Nijo-jo, Ginkakuji (3/5/13)

Hi everybody!

Today we went on our own personal field trip. We went to Nijo-Jo (Nijo Castle) and Ginkakuji (the Silver Pavilion/Temple)!

First though we went for pancakes! The pancakes were huge! Almost bigger than me! I like pancakes, especially banana pancakes!

Pancakes! Amai (sweet)!

So then we went to Nijo-jo – back when Kyoto was the original capital, this was where the shogun and his retainers lived. Unlike Edo-jo there is still an actual castle here with a pretty park. One of the interesting parts of the castle is the nightingale floors – the wooden floors are designed to squeak when you step on them. They were designed to prevent people from sneaking around (and attacking or spying). Even I couldn’t sneak around. All of the walls too are painted with pretty designs and animals (though no panda paintings since pandas weren’t in Japan during that time).

Nijo-jo - main hall. Inside are the squeaky floors!

Sumi-chan reporting from watch duty!

Then we went to a kaleidoscope museum! That was so cool! There were so many unique kaleidoscopes. There was one that was shaped like kinkakuji, and you looked in from the top. They explained how different materials (like beads in oil vs string in water) and different mirrors can produce different patterns. There were some that also played music as you turned the end.

I had no idea there could be so many unique kaleidoscopes!

Kaleidoscope museum - near the manga museum - so many cool and unusual museums!

After we took a bus out to Ginkakuji – the Silver Pavilion and the companion work to Kinkakuji. The story goes that a descendant of the man who built Kinkakuji wanted to build a similar work, but since Japan’s economy wasn’t as strong at this point, he decided to build the Silver Pavilion. However, he didn’t cover the building and left it wooden. Personally, I didn’t really see what the hubbub was all about. Unlike Kinkakuji, which is really pretty, Ginkakuji was, well, plain. It’s a long bus ride for a small building that looks like other wooden temple-like buildings. The bamboo forest surrounding it was nice though.

Ginkakuji - Silver Pavilion? Looks more like wood...

Take! Bamboo! We should have a garden like this at home!

I think the prettier place is the nearby Philosopher’s walk – a long walk that connects several temples on the East outskirts of town. This is a famous place, especially during April, when the sakura bloom! There are also lots of cute cafes along the walk. We stopped at one! It was apple themed! So cozy! Hopefully we will return soon to see the pretty flowers! Stay tuned for that!

Café Pomme - Cafe Apple (in French)!

-Sumi

Obaa-chan! (3/4/13)

Hi everybody,

I just want to talk about our host grandmother! She’s so cute and awesome!

Yesterday as we were coming home from school, we ran into her gardening. We said hi and then she told us to wait. She went inside and came back outside with two bars of chocolate. She joked it was Valentine’s Day! So nice!

Even though both David and I have difficulty keeping up with her – she talks really fast – she’s so funny! She will just break out laughing which is contagious. Our host mother doesn’t really get it – she tells grandma to slow down and that we don’t understand (which is true) but it’s ok – we still get along! Sometimes silence and laughter are the best way to talk!

-Sumi

Karaoke w/ Okaa-san (3/2/13)

Hey oh y’all,

So this past weekend my host mother took me to a karaoke bar. It was a cool little place with only a bar for about 6-7 people. And of course everybody there knows everybody else (and they seem to all go way back). Unlike karaoke box places – which are private rooms – this was an open bar where you pass the mic to the person sitting next to you (they hear you, you hear them) and even the bartender (affectionately called “mama”) will even jump in.

As evidenced by the song choice clientele and the staff were older than me – they all…without any loss of generality… chose enka songs (enka is Japanese ballad – you know the sad, teary, drawn out, warbly songs? Those). And they all without loss of generality can sing enka.

And so, my choice of AKB48 and Flow (j-pop/rock known for anime openings) were a bit out of place. But so was I and that’s what made it fun – first they were surprised that I could sing Japanese (since I can’t talk in it), second, they at least knew of AKB48, started laughing, and told me to dance it. Of course the hilarious guy sitting next to me then stuck his pinky out – if an old Japanese man does this to you, he’s talking about your girlfriend (or asking if you have one…why garufurendo is one of the few English words Japanese old guys know is beyond me). Why they would ask me if I had a girlfriend after I sung an AKB48 song, I don’t know, but I’m guessing they were checking how otaku I am…a not unreasonable check to be sure.

Anyways it was a lot of fun hanging out with ji-chans and ba-chans for the night singing random songs (best part about an audience that doesn’t know the songs you are singing – they don’t know if you are singing well or not). If your host mother invites you to karaoke – go! Just be prepared to sing (you can sing an English song as well – emotions of a song do carry across languages). It’s fun and a decent ego boost :P.

DC

Back to Stuff in Kyoto - Cat Cafes and More! (3/1/13)

Hi everybody,

We are back from Tokyo! Whew that was exhausting! David is still sleeping – namakemono that he is (lazy bum) or maybe he is depressed from all the rejection of the past few days haha

So yesterday we went to a cat café – so cute! It’s a café where you can pet kitties! It’s great to relieve stress. They are so friendly…well if you are not a human foreigner. They didn’t like David very much. But I enjoyed it! So fluffy (like me)!

Hello Mr. Kitty!

Then we went to Karaoke and got this big room – it was like a party room! It was a lot of fun – My friend Mariko and I enjoyed watching all the guys try to dance AKB48. Oh and David? He was then by the door (he can’t read push/pull haha).

RJ and I are at Karaoke!

Oh but the best part was when we went to Kyo Eki (Kyoto Station) for our last pop culture field trip. We recently watched the movie Tampopo – a movie about ramen (and other aspects of Japanese food culture). So we went to Ramen Alley – a large collection of ramen restaurants that represent all the different regions of Japan (each place has it’s own type of ramen – just like how Boston and NY have different pizzas and hot dogs).

