OKINAWA

The moment I stepped off the plane, I could feel the difference between Okinawa and Kyoto in the humid cling of the air and the casual postures of the people around me. Okinawa is more like Hawaii than mainland Japan and island life is relaxed to say the least. From the clothing to the buses that come either a few minutes before or a few minutes after their appointed time - a thing that is a rare occurrence for mainland transportation vehicles. The people - from the restaurant owner who gave us free donuts and a ride to the ferry to the girl at the aquarium who, instead of kicking us out during closing time as we made little acorn creatures, made us an origami box to protect our creations from the elements - were remarkably kind.

They're supposed to be really cute, but mine turned out kind of freaky. Like they're possessed or something.

You can definitely, however, tell that Okinawa is a lot poorer than mainland Japan, despite the large influx of visitors that flock to its pristine beaches and warm weather. The number of dilapidated buildings are much higher than a city like Kyoto and its main city - Naha - consists basically of one big street (aka tourist trap). I think literally there must have been maybe 3 companies that owned that one street, for we saw a dizzying amount of permutations of the exact same shops, sometimes with the same name and right across the street from each other or even next to each other (starbucks style). Though - for those of you from California, you will appreciate this - I saw a Yogurtland!! I had no clue it had expanded so far...

Anyway, the one other place that a lot of money has been poured into was the Ocean Expo in Motobu - the town where we stayed in for most of the trip. On Monday it was really rainy, so we decided to take advantage of the Ocean Expo, which is this huge expanse of land with exhibits that include botanical gardens, an traditional Okinawan village, an aquarium, obstacle courses for kids and the "Banko Forest" where you can supposedly "forest bathe." Funny thing was, that little bit of fun was only in the English translation and in the Japanese there was no mention of "forest bathing" so I guess only foreigners get to experience the wonders of a forest bath, whatever that is.


We ended up spending most of our time in the aquarium, and I have to say that I've forgotten how impressive aquariums can be. Some of those fish are asbolutely HUGE. There was this one tank with gigantic manta rays and a whale (????) and sharks all mixed into one. Yeah, pretty dynamic. One thing I'd like to point out is that, while the fish may be the same kinds you can find at aquariums in the states, Japanese aquariums definitely have a different atmosphere. I'll give you an example:

*In front of the giant lobster tank*

Me: OMG. Those are FREAKY! They're like giant spiders.
The girls behind me: kore, TABETAI. Literally: I want to eat these.

It seemed like everywhere I went, I heard people evaluating the fish not on how pretty they were or how strange or awe-inspiring etc etc, but on how delicious they looked and how they could be prepared as sashimi/sushi. Or if it's something like octopus, the conversation would turn to tacoyaki (fried octopus balls). It was amazing, but this was a bona fide gustatory excursion for these people! I had no idea that a trip to the aquarium could be such a mouth watering experience...I did notice, however, that at the cafe in the aquarium, there was spaghetti and sandwiches and taco rice, but no sea food...I guess you have to draw the line somewhere ;)

After the aquarium, we went to the dolphin show and once again I was astounded. It was actually really cool and those dolphins can jump HIGH. Like ridiculously high. What movie was it that had the dolphins leaving the earth - or was it taking over the earth - after biding their time manipulating humans into thinking that humans could control them with paltry tricks? Was it Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Anyway, I couldn't help but think of that as I watched it. Simply because in that scene the dolphins jump straight up and swim away into the sky and I thought it was ridiculous, but now - while I still think it's ridiculous - I acknowledge that dolphins can jump so high it's like they're flying. What a glorious feeling that must be!



During the whole show the weather behaved itself and there wasn't any rain, but after that, we got to watch the island Ie disappear on the horizon as the rain came thundering towards us and within minutes swept us up in water and wind. For about an hour we had to bide out our time in the gift shop as we waited out the rain, but it was worth it because I think in that hour two-day's worth of rain was bundled up and unleashed so that Tuesday and Wednesday were absolutely beautiful! On those two days we went to the islands Ie and Nina and experienced the most gorgeous beaches ever! And the best thing was, since it's November and the off-season, they were pretty much deserted even though the water was warm enough to swim in! I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was like those paradise posters people hang in dorm rooms and put as their desktop wall-paper.

Nina Island

Ie Island

Well that's about it for now, but more pics can be found on picasa ~

Peace, love and rice balls! jya ne~~ \(^-^)/

Kakigari and Kouyu! (Harvesting Persimmons and the Changing Colors of Fall)

Shizendo - this gorgeous little temple in the mountains

It's the middle of November and while the stores and stations may have already brought out their faux Christmas trees decked out with tinsel and ornaments, the trees lining the avenues and mountain slopes are still decked out in their fall finery. One glance at the trains and buses packed with camera-wearing, map-bearing people is all you need to confirm that Kyoto is one of the best places to view 紅葉　(kouyou) - the changing of the colors. The ginko trees lining Horikawa Avenue are an incandescent yellow, so flawless their leaves could be the manifestation of sunligh itself, and the momiji - maple trees - at the temples have turned red, the leaves suspended above silent gazers, delicate and as transient as wishing stars.


But on the other side of the mountains to the North of Kyoto, there is a strip of land that skirts the shore of lake Biwaco that is beautiful for a different reason - a reason that is, nevertheless, still connected with fall, and can be summed up in one word: KAKI aka PERSIMMONS. To me, kaki trees are one of the most beautiful species of trees I have ever seen. They aren't too tall, so they don't overpower you with their height and give you neck cramps when you look up, and their branches are low enough that even if you are short like me it's not a stretch to pick the lower fruit. The distance of the branches are are pleasantly spaced and are far enough apart that you have a pleasant mixture of leaf, branch, fruit and sky.

