Hi all!
Its been a week (give or take a day, I’m still lost with this time change) since I’ve left Arkansas and it really feels like I’ve been in Japan for a month.
The second night on the tatami mats was much better, probably because I functioned for a full day on four hours of sleep, but that night I was out cold by 9:30. The next morning our first stop was with a local potter. He is one of the best pottery artists in Japan and he let us paint a few pieces and mold some of our own! It turns out my one ceramics class junior year of high school did not help me much. The rest of the day took us to Kyoto, the former imperial capitol. We visited our first Buddhist temple, then spent a lot of time in this massive department store, Yodobashi, which puts all of the Macy’s and Dillard’s of the U.S. to shame.
Day 3 was spent in Kyoto again, looking at a few ancient landmarks. The first was the famous Golden Pavilion, the Kinkakuj. It served as home to the samurai and is covered in gold leaf. The Ryoanji was another landmark we saw which featured the famous the zen rock garden. The temple’s history is not certain but the most interesting part to note is that with its design, you cannot view all 15 rocks from any vantage point. It is said to represent how in human life you can not see or know everything, not until one reaches the state of enlightenment. That evening I had my first real ramen- my favorite Japanese meal so far!
The first 3 days were spent solely on getting to Japan. On the 15th we flew out in the wee hours of the morning and landed for our layover in Honolulu around noon. Within two hours we were on the beach enjoying the Pacific waves. The climate in Hawaii is absolute perfection and I think that is one of the few places in the U.S. that I wouldn’t think twice about moving to. I loved that the mountains and the beach are so close to each other and for some reason there are no bugs to worry about either? It’s nothing short of paradise and I’m looking forward to staying there for a few days in June.
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| Honolulu |
The next 24 hours were lost in more travel. We left on Wednesday and arrived Thursday because we crossed the international date line, which has messed me up in more ways than I anticipated. After landing it took hours to leave the airport because of customs and all that process. We hopped on a train that took us from Osaka to somewhere nearby and somewhere around 10 pm finally made it to the Pony Hotel, our home base. Two other girls and I got placed in the Japanese-style tatatmi rooms, which we were not thrilled about but quickly learned to love. Anyone who knows me knows that sleeping on the floor is neither my first nor my last choice. We were up for about 22 hours on both travel days, so by the time we got there we were beyond exhausted and sleeping on kindergarten mats did not do anything for us either, which leads me in to day 1 in Japan.
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| Not the most inviting to sleep on, I’d say tatami is an acquired taste. |
A combination of four hours of sleep and jet lag makes for a rough first day. Did I mention that the sun rises at 5 AM here? Well it does. Day 1 was spent getting to know our home base in Kameoka. We saw our first Shinto (? the Japanese like to celebrate many religions) temple. We then got to spend some time at a local junior high school where we received some origami lessons from the students. We rode the train over to Arashiama, a community just outside of Kyoto. We toured the area and walked through the bamboo forest. Fun fact: as a new grass, bamboo can grow as much as a meter in one day! Our last activity of the day was the romantic train ride, which put me completely in awe with Japan’s mountains.
The second night on the tatami mats was much better, probably because I functioned for a full day on four hours of sleep, but that night I was out cold by 9:30. The next morning our first stop was with a local potter. He is one of the best pottery artists in Japan and he let us paint a few pieces and mold some of our own! It turns out my one ceramics class junior year of high school did not help me much. The rest of the day took us to Kyoto, the former imperial capitol. We visited our first Buddhist temple, then spent a lot of time in this massive department store, Yodobashi, which puts all of the Macy’s and Dillard’s of the U.S. to shame.
Day 3 was spent in Kyoto again, looking at a few ancient landmarks. The first was the famous Golden Pavilion, the Kinkakuj. It served as home to the samurai and is covered in gold leaf. The Ryoanji was another landmark we saw which featured the famous the zen rock garden. The temple’s history is not certain but the most interesting part to note is that with its design, you cannot view all 15 rocks from any vantage point. It is said to represent how in human life you can not see or know everything, not until one reaches the state of enlightenment. That evening I had my first real ramen- my favorite Japanese meal so far!
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| Kinkaku-ji, house goals maybe?? |
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| Feeling zen yet? |
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| Can’t forget the first ramen of course!! |
Day 5 (today) was our first travel within Japan. We arrived in Tamano City around noon and got to visit with a local business called Takata Orimono, who makes ribbon lining for tatami mats. Our next move was a local beach hotel! We got to soak up the sun for a few hours which was a very nice change of pace. The next move was an Italian dinner with some local supporters of our program. That about sums up this experience so far! I’m looking forward to the next few days in Tamano city, where I’ll be staying with a host family and on Saturday we will be heading to Hiroshima!
A few perceptions about the Japanese and their culture so far:
- Everything is a gamble here. This comes from being a foreigner and not being able to read/speak/understand Japanese. Ordering food off a menu? Point to something and hope you like it. Need to use the restroom? Find the closest one and hope it's not a hole in the ground. Need laundry detergent? Look for pictures of clothes and not dishes on the packaging. You never know what you’re going to get and I’m doing my best to embrace it!
- The Japanese are a very practical culture. By this I mean that some of the things they do make too much sense. For instance: any meal you receive, you get a little hand towel and usually a toothpick as well. The trains and restaurants have jacket hooks or hangers for businessmen. At the store, when you buy shampoo you purchase it in a plastic bag and refill the bottle you have to eliminate waste. They are very considerate as well- for example the sidewalks all have grooves in them to help lead the blind around, and the trains have “mildly air-conditioned” cars for elderly who get cold easily. They think of everything and to some people this may not be much but I constantly find myself fascinated. This leads me into my third point-
- Toilets. The Japanese are WAY farther advanced than Americans in this area, minus in a few places. Coming here, I was cautioned about the old Japanese-style toilets which are literal holes in the ground. I’ve only come across a handful of these and am hoping that I can avoid using one this entire time. The rest of the toilets have every feature you could need when using one. Privacy music, heated seats, rinse options, sanitizer, pressure meters, the list is so long that many of them come with instructions as well as a reminder not to leave anything behind. It usually takes a couple of buttons to figure out which one is the flush. It’s the little things in life really.
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| The branches are all trimmed on these trees so it looks like they grow straight into the sky, I should have paid more attention to know exactly why this was done… |
XO,
Kass
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International Business major Kassandra Salazar is spending the summer 2018 in Japan with our U of A Faculty-Led: International Business Seminar in Japan.
Read more from Kassandra at https://kassandrasalazar.wordpress.com/blog/
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
