Hot and humid and rainy in Kyoto

This weekend I went to Kyoto and met up with other students in my program living in the Kansai area. It was nice to be able to speak English freely with other people. It rained all Saturday, but we still managed to see some sights and explore the city. At Nijo Castle, we walked through the palace corridors on the Nightingale floorboards (designed to squeak to detect intruders) and the gardens.

Next, we headed over to Gion, the downtown area of Kyoto. We walked through the Nishiki Market and enjoyed taking pictures of all the strange foods, including takotamago (octopus with a quail egg stuffed inside the head…yum).

We also went to Yasaka Shrine, which I had visited last year, but this time there was a big ring made out of some plant which you had to walk through in a figure eight pattern (I’m not sure what the significance of it was…).
After a lot more wandering around, we were all pretty hungry and tired (finding a bench in Japan is rare). Gion was super crowded and most of the restaurants were too small to accommodate our party of nine, so we settled on a Mexican restaurant! The couple running the restaurant wore Mexican style clothes and the man played the guitar and sang songs in Spanish, while we got to play along with tambourines :) We wanted to stay out to go karaoke-ing, but the buses stop running around 10 so we decided to call it a night.

On Sunday, I explored the northern part of the city. I went to Kamigamo Shrine, which was near the hills and seemed to be visited by few foreign tourists. There also happened to be a market at the shrine with tons of stands selling food and crafts. My favorite sight was a man walking around with a cat sitting on his shoulder.

Next stop was Kinkakuji Temple, the famous Golden Pavilion. I’ve heard that this temple is a bit hyped up, but I thought it was actually very pretty. A bunch of school kids approached my friend Tim to ask him questions in English, but they ignored me (as usual). They asked their teacher to take a picture of them with Tim, and I think the teacher felt bad and told me I could get in their picture too.

Last stop of the day was Ryoanji Temple, with its famous rock garden. I wasn’t too impressed with the rock garden though – I think I like normal gardens better.

Some observations: Japanese people never seem to put their bags on the ground or eat while walking (which we heard is kind of taboo). We ended up doing both quite often though, since we were hungry and tired of carrying our backpacks around…

Lab

After orientation, I took the Nozomi (the super fast bullet train) for the first time down to Kyoto. I have since moved into my apartment and began working in my lab at ATR (Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International). I’m somewhere between Kyoto and Nara, kind of in the middle of nowhere. My apartment is surprisingly big. I have a bedroom with a futon, Japanese-style shower/bath, kitchen area, living room, and balcony. The garbage system in Japan seems pretty complicated – you need to separate your trash into eight categories and there are various schedules to pick up the different bags. Surprisingly, you’ll rarely find any trash cans on the streets of Japan, yet the sidewalks are somehow kept very clean.

There are only two other people in my lab and my host advisor is currently in Tokyo at her other lab. At orientation for my lab, I was surprised at how much they stressed that work hours were from 9am-6pm, you should leave at 5:30pm on Wednesdays, and you need to ask your supervisor for permission to work on the weekends or overtime on the weekdays. I later asked my labmate about these rules, and he said people don’t actually follow them, but companies are probably required to say this to prevent people from overworking (which I’ve heard Japanese workers are known to do).

On Friday evening, I went out with my labmates to Gion, Kyoto. It’s been raining all week, so we all brought umbrellas. I was told to hang onto my umbrella because, although the Japanese are good about returning lost laptops and cameras, umbrellas and bikes are frequently stolen. We had dinner at a tapas-like restaurant. They had some strange items on the menu, including whale and raw chicken, but the weirdest thing we ordered was chicken neck. Afterwards, we went out for some good ol’ Japanese karaoke!

Orientation

I haven’t had much internet access the past week, so I’ve been bad about posting entries. The first week in Japan was orientation with other graduate students from the US, Canada, Germany, France, and the UK. The orientation consisted of intense Japanese language courses, lectures, and cultural activities, including a weekend homestay with a Japanese family.

I really enjoyed my stay with the Kosaka family, and I especially loved playing with the two girls. Over the weekend, I played Super Mario Brothers on the Wii (which I was horrible at) and learned a lot about Pokemon. The family was super nice and everyone spoke surprisingly good English. Highlights included:

- Visiting the girls’ grandparents and seeing old pictures of the family

- Trying out a 3D television and playing with some science exhibits with the girls at the Panasonic Center in Tokyo

- Visiting Kamakura and learning about the various rituals at one of the shrines

- Making pottery

- And of course, eating! Soba, warabi mochi, sushi (although I didn’t enjoy the raw shrimp…)

Me and the Kosaka family

Trying on a kimono

Making a tea cup out of clay from Kyoto

Back in Japan

June 15, 2010

Back in Japan again, this time for a whole summer to do research. I flew in to Narita yesterday and took a bus to the hotel, where I was amused by the hotel across the street. This Christmas themed hotel was complete with Christmas trees, decorations, and Santa statues. We later realized from the hourly rate sign that this was probably a love hotel.


More quirky Japan pics to come...