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Friday, June 8, 2012

Shoguns and Surrealism at it's Best

Monday, May 28th: We go. To Nikko.

Our first day without M to fend off the paparazzi. Or mostly to speak Japanesa. His worries for us were unnecessary. In fact, we got around so well, people thought we were Japanese (well, besides the obvious appearance factor). I nearly fooled myself. I've heard it said that I have a knack for directions. And alright, I'll say it, I am pretty good. Everyone has their talents, and this is mine. Perhaps for the next family talent show we can all pile in the sub, blind fold me, go somewhere crazy, and I will tell you exactly where we are. At every turn. Just call me Shirley Holmes.

Stepping off the train at Nikko, I knew I'd made a mistake. Tokyo was hot hot heat but Nikko= frigid. Of course, B and I were in summer attire. We succumbed to the little Japanese lady selling Ponchos and bought two, just in case. And it's a good thing. One word: monsoon. Or is it typhoon? I'm not really sure. It may be something else entirely. All I know is that one second, things were chilly but dry. In the blink of an eye, it was a torrential downpour. I can safely say that I have never seen rain like this in my life. But when you're in Japan, there's no time to wait it out, so off we trekked to Tokugawa's house.

All y'all: put Nikko on your bucket list. Now. Everyone must go there. It may just be one of the most amazing places in the world. Nikko, home of the legendary shogun, Tokugawa. The 3 main sites are in a mountainous area. Perfectly picturesque. And though it may have been a pain, the crashing thunder and downpour contributed to the ambiance quite nicely.

After Nikko, we made the trek back to Tokyo. Then, it was off to Ginza, 5th Avenue of Tokyo. It was glorious, dazzling, classy, hands down one of grandest shopping streets I've ever set foot on.

You may be wondering about the surrealism factor of this post. Well, here's what happened. B and I went into one of the biggest department stores in Ginza- a bit like Harrod's with one slight difference. There were more workers than I could possibly count. And each of them stood at attention at their stations, bowing and saying "welcome (in Japanese)" as we passed. It was surreal and completely out of this world. I felt like the queen of England. 1. No one else was in the store. 2. B and I walked slowly through, Japanese workers lined the way, perfectly still except for a mini bow as we passed. 3. Let's not forget to mention the creepy, surreal elevator music playing in the background. It was fairly unnerving.

Last, but certainly not least: Fruit.
Apparently, fruit is a nice gift in Japan. And I mean, very nice.

$126 Cherries. Taste-bud Tantalizers.

$270 Melons. Fit for a Queen.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

私は日本語を話す. Hi Hi

Sunday, May 27:

Our first Sunday in Japan was slightly more laid back than Saturday. But only slightly. Here's a brief, but certainly not bland, summary of the day.

1. Bemusing Bidets
Never before have I desired to use a bidet. Yet, there is something strangely tempting about pushing one of a million buttons on a toilet. Yes, a toilet. In one of our hotel rooms the toilet even had a remote. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, the remote was chained to the wall. You can only imagine the mounds of fun I would have had with that. A bidet spray is unexpected even when it's expected. Now off my life checklist: use a bidet. Not a very pleasant experience but that's culture shock for you.

2. の歌いましょう
Hi hi. Yes, let's do it. Do you even know what that means? That makes two of us. Merrily on my way I went to church, so excited to be in a familiar environment and sing familiar songs. It hadn't even crossed my mind that the Japanese hymn book would be just like everything else in Japan. Foreign. Or as others might say for-hine. I could not sing. I couldn't even sound out the words. I didn't remember the English words so, I elected to attempt singing in Japanese. I can do a top notch impression, provided no Japanese speakers are in ear shot. PS- it's supposed to say, let's sing. Blind trust in google translator.

3. Monkeying Around
Welcome to Asakusa- beer towers, temples, and pagodas. I spy with my little eye Japanese peeps snapping sneaky photos of us. If you want to be famous, go to Japan. You'll have paparazzi popping out at every turn. The most exotic thing here was the monkey show. Imagine, a little mini monkey dressed in mini clothes, walking on mini stilts, and doing incredible high jumps like they do in track.
Things we saw: Senso-ji Temple, Nakamise Dori, Chingodo

4. Ueno Park and Back Comes Bruegel

Tokyo National Museum. I was surprised to find that I really no nothing about Asian art. Zlich. After Wien, I could spend days on end in any art museum like the Kunsthistoriches. This museum was different, but quite exciting, though in all honesty, my favorite part was going to the Western Art building. Here, I was overjoyed to find none other than my main man, Pieter Bruegel. For Pete's sake, take a minute and look him up. You won't be disappointed. I'll admit, I may have even shed a tear. Petey's that good.

5. Wasted
Dinner of breaded chicken and curry then I was out cold. I slept from 7pm to 6:30 am. Jet lag zoombie is me.

FrenchEnglishJapanese

の歌いましょうの歌いましょう

の歌いましょう

Monday, June 4, 2012

A Long, Long Day

Welcome to the longest day of my life. Literally. None of that figurative mumbo jumbo. This morning, I woke up in Japan at 6 AM (aka 3 PM Sunday, June 3 Utah time). Now, I've made it back home, regrettably losing a lot of sleep along the way. As you already know, I took a mini sojourn to the land of Anime. Due to the lack of Wi-Fi, the blogging of my trip had to be delayed. Thus, without further adieu, I will begin the ever so daunting task of describing each and every one of my Japanese adventures.

