July and August

I absolutely love summer in Japan. I don't care how hot it is. I love the heat. Sure it can get exasperating and it can be a little draining, but if there's one thing I and anyone knows about me it's that summer ultimately gives me life and energy while winter depletes it. The rice fields bright green and teeming with little follicles of brown kernel-wrapped rice, the sky reflecting off of the pools of water between the stalks. The green green GREEN everywhere, bursting from the mountainsides and the fields and the tree-lined streets. The whirr of fans and windshield wipers, the screech of the cicadas, the deadening hazy stillness that seems to be around all the time. It makes me think of what the South must be like (and my experience with the South is limited to the first 30 seconds of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland and the movie The Color Purple.) And matsuri seasnon, ohhh matsuri season. Watching everyone go out in their yukata best, all the food stalls selling choco banana, fried chicken, crepes, shaved ice, yakisoba, takoyaki, etc. etc. And my personal least favorite, breaded and fried whole, scales-and-all ayu (sweetfish) on a stick. The little kids games. The lanterns and paper decorations. Fireworks. Seasonal beer. It's just a great time to be outside at night mingling among fellow community members. Now that I am in the thick of February cold, it feels like a different Japan a million miles away. Two different countries.



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Korea
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In late July I went South Korea to visit my friend Grace. This was my first time outside of Japan since I first arrived. I left on July 21 and came back on July 25. I stayed at Grace's parents' house in Yangju which is north of Uijeongbu which is north of Seoul. I thought that Seoul was very similar to Tokyo and had the same large-city feel. The suburbs were very much more spacious with low hills and large swathes of fields of rice and other vegetables. Propped up amongst the fields are apartment building upon apartment building, 15-20 stories high, grouped in dozens of groups of a few each, here or there. It seemed that most "groups" had their own market area which was walkable, with restaurants, grocery stores, a pharmacy, boutiques, etc. It seemed quite nice and convenient. Something about Korea's infrastructure seemed slightly not as crisply and fastidiously organized as Japan's, but I can't quite place it. Perhaps it's just the spread-out-ness of everything and the city-like living area mixed right in with agriculture fields, since in Japan they seem to be more separated.

Grace was sick with a stomach ailment, having just come back from Cambodia. Meanwhile I was excited as could be to explore my first New Country in many years. Korea was an experience I had been itching for, waiting for, for a long time. This gave us disparagingly different energy levels, and was a source of conflict for us on the trip. But I don't want to dwell on it because it makes me sad. Grace and her mother were nothing but kind and the best hosts to me on the trip and I am really really thankful that I was able to have this experience.

We had three days of sightseeing. The first day we saw two of Seoul's major sights: Insadong market/villege and Cheonggyecheon stream. We went to a cute little village artsy gift shop place and took pictures. At the stream we sat and relaxed and it was nice. Also that day we went shopping around the apartment complex in Yangju and Grace bought me a very beautiful royal blue button-shirt with a lace collar that I admired in a store. I was really really thankful for that. I usually show my affection for people through words of love, devotion of my time, or physical touch, but other people show they care through material things, and it always catches me by surprise.

The second day we went to Paju, a place outside of Seoul. We went to a kind of artist's village compound. I remember it was soggy everywhere from the rain and I had mosquito bites but I didn't mind so much. We went to this kind of toy museum, an Elvis museum, a Korean nostalgic museum (my personal favorite) and finally a trick art museum which was really fun since Grace and I love taking pictures! Then we drove to another cute plaza place called Provence. It had lots of cute shops and cafes and the grounds were really cute and it was really fun to window-shop and walk around in. It wasn't a typical tourist activity, but it was still really nice and perhaps a glimpse of more "real" Korean life. I could tell that Korean culture in general values art and creative self-expression more than Japan. Not that Japan doesn't have art, but I never really took to it because it always seems fussy and stale to me--things like ikebana, tea ceremony, bonsai, lacquering and gold-leafing--just not very free or self-expressive. But the Korean aesthetic I witness when I was there was much more free-wheeling, modern, abstract, creative. So I really enjoyed that. I met up with my friend Kei there (I had to give him back his lens that he left at my house when he visited) and we walked around and then got some breadsticks and tea at a cute cafe. Man was it delicious. And cheaper than Japan. And we don't have a lot of cute cafes like that in Japan, or if we do they are expensive.

