Happy Mother’s Day!!! While I didn’t get to be there for mum, at least I got to speak with her and the family over skype this morning; I did that straight after breakfast and putting some washing on. We spoke for a bit over an hour, and then I worked on my field report for a few hours. By 1, I was getting really hungry, so had to eat lunch. Since I would be going out for dinner tonight, I ate the leftover yakisoba for lunch; I also made a banana milkshake since I had so much milk. After lunch, I played KH for a bit, and then worked hard to get my sakubun finished, and it basically was by the time 5 came around. Hugo had already gone (he’s still not back), and now it was my turn. I met Maarika, Midori, Ume-chan, Ann and Rose outside Toriki (they had just come from The Ring), and Mori soon joined us. After a short wait, we were seated and after we got our drinks, Midori took charge of ordering just about everything on the menu for us; no joke. The amount of things I got to sample tonight was incredible. We stayed there from about 6:30 till 9:30 and the food kept coming, bit by bit. I got to eat chicken cartilage (weird), wing, breast, skin, and some internal body part (even weirder); all on a stick. We also got heaps of the amazing naan dish and the deep-fried camembert cheese; far out amazing!!! To finish off, I got mango sorbet for dessert; very good. Almost the entire time, we were speaking in Japanese, which was really great; I got lots of practice in. The bill turned out to be very reasonable too, considering the amount we ate. Finally, the night came to an end, and Mori and Midori made their way home by train, and ume-chan soon went his own way; that left the rest of us walking home. It was a great night, and at least I feel semi-prepared for tomorrow’s sakubun; I’ll write it all out a few more times in the morning…
I just got back from 鳥貴族 (Torikizoku), a restaurant where all the items on the menu are 280円 (well, technically 294円with the tax). As the name suggests (torikizoku means bird of nobility), chicken is the primary meat, but there are also salads, soups, and rice. But more about that later… I got up this morning at about 9:30, and had a citron, apple and banana for breakfast; I didn’t have any milk for cereal. Then, I spent until 1 doing homework, and practicing kanji. I decided I needed a bit of fresh air, so I had a bit of a ride before getting some take out from the new kebab shop just across from the east gate; Café Istanbul. I’ve been missing kebabs since I’ve been here, so I was really happy. Two international students were in there smoking a hookah, which anyone can do for the price of 800円; not for my thanks. Still, I thought that was kinda of cool; they are quite beautiful devices. I ate my doner kebab in the nearby park and wow, it was really nice; maybe a bit small for the price. After eating, I went to Avail, but didn’t end up buying anything; there were a few things I liked though.
Getting back home, I worked on my blog, and talked with family for a little bit, before getting interviewed by Hugo. He’s doing a group report for his physiology class, and has to interview both Japanese and foreign students; I hope my answers help him. Soon after that, he asked if I wanted to come out with him and Yuji to torikizoku for dinner; they would be going straight away. Since my best decisions are usually made spur of the moment (before I have time to think about them), I decided to go for it; it would be fun. And it was! We were joined by Yuki (Yuji’s friend from a university in Osaka), and Biancha met us there. We arrived at straight on 6 when it opened, and ended up staying until after 9:30; well, Biancha left a bit early. After ordering drinks (I just had water), we could order whatever we wanted, whenever; they have a buzzer system. I only ended up having 3 dishes, and they were all chicken. My favourite would have had to be the filleted chicken covered with tartar sauce. Also, after the first bowl of cabbage, all the rest are free; not that I like cabbage that much.
I got the opportunity to talk in Japanese a bit to Yuki, who wasn’t very good at English; I also translated for Hugo a bit. Yuji got considerably drunk, and this made him very tired for some reason. While the quality of the food was very high, the service was a little slow; Yuji had to wait half an hour for his last meal. Everyone else ate way more than me, but that was more because I was being cheap; I would have liked to try a bit more. I did get to try some of Biancha’s deep fried camembert cheese; gosh that was so tasty. If I go again, I’m definitely going to order it. I also got to try some of Hugo’s chicken naan bread, which reminded me of Mexican food; it was beautifully spicy. When we left, Hugo and I soon separated from Yuji and Yuki; Yuji was going to Tsutaya, and Yuki was presumably returning home. I decided I would make a quick stop to Makkas, to get a soft serve; that made me happy. Hugo and I were soon on the bus back home; unfortunately Yuji missed it. Even though it was a little long, it was a great night out and I’m glad I went; I need to do stuff like that more often. Well, uni again tomorrow, better get some sleep…
Hurting all over from yesterday’s practice… Getting up at about 9, I spent the morning doing homework, before getting to uni for my 12 o’clock class. Staying in the same class for Religion, I got the homework done, and then chatted with Julie before class. Today, we continued with Buddhism, looking at the ways you can be reincarnated and the concept of Karma. Basically, depending on your Karma, which can be the positive or negative actions of this life or any of your previous lives you can be reincarnated as – a god (deva); a demi-god (asura); a human; an animal; a hungry ghost (preta); or a being in hell. In order to reach Nirvana, you’re actually best off being a human, a wealthy man living in a Buddhist country to be precise; you have the most opportunity to become a devout Buddhist monk. If you’re reincarnated as a god (which will last for about 50,000 years), you’ll find your life too comfortable and not worry about learning the Buddhist teachings until it’s too late; if you became a demi-god, you’ll just be angry and war-like the entire time; if you become an animal, you do have a slight chance of reaching Nirvana, but it’s more likely that if you’re a good animal you’ll get reincarnated into a human close to Buddhism (pets are the luckiest); if you’re reincarnated as a hungry ghost well, you’ll wander around unseen in the human world, never able to slake your insatiable hunger (they can’t swallow as their necks are too thin) and; if you’re sent to hell then you’re going to have a pretty rough time for the next 30,000 or so years.
