Week 28: Vacation starts!

I only had two office days today, and no teaching!  Monday and Thursday.  Remember how I said I'd take teaching over office days?  Still true.

However, I did find a way around the utter boredom.  This time, I wasn't the only teacher stuck in office, so we were shuffled into another room.  Since we were separated from the hard working office employees, we felt no shame in: sitting around and talking, playing computer games, reading, drawing, messaging friends, knitting (mostly me, I'll admit), napping, and watching netflix on the laptops.  It was much better than my other office day.  We were so professional.  But to be honest, when they looked in to check on us, they just seemed relieved we were all there.

Noticeable things throughout the week.

I cleaned.  (yes, that's noticeable for me)

I came upon some peoples making onigiri (rice balls) in the sharehouse kitchen.  Near the end, they started making cute ones!

it has ears!

little panda!

One of them was like, "it's too cute! I can't eat that!"

It went around the table "Oh! it's adorable! No, I couldn't eat that!"  Until it got to me, at the end of the line.

it was very tasty.

There are some new girls at the share house, and I showed them some of the basics of stuff in the area, how to read the instructions on boxes if you can't read Japanese.

Let's see, went to see the Martian.  The area was all decorated for spring.

Even though it was cold.

Very tall vases, with silk flowers.

I'm a little sad you couldn't swing on it.

And there was a little truly Japanese  fashion.

yes, those bow ties are connected to the long tie.

and the pants are lacy. and then..the word ALL on front...ok

And saw some truly ugly dogs on sale for white day.

really ugly

Oh! you don't know what white day is!  Ok, so the western world sold the idea of Valentine's day to Japan, but they got the advertising wrong.  When they said that guys buy chocolate, it ended up saying that guys GET chocolate, so for Valentines day, the girls all buy chocolate for the boys.  Then, a month later, (March 14) the boys buy something (usually a white something) for the girls in return.

Later the younger generation introduced black day (April 14) which is when the single people get together and don't do anything couple-ish and eat black foods (like black soba noodles)

Friday, I went to Kyoto with my Japanese friend.  Even though it was chilly, it's a very popular destination this time of year.  (gonna be even more packed once the cherry blossoms start up)

And of course, it's very popular to dress up in Kimono and wander around the historical Kyoto.  I loved walking around and seeing the colorful clothes.

Spring kimono

MANY shops rent out Kimono

you can do this too, but it costs more.

they have boy options too.

Every time we saw one, my friend's eyes lit up and...

surprisingly warm.

She was like a proud mom, "stand over there! Hang on, I need a picture here!" It was nice to see her so happy.

Yes, I'm wearing orange.  It was the only orange kimono in the store, and I pulled it out and my friend and the store person were like "eeeeeeeh" but I knew that I look FABULOUS in orange, and they were surprised to find out I was RIGHT.

In fact, I matched the temple we visited.

Kiyomizu temple.

This is Kiyomizu temple, one of the most (if not the) most famous temple in Japan. And it's pretty darn cool.

she took LOTS of pictures of me

temple

also part of the temple. it was leveled.

famous balcony on temple.

Japanese friend in front of temple.

before you go into a temple you cleanse yourself at the spring.  Look at the length of the handles on those things!

the pillars holding up the balcony were literally just tree trunks.

Surprisingly only had one group ask me to join them.  still fun. :)

Oh! You haven't seen my butt bow yet!

there it is!

they stuffed little rolled up towels in it to make it stand up more.

the obi (belt) even had cool folding action!

I gotta say, I have never been dressed so efficiently as when they put that Kimono on me.  Of course, I don't have much to compare it to, but still.

I just stuck out my arms and next thing I knew I was in three layers of Kimono, several towels and shaping bands and dressed.  It was so cool!

You'll notice I'm showing a lot of wrist though. Long as that kimono was, I am STILL much longer than most Japanese. :) and the geta (sandals) were all a little small.

the sandals made it a little hard to walk around though. :)

Eventually we returned the Kimono and my lungs were relieved to remember what full breaths felt like.  We went on a very popular walk along a river. 

even more popular when the trees are in bloom.

And when it was late, we went back home, exhausted. :)

Saturday, for some reason, I was feeling a little down in the morning, so I called up my Festival friend, who is moving. "I don't want to sit here, and you don't want to pack to move, how about we go check out the Hina Doll displays?"

"....sure."

So!  We arrived at our location, and the first thing she said was "Hey, there's this giant tower over there I can see from my school and I've been wondering what it is for ages, can we go check it out?"

LOOK HOW BIG THIS IS.

Right, let's go check it out!

We didn't get lost, because with THAT for a landmark, how COULD you?  But we went the wrong way.  It only had one entrance, and we walked ALL the way around the block before we found it.  (ain't that the way?)  The thing is, that was a BIG block!  It included a golf course!  In fact, we kinda thought it was part of the golf course for a while, but when we went to walk through it, we were stopped. And a patron of the course kindly offered to drive us the rest of the way.  (so nice!)  We had, of course, walked almost all the way around the block, but that last leg was in a car, so that helped a bit.

Then it got a little weird.  There was a single guard in front of the gate.  There was no one else there.
 

for some reason this reminded me of those pictures of North Korea?

in front of the large steps to get up to it.

podium doesn't help the whole "this looks like a 'peoples monument' in North Korea or China thing"

there were people cleaning the windows.

We went in, but didn't take pictures of the inside.  It turns out it was a monument to world peace, dreamed up by the "second supreme patriarch of the church of perfect liberty".  Nicole and I were very polite and followed the guide around (again, only people there) and then escaped as fast as we could.  The whole thing REALLY felt like a cult place.  Sorry, just did.

Here's more info on it if you want. 

Then we walked back into town and checked out the Hina doll display.

The Hina dolls are a thing that are displayed for Girl's holiday. No, I don't know why.  The most basic display has just the Emperor and the Empress.

And that comes in many styles

her kimono's orange too!

easier storage

SO CUTE

I did not pick them up to see if they were bells

More complex displays involve members of the court.

7 stages, they usually are in odd numbers.

the "go big or go home variety"

 Starting from the top (after the royalty), members of the court usually include: court ladies, entertainers, warriors, and servants. The layers without people on them show the belongings of the Emperor and Empress The even LARGER displays (this was the biggest we could find) sometimes includes shopkeepers along with all their stuff.  It was really cool seeing the different varieties.

For instance, you had the ones that were big on detail

look at how many layers of kimono she is wearing!

And the ones that focused on simplicity

I think a kid made this, but still, awesome

The animal ones

I'm not sure what animal these are.

And the REALLY OLD ones

I am in LOVE with her headdress!

Oh! here's the best thing about them!

look at that smile!

That's right, they have TEETH.

I realize that having teeth was a mark of beauty and health, but I wonder if they tried to find a NON creepy way of showing them off, because this AIN'T IT.

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun, even with getting lost and finding an odd cult-type building. :)

So, with school over, I've been feeling a little useless, sometimes a bit depressed.  Looking back on the week, I realized I DID something EVERY DAY.  I'm pretty sure my real problem is lack of exercise, since when I'm working I walk so much every day.  Goal for next week is to get out walking every day.