Moving Forward

I'm not using this blog for personal posts, so the last few weeks have been sparse.  I apologize to those that look for regular updates, but the last few weeks have been nothing but stress, a lot of which has been of a mostly personal nature that I don't care to cover here.  Basically, I'll leave it as the one part that is related to studying abroad and traveling for long terms in general.  Homesickness is real, and no matter how enamored of your host country you may be, if you're there long enough, you will miss something, someone, or someplace from home and it will kind of feel like you're dying a little bit without them/it.

Moving on...

The last few weeks were mostly spent in exams and prepping for midterm break, which starts on Tuesday.  Last night was the big Halloween outing some friends and I went out on.  I went as a Ravenclaw Wizard for those of you familiar with Harry Potter.  It was a much needed bit of relief from an otherwise nightmarish week of exams, homework, and stress.

Tuesday the break begins, and I'm going to Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima to do some proper sightseeing and traveling here in Japan.  I should have a lot of free time when I get back, too, so I'll be able to post a few longer entries that include a ton of awesome pictures!  That's my hope anyway.

Sorry I don't have more to add at the moment.

Double Header! Part 2: Classes Continue!

So, moving out of the mythological into present day, and recent events!  This week went by quickly.  Classes are busy as always, and the homework load from the language classes is getting a bit more intense.  But manageable still. My other classes are going smoothly as well.

I've been working on my woodblock printing (はんが - hanga) a lot over the last week, and I hope this one turns out better than the last few.  I like the design a lot more.  I've tried to stick with more traditional designs for this kind of stuff because I think it looks the best.  That and we can only do black and white, so we haven't been able to really go crazy with it yet.  I don't know if we'll be allowed to, either.

 

These are the original drawing and the "final" print
of my second project.  It's got a lot to be desired!
The lines need to be more crisp, the black needs to be
solid instead of half finished.  I did learn a lot about
the process from this attempt though.

 

These two are the wood block used to make the prints seen above.
I added some more waves at sensei's instruction, and I need
to redo my "final" print in hopes of improving the quality.
Sadly, you have to wait for the block to completely dry between
making any edits to it, so while I'm waiting on that one to
dry, I've been working on the sketch for my next effort, seen
on the right.  The trees are very much inspired by Celtic art,
which has a surprising amount in common with Japanese and
East Asian art styles.  The use of intricate line art is very
prevalent in both, and both tend to incorporate repeating
patterns.

In other news!  I just found out for sure that I have a sort of "job-interview" for Tuesday.  There's a family here with a daughter who's like three that is having native English speaking students read to her pretty much around the clock so she'll be bilingual.  There are already three or four other students doing it, but they're looking for more.  So, I'll go try that out on Tuesday!  I guess the pay scale is weird, but the kid is supposedly adorable and the parents are really cool.  So that should be fun!

Also, I'm excited because I've booked my trip to Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima for my November break!  All that's left to do is buy the train tickets and set up travel plans in stone!  It looks like it'll be Sara and I, and we're going to meet one of the Japanese exchange students we made friends with at ISU when we get to Kyoto because she lives down that way.  I'm really excited!  It turned out to be much cheaper than expected, too, so that's a win as well.

I need to get back to studying a bit before bed, but hopefully the Double Header is up to everyone's expectations for these posts!  Take care out there wherever you may be.

Double Header! Part 1: The Snake and the Storm God!

Ok, so things got a little hectic this week and I didn't get around to posting a bit of culture information.  To make up for it, I'm taking a break from my studies to bring you a DOUBLE HEADER!  That's right!  Two posts in one sitting!  The first (this one!) is about a subject near and dear to my heart.  Mythology and legends, this one with blurred lines entering into history a bit.  Because that's what Japan is at the very heart of the culture.  It's all the myths, legends, and history stretching back so far that the lines blur and one becomes the other.  This particular myth is one I did a brief presentation on two weeks ago now.

So, our story begins in the deepest reaches of Japanese myth recorded in the Nihonshogi.  This is one of the first recorded histories of Japan and was first completed in around 720 AD.  The story takes place much much further back than that in the dawn of time.

To set the stage, you need to know the main character.  Osusanoo, the Shinto god of storms was the youngest of three sibling gods born when the great god washed his face upon returning from the underworld.  That's a different story though.  The main point is, that he's the youngest of three, and just like many last-born children, he's got a chip on his shoulder and a temper.  He and his older sister, the sun goddess Amatarasu have an ongoing feud and Sasunoo ends up getting himself kicked out of the heavens by the other gods when he destroys Amatarasu's fields, kills one of her servants, and throws a flayed pony at her.  She goes into hiding, he's kicked out of heaven, no body is happy.

