皆さん！ごめんね！

Hey everyone, sorry I've been MIA lately, but we're just so busy! I apologize for my not updating in a while :(

So, I'm gonna give a rundown of everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks, or Adam is going to be upset with me :/

As I say, things have been really busy with school and stuff. We've got about 24 hours of Japanese class per week (saying it like that, as in a full DAY of class each week, 1/7th of our life, kind of hurts. That classroom is getting old), I have two other classes, neither of which have anything to do with my major, along with events, trips, cubs, and studying, we're working as if it's winter semester at Grand Valley! By the time we think about blogging, we sometimes laugh. Sitting in front of a computer after a long day of classes is not always the most appealing activity :P

WORLD FESTIVAL

Let's rewind, shall we, to a couple weeks ago and the World Festival. For those who are Facebook friends with me and have looked through my Japan album, this is a recap. I know Robinson-sensei gave this blog address to other Japanese language students, so if you want to see the album (and it's so cool I can't imagine you wouldn't...) then friend me! And message me if you have questions!

APU's AP House throws what they call "World Festival" every summer so that its residents can be exposed to other cultures. APU has TONS of international students, so why not use that? Starting at around 9AM when I was still sleeping, the AP system went off (as it usually does) to remind us of the event. When AP House has an announcement, the first message is always in Japanese, then the second is the message translated into English. Waking up to "Minnasan, Oyahou gozaimasu!" over the system was not my favorite way to wake up, but after falling out of my futon in a panic I gathered myself in time to hear the English half. "The World Festival is starting. Let's all have fun learning cultures together!" Yay. So I wolfed down some cereal and went to find Adam. We headed to the AP House 2 lobby to watch the opening ceremony, which was a guy and a girl, again using Japanese then English to explain the day.

If anyone has watched a Japanese TV show, you know that when the Japanese, especially girls, when introducing something, get EVEN HARDER to understand. Yeah, I didn't quite understand what all was going to be going on that day, but I understood "food" and "eat", and that was really all I needed. I headed outside to where the food stands were. I tried this rice cake thing from the Myanmar stand that was SUPER spicy and had tiny dried fish on top (I avoided the fish XD) and got a bubble tea! Bubble tea is yummy, but too many tapioca bubbles made my tummy bubbly as well...

Adam and I had signed up for the koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, demonstration. It's like a piano and guitar hybrid instrument. It was really cool. The obaachans played for us, then we got to try it. The lady who was helping me didn't speak ANY english, but we together figured out how to get me to play it correctly. I quickly got the hang of it, and she was really impressed. I explained that I was a Music Major in America and she thought that was pretty much the sweetest thing she'd ever heard.

FUN JAPANESE FACT: Something that's really funny about Japanese is that when you have a conversation, the listener constantly has to say things like "oh", "sou desuka" (is that so), "honto ni?" (really?), to show that they're engaged in what the other person is saying. We actually take class time sometimes to review our listening phrases. The American custom of course, is to listen silently to show that you are paying attention, and be polite to let them finish so as not to interrupt. It's the complete opposite here! I can't tell you how weird it is to have people talking WHILE I'm talking! And I seem rude for listening silently! I accidentally offend people sometimes! lol.

So, she was really excited and nodded vigorously and "honto ni"-ed through my telling her of my musical experience. Adam's experience with his obaachan was similar. Our tutors called over the others to have them listen to us. Adam took the oppotunity to show off even more! So embarrassing! lol.

After the koto, I went to the Nippon Buyo lesson. Traditional fan dancing. There's not a whole lot to say about his except that it's A LOT harder than it looks. We all looked really clumsy compared to the teacher. The coolest part was wearing the yukata. They brought yukata (summer kimono) fr us to wear while we danced. When the lesson was over, they said that if we wanted, we could perform for everyone. So, we headed to the main stage and performed our dance. I was right in front, which was a little anxiety-inducing, but also really fun.

