Silver Week! (the Weekend)

September 19-23 was Silver Week here in japan. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were national holidays, so there was a 5 day break from work and school. I was told that this is the first time it has ever happened because of the way they determine when the holidays will be (I think the first is fixed, the second one floats around, and the third is the equinox, so since the equinox fell only two days after the first holiday they stuck the floating one in the middle).

However silver week came to be, it was a lot of fun. On Saturday I ran in the morning with my friend Kelli, then went to Osaka to see Deep Sea 3D at the I-Max, which is narrated by Jhonny Depp. We also rode the "biggest giant farris wheel in the world" because another of my friends won two free tickets at the I-Max. We split the costs so each of us got a discount.

I also bought a stuffed ghibli creature at the suntory museum (which was still having the Ghibli exhibit). I showed it to my Okasan (host mother) when I got home and she laughed at me and said some thing like, "you sure like toys, don't you." Thanks Okasan. I kind of deserved it, though, because I had been buying other toys and had gone to the Osaka pokemon center and the kiddyland store with my friends.

on Sunday I went to church. My Okasan told me she knew of one near the Hirakata train station, so she took me. The service was in Japanese, of course, but it was different from any service I had been to before. Much to my chagrin, I found out this weekend when I got lost on my way there, that the church is Catholic. That explains why I had no idea what they were doing. As I wandered the neighborhood this past Sunday, I found another church (presumably not Catholic) which I will try to find again this Sunday.

My Okasan, although she is Buddhist, was curious and wanted to attend the service with me. We arrived late for the first service, so we went to an old ryokan (Japanese inn) that had been turned into a museum, which was nearby. All I really understood was that people from Hirakata sold food from boats to the people who were traveling the Yodo river between Osaka and Kyoto, since Hirakata is the halfway point. They would say something like "Kurawanka!" which apparently means "why don't you eat." People in those days sometimes called Hirakata Kurawanka because of all the vendors.

After church I think we did something else, but I can't remember what it was. I'll have to look at my pictures (which are comming soon!) to see.

Kaiyukan! (海遊館)

On Saturday I went to Osaka and visited the aquarium and the Suntory museum.
The Kaiyukan (aquarium) was amazing. They had two whale sharks and some giant rays, too. I loved the sunfish, but felt sorry that their tank was so narrow because they can't turn very easily. They kept getting stuck in corners. The aquarium keepers put plastic curtains up so they don't hit the hard glass all the time and hurt themselves. The top floor has a forest exhibit with asian otters, and all of them were sleeping together on a piece of driftwood. It was incredibly cute.

I went to the gift shop and bought some omiyage for my host mother. It was some kind of bread with sweet white bean paste inside. There were turtles stamped on the top of them too, and the box said something about a turtle diary. I also bought a handtowel with a manbou (sunfish) design on it.

after the Kaiyukan I went to the Suntory museum, which just happened to be having an exhibit of studio Ghibli art. I think they were called story board drawings, they showed camera movement and such and had writing all over them. There were, I think, at least a thousand on display.

On the way to the Kaiyukan I saw posters for the imax theater in suntory museum for two shows on sealife. One is narrated by Jim Carrey and the other by Jhonny Depp. Ridiculous.
I also saw a hugenormous farris wheel, but since the weather was nasty and the view would have been bad I didn't go on it.

I showed my Okasan the fliers for the imax movies and she said she wanted to go see them with me, which is awesome.

Unfortunately I still can't connect to the internets at my house because okasan is afraid to turn off the modem to reboot it. I told her to call a computer store, and hopefully they will tell her the same. Otherwise I will have to convince her myself. Anyways, that's why no pictures have been uploaded yet. I refuse to carry my laptop along with my books on the 30 minute uphill (I'm not joking) walk to school.

Sunday Okasan took me to a small museum that had a life-size recreation Jomon era pit dwelling--it was sweet. I even went inside it. I have pictures of this as well, but alas, I cannot yet post them.

By the way, I'm in spoken japanese level 4 for sure now.

I'm in Japan and...

I learned how to blog...sort of
I ate raw octopus
I have a host-mother who is learning english
I ate gouya (nigauri) and it was bitter
I sleep on a futon
I go to Kansai Gaidai University