Buddhist hell is quite different to Christian hell. Firstly, you get taken to the king of hell (閻魔王– enma o), who’s there to judge you, and make sure that everything’s running smoothly. You’ll be shown what you did in your past life, and then by punished appropriately. Now there are many, many different types of hells, cold hells, hot hells, each with their own elaborate tortures and finite period of time the punishment will last for; they were very specific. One that the professor described to use was – drowning in a river of burning faeces while being pecked at by a bird (I later found out from Biancha that this was called the “blazing cock” hell). Now you could say well, I guess you’d get used to continuously dying after a while; it is a long time. But no, every time you experience the torture fresh, as the previous time is erased from your mind; of course, when you are finally reborn into another existence you won’t remember it anyway. The most interesting thing to note though is that, the Buddhist hell isn’t a physical place, it’s a mindset; you are punishing yourself. The torturers and even the other beings being punished are just extensions of the mind; I don’t know where enma o fits in though who incidentally is also a reincarnate. You keep on experiencing that same, appropriate punishment until all the bad karma is used up. So yeah, that was Religion. Afterwards, I rode back home, had lunch, and then spent the rest of the afternoon, updating my blog and watching episodes of Courage the Cowardly Dog on YouTube; that was very “natsukashii” (nostalgic).
I also got started planning the trip to Hikone, and I’m really excited about it now; there’s a lot of great things to see. One thing I especially want to do is take the ferry out to 竹生島 (Chikubu island) right out in the middle of Lake Biwa; it looks really beautiful. And of course, we have to see the castle; it’s still in its original form like Himeji castle. At around 6, I went to Sanko to pick up a few things. Getting back, I chilled in the kitchen for a while, before actually cooking; it was nice just to talk with people. I ended up cooking a chicken pasta bake, and made so much that I have some leftover for tomorrow. Sitting with Ash and Rachel, we absent-mindedly watched a detective/drama show on TV, while Yuji and Natsuki were making bandanas out of a red cloth for the Seminar House 2 sports team. I had to go over and investigate, and since most of the team was in the kitchen, pretty soon we all had them on, and were posing for the camera; that was fun. After helping with the washing up again, I spent the rest of the night in Katie and Ash’s room, watching Hetalia and AMV’s on Ash’s laptop; Rachel joined us too. Katie and Sarah were working on their skit, and they are portraying characters from Lord of the Rings; I think it’ll be hilarious. Well, hopefully I’m feeling a bit less sore tomorrow…
Since I’m going to be going to the sentou with Yuji and Hugo in about half an hour, I’m going to do this update now. First off, Happy April Fools!!! I didn’t end up playing any jokes on anyone, but oh well. I did have a good laugh though when I went on dA, and all the avatars had been messed with, so you were either team Jacob, or team Edward (among a few others); I was so glad I was team Jacob. Anyway, today was another rainy day; it just let up this evening… I got up at 8:30, and after getting ready, I studied and read a bit more of Reborn. Just after 11, I had lunch and then made my way to uni. Saigo sensei played us an enka song in class today, which was actually a little depressing. We got the lyrics, and he urged us to sing it at karaoke; it would impress our Japanese friends. I decided I might as well stay where I was after class, since Religion is in the same room; I got my homework done in the time being. Today, we revised for the midterm exam next week, which consisted of the teacher asking us true/false questions, or making us ask questions to other students. From what we did, I really doesn’t seem like the professor expects much of us, so I’m not worried about the exam at all. Julie and I decided that, weather permitting, we would go to Nara early Saturday morning, before meeting up with the rest of the class in Tenri; might as well make a day out it.
Before going home, I got a chocolate milkshake from Makkas, which I enjoyed as I walked to my bike, trying to avoid the rain. Getting back, I found Simon in the computer room. He had been there all day, writing his essay for Culture and Everyday Life in Japan, which was due today. I asked him if he wanted to go to the gym, and he declined; I expected as much. Not perturbed, at about 3:30 I made my way to the gym, and had a really good work out; I was alone for a lot of it too. At the end of the session, I weighed myself, and I’m still gaining weight; I’m so happy. Getting back, it tried to do the readings for Gender and Sexuality, and inevitably ended up dosing off. Just after 6, I wrenched myself from the futon, and rode to Sanko for groceries; the rain had stopped at this point, but the air was still thick with moisture. Getting to Sanko, I noticed that a lot of the trees had come into bloom; walking to karaoke or Makino station will be beautiful now. Satisfied with my purchases, I made my way back, and went straight to the kitchen to make dinner; I was starved.I had bought chicken and pasta, and decided to try to make a pasta bake, just without the baking part. It turned out really nicely; I mixed the pasta and chicken in with my favourite sauce and the leftovers of the leafy vegetable I’d bought for yakisoba.
