Seijin Festival and Goals

A Tree with bad luck fortunes tied to it at Heian Shrine

Here's another response to the Light Fellowship-generated question:

Re-evaluate your goals for the year. How have you done? Have you needed or wanted to change your goals over the course of your study? Do you have new goals for this term?

My goals and perspectives have indeed changed since returning to Japan. I feel like Kyoto has become my home in that I no longer feel the need to go out and see all the sights. Every day is just another day, not another day IN Kyoto. Like the residents of a city who haven't seen all the tourist attractions in their hometowns, I have lost the fervor of being in Kyoto. I've started going to the gym three times a week instead of going out and exploring the city. Clearly my goals and priorities this semester have changed. I have some mixed feelings because I know I should go out and see more, but sightseeing and playing tourist feel so unnatural and out of sync with the established rhythm of my daily life.

In an effort to combat this feeling of routine life, I have made another bucket list for Kyoto. At the same time I am busy trying to find a job. I am working on my resume and a list of firms to apply for as well as trying to contact my friends in Japan who are currently working in offices. One of my friends at Sou Fujimoto says she's going crazy from all the working she has to do. I have heard similar stories from other people who have worked in Japan, which is perhaps one reason why I don't want to live and work here permanently, but I think a year of working here would be a good experience before I move on to grad school.

The prospect of entering the workforce is exciting, nerve-racking, and stressful all at the same time, but it's the next step in my life and maturation. My birthday was yesterday and another year later I do indeed feel like I've grown up in so many ways. On the subject of growing up, here are some photos from Japan's "Seijin Festival"成人祭り, which is a coming-of-age festival for Japanese youth.


My friends and I with some newly minted Japanese adults

Study Abroad + Manju

In response to the Light Fellowship-generated question of the week, I would like to discuss my feelings about study abroad at Yale. Here was the prompt:

Many students at Yale almost automatically dismiss the idea of studying abroad during term time. Conversely, we'll often see students returning from a term abroad saying it was their best time ever "at Yale"? What are your thoughts? Did this time abroad contribute to or detract from your "Yale education" in any unexpected ways?

I was one of those students who dismissed the idea of studying abroad during my time as an undergraduate for several reasons, chiefly because my major did not allow me to easily take a semester off and continue on schedule for a timely graduation. The architecture major only had two or three study abroad options, all centered in Western Europe. I was looking for a program outside the Western canon of architecture, yet there was nothing really available that was approved by the major. Of course, I always had the option of applying to the Light fellowship for a year off, but I hesitated because I did not want to fall behind in the architecture track and fall back another year. I really loved my architecture studio family/friends and did not want to miss a year with them thereby placing me in the '10 architecture class of whom I was not especially close with.

I am extremely grateful to the Light Fellowship for giving me the opportunity to study abroad post-graduation and providing me with an experience that was not easily facilitated with the complexities of the architecture major. Indeed, last semester and this year so far has been one of my most exciting semesters of my academic career. Although, at the same time, there is the tinge of evanescence that comes along with any limited period of study abroad. By that I mean it feels like everything I'm doing/ have done here is just going to fall back into some distant, hazy, dreamlike memory once it's over. All these people I've just started to connect with will go back to their separate lives and schools around the world once this year is up. I suppose in a normal study abroad situation I would be returning to Yale next year, but instead I will attempt to enter the real world (once more >.<) and have no idea what is in store. It would be comforting to return to Yale for another senior year after what would have been an amazing junior year abroad, but unfortunately that is not the case for me. The prospect of being pushed out into the uncharted post-grad life instead of the safety of my home university has given me an anxiety that most of the other people (mainly juniors studying abroad) in my program don't seem to have to deal with.

Anyways, there's a quick record of my thoughts on study abroad and now for a lighter, tastier subject, here are some pictures of a manju I ate last week.

On the way back from the archery festival at Sanjusangen-do I stopped by this shop with steamed manju outside. Manju are Japanese sweet buns, often filled with delicious tastyness, in this case filled with sweet rice, beans, and topped with a piece of chestnut.

Bow and Arrow Festival

Today I went to Sanjusangendo, a Buddhist temple in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto for the annual Yanagi Kaiji and First Arrow Festival. The festival is a competition where the best archers from around Japan gather to exhibit their skill in a shooting contest. Traditionally the contest was to shoot the length of Sanjusangendo, whose name means "Hall of the 30 Bays". Sanjusangendo is also known for its 1001 statues of Kannon観音, the Buddhist goddess of mercy, as well as many national treasures of sculptures depicting the guardians of Kannon.

The competition was really cool to watch all the archers. There were three main divisions: Young women, young men, and teachers. Of course, the teachers were the best group to watch because they actually hit the targets and several got bull's eyes as well. The girls were also very entertaining to watch because of the aesthetic appeal of their kimono and hakama (archery outfits). After each round of shooting, several volunteers in little yellow jackets scurried out onto the shooting range and gathered the arrows from the targets and ground. The people in the yellow reminded me of the kids who collect the balls at tennis matches. The shooting also reminded me of tennis matches because the audience reacted very calmly with "oooooh"s, "awwww"s, and several "oshii"s (oshii means regrettably close in Japanese). The audience also politely applauded and remained in a very good temper even during the champion round when the winner hit the target nearly in the bull's eye. One can only imagine how an American athlete would act after such an achievement. Even Tiger Woods used to do a fist pump or a cheer in golf, perhaps America's most etiquette-conscious sport. Japanese archery is also tightly bound to tradition and watching the ritual approach and stringing of the bow made for an entertaining sight regardless of whether or not the arrows hit the targets.

This week is my second week of Japanese classes and I hope to resume my volunteering at the architecture firm this week as well. Here's to a great start for a new semester!