Conquering the Mountain

Kendra :

From anywhere in Kobe, you can look up to the north and see and feel the impressive presence of Mount Rokko and Mount Maya. These are the peaks nearest to us that belong to a huge chain running all along the Kansai region. Well, most of Japan is mountains. That is why the country can seem so crowded. Basically because of the mountains there just isn't room to expand cities on the ground so the cities have to expand upward. Hence why there are alot more tall buildings here than say in Kalamazoo.

Our roommate from last year, Langdon, who is a JET living in Hamamatsu, Japan, came for a visit this last weekend. We had a pretty good time. It was nice to see a friend from back home as well. Aaron had someone to play video games with and together those two managed to beat Mario Kart on the super famicon on 150cc for all the cups. Woo hoo, huh.

But, the highlight of the weekend was climbing Mt. Rokko, or Rokko-san, as you would say in Japan. Since mountains are considered sacred places they are given the title "san" which you also put on human names, like I am Kendra-san to more formal friends. So, saying Rokko-san is kind of like giving the mountain some human feeling to it. All mountains can be called like this, the most famous of course being Fuji-san, Mt. Fuji.

When we started the climb it was drizzling out and rather dreary; not very nice weather to be outside in, but we decided to go ahead with it anyways. The first part was all paved and we were sort of disapointed, but soon it started to get interesting...

This is a sign warning of...go ahead...take a guess, yes, an attack by a very angry boar. I'm not sure of the origin of these piggies but apparently they have been known to attack people. More on this later.
Here we are at the start of our climb. The other girl's name is Katherine, she is another Fulbright Fellow studying in Kobe. The guy is one of her friends.

Here is Aaron looking at the view from the start of the climb.

Here is the gang! Ready for a climb!

WOW! This picture doesn't do it justice though. And this is the view from not even half way!

This is the view toward the top. Again, this picture does nothing to show you how incredible it was up there.

Is this for real? or something out of the Lost World or something. That is what I kept thinking.

Kitty! For some reason there was this nice cat on top of the mountain. He looked very well fed and he was nice so we figured he either lived off stuff tourist give him or he belonged to a mountain hermit.

Ahh...contemplating the view on the way down.

Toward the bottom of the mountan there was a Shinto shrine. AND!! guess what we saw...

A WILD BOAR!!

It was really big, but it took one look at us and ran as fast as it could. It didn't really live up to the vicious looking boar on the signs, but it was still cool to see one. But, it ran away so fast that we didn't have a chance to get a picture of it.

Here is Aaron wearing my silly hat that I got at a 390 yen store. It has a patch with the woodstock logo and the words " Everyday of peace and love" on it.

The busy part of Kobe (Sannomiya) at night.

All in all it was a pretty cool weekend. Hopefully we will get to visit Langdon in his hometown sometime. In other good news, our internet at our house should be installed and running by November 8th! Isn't that exciting. Now Aaron will be able to get on the internet. I can only use it when I am here at school. So, if you are interested, get yourself a skype name and the proper gear and we will be able to talk over the internet for free! Yes, really free.

Next weekend is my school's festival but Aaron and I will be gone for the most part to another festival. We have to take a overnight ferry to get to this one, but it looks really cool.

Hope all is well with everyone. Miss you guys!

Festivals of fun and flame

Kendra:

Yesterday Aaron and I met up with fellow Fulbrighters to go to some fetivals in Kyoto. This was our first time in Kyoto and geesh, what a town. So beautiful, so full of tradition.

The first festival we went to was called the Kyoto Jidai Matsuri meaning the Festival of Ages. Since Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868 (and Kyotoites are very proud of that) Kyoto basically contains all of Japan's history from those times. This festival is basically a parade of people in costume that represents a specific period of time for Kyoto. It started like this:

There were 200, count em', 200 older ladies in pretty summer kimono all dancing down the street in perfect timing. An impressive army.
Then, the parade starts, working backward from 1868 to 794 a.d. So, the first period is the Meiji restoration period.

Then it moves onto the Edo period, the time when the Tokugawa shogunates were in power. This pretty lady is dressed as Kazuno-Miya, princess Kazu, younger sister of the then Emperor Komei.

Then came the period of 1573-1614, known as the Azuchi-Momoyama period. This is when Tototomi Hideyoshi united Japan under his authority. This guy with the horns I think is supposed to be this guy called Lord Oba Nobunaga...not sure, but he has some crazy horns on his head.