Our story really begins when he lands on the Earthly realm.  He lands along the banks of the River Hii and as he's collecting himself, notices chopsticks floating down stream.  Deciding to see who lives up river, he heads that way, following the banks.  Eventually, he comes across an elderly couple of earthly Kami (read as earthly gods) crying with their daughter.  Upon asking them why they're crying, he discovers that the daughter they're crying with is actually their 8th daughter, and youngest.  The other 7 however were all sacrificed to the eight headed, eight tailed serpent Yamata no Orochi one at a time for the last 7 years.

Sasunoo offers his help in exchange for the young daughter's hand in marriage.  Of course, being earthly kami, they demand to know why some stranger is worthy of their daughter, who is also a goddess.  He basically lays down the law, tells them he's really a heavenly kami, brother to Amatarasu, and they'd better get with the program.  They immediately agree to the arrangement and apologize for doubting him.  So, Sasunoo turns his bride to be into a comb for safe keeping, and tucks her into his hair.  That's right... He needed to keep her safe, so he decided to turn her into a fashion accessory and wear her around.

Sasunoo tells the earthly kami to brew the strongest sake (rice wine - 酒 or さけ) they can, as it's well known (at least in Japanese mythology) that serpents can't resist sake.  They also build a fence around their home, leaving eight gates, each with a huge platform and vat to contain the sake.  When they finish, they have brewed eight-fold sake, the strongest possible.  They fill the vats at each gate and then wait.  Sasunoo readies his sword when Yamata no Orochi arrives and drinks.  The great serpent drinks itself to sleep, and passes out with one head in each vat.  Sasunoo strikes, wielding his "ten-fist-sword" and cutting the great serpent to ribbons, causing the river Hii to run red with its blood.

As he's destroying the body of the beast, he breaks his sword cutting one of its eight tails up.  Inside, he finds another sword, this one more mighty and finely crafted than his own.  It turns out to be Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, the sword that would become the legendary "grass-cutting-sword" of the Japanese Imperial family.  He offers the sword to his sister by way of apology and she accepts, having been tricked into leaving her cave by others before the events with Yamata no Orochi concluded.  Then, he returns to Earth and marries the daughter of the earthly kami, Kushinada-hima and settles down in the Izumo region, constructing one of the first Shrines and palaces there.  Their granddaughter is the wife of the first Emperor of Japan, helping secure the Imperial family's rule as divine, as they are descended of the Sun goddess and her kin.

Thus, Japanese Mythology tied into it's earliest history.  The sword, the granddaughter, and some of the other things are historically accurate, though of course ties to the heavenly or divine are fictional, and the actual details are very unclear.  One theory is that the story is actually about the taming of the Hii river region for use in irrigation of rice fields by the earliest farmers there.

The mythology still impacts modern Japan in many ways.  First, the artifacts from these events and characters are enshrined at Shinto shrines around the country, and at specific holidays, there are rituals performed in the form of dances, traditional songs, and in some cases acts to appease and thank the spirits that reside there.  Sasunoo and Yamato no Orochi appear in numerous places in pop culture even today.

Another interesting theory is that the myth originates from myths brought to Japan from South West Asia and India, dating back even further.  The evidence for this is that the trope seems to spread from that region and give birth to similar myths throughout the eastern hemisphere.  In Norse mythology, there is Thor (a storm god) riding the apocalyptic worm Jormungdr.  In Greek and Roman myth, there's Hercules and the hydra that he defeated.  There are others as well, though those are the ones I'm most familiar with.  The idea of these myths originating back even further ties in really well with a theory and evidence I've been scrapping together that all mythology and religion has more or less the same origin.  But that's conjecture for another time as well.

Stay tuned for more recent (and solidly real) events in the next part of the Double Header!

Sight Seeing, Art Classes, and a Travel Tip

Hello out there!  Sorry for the brief hiatus, but I had an off week thanks to a lot of school related stress.  I'm back though, and ready to give some updates.  The last few weeks have been just as busy as expected.  I've had a pretty solid course load from my language classes, and I gave a pretty cool report about a Japanese myth that I may relate as a mid-week update this week to kind of make up for the missed post last week.  Anyway, on to the fun stuff!