I decided not to be a pig, and saved some for lunch tomorrow, which was great because when I finished eating I felt really content; not bloated. Katie left as I finished eating, so I sat with Julie, and she showed me a video on youtube with this guy doing a funny dance in locations all over the world; there were four in Australia!!! An American chewing gum company was so impressed by what he did, that they sponsored him to go around the world again and film it; it was great. And I loved the backing music; as soon as I got back down here I bought it off iTunes. I also got to watch Pokémon on TV. Soon Julie left, so I was left with Ash and Rachel; not that that was a bad thing. Ash had just come from Animate and had bought a stack of goodies; as she always does. In particular, there was a Hetalia book with sheet music from the character songs; I want it so badly. On TV, there was a travel show about 江ノ島 (Enoshima), which is an island off the mainland near Tokyo. There was an amazing mode of transport, where a bus could travel on both rails and on the road; so cool. It came around to 9 o’clock soon enough, which meant it was time for cleaning. After that, I left the kitchen and found Hugo and Simon in the computer room. Hugo told me about the sentou, and I decided I should go; I could use a bit of relaxation. Looks like we’re getting ready to go now…
Today was another miserable, wet day; and it was freezing. I rode to school this morning, in the rain, and actually got there quite a bit earlier than anticipated. So, I decided to go pick up a snack from the convenience store; blueberry Danish. In Speaking today Saigou sensei gave us another listening exercise, filling in song lyrics; 別の人 (betsu no hito – Someone Else) by Aoi Teshima. It was a really pretty, and sad song, and the lyrics were actually written by Goro Miyasaki (son of Hayou Miyazaki), who directed Tales from Earthsea; Aoi Teshima’s song, Teru’s theme was used in the movie. Then we started chapter 6; keigo! Having studied keigo (honorific speech) in Genki, this was more of a review, and I can remember most of it. After class, with an hour break, I went downstairs to the lounge, and sat with Rachel, getting my homework done. We were soon joined by Sarah and Katie, who were busy showing each other knitting patterns across the table; instead of just looking at the same laptop screen, they would send the files across to each other. Rachel was trying, and failing, to read a book for her literature class, that was supposed to be read by last Thursday; they really do have a heap to read though, it’s crazy.
Soon enough, it was time for Religion, where we talked about 創価学会 (Soka Gakkai – lit. “Value-Creation Society), a new religion derived from Nichiren Buddhism. The professor passed out a heap of magazines for us to look at, and comment on, and everyone seemed very suspicious. I think that’s partially the fault of the professor’s, for positioning us to view Soka Gakkai negatively (whether intentional or not), and partially because of the feedback we got from the first lot of interviews; some of the interviewees feared Soka Gakkai. And indeed, there are a few things a bit off putting about it. First of all, it has a political party, which is always a little troublesome. Secondly, a lot of what it does, what it stands for, and what was emphasised in the magazines (and the short introductory film we saw) didn’t seem very religious at all. There wasn’t really enough explanation of what exactly is expected of a member of Soka Gakkai member. The focus seems to be world peace, education, and ecology. So yeah, so far seems a little iffy, but we’re going to learn more about it on Thursday. After class, I stayed behind for a little bit, and told the Professor about my experience at Kansai Soka. Of course I hadn’t realised at the time, but in 2005 when I went to Japan for the first time, we actually visited a school one of their schools. Looking back on it now, it was probably the nicest (and wealthiest) of the schools we visited; that says something.
I checked my mailbox, and found my grades for yesterday’s lesson test in Speaking. I was really happy with my results; much better than my first test. Now I just have to keep it up! I rode home, and it wasn’t raining, it was just really cold and windy; not exactly an improvement. I ate some lunch, napped, and then blogged until dinner; I’m having a lot of trouble keeping up this week. I think it was about 7:45 when I went up, and I had put on rice almost an hour earlier; whoops. Tonight’s meal was easy; lasts night’s chicken and sauce over rice. I put it in the microwave to heat up, and then went to sit down with the girls; and Simon. I while after, thinking it had been long enough, I went to check my meal, and found the microwave still running. I quickly stopped it and opened the door to find a little bit of a mess; just a little. The sauce and even some of the chicken had spattered the sides. Rachel then told me she thought that that microwave was on the fritz; I guess she was right. Anyway, no harm done, I wiped up the mess, and enjoyed my meal. We didn’t talk for too long tonight, which was okay because I meant that I got my Reading and Writing homework done. After my shower, I found Hugo in bed, so decided to follow suit; a nice early night.