Next was the Muromachi period, 1393-1572. Didn't really get any good pictures of this period.

This chick is cool though. This is from the Fujiwara period, better known as the Heian period, 897-1185. This lady is dressed as Tomoe-Gozen. Her husband was a general and when he was attacked she road into war with him dressed as a man. Alot of Japanese women look up to her because of this.

But, alot of Japanese women also look up to these two. These ladies are Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon. Lady Murasaki wrote the very famous novel The Tale of Genji, which most believe to be the first novel ever written. Sei Shonagon wrote a pillow book, which is like a public diary of sorts, that critizes court life of the Heian age, it is actually very funny.

This little cutie is from the Enryaku period, 782-806. He is dressed as a gagaku, a musician for shinto rituals with the wings of butterflys and birds.

This is from the same period as the little kid. It is some kind of sacred carriage that is suppose to house the spirit of the Emperor Komei, the last Emperor in Kyoto.

This is Aaron and I in front of the famous Kamo river in Kyoto. It has rocks shaped like turtles.

Then, after that festival was done, we crammed ourselves onto the most packed train I have EVER seen. It had only one car and I think everybody in Japan was trying to get on. Seriously, it was packed. Why? Because a small town up in the mountains that was this trains desitnation was about to set the town on fire...on purpose. Whaa..?

So, when we got to this little, tiny town, it was only about 5:00pm but the place was already full of people packing into this little place to see this festival of fire. We got some cheap noodles at a vendor then attempted to find a place to stand. But, we didn't really know what was going on, so we ended up standing in the wrong place and all kinds of cops yelling that "the fire is going to be close to you here, you might be caught on fire, eh." Thanks Mr. policeman for the help. But, we managed to not catch a flame, but we still had to deal with the pressing, jostling bodies of about a thousand+ people.

After the festival started the crowd broke up a bit and we could move around. What we saw was amazing. Every house lit up a small bondfire, while in the clearer spaces around town giant ones were lit. The wood burning was Japanese Cedar which smells sooo good. It was so crazy to see soo many fires everywhere. But..it gets weirder.

Yes, that is a little kid with a giant torch. Part of this festivals main attraction is little kids, like 2 year olds, parading down the street with giant, flaming torches. Not kidding at all.

Why do they do this? I really don't know. We didn't learn to much about this festival before we went.

It was mezmerizing. So many little kids...so much fire.

This scantily clad man here shaking the crap out of this kids torch is one of the adult torch bearers. We thought the kids' torches were big...yah...until we saw what that guy and his friends would be carrying around.

This is the craziest thing I think I have ever seen. These guys lit up this GIANT torch right in front of us. Directly next to us...we just couldn't believe it. It took like 3 guys just to lift it into the fire.

It was just so...so...Japanese.

We left the festival rather early to escape the crowd, remember only 1 friggin' train goes to this place and there was thousands of people just here for the festival. So, we left and got stuck standing up on the most crowded train ever (literally couldn't even lift my arms up due to being packed in so tight). After that ordeal we were hungry and went to a little Japanese style bar and got some really good food, it was like an egg pancake thing with noodles inside that you cook at your table. Pretty nifty.

In other news, we are trying to get internet at our house again now that we have our Alien registration cards. So, hopefully Aaron will be able to update this also.

Hope all is well back home.

Frustrations abound!

Grr...sometimes everything is just crappy. You know, like 10 things go wrong in a row and you just can't take it anymore!

Well, getting the cell phone is becoming more and more complicated. For some reason, they need to "examine" our info to make sure Aaron and I are actually married so we qualify for the family plan. My guess is out different last names are blowing their minds. Anything out of the ordinary and it needs to be checked and double checked, then they need to call 5 more people to have them check as well. I just want a phone!!! Ahh!!!

I got so frustrated yesterday that I splurgged and bought a little MP3 player. Only 2 gigs, but it is very sleek and pretty. On sale too.

Aaron's only reply is that he wants more Famicon games...

When the train stops running, things get crazy

The system of trains and subways in Japan is extensive. Vast. Convenient. From 5 am to midnight you can ride for low prices to just about anywhere. From 5 to midnight...after that...you are on your own.

It all began like this...

Around noon on Sunday, Aaron and I rode the train to Osaka and met up with fellow Fulbright Fellows at the Osaka International Beer and Wine Summit. SO COOL! It was a medium sized festival set up American style with tents selling beer and food from all over the world. The best food was the Indian food..oh man, tandoori chicken with Naan bread. The best beer was from Brisitsh booth that had a beer from like every nation ever. I've seen and drank alot of fancy beers but man, there was alot of stuff I had never seen. I got a beer with "alpine herbs" in it...tasted like a Ricola beer, but it was good! really it was.