Day 1: About 18 hours after leaving the SLC airport, we arrived in Japan! To be honest, my first thought upon entering the airport went something like, "This is crazy. What am I doing here?" And then upon entering the bathroom, "I could sleep in here." Because, little did I know, Japan is the cleanest place in the world. Probably. The airport was immaculate. As was everywhere else we went. And the funniest thing is, there isn't a garbage can in sight. It's still a mystery to me what people do with their garbage. They must slyly slide it in their bags and dispose of it in the privacy of their own homes. Anyway, B and I got to the airport and began our search for M. Luckily, we found M and his friend J right as we walked out of the baggage claim area. Naturlich, I was terrified we wouldn't find him. That would have caused not a headache, but a migraine. We dropped our bags off at J's host man's home and then as M would say, "made like trees and leafed" off to Kamakura. Kamakura, along with every other site in Japan it seems, is a UNESCO site. It was the first Japanese capital to be organized by the samurai, or Shogunate.

Kamakura is the home of the Daibutsu (Great Buddha), the second largest in Japan. Also in Kamakura are the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and the Hase-dera Temple.

Before I go any further, I need to mention the free guides. Before going to Japan, Kathy B. told us all about how she had free tour guides for each city there. So, I emailed a boat load of people and set up a guide for every day. In Kamakura, our guides were Fumi and Mai. They took us around to the sites (extremely helpful as we could not read anything there, everything is written in the Chinese Kanji characters) and we also went to lunch with them.

Lunch: After eating my first meal in Japan, I now know why the Japanese stay so thin. The secret: chopsticks. My first meal with them was a disaster. We ate soba noddles (pretty much spaghetti dipped in soy sauce) and I could barely grab onto any of those slippery things.

To finish off a grand first day in Japan, we took a stroll around Tokyo Tower (which strangely enough, looks identical to the Eiffel Tower), went to MacDonald's (there's just something delicious about an American hamburger in a foreign place. I hate to admit it but, B and I went there 4 times in 10 days), then B and I crashed in our miniature hotel room (I could nearly touch all the walls in it at the same time).

Next up: Bidets, church, monkeys, marionettes, and museums.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Das groBe Jahr

Be kind, please rewind, to several weeks ago, February 27th to be exact. My B-Day. I realized I never published my birthday post (no wonder I never received blog birthday wishes). I decided to tweak it a bit and show my post to the world. Here's a disclaimer for you. The majority of it is from the February 27th, 2012 me, scout's honor. You can never be too careful these days. After all, I have progressed leaps and bounds since then (Miss College Grad, I think yes). So without further adieu, happy belated birthday to Moi! Und dann bin ich alt geworden. 23. I'm old. I'm ancient. At least B. seems to think so. You can imagine my surprise when, upon looking in the mirror my birthday morning, I saw this...

But only for a split second. I'm sure that is just how I'll look when I'm riding a unicycle in the Body Worlds exhibit. I tried to google a picture of that as a teaser but alas, I guess no one has thought of that idea yet. Though, I did come across a Body Worlds picture of poker players. If they can't set me up on a unicycle, I suppose this is the next best thing.

Forgive me, I don't mean to spook you. In all honesty, I was rather taken aback by this photo. Poker playing cadavors. Who da thought?

Oh 2012, the year of being 23. I know this year's destined to be a great one. I can feel it. It's going to be a big year. Just like the movie. For someone who has yet to see it, I've rather taken that movie to heart. 23 is a lucky one, as Michael Jordan would say. A year for adventures and doing great stuff. A year of fun, where you can never be crazy enough. First things first, big adventure=Check. In a few weeks time, B and I are going to have a Japanese experience. It's crazy. It's wild. But life's too short to not take opportunities as they come, no matter how insane they seem. As for the rest of my year, I'm optimistic. There are fabulous things in store, I know it. I'll keep you posted. And on my birthday next year, I will say with satisfaction, that I had a big year.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Graduation Station

Whoever invented the cap and gown must have had a distressingly sad sense of fashion. That, or an impossibly quizzical sense of humor. The truth of it is, though I love being old fashioned, adorning oneself in what appears to be a king sized bed sheet is not really my cup of tea (or milk rather, since tea, I do not drink). But the occasion of graduation calls for following certain long standing traditions that cannot be broken. At the very least, I can happily say that the tradition of GC originated in classy establishments, Oxford and Cambridge. If you can't beat them, join them, so they say. At long last, I am rather ecstatic to say that I have finally been dubbed, Miss College Grad. Looking around BYU campus, I feel a bit like JC, "I came, I saw, I conquered." Though to be honest I'm not sure I'm ready to throw myself aboard the moving train called life. So for now, I'm beginning a mini sojourn into reality whilst looking for as many direct routes as possible back to the safe haven called School. You can hardly blame me, I think I thrive on the stress of it. Me + School = a symbiotic relationship, perhaps commensalism at its best (if you know me well, you're probably thinking, "Has L lost her mind???) Ok, I admit, school, stress, and a quest for success was unpleasant at times, to say the least. But over the past year, I've become as laid back as a lemur. And don't try to deny it. Here's proof, this cartoon didn't even phase me.

Well, maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration. Anyway, while deciding what comes next, I'll begin my quest of changing the world, one step at a time (it's what college grads do best) and remember the wise words of Nora, "You may not know everything, but you can learn anything."