The third day was my favorite day, because we did a lot of sight-seeing in Seoul and went to many famous places. First we went to Bukchon folk village which is SUPER cute. It looks anachronous right in the middle of Seoul--a neighborhood of steep hills of cobblestoned streets and old-style Korean houses crafted of wood, metal, and tile. It was a very unique architecture that I can't compare to other countries'. Along all the houses were also cute shop upon cute shop...we went into many. Grace would talk freely and jovially with the shop owners, something which I missed from home and long for in Japan. A shopkeeper-customer relationship in Japan is much more formal. The value they place on propriety and smooth, lubricated relations gets in the way of real contact being made. After Bukchon we went to the biggest of the palaces, Gyeongbok Palace!! It was a bit of a walk to get to and we got lost but it was fun. The palace was super beautiful and exciting to visit and it was golden hour and my favorite pictures of the whole trip came out of this visit. Grace and I had a really fun photoshoot amongst the pillars and the door frames and the statues, with the mountains in the background and the golden hour light making everything warm and glowy. Lastly we went to Myeongdong market, which I likened to Shibuya or Harajuku. Lots of stands of vendors selling random cheap items like accessories, shoes, belts, toys, and various foods. Really hectic and exciting. I ate an ice cream that was 32cm tall (over a foot!) and bought a pair of off-white saddle-shoe-style shoes. Grace had been egging me to buy something so I finally bought those and I was happy with them. Right before I left we went to Rich Mart, a big super center kind of place, and I bought lots of candy and souvenirs for my kids!!

Korea felt safe and I felt comfortable there. Even though I described many differences it doesn't seem all that different from Japan. Especially infrastructure-wise, I guess since they have similar economies/money levels, a lot of the ways the city moves and acts seem to be similar.



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In between Korea and Japan was the Shibukawa Heso Matsuri, or Bellybutton Festival. I was so excited because it was my first bellybutton festival!! Shibukawa's pride and yearly tradition! It was SUPER hot that day (I wore my new royal blue shirt from Korea and I was getting pitstains, much to my disappointment.) A bunch of friends from Takasaki and other places came to Shibukawa to attend the festival. But I didn't realize that the festival was only until about 5pm, unlike other festivals which only START at that time. So I should have invited people to come earlier. We started watched the big parade shortly after we got there, where people jump around with their bellies painted like faces, but it started raining HARD just shortly after it began. Everyone freaked out and ran for cover and the parade disbanded and the festival effectively ended. We were all huddling under a covered concrete parking space, wondering what to do next. Eventually a few people went home and a few people went to Numata for Karaoke, which ended up being really fun. At that time my voice was doing pretty well and I was proud at what I was able to sing.



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Taiwan
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About a week after Korea, I went to Taiwan. I met my friend Lisa there, who I knew from Circle K and who was teaching abroad in Korea. But I arrived and had my first day alone. I remember being very stressed--about exchanging money, about talking and purchasing things, about taking the metro and finding the hostel, etc. This time I didn't have a friendly, culturally-fluent guide like I did in Korea. Well, I did all of those things, but that's not to say it wasn't stressful. It was SUPER SUPER SUPER HOT. I think it was 39-40 degrees celsius and brightly sunny. It was very very hard just to be outside away from the air conditioning. I took a bus from the airport to Banqiao (a.k.a. Itabashi) station and found my hostel. But the owner wasn't there. So I just left my stuff there, chilled on the couch for a little bit, and went out again. I bought a sandwich and an Aquarius at a conbini that was surprisingly like one in Japan. (Everything is just cheaper.) Then I rode on the metro (they use these cute plastic coin tokens instead of paper tickets, so cool!) I went to Longshan Temple and walked around a bit there. It was in some ways similar to a Japanese temple and in some ways very different. It seemed like there was more emphasis on burning incense and offering goods such as oranges or water or jelly cups...and also there was a song playing the whole time but I'm not sure if that was just a touristy thing or not. East Asian culture and religion are intertwined in a way that Western isn't. Then I went to Ximen and explored Ximending and the Red Brick house thingy. Then I went back to Banqiao and had a fiasco trying to find Lisa, with wifi that was cutting in-and-out. I was really tired so walking in the still-hot evening was such a struggle, but finally we got back to the hostel. Even when you're tired, traveling is still really really fun. You have no immediate responsibilities except what you're going to do the next few days. It's so nice.

