I hope everyone out there had a very merry Christmas!
Christmas in Japan was all right for me. It didn't quite feel like Christmas, which made it a little odd. After all, it's not even a day off of work for the Japanese, although couples do exchange gifts and there are decorations in the stores.
For lunch on Christmas day, I joined a group of IHOUSE residents in having a sort of pot luck Christmas feast. There were crepes, latkes, yakitori, and other dishes, familiar and international. I was just a mooch--I hadn't planned on joining them, and hadn't made anything, but there was more than enough, so they talked me into sitting down and having some devilled eggs. A good time was had by all. Especially because a British/Belgian girl had been mailed Christmas crackers by her father, so we all got cool paper hats and useless plastic toys. What could be better? I wish we had this tradition in America.
For supper I went with about eight others to an Western-style bar in Nagoya where we got to eat Christmas dinner--turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, etc. It was a very nice time, and before we knew it we'd spent about five hours there.
It wasn't a white Christmas in Nagoya. Actually, it was sunny and warmer than it has been lately, which was nice. We have gotten snow, however. One afternoon I fell asleep, only to wake up and find the image on the left. I'm not sure how much snow we got in inches, but not enough that they would have cancelled school the next day back home. In fact, it almost all melted the very next day. I was very surprised to read the paper later and find out that it was the most snow Nagoya has gotten in 58 years! I guess Nagoya is warmer compared to home than I had realized... I knew they got snow, but I didn't realized they don't normally get enough to even build a snowman with.
New Year's is coming up, and it's the biggest holiday in Japan. Not sure yet whether I will stay in and have a quiet evening, or brave the busy world outside, which is sure to be pretty crazy. Until then.
Two weeks ago, my language class took a trip to Asuke village. Asuke village is further into the mountains, about forty-five minutes from Nagoya. Asuke is famous for the changing leaves in autumn. However, there weren't that many leaves left by the time we went there--our teachers heard that it was taking people six hours to reach Asuke because of the crowds, so they moved our trip back so we could... wait out the rush, I guess. Or miss the rush.
We went to a village-within-the-village, where a bunch of shops are set up with people practicing traditional crafts like bamboo weaving, paper-making, umbrella-making, blacksmith...ery, and a few others. We had to choose one craft to do a speech in Japanese over as our final exam of the semester. I went with the woman who does traditional fabric dying. She basically tie-dyes stuff to make designs on the fabric, dipping into big ol' vats of dye on the floor. Fascinating? Perhaps not. But I got a good grade talking about it in Japanese!
There were also a bunch of little kids having a class trip to Asuke. It appeared they also had an assignment to ask the craftspeople about what they do. I was kind of jealous. They could ask way more complicated questions than me. I was basically stuck at "What is this?" over and over again ("Kore wa nan desu ka?"). But I suppose it's better than nothing.
We had way more time to do our project in the village than we needed, so myself and two others went and climbed to the top of a mountain... At least, I'm told it's a mountain, but it's certainly a very low one, from my experience with the Rocky Mountains. More like a respectable hill. It took us about twenty minutes, and left me incredibly winded. The trail went up from a shrine, so part of the way was marked by Shinto toriis, on the left. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of memory, but if I can get some pictures off of the guys I went up with, I'll post them later.
Asuke is a pretty little town, though kind of tourist-y. But it's scenic and nicer to walk around in than Nagoya. Eventually we got to eat at a little restaurant, too. (I had rice with eggs and chicken on.) Also, the Japanese souveniers were cheaper there than I'd seen other places, so right on!
Why not some gratuitous shots of Nagoya city? I've gone into the hub of Nagoya, where the train station is, as well as back to Sakae a few times. While you guys back home are battling ice and snow storms (this refers of course only to those of you in Kansas), it's still pretty autumn-y over here. Winter should reach its peak in February. I had a Japanese girl pretty shocked when I told her that no, we do not have mountains where I'm from, but yes, we do get snow. I guess she thought that where there are no mountains in view, it cannot snow. Given that Japan is about 70% mountains, I guess I see how she could get confused--you can still see mountains even from the flattest parts of Japan.
I'm actually pretty enthusiatic for some snow over here. I know it's wet, and cold, and slick, and pretty much not that great, but there are Australians here who have never seen snow before and I want to see them see it for the first time. I was a little surprised how much they didn't know about--when I mentioned a "blizzard," I had one say, "So is a 'blizzard' something to do with... sleet?" Then again, I kind of imagined Australia as a bunch of cities on the beach around the edges, then desert in the middle. But apparently there's a good deal of grass and farmland in between the two. So I guess we're even, although I'm still working on convincing people who have watched too much American TV that upon arrival in the states, you will not be stabbed, shot, mugged, and raped all at the same time. Too many crime dramas, I think.
These are the Nagoya Towers, or Nagoya JR Central Towers. The shorter is the Marriott Hotel, and the taller is Office Tower, filled with offices, obviously. The lower part has shopping and restaurants, and houses Nagoya station, with the JR train lines, and connects to the subway. My tourism class actually took a tour of the Marriott and got to go to the second-highest floor, into the Imperial Suite (big, luxurious, etc). Unforunately, I didn't have my good camera, and camera phone didn't take very nice pictures. You can actually see Nagoya Castle from there (as well as most of the rest of the city), all tiny in the middle of its park.
Currently, the towers make up the tallest structure in Nagoya, and I believe, in the whole prefecture (like a state). They've only been up since 1999, but right beside the towers a new building, pictured here, is going up. Once it's completed it will be taller than the towers. Actually, I think it's a little unfortunate they're so close together--imagine paying a thousand dollars for a top room at the Marriott only to get in your room and all you can see is the skyscraper next to you? Ah well, I don't expect I'll have that concern anytime in the near future.
In other news, this semester is winding down for me, and I've already turned in a few of my final projects for classes, with just a few tests left. I've decided it would be nice to actually speak Japanese, though, so I'm going to be switching into the intensive language program next semester. I've been freaking out a little thinking that my stay is already half-over, but actually, since there's a three-month break between semesters I have plenty of time left. Because I'm not doing an internship (my current program's classes finish before our winter break, and we have optional internships to fill the two-week gap before the end of semster), my vacation will start early, and I'm off from December 17th until about April 3rd. Nice.
The picture randomly paired with the last paragraph is a big metal spiral that stands in front of the Nagoya Towers. I guess it's just a sculpture. It looks a little scary to me, like something sci-fi rising up from the ground. This last picture of Oasis 21 in Sakae (you can see the TV Tower in the background). It's hard to explain what it is--this structure has water running over the top, then there are shops and restaurants underneath, and an area where they can set up soccer games and such. It also connects to the subway. I believe the specific structure is called "Crystal Plaza," or "Kurisutaru Hiroba" to the Japanese.
For supper I went with about eight others to an Western-style bar in Nagoya where we got to eat Christmas dinner--turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, etc. It was a very nice time, and before we knew it we'd spent about five hours there.
It wasn't a white Christmas in Nagoya. Actually, it was sunny and warmer than it has been lately, which was nice. We have gotten snow, however. One afternoon I fell asleep, only to wake up and find the image on the left. I'm not sure how much snow we got in inches, but not enough that they would have cancelled school the next day back home. In fact, it almost all melted the very next day. I was very surprised to read the paper later and find out that it was the most snow Nagoya has gotten in 58 years! I guess Nagoya is warmer compared to home than I had realized... I knew they got snow, but I didn't realized they don't normally get enough to even build a snowman with.