So, we had a blast in short. There was all kinds of ethnic dancing from thai, balinese, korean, and a tranvestite Indian dressed up as a beautiful woman who did a comedic dance rountine. "She" pulled one of the Fulbright men into the dance ring and what proceeded was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It will be on youtube soon.

We were just have so much fun that we decided to go to a Karaoke club. Karaoke is verrrrry different here. You and your friends get your own private room with your own private machine to put whatever songs you want on it and then you basically all sing your little hearts out. Tambourine included. Oh, and it's usually all you can drink for a flat fee. You just call a waiter on the room phone and have huge amounts of drinks delivered whenever you want.

So, we went, we sang, we drank. We....missed the last train home!!!

Actually, we didn't miss the train, we got on the wrong one. Mind you, Aaron and I were staying at another Fulbrighter's place for the night, so we were not the ones navigating. We've never even been to Osaka before that night.

So, we rode the train for 25 minutes in the wrong direction to the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the loniest part of Osaka city. What to do now???

Well, Japan has come up with a solution to this dilemma because you see, it happens all the time! Tons of people are stranded after missing the last train because bars are open till 2am or later...trains all stop at midnight. Thus was birthed the manga kissa. Manga is the Japanese word for comic book and kissa is a shortened version of their word for coffee shop. Combine the two and you get a magical establishment that is open 24 hours, supplies a library of comic books, internet ready computers, soft drinks, snacks, massage chairs, and (At nicer places) small rooms you can rent out for a few people. Mind you these are not rooms set up for staying over night per se, it is just that you can do that if you need to. All this for a hourly fee. We ended up staying at the Manga kissa for about 3 hours, from 1:30 am to 4:30 am and it only cost us $10 a person (including free unlimited drinks).

At 4:30 am we slowly and very tiredly walked to the subway, waited for it to open at 5 am, got on the first train at 5:13 and ended up back home in Kobe by 6:30am.

I had to leave for school 2 hours later.

I am tired.

Oh, and Aaron bought a super famicon (Japan's Super Nintendo). He is very excited about it.

Aaron's 23rd Birthday Japan 2007!

Kendra:

For Aaron's big 23rd birthday we went all over Kobe!
We started our trip at Kobe Motomachi Shotengai, which is basically a HUGE outdoor shopping street. I mean huge. Like at least a mile or two road of shops.

Imagine this below repeating for what seems like forever.

Then we headed off to this cool shopping area modled after a Medditterian village called Mosiac. It was pretty big with some crazy aracdes in it. They had a crane game for everything you could possibly imagine. We saw a Pringles crane game. Pringles. Yes, the chip. In a crane game. Devoted to pringles. Right next to the Kitkat crane game. No lie.

We returned here later for dinner. More on that later.

Our next stop was "Fish Cafe." See the giant fish above? It is three stories tall and made of sheet steel. Very impressive. The food was good too. I also saw one of Japan's famous wild cats catch a bird in mid-air with its mouth! Even the cats here are like ninjas.

After lunch we took a stroll around Meriken park...yes..that is a play off the word "American." It is a really old name for the port that was international...hence the American turning into Meriken. The name just kind of stuck. Well, it is now a memorial park to the victims of the 1995 earthquake that struck Kobe really bad. Thousands of peope died and countless buildings were destroyed. At Meriken park they have a section left untouched since the quake. The sidewalk is all torn up and the lamp post tilt at odd angles. A cool thing to see but kind of sad at the same time.

See those happy people up there in that picture getting large amounts of meat from that nice Brazilian waiter? Well, imagine us in that picture...eating ridiculous amounts of steak. For dinner we went all out to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian place at the Mosiac shopping plaza. You get all your side dishes yourself and then crazy Brazilian waiters who do crazy random things bring out unlimited amounts of meat on a stick. They then shave said meat from stick onto your plate where it will lodge itself in your arteries. Mm..mm..good.
Long story short, we ate alot.

Then we went up Kobe Port Tower for the night view. WOW!
(the orange tower is Kobe Port tower)

Kobe is known for its night view and man, it is so awesome.
None of these are our pictures though...we will post those later. Ours are much better.
So, Aaron had a great birthday. As soon as we get internet, he can tell you all about it. Bye!