Impressions of Taipei: As expected, it sounds like people are yelling or talking in an angry way when they are actually just talking in a regular way. I really want to get over that and be able to "really" understand Chinese languages without viewing them through that lens. I am really happy I can read kanji because it helps me remember and understand EVERYTHING even without the right pronunciation. Like it is a godsend in this foreign land. I was very surprised to see SO many mopeds/motorcycles scooting around in the city. I associated that with Vietnam. But there are plenty here! Walking the streets of Taipei sometimes you can smell sewage coming up from the gutters. I think the slight dirtyness and all the motorbikes are what separate Taipei from the premier cities of the world.

The next day was amazing and filled from start to finish with greatness. We started out by getting picked up by my old piano teacher, Sheng. Sheng is one of those people I would never in a million years have imagined that I would later in life be seeing again. You never know who you're going to know in a place where you are! She drove Lisa and I to a breakfast place called Yong He and we had soymilk and different kinds of buns and sweetened bread. It was delicious! We had a great conversation and I was so happy that I was able to meet up with her, not only a friend from my past but a real Taipei resident. Then Sheng dropped us off at the Taipei main station where we met up with Calvin, my friend who was also coincidentally traveling Taipei at the time, and we took the train to Jiufeng! Jiufeng was BEAUTIFUL. The hills with the beautiful seaside views--I felt like I was in a Ghibli movie. We ate lunch at this beaaautiful restaurant with seaside views and I had REAL boba and it was glorious. We also explored these little art galleries and lots of little streets, and bought street food. After Jiufen we went to Jinguashi which was an old gold-mining community. It used to be occupied by Japanese (when Taiwan was occupied by Japan) so it was really interesting to see old Japanese-style houses there. It was cool but definitely not as cool as Jiufen. Riding on the buses and trains was really interesting. Of course it was a lot less coordinated and more crowded than Japan...people are talking loudly and you can't depend on the bus to be on time and the bus driver is not going to be very nice or have a lot of useful information (but maybe if we were natives, he would.) In situations like that I always feel like I should default to using my Japanese, when in fact English would serve me much much better. But speaking English feels like such a cop-out. After we got back into Taipei Lisa and I got lost looking for the Modern Toilet restaurant but we finally found it. It wasn't that good but it was a very unique experience! I enjoyed my ghost poop ice cream. Lastly we trawled through the Shilin night market! It's the most famous one so many people didn't recommend us to go there but we still had a great time. Just a really vibrant atmosphere, and lots and lots of fresh fruit.

The next day we went to Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall and Liberty Square which are really famous places in Taiwan. It was SO ungodly hot that we spent as little time as possible outside or in unairconditioned spaces. We explored around outside the hall and then walked up the steps to watch the changing of the guards. It was cool but we left early because it was just too hot to function. I was roasting in my shorts and tank top... I couldn't imagine what it was like to be the guard, standing stock-still for hours in that heat with his pants, jacket, boots, and hat! After that we met up with Kim and Casey, our Australian friends! They were staying at Casey's aunt's house which I expected to be a dingy little tiny apartment in some tiny backalley neighborhood but it totally was not!! It was a luxurious, penthouse-style apartment literally connected to a major train station! It was beautiful. We got sushi of all things, and after taking a long time getting ready, and we got lost on the way, but we finally went out to Zhongxiao-Dunhua, kind of a downtownish partyish place, to meet up with my friend Sky who gave us drinks at his friend's bar. We sat at the bar and chatted. After that we were supposed to go clubbing but Lisa didn't have appropriate shoes and both of us were just crazy tired so we both just went back to our nice, lovely hostel.

