Hey all,
Sorry with the lack of regular posting; I can't seem to work myself into a schedule where I can do it regularly every day. Plus I've been really tired and miserable lately - rather than using the internet, I'd just go home and sleep. Yup.
This weekend was pretty tame. I stayed in on Saturday, relaxing and doing laundry, cleaning, etc. I watched the Death Note movie (PS: I'm on quite a Death Note kick. It's freaking amazing).
It's a dark, supernatural, crime mystery thriller thing about this normal high school kind who finds on the ground a blank journal titled "Death Note", dropped by a passing Death God (in Japanese, Shinigami). In it are a series of extensive instructions on How to Use, beginning with "The human whose name is written in this note shall die". The story then concentrates on the high school boy, who uses the Death Note to help him achieve his delusions of grandeur by killing off all criminals in the world, making it a "better" place. The story comes down to a faceoff between him and a detective who is determined to find the truth behind this series of untraceable murders. The story is suspensful and has alot of twists and turns, so I really like it.
Death Note is a hot, hot phenom taking over Japan, much like The Matrix or LOTR. It was first a manga, then this live-action movie (to which there was a sequel that has just now come out on DVD) and now it is an anime about 4 months old currently airing that I am also watching. Anime is possibly better than the movie.
Side note: In the new opening song of the anime, they chose this really really out-there death metal group to do the song and the lyrics are insane.
Here's a sample of the translated lyrics;
"Convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, people
Convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, convenience convenience hurray, people
Hey, will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? People
Hey, will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? Will you shockingly anger me? People"
They even drop the f-bomb several times! And this is on normal broadcast TV that anyone with an antennae can pick up! I was shocked when I saw it. Apparently the Japanese TV censoring committe doesn't care if English swear words are used. Yet, enough people here know English that it might be a problem, I think...oh well. It would certainly never pass muster in America. Another reason why I dont like heavy metal music - lots of screaming and lyrics that don't make sense.
On Sunday I went with my art class to see Byodo-in and Touji, both Buddhist temples of great importance. Byodo-in is actually on the back of the 10 yen coin. It was rainy and kinda bad weather overall, but it was fine. Byodo-in is in Uji, where all the green tea comes from. Subsequently, our entire class stopped to get some green tea ice cream. I got half green tea, half sakura (cherry blossom) flavor. I figured I'd never get to try something like that again. And I won't, because even if i did have the opportunity again, I wouldn't. Sakura flavor is just weird - its very salty and not at all pleasant. Thankfully the green tea taste drowned it out.
Mine would the one in the middle.
Touji is the father of all Buddhist temples in Japan. It's got the highest pagoda in Japan (which the teacher referred to as "The Darth Vader of Japanese pagodas") and is one of the most distinctive sights in Japan. You can't go in there though. We did go into the koudo where all the statues are. 21 symmetrically arranged Buddhist statues is a sight to see. They are supposed to represent a 3D mandala, or worldview containing all the important Buddhist deities in Esoteric Buddhism. There was this big guy, Fudo Miyou Ou, one of the Four Kings of Light. And he looked pretty fearsome. Alot of Buddhist deities are pretty scary looking because they're supposed to be fighting evil. Others look weak and feminine because they are gentle and inviting you to be saved. They were very large and impressive looking with their gilt halos and huge canopies. But after all that, I've reached my Buddhist-statue-viewing limit. I don't want to see another nyorai in the lotus position doing the Abhaya mudra for a long, long time.
-http://www.healing-touch.co.uk/m-bud14.jpg
Aforementioned nyorai in the lotus position doing the Abhaya mudra. This is the principal figure of Toji temple, Yakushi Buddha.
Walking back to the train station, we managed to find a Book-Off, where I persuaded Haley that if we were having trouble finding something we should JUST ASK, and I did. She was able to find the manga she wanted, and I was able to find mine. So I have nice new volumes of Ouran Koukou Host Bu to read, when i have time. It's amazing to me that I can actually read something like a whole manga, albeit painfully slow and tediously. It's because they have pronunciations, called furigana, written beside each kanji so that even if I don't know the kanji at all, I can at least know how its pronounced and therefore may be able to guess at the meaning. But I can read it! I can!