Fruit and sky.

That, I think, is what tops it off for me. The bright orange of the kaki set against the bright blue sky with a few wisps of cloud and green leaves is a gorgeous composition of color...

Adam and Shin-chan

Workin' Hard

But enough about the aesthetic wonders of the kaki tree. More than being beautiful, kaki are DELICIOUS! In the U.S., unfortunately, persimmons aren't a popular fruit and so besides the occasional farmers market, I don't think that you can find persimmons at regular supermarkets. Which is really such a shame because I think all the sweetness and colors of fall must be packed in that singular succulent fruit, which can be as juicy as a plum or as crunchy as...an apple?...a carrot? a cross between the two and a taste like neither? it's hard to describe. But anyway, either way, it's really delicious and last weekend I went with Meli, Max and Adam to Max's host family's kaki field where we spent the day harvesting (and eating) kaki. The weather was perfect, with enough of the fall chill to give the atmosphere some flavor but not freeze off our hands. Some other finds beside kaki: a tiny green frog and an iridescent green beetle that Adam named the uchyujin no daitoryou, or the "president of the aliens", much to Shin-chan's (Max's host parent's grand kid) delight.

The harvest

After our hard work (if you could call it that), we went back to Max's family's house at the other side of the field and had lunch. Which was also spectacular. They had this fire pit in the middle of the floor where they roasted whole fish skewered on sticks, meat, lobster, mushrooms, peppers, onigiri (rice balls), and other delicious food stuffs. It was great. I felt like a rustic Japanese person.

The Feast

The four of us content and happy after The Feast

One of the other people who came along was a 書道 (shodo - Japanese calligraphy) teacher and so after lunch we had a mini shodo lesson. I learned how to write 喜美恵(Kimie - my middle name) and 家族- kazouku, or family - shodo style.

Shodo

All in all, it was a wonderful day.

Some more pics of our explorations around Shizendo and Tanuki mountain:

The gazillion stairs that led up to Tanuki Shrine. The shrine was so funny. "Tanuki" means raccoon and apparently it was the shrine to raccoons so there were tons of statues of them everywhere. The best part was that after the crowds of Shizendo there was pretty much no one at the shrine...which was great...until we saw this dark black statue of a monk looming ahead of us in the gathering dusk. Lucky for us, though, the day didn't turn into some kind of Japanese horror movie. \(^^)/

Under the torii at Tanuki Shrine in the mountains

For anyone who is interested, you can see more pictures online at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ELISSEOTA.

jya ne~ updates from Okinawa to be posted shortly!

Warning: Do Not Kill the Deer in Nara

Last weekend I went with my Japanese Buddhist class to Nara to visit the temples Kofukuji and Todaiji. It was an all day affair because Kofukuji was waaaayy more crowded than we expected. In addition to the "leaf peepers" - the multitudes of people who swarm the Kansai area every year to see the fall colors - Kofukuji was busy because of the recent Ashura craze that has taken hold of Japan. Ashura is a three-headed, 6-armed being that is one of the eight guardian deities of Buddhism, and the sculpture that we saw has been recently on tour throughout the country. It's from the Nara Period (AD 700s) and it reminded me of the Mona Lisa (at least from what I've heard, since I've never actually seen the Mona Lisa) in that it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be perhaps human-sized, maybe a bit bigger, but it was in actually a small wooden figure about a meter high. It was actually kind of cute. Apparently, it's really popular with girls because of its kind boyish face, and I guess I can see that.

Ashura

What I can't understand though, was the three hour line to get in the building for the brief minutes that we got to look at his face. The line was ridiculous! If we weren't there with a class, the general consensus was that honestly we probably wouldn't have stuck it out and seen the statue, no matter how beautiful and sweet it was supposed to be. It was simply amazing to us that so many people would be that committed to view a statue. But in the end I guess it was okay. Max brought these huge black edamame - soy beans - from his family's garden and we munched on them while we were in line. We also got to see the deer that we lolling about the temple grounds, and I consequently learned that killing a deer is punishable by death. Apparently the deer are believed to be kami - gods - and so they're considered sacred, I guess much like the cow is in India. Who would want to kill a temple deer? I don't know, but apparently it has been done and the punishment has been death...crazy!

Yup, see that hoard? That was the line to get in. It zig zags back and forth.

After Kofukuji, we went to see Todaiji where the Daibutsu - this huge Buddha statue - is. There, we saw more deer and more people swarming the avenue leading up to the entrance of the shrine. There were stands along the side of the road selling deer biscuits which people could buy and feed the deer, who have long lost any sense of danger towards human beings. Deer were everywhere, lolling in the mud under the bridge, walking on the pathway in front of the temple, sleeping in the gutters....in Japan there are a lot of unsavory little jobs and at Todaiji I saw witnessed two that I think would be terrible to have: 1) counting the people who came in and out of the temple (there were swarms, so it wasn't like they were in a nice, neat little line) and 2) sweeping up the deer poop, which was plenteous. Trust me.

Deer!

Hey there little fella

Anyway, the Daibutsu was grand and there was some semi excitement when we learned that we could climb through his nose. But that ended up just meaning that you could try squeezing yourself through this hole at the bottom of a pillar which represented the dimensions of his nostril. Not exactly the same thing. Max was disappointed. He wanted to be a booger in the Buddha's nose.

The DAIBUTSU