea where it actually was so it practically appeared out of no where!
Later that day, I went to the Osaka Castle. I had been there before but my camera had broken down and I had to leave without taking a single picture. So this time, I went there to avenge myself. There was a music festival with amateur bands playing all kinds of music. I stopped by to listen to a couple of them. There was a huge publicity of EXILE so I gathered they would make an appearance there later but I couldn't stay that long. I took pictures of the Osaka Castle from every angle with my dearest Nikon COOLPIX P3 and headed to the SpaWorld.
Now, going to SpaWorld was a mistake. I got carried away by the lure of the description of the Lonely Planet guidebook and went there without considering certain things. SpaWorld is a huge indoor spa complex so it's supposed to be a very fun place if you go there with friends. But I'm a lonely traveler and the whole experience turned out to be awkward. First I wanted to try the outdoor pool. I needed to borrow a swimsuit as I hadn't brought one with me which was very uncool to begin with. I tried the slides and swam to the open air part of the pool. Then I wanted to try the onsen (public bath) at least once when I was in Japan but I just couldn't bring myself to be naked in front of everyone else although it's gender separated. I knew everyone would look at me which was okay if I was with someone else. But when alone, I knew I just wouldn't be able to take it. Ah well, stupid me!
My next stop would be Kyoto. I headed to Shin Osaka station, took a local train and was already in Kyoto in just half an hour. I walked to the ryokan (Japanese styled inn where you have your own room but share the bathroom) which I had made a reservation for that night. There I requested the host to prepare the ofuro (bath) for me. Although most non-Japanese find the idea of getting into the water somebody else had already used simply gross, I didn't mind and it turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than SpaWorld.
Next morning I left the inn and went to Kyoto station to take a bus to Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavillion) On the bus, I asked for directions to the girl sitting next to me and we started talking. She was a first year International Relations student at Ritsumeikan University which was right near Kinkakuji Temple. She offered me a tour of her university and I gladly accepted. Later she walked with me until the entrance of Kinkakuji. We said goodbye to each other and she went back to her university. I walked for 5 minutes into the temple and suddenly remembered that I hadn't taken any contact info of her. So I ran back to the university, found her department, asked people if they knew her and finally, unbelievably found her! Then I lingered a bit more at the university as she had lunch with her friends and set off to Kinkakuji for real!
Kinkakuji Temple was simply breathtaking. There are no words to describe its beauty. It's absolutely "the" landmark of Japan. I won't say anymore, go check at Wikipedia XPPPPP
Later I went to Fushimi Inari Shrine. It's famous with its hundreds of torii lined up one after another very densely, almost forming a tunnel. The shrine is also featured in the Memoirs of a Geisha movie.
A trip is never a trip unless there are some mysterious and memorable things to tell the people when you come back. So before ending my already more-than-long enough entry, I want to list strange things that happened to me in Japan.
- I saw the same girl and the same dog 3 times
- I saw the same tourists twice - an old French lady and his son or grandson.
- I saw the same tourists twice - an old French lady and his son or grandson.
- I was asked directions by a Japanese girl
- I saw 2 old women with purple hair on the same day at different times.
- I was asked out 4 times by different old Japanese guys at different times.
- I found a Turkey stone Istanbul souvenir in my room when I moved in.
Weird, huh?
Photos can be viewed here -> http://picasaweb.google.com/gonenc.i
