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!

What is This? 14

Spotted: A chimera along the Teramachi shopping arcade in downtown Kyoto. Standing outside a pet shop, this fiery beast opens an closes its mouth while its tongue darts in and out of its pelican-esque beak. Adorned with All-American red-white-and-blue stars and stripes, yet offset with "kawaii" flowery pale pink petals and rabbit ears along side dangerous horns, could this to be a perfect specimen of cross national breeding?



Answer: I'm not entirely sure what this is at all. I saw it and was unable to answer my own question beyond the simple response that it is meant to draw your attention to this pet store. It is possible that it was only to draw your attention here, but I would hope for a better association with the pet shop. They sell none of the animals whose subservient parts have come together to form this beast (i.e. no lions, ducks, dragons, rabbits, kangaroos, nor goats). In any case, it is a very animated and enigmatic character with whom none of the Japanese were taking any pictures with.

What is This? 13

Spotted: An explosion of lights in the center of downtown Kobe. This brilliantly illuminated and transient city would seem to be the native country of Disney's Electric Light Parade, but embellished floats were nowhere in sight, only a steady stream of people all flowing toward the center of the lights. Is this a revival of 1850s Industrial English architecture with a post-modern twist in Kobe's attempt to out-shine Time's Square? Or perhaps it's the best way for the electric company to increase its profits during the holiday season? What is This?

Answer: This is Kobe's annual Luminaria festival where they erect this huge display of lights around the city's central district. It began as a memorial to the victims of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake and has now become a huge tourist attraction for the city during its winter months. There didn't seem to be much memorializing going on at the festival, although I think much of the money raised from it was going to go towards some related cause. Much of the festival seemed to be centered around walking through the city past a lot of shops (who were all vying for sightseers' attention) to this central area where there were a lot of lights and many many more street stalls with delicious foods.


Lights along the main road to the memorial park in downtown Kobe


In front of the main illuminated structure at the center of the park

Maiko Show

Last Friday my landlord took my roommates and I to see a Maiko performance at a hotel in Kyoto. It was a very brief, yet entertaining show that probably catered to the hotel guests as it was free. Before the show we had a photo op to take pictures while the Maiko sat in front of a little tea table. It was kind of awkward taking pictures with the Maiko because nobody really talked to her, they kind of just sat next to her and she made a very small smile and then they left because the line was so long to take a picture with her. She also had a funny smile and very white makeup which made her look over-exposed in a lot of the pictures I took.

My housemates and I with the Maiko-san

I should probably explain what a Maiko is first. According to my landlord, Mr. Kajiwara, Maiko are only found in Kyoto and they are young girls usually from age 17 who are basically geisha in training. When they grow older and more skilled and find a supporting patron, the Maiko become geisha. As many of my readers hopefully already know, geisha and Maiko are NOT prostitutes.

A Maiko dance

After the photos, we all went outside to sit next to a pond with a stage in it. Thankfully there were some space heaters nearby because it was pretty chilly outside. While we were waiting for the Maiko show to start, I watched two sleeping swans float around the pond. After a few moments the Maiko came out and started dancing on the stage with some fans. I'm not sure what the song was about, but it looked like the Maiko was sometimes using her fans as a kind of umbrella and she sometimes tossed them up in the air. The next song was apparently a pretty popular old Kyoto song because some of the old Japanese women watching started to sing along. I couldn't understand a word of it, but the Maiko's dance was pretty nice. At the end of the show she took a basket from off-stage and knelt down to feed the swans who were stirred from their slumber by the sound of the Maiko's dancing. It made for a classic photo op.

Maiko-san feeding the swans

One Bite at a Time: BANANA BREAD! and Student Festival

Doshisha Student Festival (gakusai)

So last week was the student festival at Doshisha University (the school where my Japanese program is at) and it was pretty fun, running from Wednesday to Friday. The Doshisha students had the whole week off to set up booths on campus and transform classrooms into workshops or exhibit spaces or tea rooms. There were throngs of people filling the campus and student performances all throughout the day so my classes were moved to another campus nearby, about a 7 minute walk away. Most of the booths outside had some kind of Japanese festival food, the usual takoyaki (octopus ball), fried potatoes, hot dogs, tacos, and just generally things that are really easy for college students to make. There were two stages outside where student bands performed rock, jazz, techno, and dancing. Here's a picture of the Tahitian dance group and I saw a few hula dancers walking around barefoot. It was odd, but comforting to see a bit of island culture so far away. I can definitely say that there is nothing like the student festival at any American college I've been to and for all the differences between the American college system and the Japanese one, I'd say that this is something I wish we had in America. A couple of weeks ago I went to the student festival at Kyoto University, which was also really fun and full of things like second hand clothing stands, more food booths, and dancers and bands spread all around the campus.


Tahitian dancers at Doshisha Student Festival

Yesterday I spent the afternoon downtown going to the Manga museum with my friend. The manga museum was alright. It was mostly just hallways filled with shelves of manga from all around the world, but mostly Japan. There was a little interesting history exhibit, but other than that, not much really Educational about the museum. I wish they had a bit more explaining the significant authors and different types of Manga, but I think the place is really geared towards those specialist people who are searching for old and rare manga. My favorite part was that the museum is built in an old public school, so from an architectural standpoint it was interesting to see how the old space was rehabilitated to a different program. I think it was done pretty successfully, but it is definitely not the first school made into a museum.


Two partially eaten halves of our banana loaf

As we were biking down the streets of Kyoto after the Manga museum, we smelled a delicious scent on the air. I thought it smelled like banana bread, but I was surely mistaken because I have never ever seen real banana bread anywhere in Japan. They have lots of banana cakes and banana creams and banana cakes filled with banana cream in banana shapes, but never a real loaf of banana bread like I used to make back home. So when I stopped by this table on the side of the road in front of what may have been an old car garage and saw freshly baked banana bread (and ovens baking banana bread) I was astounded to find what I had long been looking for in Japan. My friend and I bought a loaf of real banana bread fresh out of the oven for ¥800 (about $9.24) and after the woman running the stand put it in a nice paper bag, we walked across the street to a little park and each ate half a loaf. It was DELICIOUS! I hadn't eaten banana bread since my old roommate's girlfriend used to bake some and bring it when she came to visit. To say the least, it really hit the spot and I will definitely go back there again. If you're looking for banana bread in Kyoto, ask me and I can show you where to get it :D