沖縄／Okinawa

Pics from my Okinawa trip during Golden Week. It was a bit cloudy, but only rained once at night. I had a package deal on Honto, the main Okinawa island. Of course, after I already got my tickets, people started telling me all the other islands which are supposidly better...

Okinawa reminded me very much of southern California. It was strange to be back in a place with wide(r) streets and palm trees and big strip malls. I actually saw a man jogging in shorts. (Men don't wear shorts in Kyoto unless they're foreigners, and I very rarely see people jogging on the street.) I heard a LOT of west coast rap music in almost all the stores I walked into, and people dressed casually and comfortably! I was mildly shocked to see the women walking around in reasonably comfortable shoes. Truly, Okinawa is not like the main island of Japan.



The rental car had this handy GPS thing to guide the way. Voice commands and all. Actually, I thought it was rather distracting from the road, because you start looking at the map instead the street.



The obligatory touristy stuff. Okinawa had kings once upon a time, this was part of Shuri castle. There was noticable Chinese influence here. (Maybe not surprising since Okinawa has a key trading location.)



I ate a lot of soba. It was delicious. On the right is some "soki soba". I saw pork on the menu a lot, but relatively little beef. Goya (green spiney vegetable on the left) is used everywhere. I think I ate Goya in almost every meal.



Goya is such an Okinawa food, they even have... Goyaman! dun-dunna-NA!





The water was so clear!


I tried scuba for the first time. The guide gave all explanations in Japanese, which made me mildly nervous about getting all the information correctly, but it worked out ok. Really, I only went like 3.5 meters down, but it was still amazing to see all the ocean life just below the surface. There was uni (sea urchin) on the floor everywhere, too. I had never seen it before, except in sushi form.

...and the survey says...

Thanks so much to the people who answered my survey about kaomoji! (Sorry, not everyone. Some of you already disqualified yourselves.)

1. (^-^)  
Image: Smiley face
Means: happiness 

2. m(_ _)m
Image: Person bowing. The m's are hands, (_ _) is the head with the face down.
Possible Meanings: I'm very very sorry, please, other situations that use bowing 

3. (^-^;)
Image: face with sweat
Possible Meanings: Thank you (to someone who has going out of their way more than expected), nervousness, embarrassment, sweating 
 
4. （T−T）  
Image: Person crying. T's are eyes with tears falling.
Means: sadness, crying

5. From what I can tell by returning emails, this didn't come out correctly in the encoding. (It's not a normal roman character.)


So... if you're wondering what was the point of the survey... It's related to a project I'm doing for a class. The main project is NOT on "kaomoji", aka Japanese emoticons. (顔文字 literally means face + written character) Actually, we did the survey just to see how people on "the other side", in both cases, interpreted the faces. It makes for an interesting intro into the topic. Most of the Japanese students were surprised that English emoticons are read from left to right, sideways. Likewise, I enjoyed reading everyone's responses on the Japanese emoticons. :-D It was really interesting to see how people's personalities were reflected in their responses, especially for number 2.

My group hypothesizes the use of kaomoji is evidence of another characteristic that differs between Japanese and English, vagueness. There is a huge variety of kaomoji showing multiple levels of emotion and they are used extensively in informal situations. (especially with cell phone emails) Japanese is a deliberately vague language, and there are many subtle clues necessary in order to understand the true meaning. (Even with the clues, it is difficult to clearly see the true meaning.) This occurs to a degree in all languages, of course, but I believe it is especially so in Japanese. Without the kaomoji, the text message alone may often not be able to communicate the desired sensitivity.

In contrast, English is much more direct and doesn't require the same additional emoticon help. (As a native english speaker, the idea of needing to use emoticons probably seems childish.) Anyway, if you're curious to see other kaomoji, just do a google search. There are lots of websites on the topic.

都踊り／Miyako Odori

Before I went to Okinawa, I went to the Miyako Odori in Kyoto's Gion district. Gion is famous for geisha/maiko. I think I mentioned this in a previous post a long time ago. Maiko are actually geisha-in-training. Anyway, 踊り／odori means "a dance".

I really enjoyed the show. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. In the beginning, I was a little worried it would be like a Noh performance, because the music sounded a bit similar. Having lived in Kyoto for the better part of a year now, the various scenes were familiar to me, so it was fun to see. (Much more pics in the gallery.)



Some tea before the performance (you need to drink green tea with a sweet cake, it's too bitter alone).



Lovely ladies preparing the tea.