But then after lunch we did a group survey about keitai denwas (cell phones). We were supposed to ask locals different features about how they use cell phones. David and his friends tried to talk to a group of obaachans (grandmas) but they all ran away…rejected! I was able to find a group of high school girls to talk to and we talked about decorations (like keychains and covers), emoji (emoticons and face images like ^-^), ryakugo (abbreviations), rules for using (like don’t talk on the train), and cell phone games/apps. My favorite app is LINE – it’s a texting app that is popular in Japan. You can send these cute stickers to people too – of course there’s animal stickers – I like the panda and the bear and the bunny! And as long as you have wifi or 3g internet – you can call internationally for free!

These are the LINE characters!

At first it was scary to approach people and talk in Japanese, but after we started talking, it was really fun! The people were so nice (well to me anyways…lol)!

-Sumi

WWII Museum - Tokyo (2/24/13)

Hey oh y'all,

So today we visited another WWII museum – and you know what that means…first young reader discretion advised…Also this is rambly/ranty so feel free to skip this one.

DISCLAIMER TIME!!! – This is by no means meant to be an academic essay. This is just a summary of our visit and WWII class discussion. If I had time enough, I would go back and limit my abuse of overgeneralizations and go to cite resources and be more acceptable in an academic sense, but I just want to communicate some of the general narrative as I loosely (and very loosely at that) understand it. I encourage you to take my points as basis for future exploration only – please do challenge what I say here. I look forward to your response.

Summary:

We went to a “revisionist” view WWII museum

History is a weapon

Japan has 2 major narratives – Yushukan (Japan did “nothing wrong”) and Ritsumeikan (Japan did “everything wrong” – these are not quotes just overgeneralizations)

Is “rewriting” history inherently wrong?

Is peace and truth and the like possible?

So we finished our Tokyo tour at Yushukan Museum at Yasukuni Shrine. Yasukuni Shrine, originally founded in 1869, was a State Shinto shrine dedicated to those who died in the loyal service of the Emperor. So post-WWII, this now includes all Japanese who died in WWII…and yes…this includes some guy named Hideki Tojo who was executed for doing something bad? I don’t know, but I get the feeling that this shrine likes Japan during WWII….

I mean take a look at the museum – it’s pretty much the cleanest version of Japanese colonization I’ve seen (then again, I haven’t seen too many clean versions to begin w/ - but when you talk about the “Chinese incident” without mentioning any atrocities – see I don’t know…attacking villagers, comfort women, human biological testing, POW abuse – you have to raise your eyebrows a bit…)

But on the surface it sounds really nice – what did Japan do during the late 1800s, early 1900s? It liberated Asia from the evils of Western Colonization. And what was its role during WWII? It was fighting a defensive war against the evil United States which put crippling economic sanctions on the rising Japan. And Pearl Harbor? Japan had made every effort to talk with the US to remove the sanctions and prevent war. And of course big, bad US attacked the Japanese people.

Here is where things get interesting – atrocity issues aside, this narrative is not technically outright wrong. The Western world was colonizing Eastern Asia and Japan did fight against Western Powers (mainly Russia but we’ll call it a Western power for the sake of discussion). And the US did put crippling sanctions on Japanese imports, especially oil leading Japan to need to take more colonies and Pearl Harbor was not “illegal” per se (since at the time international laws regarding preemptive strikes were not yet put in place).

Oh and did the US also commit civilian damage? City firebombing and atomic bombing anyone?

Thus there are two main points of the museum – Japan did not commit atrocities, and Japan fought a justifiable/honorable war 

These are separate points. Do I support a museum that almost blatantly ignores even the controversy of war atrocities? No. But do I understand a museum that paints its home country in a positive light? Yes. Doesn’t almost every country (especially the US) do this? I would say so.

Have you every been to a US war museum? One of the main displays is often a collection of war medals ie honoring US soldiers who kill and are killed.

In fact, Yushukan reminded me very much of a US WWII museum – it was well lit (in comparison to the dark, depressing Ritsumeikan Peace Museum), there were poems and quotes about honor and bravery, and the story at face value describes people fighting for their country and honorable emperor all the way from samurai times to WWII – add in a few war planes, letters from the front and a timeline showing how the evil powers oppressed the glorious home nation and call it a day

I mean – all you have to do is change the flag and the word emperor to democracy and you’ve got the makings of a great US museum…even the atomic bomb is relatively glossed over….

Personally, I find American WWII memorial and museums inspiring – people were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend people who they have never met, never would meet, and never imagined would exist. For the US (who won), this portrayal is fine. But for Japan, they are somehow held to a different standard, making this museum in some ways less acceptable.

Writing history in such a way that your country looks good isn’t inherently wrong so long as it’s not outright lying (then again what’s the difference between lies and good advertising?). I would go and say this is almost natural in order to instill a sense of national identity – both victors and losers do this.

                                               

But when differing views of history hamper reconciliation such that it threatens the safety of your people – like angering Chinese public such that they attack Japanese stores over a Japanese official making or not making a statement on colonial/WWII issues? I’m not trying to sound preachy but something should be at least looked at here.

           

Of course, that’s not to say that WWII reconciliation is in any ways easy. Even Germany, often hailed for reestablishing amicable Western European ties by making numerous reparations and official apologies, still faces issues regarding war crimes.

Japan faces issues abroad and at home with regards to its official position the war. Having the US also legally object to new petitions for reparation due to the Treaty of San Francisco doesn’t help new talks either. I have no idea how or if such reconciliation is even possible – the country itself is split on its views of WWII and colonial policy – and the longer you wait to deal with something the harder it is to solve.

DC