2004.11.21

well i should go ahead and type in what happened since last last (2 weekends ago) saturday (since i had crashed and lost what i had typed, i couldn't post it, and now i have time -- a weekend w/o lots of field trips hehehe ^_^)

so on saturday i went with my japanese culture class to kita-kamakura and kamakura (the same place, but different train stops, so i make a distinction) to see 3 shrines...it was the weekend of Shichi-Go-San (七五三 -- means 7-5-3), a holiday celebrating the 7th and 3rd bdays of girls, and the 5th bday of guys...so you take your kids to shrines to pray for their health and success...so we got to see little kids in kimono

the first place we went to was a temple (which makes it buddhist) we went to was engaku-ji (円覚寺) in kita-kamakura (north kamakura) which was built in honor of the mongolian and japanese soldiers who had died in the mongolian invasion and in honor of the founder's idol back in china -- Mugaku Sogen (don't worry, there is no test coming up at the end of the blog entry, i just am adding a little background from pamphlets i received from the shrines)...there was a lot of wood buildings at this one...i took a lot of pictures, and i put some of them up last week

the second place we went to a shrine (which makes it shintoist) called Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, where we even got to see a shinto wedding, too! it was pretty neato and there is where we got to take the pictures of the kids in kimono -- i put a couple up

the third place we went was Hokukuji and it was very quiet (and a loooong walk) and it had a beatiful bamboo forest...it was built to commemorate the grandfather of the first of Ashikaga shoguns (again, no history quiz coming up)...soon all the people who went are going to exchange pictures, and once we do, i'm going to put some online for everyone

now on SUNDAY (the part many people envy me for) i went to the Ghibli Museum (yes, studio ghibli, the people who made princess mononoke もののけ姫　and sen to chihiro no kamikakushi　千と千尋の神隠し) and MAN DID THAT PLACE RETURN ME TO MY CHILDHOOD!!!!! i think it was more powerful than Disneyworld -- but then again, that could be because now i am an adult and am more susceptible to the magic than before)...i mean doors that are as high as my hips and i had to crawl under just to continue looking at stuff!!! and spires you have to climb up to get to more of the museum...wow...i spent about 4 hours there maybe...it was awesome!!! and i got to see this 20 min film called Koro's Stroll/Big Adventure?? (my translation of コロの大散歩 which literally means "Koro's Big Walk" but doesn't have a nice ring to it like big adventure...one of the perils facing translators...do you literally translate stuff? or do you change the cultural references like this to make it more palatable and make more sense to your translation's readers???) and anyways it was really cool and my entrance ticket was literally part of a filmstrip from Neko no Ongaeshi (猫の恩返し -- Return of the Cat) which is a great movie to watch late at night...you will just laugh and laugh at the off-the-wall sight gags...MAN it's hilarious...me and kuan watched it during the summer at like 2 am and we were like :D forEVER!

so yeah that was saturday...

so wednesday (haven't put the pictures up yet) i was invited to one of the exchange students who is staying with a host family's house and i for the first time felt like i was back home..not cuz the people there were great friends or anything, but because i was my old self, playing off other people's sayings to make jokes, etc, and OH MY GOD DID IT FEEL GOOD TO BE BACK!!! i didn't feel hindered by japanese the whole party...it ROCKED!!!

so yeah i need to put pics up from that...if i'm smart, i'll put the pics up first and then post this entry, so that way this entry will sit at the top of the page and people will see the entry BEFORE they see the pics...so yeah...i hope i remember to do that...^_^

so yeah, off to study or whatnot, while listening to the grooves of Ben Folds (thanks, gf!) and Sogabe Keiichi (曽我部恵一)

2004-11-22

OK POSTING NOW BEFORE I CAN LOSE THIS MAGNIFICENT WORK OF AN ENTRY!!!