No flash allowed, so the lighting is kinda bad in these pictures.

Health

The idea of going to a 医者／isha／doctor in a foreign country is a scary concept that I probably don't have to explain. The idea of paying for a doctor is even scarier, especially given my student income (i.e. what income?). Medical bills in the US have made me generally leary of seeking professional help unless absolutely necessary. I know that's bad, but fortunately I'm usually very healthy.

I finally got into a situation here where I made an appointment to see a doctor. I only did it after putting it off and trying OTC and home remedies and while being periodically miserable for months. Side note on OTC medication, there ain't no Walgreens around. In most medicine stores (I hesitate to call it a pharmacy because prescription medication is usually given when you visit the doctor, not at a store), the OTC medicine is behind a counter where the employees are, so you can't just browse around when you're not exactly what you are looking for. This is, of course, all the more intimidating when you haven't yet learned the proper vocabulary to accurately describe what you need. (Much the worse if it's embarrassing to explain out loud.)

As for seeing the doctor, it wasn't so awful. I wish I had done it earlier and saved my self the grief. I was happy to find an English speaking woman doctor, although she wasn't a native speaker so there was some minor translation issues. I'm on the National Health Insurance, which covers 70% of my medical costs (not including regular check-ups). I think most people are on the National plan if they aren't covered by an employer. Since I'm a foreign student in Kyoto city, I'm supposed to receive a refund for 80% of the money that wasn't covered by the health insurance. I pay maybe $15 a month or so, to be on the National Health Insurance, and a portion of that monthly fee is also reimbursed because I'm a foreign student in Kyoto city.

More sakura

I'm a month late in putting this stuff up, but here it is. I wanted to include some decent shots of sakura in peak. Anyway, I'm off to Okinawa tomorrow to enjoy... the rainy season, I guess. It was a somewhat poorly planned trip. Anyway, I wanted to try scuba diving so I guess a little more water won't make a big difference. This is "Golden Week" so everyone is on vacation.






This stuff is called ”水あめ／mizuame" and it's basically like a gooey sugar sort of syrup thing. I guess it's like a traditional candy. Anyway, too much sugar for me in one day. I ate maybe 1/3 and felt like my teeth were gonna rot if I ate any more.





I really hate this picture of me, but the cherry blossoms are so awesome, I had to post it.

姫路／Himeji

This is a little delayed but... Himeji is a city to the west of Kyoto and Osaka. Not too bad, about an hour and a half or so by JR. 姫路城／Himeiji Castle is the famous attraction. I headed out there early in April to see the 桜／sakura／cherry blossoms. First let me say everyone gets crazy about sakura. It is the quintessential symbol of spring in Japan. It happens really fast, too. It seemed like within 2 or 3 days, the trees suddenly became full of pink and white blossoms everywhere. Really, everywhere. I never realized there were so many cherry blossom trees in my neighborhood and all the areas along the train tracks. (It makes me think of popcorn, everything starts to heat up a little, nothing, then pop pop pop, everything explodes into puffy white and your bag is full 20 seconds later.)

It don't last very long. The trees hit full bloom for a day or two and then flutter away like confetti in the breeze. It really is a beautiful sight. If you walk by a river lined with sakura (I think every river with a decent walkway is lined with sakura.) you can see blossoms and petals floating by. Women walk around in their kimonos, getting pictures taken. In a city like Kyoto, it feels like a funny slice of old Japan in the modern world. More in the Gallery.




Himeji was actually only at 30% bloom when I visited. (Yes, I know it was 30% because they list the status of the sakura on big signs and also in the newspaper and on TV. Like I said, everyone gets sakura crazy.)




I love Japanese gardens. This one was near the castle.



The famous "ekisoba" stall at the JR station. Only 200 yen (just under $2) for a small bowl while you wait for the train. Mmmm...

"We Come in Peace"

So anyway, I recently took on two private english students. One is 28 yrs old with excellent english speaking ability, and the other is a 9 yr old girl. How's that for opposite ends of the spectrum. Anyway, I was browing around online for some material, and I randomly stumbled across something interesting in Harper's magazine online. I haven't decided whether or not I should be ultimately laughing or cringing/crying. I did a little of both. Read the letters and you'll know what I mean.

"We Come in Peace
The following letters were written by employees of Playtime, an adult toy store in Edison, New Jersey, to accompany thirty-six vibrators sent as gifts to Iraqi women last October. The project was funded by Playtime's owner, staff, and customers, and undertaken "for humanitarian reasons." Originally from January 2004."