The next day, the last day, was an amazing trip to the coastal town of Tamsui and the island of Ba Li. We had lunch at a crazy delicious pizza place and walked along the shoreline, pausing to take pictures and go inside little shops. I remember a candy shop that seemed to have every type of candy imaginable. I also bought a long ice cream there, like in Korea, but it wasn't nearly as high as the Korean one. Then we took the ferry to Ba Li. We walked around, splashed in the water a bit, took pictures. It was nice to just be able to relax and not really have anything to do. But throughout this, the heat was so intense that we were constantly seeking shade or air conditioning. We wanted to keep walking, but it was so hot we just couldn't continue. We went back to the mainland and ended our trip by getting a spot at the really popular Shan Shan teahouse, complete with delicious drinks and air conditioning! It was a little expensive but worth it. We ended our final evening by mounting the famous Taipei 101. It was absolutely gorgeous at the top and I was so happy I was able to mail a postcard to my mom from the top floor. I learned a lot about Taipei 101, such as: there are 101 floors to symbolize the pushing of limits past what you think is the top, there are 8 sections because the number 8 is lucky in Chinese culture, the entire tower acts as a giant sundial to the people of Taipei, the tower has lights that change colors depending on what day of the week it is (Saturday was purple!!!!), and the tower is very inspired by traditional Chinese architecture. While we were there we met up with Calvin again and his friends, and after we finished at Taipei 101 we took the metro to Ximending to hang out. That metro ride was really memorable to me because we played language telephone. It went Jared(English->German)--> Matthew (German->French)--> Rebecca (French->Japanese) --> Calvin (Japanese->Korean)-->Lisa(Korean->English) OR Calvin (Japanese->Vietnamese) --> Kim(Viet->Chinese) --> Casey (Chinese->English.) It was sooo cool!!!! We ate at Chili's in Ximending (such an American place... but it was delicious) and hung out and got boba in Ximending before heading home.



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I only went to two different countries for less than a week each, so it's easy to think, well what what the significance of that trip? Why did I choose to spend the money and time to do this? How did it really change my life? What did I learn from my travels? I think I learned what I continually learn from traveling: That people in different areas of the world think, act, and operate differently because of home culture/home language (they are inextricable.) Just experiencing, even for a short time, how different daily life can be in a different part of the world lets you see your own culture in perspective that never would have been possible. It's a direct experience of contrast. In my mind I never want to travel just for a "break" or a getaway or that kind of thing...I always want to experience and learn and grow due to being in a different CULTURE. That is what makes it worth the money.



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Other events in August: Tanbara Lavender Fields (suuuper good lavender soft serve!!!!), Gunma Orientation (yay newbies!!!!), Gunma Games (hot but fun, and amazing onsen after!)

Renaissance

After not updating in over 6 months I will now attempt to resurrect this blog. This is for the benefit of posterity and my own memories. While reading the blog that I updated daily while I studied abroad in France, I realized how much of my own experiences memories could come flooding back just by re-reading my own words. I read detail after detail that I would have completely forgotten had I not preserved them in digital writing. And while it is partially too late for that, I don't want to have no record of my experiences in Japan. Moreso than my time in France, Japan is an unforgettable and irreplaceable experience that I will continually think about, remember fondly and reference for the rest of my life. I want to be able to re-read the thoughts that I thought while I was there. But, the thing that kept me from updating before was the pressure I put on myself to produce quality blog entries. I obsessed over the writing and constantly berated myself for being too boring or not including pictures. This time I don't care. I'm not trying to win any awards or readers. I just want to record my memories, as simple as that. So I probably won't be including many pictures here, because it is tedious and tiresome and I can look at the pictures on my Facebook or computer. So here's to a better and more collected record of my experience than my thoughts and memories can preserve.