Incidentally, Happy Passover to all! The first night was Monday night, last night for me. It saddens me that, not being home, I wasn't able to fully celebrate the holiday. But, being the good two-holidays-a-year-half-Jew that I am, my desire to eat bitter herbs with matzah roused me out of my normal laziness and spurred me to reach out to any fellow Jews here on campus. I put up a notice on the wall, and an astounding THREE PEOPLE responded to my summons. One of them dropped out later through email, so I ended up meeting the other two on Friday. We agreed to look for things and do alot of preparation over the weekend, which none of us ended up doing. So, there I was Monday afternoon, looking for an online Haggadah and printing it out. I also printed out a recipe for Matzah, cause, whaddya know, you can't find it here in Japan. Go figure.
After the lengthy process of getting permission from the CIE office to use the Seminiar House (study abroad student's dorm) to make our ceremonial meal, we set out. I tell you, they are strict about just who enters the dorms here. You need a pass, you need to sign in, you can't enter certain rooms. Can't even use computers there. Yeesh.
(As a sidenote: All of us were surprised at the lack of cooperation we received from the CIE office in this matter. I mean, in America, you mention that you need some special circumstances because of your religion, and you get it. ESPECIALLY if you specifically mention the word "Jewish", people will immediately fall over backwards trying to get you what you need or to make an exception for you. (must be a guilt thing) Here its totally different because they had no idea what "Jewish" is. For all they know, we could have been some cannibalistic cult requesting permission to cook human body parts in the Seminar House kitchen. When someone finally told them what "Jewish" is, the CIE officials were actually embarrassed that it took so long when they finally gave us permission. It was just...somewhat of a shock.)
We found a supermarket, and managed to find all the required ingredients for only about 1000 yen ( less than ten bucks!). We were pretty thrifty - I snitched some parsley from a prepackaged entree that my okaasan brought home last night (with her permission of course)Our maror (bitter herbs) were some free packets of ginger taken from the sushi isle in the supermarket. Our charoset was made from one (1) apple, and sugar from sugar sticks that are supposed to be used to sweeten tea. Heh...well i won't stick in an adage about Jews and money. That would not be at all applicable to the situation. Nope.
We went to the Seminar House and began cooking. Lots of students there, doing the same, preparing their own dinners. Sometimes I regret living in a homestay, when I look at the seminar house. Just being with your friends, keeping your own schedule...its kinda nice. But I still maintain that homestay is better. Anyways...
I ended up making both the matzah and the charoset. Honestly, even being only half-Jewish and a bad cook to boot, I still was more competent than those other guys. Maybe its because I grew up watching people cook, I don't know. But at least I can make some dough out of flour and water and roll it out and bake it. I have to say, although it was my first time making matzah, i don't think it came out half bad. The ovens were a problem though - too small and not hot enough. Therefore the matzah came out kinda too thick, but it still tasted good. I also made the charoset based on a recipe I found on the internet - apples, walnuts, cinnamon, sugar and wine. Of course, no alcohol allowed in the Seminar House, so we just used grape juice. I mixed it by ear (does that expression work in this context?) and it came out surprisingly good - pretty much just like Kathy's. My comrades praised the charoset greatly and ate every last bit. They were in charge of...boiling the eggs. And cleaning up.
Our endeavor attracted the attention of the Japanese TA, so she came over to see what we were doing. I'm afraid she didn't understand too much of it, though...I think she thought it was funny when we all dipped our pinky fingers in the grape juice to do the Ten Plagues. The other girl, Renee, an Australian Jew, could read Hebrew and so she did all the prayers. We even had a rousing chorus of "Dayenu", in response to which the other students in the dining room stared at us as if we had three heads. Our dinner, because we had no time or money to prepare anything else, was simply charoset, matzah and boiled eggs. Yum.
Then we cleaned up and headed home late~. Because of bus schedules, I had to wait around in Tsutaya for an hour ( a book/Cd shop). I got tea at Starbucks (OMG! If you think Starbucks is expensive in America, wait till you see how expensive it is in Japan. I could have gotten a nice dinner for that price...never again!). I didn't end up getting home till 11:30. But it was worth it, I feel like I did something good. The other two students thanked me as well and said they felt better for doing it. Well, L'shana Haba B'Yerushalayim! (Next year in Jerusalem!)
(Only disappointing thing: I didn't get to watch the Ten Commandments. But I will later, cause they've got it in the library with Japanese subtitles! I'll watch it next weekend.)
So this week is going to be pretty rough. I've got a art test tomorrow, a speaking test on Thursday and a writing test on Friday, plus I'm tired and sick. Kill me now~~
Pics are taking usually long to load today. So, sorry, but no vacation pics today!
As always, leave comments/tags plz.