Let's start with some sight seeing!  Over the last week, I went out to a shoping area here in Nagoya (名古屋 - なごや)called Sakae (さかえ - I don't know the kanji for this area yet.).  It's one of the major touristy places around the city, and is hope to the Nagoya TV tower, a really cool music themed ferris wheel, and their central park.  There's also the center of the city bus system, called the Oasis that has a bunch of entertainment and shopping stuff in and around it.

 

A couple of shots from The Oasis looking at Nagoya TV Tower in Sakae.  The TV
Tower has LED lighting all around it that you can't see in these pictures,
but there are lightning bolt patters, and rainfall simulations that run
down the sides of the tower most of the time.  The first pic is the view of
The TV Tower from across the Oasis itself.

  

These are different views of the Oasis.  It's a really cool roof area over a below ground plaza.
The Oasis itself is about two stories above ground while the plaza below is about two stories
below.  I've been there both during the day and night now, though I took fewer pictures during
the day because it didn't strike me just how cool the place was until that night.
The last pic is the people I went on the night trip with.  It's myself, Sara, Anna,
and our new friend from the Philippines, Benedict.  That pic was taken up towards the
sky, but the light pollution with the overcast sky made for a surreal backdrop.

  

These are pics of and from the ferris wheel I mentioned before!  We rode it so we could
get some pics and look out over the city.  These are of few of my favorites I took.  It's
called the Nagoya Sky-Boat, and at the highest point, it is 150 Meters tall.  The whole
thing is a little strange because you board it from the 4th floor of a mall, and both that
floor of the mall, as well as the ride are themed for a local pop group called ABK 48.
It's a J-Pop girl band with 48 members... At least if I understand it correctly.  Not really
my kind of music, but interesting to say the least.

For the people that have asked me about my classes, I'm still enjoying them.  As stated to some friends recent, I finally feel like I'm in real college, not just playing at it.  In my language classes, there is constant homework, vocabulary quizzes nearly daily, and weekly speaking, grammar, and kanji tests.  On the other end of the spectrum, my two lecture classes are all depending on relatively few assignments to determine my grade.  The Japanese Culture and Art class has a total of 6 homework assignments and a final 10 page paper that determines the whole grade for the class.  Meanwhile, my Japanese Religions class only has a single grade in the form of a 10 page paper.  No pressure, right?  At least my art classes are mostly relaxing.  I've been rather enjoying both of them, despite not knowing what the instructor is saying at least three-quarters of the time.  It's helping my listening comprehension though, so it's almost like two classes in one.  As it turns out, I don't have any pictures of my hanga work handy, so I'll have to post those later.

This is one of my early attempts at Sumie (Chinese Black
Ink Painting -  すみえ)
The leaves are actually really challenging.

 

And, more recently, my failed attempt at this flower!  Some of the
leaves actually turned out pretty well, but the bloom itself was
very disappointing.  The funny part is, this is my first flower.
The following attempts the blooms looked better, but the
leaves looked just terrible.  So, this is the one I turned in.

So, over the last few weeks, I've had some things come up that I feel are important travel tips that I would like to share.  First and foremost, and one that is really important.  When you come to Japan, as a guy or girl, bring more than one pair of shoes, and make sure they're all comfortable for walking.  In Japan, I have walked more than I have probably any other time in my life.  Roughly a half mile (not really that far) to school and back every day, plus the distances covered on campus back and forth a few times a day.  And then on top of that any walking done to get back and forth between other events.  I brought in a well broken in pair of casual shoes that didn't last long once I got here.  The sole was coming off on one side within the first few weeks, and by the time I got caught in the second real rain storm, they offered almost no protection.  So I went out and bought a new pair of converse.  First of all, let me assure you that finding even upper end of average western shoe sizes is a challenge.  I wear a size 10 or 10 and a half at home, depending on brand.  That translates to a 27.5 CM here.  I found very few places that carry shoes that fit.  Then, once I've bought them, they tore my feet up bad.  I was walking a lot for the first few days after I bought them, and they destroyed my right heel.  As it turns out, medical supplies are expensive here, and finding exactly what you want can be a rather daunting task when you can't read the labels and instructions.  Fortunately, once I got the right stuff, my heel healed quickly and I'm back out there in very well broken in shoes that aren't destroying me anymore!

 

The moral of the story is: "don't keep walking
after the blister bursts."  In related news, I'm
much better now!  These blister-relief band-aids
and whatever kind of ointment this is really do good
work and fast!

Anyway, that's it for me for now.  It's late and I still have to study for a Kanji test.  I needed a break though, and I figured this was a good way to spend it!  Hopefully you enjoy reading.  As always, if you have topic suggestions, or specific questions you'd like addressed, just let me know!