NAGASAKI

The next weekend, our program went on a trip to Nagasaki. The thing that's pretty cool about how APU does this Gateway program is how they plan things that are beyond the abilities of regular students. The school recognizes that we aren't regular students, more like tourists, and want to see things. Most students are here for a long time and have more time and opportunities to travel. Our time is so short that we can only do so much, and certainly not plan let alone afford a trip to Nagasaki if planned independently. Obviously, anyone studying on Kyushu would want to go to Nagasaki, and the school brings down the price for us by making everyone go. So 40 Americans left Saturday morning for Nagasaki, stayed in a hotel Saturday evening, and returned to school Sunday afternoon.

We took a tour bus, with a tour guide named Mrs. Sato. Sato-san was Japanese but spoke very good English. She said she does lots of tours for Americans, though they're usually retired rich people who don't speak any Japanese at all. She was glad that we could at least read signs. She talked for a while about cities we were passing, fun facts about Japan, etc, until everyone's travel comas were induced and people stopped responding and started snoring. It wasn't that she was boring at all- we were just tired from the week and it was early on a Saturday morning. AND it was a thre hour trip. We stopped at a hotel in Nagasaki for lunch, which was comprised of fried rice (which I couldn't eat) and a funny chow mein-looking dish (which I also couldn't eat). The meal was planned by the university, so they had called ahead to let them know that I didn't eat pork, chicken, or beef. Instead they cooked me a beautiful piece of salmon which I ravenously inhaled. I've discovered that my pescatarian diet doesn't offend any Japanese cooks as long as I let them know that what they generously prepared for me instead was absolutely delicious. They'd rather that than not eat the assigned dish. There were a few Americans who hardly touched their meal because of how it looked.

After the meal, we got back on the bus for a tour of Nagasaki. Sato-san was incredibly knowledgable, never letting us get bored. We went to Dejima Island first. Dejima Island was the first international port in Japan, trading with the Portuguese, Dutch, and some British. The island has been restored to look somewhat like the original, with the addition of creepy guys walking around in wigs and yukata. There were lots of informational, touristy signs to read, but we only had 45 minutes, so we mostly just looked around.

After Dejima Island, we headed to the Atomic Bomb Museum. There's not a ton to say about this; I think the name pretty much explains it and hopefully everyone's taken enough history to know that the US bombed Japan twice during WWII, Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The museum held pictures and testomonies, along with some artifacts that were recovered afterward. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the exhibits, and honestly, I think you'd have to be there to feel the full effect of the experience. Let's just say that most of us entered the exhibits smiling and a little curious, and I left the exhibits feeling as though I was going to cry. It was the most horrific thing I've ever seen, but I'm glad I saw it. I believe it was really good for me.

After the Atomic Bomb Museum, Sato-san took us to the hypocentre: the place where the bomb exploded. According to her, the bomb never actually made it to the ground. It wasn't the impact that activated it, so there was no crater or anything. The site surprised me, because looking at the surrounding buildings, you'd never know that 50 years ago the area had been flattened. The buildings had vines all over them, and the cement of the sidewalks had cracks throughout. The thing that made it clear the area had been rebuilt was that there were no ancient-looking trees. Japan doesn't cut down a lot of trees for construction or landscaping, so most areas have really gnarly-looking trees. The trees in this area looked younger-they'd been planted after the bombing.

In the middle of the hypocentre was a monument, containing the names of those who have died as a result of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb. Even today, people still suffer from complications as a result of the radiation and die because of it. Every time such a person dies, their name is added to the others inside the monument, and the side of the structure bears the number of names that are inside. Really sad.

Next to the hypocentre was the Peace Park, which contained a lot of statues donated by countries from around the world. Nagasaki has quite a few sister cities arouns the world, including one in Minnesota, and they along with other cities, moved by the effort Nagasaki is putting forth to eradicate nuclear warfare and bring about peace, donate statues to the Peace Park for people from around the world to see. Here are a couple of my favorites:

The first is "Constellation Earth", donated by St. Paul, Minnisota, Nagasaki's US sister city.





