A lot in a little time

There are a lot of things that I have done and places I have gone that I have not blogged about.

In January, I went to visit my friend May (MN) in Agematsu, a small town in Nagano prefecture. It was nice to see where she lives and realize that even though we are having the same experience (1 year in Japan, working at a school) they are completely different. The highlights were going to Matsumoto castle and relaxing our feet in a foot onsen (hot spring).

In February, my friend Natasha's sister was here from Trinidad, so it made the winter much more enjoyable and it passed by so quickly! In addition to enjoying the spots around Fukui City we also went to Kyoto and Obama (Fukui). In Kyoto I recommended the temples and shrines that we went to in December - Kinkakuji, Kiyomizudera and Fushimi Inari, in particular. Many Japanese tourists have no time to travel and so when they visit a place it is in and out - taking pictures and buying omiyage (souverniors-kind of obligatory). I don't consider myself a Japanese tourist. I like to linger places so I didn't mind going to the same places again (even though there is so much more to see but I have come to the realization I will never see it all!)

Last weekend my friends came from Aichi Prefecture. I met them when they came to Toledo (my hometown) in 2003. We have kept in touch ever since. When I met them I never imagined I would be showing them around in their own country. We went to two famous spots in Fukui but transportation was kind of a nightmare. I miss the independence of having a car and I felt bad to inconvenience them. The whole weekend, we were jumping from buses to trains to taxis. But all in all, it was fun and great to have them here...made it feely more home-y.

On Sunday we went to the "penis festival". It is actually a harvest festival or fertility festival. It was at a shrine that is all about, well, the penis. There were a lot of foreigners and I felt a kind of culture shock. Japan is such a homogenous country so you just get used to seeing all Japanese people. And when you see a foreigner, just like the Japanese, you are intrigued and stare. Well, there were too many so I couldn't keep staring. And I heard English all over. (I have gotten used to blocking out conversations and actually kind of like not overhearing people talk). Check out the link if you are more interested.

http://kikuko.web.infoseek.co.jp/english/tagata-shrine-hounen-sai.html

It is interesting because on some things I view the Japanese as very conservative and others as very liberal (like parading a giant phallus down the streets).

Our advisor recently sent us some logistical things about leaving Japan. There was a long list and it made me realize that I have a lot to do in a little time. Part of me feels like I just got here. The other part of me feels like these long days of no classes at schools will never end (I am at school writing this now)! and I am craving a Chipotle burrito.