The second is my favorite, "Maiden of Peace", donated by China.















At the end of the Peace Park was the "The Peace Statue". The right hand pointing skyward warns about the threat of the atomic bomb. The left hand stretching out horizontally symbolizes world peace. The crossed right leg represents the meditation on the past, while the left leg represents the world readiness to prevent similar events from occurring in the future. The slightly closed eyes represent the prayers made for those who have died as a result of the bomb.

After we had had a chance to stand around and take a bajillion pictures in front of this huge statue and eat some shaved ice from a nearby street vendor, we went to Golver Garden.

As I said before, Nagasaki is not just "The second city to suffer a nuclear bomb". It has an extensive history aside from the bomb aspect. There's a lot of trade history as Japan's first international port, and a lot of European influence. Glover Garden was once the estate of Thomas Glover, a scottish merchant, who is responsible for much of Nagasaki's trade reputation. His estate was beautiful, atop a steep hill with beautiful views of the city below. The "garden" reminded me of my trips to Disney World were the park goes above and beyond to make it look authentic by planting flowers everywhere, but this place was for real, and was absolutely gorgeous, including sculptures, fountains, and a koi pond.

By this point, we were all beat from all the walking (although Glover Garden provided outdoor escalators to take us up the hill! XD), so we headed to our hotel. Our hotel was (surprise!) Portuguese in structure, with porcelain tile and European elevators. At least it was European until you went in the bathroom and were greeted by the fancy state-of-the-art, will-squirt-you-in-a-surprising-place toilet. Yep, still in Japan. We dumped our stuff and met up again to be taken to dinner.

Dinner was traditional Japanese, on the second floor of a very traditional Japanese establishment. It was a tatami room, which meant no shoes and no chairs. We lounged on the floor in barefeet, eating a funny assortment of dishes. The food is a little hard to explain to those who have never eaten Jpanese food, but there was soup, an eggy yogurt-type thing, vegetables that I can't name, rice (of course), and the meat. Everyone else got beef, but because I don't eat land animals, I got whale. Yes, whale. That was the strangest texture I have ever ingested, and don't really wish to do it again. It was kind of like spongy chicken, a little spongy, and made me feel like I was chewing on a flipper. But, whale is a delicacy of the area, and I wasn't going to leave it on my plate untouched, I shared with some people around me with the same reaction. Cool to have tried, but let's not do it again.

A small group of us headed out to find a landmark from , known as "Spectacals Bridge" because of how the reflection on the water makes it look. We wondered around, getting lost a couple times and asking directions. Finally, after quite a while, we found the bridge in the dark. We did some exploring, watched the koi in the water below, and then found a playground and played on it. An old Japanese couple walked by and gave us a "stupid gaijin" look, but whatever, it was super fun and we've been deprived of playgrounds.


The next morning we got a Japanese breakfast, complete with rice, cold udon noodles, miso soup, and tons of fruit. super yummy. We headed out around 9AM to do some sightseeing, even though is was raining pretty bad. Adam, Evan, and I took the cable car north a little way to an art museum which had a culture museum in the basement. It was small and low-key, but interesting, then we took the cable car back to central Nagasaki. We still had some time to kill before we had to meet the rest of the group, so we trecked up a hill to see a monument in remembrance of the 26 Christian Martyrs. In 1597, while Christianity was banned in Japan, the emperor discovered a small group of Christians in Kyoto. The group, including six foreign missionaries and three children, were marched from Kyoto to Nagasaki, 800km, for two days in the snow, and crucified on a hill in Nagasaki on Feb.5. The monument, which is on that hill, is very small, but very sad, depicting each of those martyrs.

We then headed back to the central station and met up with everyone to board the bus. We were all pretty wet from the rain, and fell asleep almost instantly. Sightseeing is hard work!

So that's Nagasaki in a nutshell. As I said, there are way more pictures on my Facebook. Go see them! Sorry again for taking forever to put this up. I'm not lazy, I promise. Feel free to send me FRIENDLY reminders to update when it's been a while... じゃあね！