There is nothing like perfectly orchestrated umbrella usage. A group of people stand at a crosswalk under an overhang. The light changes. Immediately, all umbrellas go up. Six seconds later the group has crossed the street and entered another overhang. Immediately, all umbrellas go down.

Japanese drivers are very polite and consciencious. No matter the circumstance, they always put on the parking brake when they stop, even at a stoplight. At night, they dim their lights when stopped at an intersection, so as not to blind the person across from them.

I attended my first tournament as a member of the Kyoto University Breeze Ultimate Frisbee Team this weekend. We did not win, which upset many of my teammates, but I had a good time. It was the first time I had played on grass since arriving in Japan, and I took full advantage by making a horizontal layout catch into the endzone. I will have some good scars from that. However, I also learned that Japanese ultimate is much more serious than American ultimate when my teammates began talking in low voices before warm-up because (as it was explained to me) "some people get very nervous before tournaments."
Anyway, here are some pictures of my team. We are the ones in pink.

It has become fall in Japan, and the nights are now chilly. It must be for that reason that when I came downstairs this morning to go to the bathroom, the toilet seat was heated. A pleasant surprise in the early morning.

Japanese schools have no school buses. However, this is remedied by the mandatory wearing of bright yellow hats by any child in elementary school. You can't miss a stream of stream of yellow bobbing heads walking across the street.

Holiday Weekend #2: Fall Equinox

9/21/02
My host family took me up to Nagaoka-tenmangu Shrine tonight for the moon-viewing celebration. The matcha (Japanese whisked green tea) was wonderful, the dancing was traditional, and the moon was bright, though veiled in clouds. However, I feel there was something inherently wrong with playing “My Old Kentucky Home” and “Camptown Races” on the koto, a Japanese harp.

9/22/02
Conversation on the train with a Japanese lady, in English:
Her: Where are you from?
Me: The United States.
Her: How long will you be in Kyoto?
Me: One year.
Her: Can you use chopsticks?
Me: Yes. Yes I can.
I hear that the chopsticks question is the question most asked to foreigners in Japan.

Bing Cultural Event:
Fucha Ryori: A meal based on the Buddhist doctrine of vegetarianism and simplicity. All of the food is made from vegetables, tofu, and rice, without any added seasonings.
Having toured a Zen temple of the Obaku sect, we proceeded across the street to experience a fucho ryori meal, although, unlike the monks, we were afforded the luxury of a high-class restaurant, Hakuunan. The presentation of the food was beautiful, and the variety of tastes was marvelous, but don’t ask me to tell you what I ate, because I have no idea.

Taiko: A Japanese drum; Often played by men wearing next to nothing.
It must take an awful lot of training and muscles to continuously beat on a very loud drum using fairly large sticks for a half and hour without pausing. I appreciate those in the company of Kodo who did this for two hours, because the performance was amazing. Huge drums, big drums, little drums, a flute, and a biwa can make lots of noise, but when the rhythms are perfectly coordinated, it becomes simultaneously exuberating and lulling. The thrill is when you can feel the reverberation vibrate through your whole body. When the show was over I felt inspired to hit something.

Thank you Helen Bing, our benefactress for a lovely meal and cultural performance.

Today my Japanese class took a field trip to Nishiki Market, a narrow street filled with shops selling raw fish, live eels, lobster-on-a-stick, Japanese bean candy, $150 mushrooms, bumpy cucumbers, pickled anything, and many more unusual or usual things.
My personal favorite, however, were the tofu donuts. They almost have the taste a carnival funnel cake, and yet they are much better. They are light, yet they have substance. My assignment was to interview a shopkeeper and learn about their store, so I chose this extremely delicious one.

A short introduction to the Kyotofu Tofu Shop:
-It is the first store of three, founded in Nishiki market 10 years ago.
-Their primary food offering: tofu in all shapes and sizes.
-The most popular item(s): tofu donuts (8 small donuts for 150 yen (~$1.25)) and tofu soft (ice) cream (low in calories).
-They make all of their tofu at the store, and you can watch the machine make the donuts.
If you make it to Kyoto, I suggest you stop by this little shop frequented by many wandering school children and hungry adults. Sit down on a nearby bench and lick your tofu ice cream while munching on some yummy tofu donuts. It is a wonderful combination.

I am now officially a member of the Doshisha Breeze Ultimate Frisbee Team. This occurred yesterday, and was accompanied by detailed explanations on both sides of the differences between American and Japanese ultimate frisbee strategies. It is going to take me a few weeks to get used to an opposite side force and no hucks.
Again, I must emphasize the fact that Japanese ultimate players are dedicated. It is still summer vacation for them, so they practice at noon. And what time do they stop? Sunset. Yes, 7 hours, 3 times a week during vacation. Because of family obligations, I skipped out 3 hours early, but I was assured that it was okay, this time.
I am greatly looking forward to my first tournament, which will be in 2 weeks in Kobe. The only unfortunate thing: their jerseys are pink.

This weekend was a yasumi, a vacation. Monday was Respect for the Aged Day. However, my weekend was much too busy for it to be called a break.
Saturday my host family took me to Yoshimine Temple on the top of a nearby mountain. It had a lovely view of all of Kyoto and a good portion of Osaka. They took lots of pictures of me doing Buddhist things such as ringing the bell that scares away the 108 evil spirits, lighting incense for good luck, and standing in front of the altar. Religion in Japan is as much of a tourist event as it is a spiritual ritual.
Sunday my friend from Boston, Jason Moore, who is doing the Semester at Sea program, docked in Kobe. So I went down to that lovely city and found him and brought him back to Kyoto. We toured around and saw the Byodo-in Temple (famous for its Phoenix Hall and 52 Bodhisattva statues), Nanzen-ji Temple, Chion-in Temple, part of the Imperial Palace grounds, and ended up on the ever pleasant banks of the Kamo River where I introduced him to Japanese sake. A lovely day, all in all.
Monday my Japanese Art class went down to Nara to see Horyo-ji Temple and Todai-ji (famous for the Daibutsu, an enormous statue of Buddha, a small child can fit in one of his nostrils). Along with this is the Nara Deer Park, where the deers are sacred and wander around at will. You buy little deer food things and they bow to you and you feed them. Its like a large petting zoo, only its a city park.
I have decided that the best things to see in the Kansai area really are the temples and shrines. They combine the old history of Japan and its religions plus the popularity of tourism. Its always crowded at temples on the holidays.

I broke down. I gave in .. I ate pizza.
Three weeks without those lovely layers of dripping cheese and that thick warm crust was just too much for me. A few of us from school made the journey to the nearest Dominos Pizza and indulged ourselves in the American Style pizza - pepporoni and cheese. It was wonderful. It is quite unfortunate that the Japanese food tradition does not realize the absolutely delightful potential that cheese in any form has to offer.

On another digestive note, my Okasan (host mother) makes wonderful Japanese breakfasts consisting of interesting things such as salad with ham, sausage with mayonaise and ketchup, and bread with almond butter. However, today's fare was by far the best: a hot dog, complete with bun and ketchup, with an additional cole-slaw-ish filling. It took me 20 minutes to explain the concept of cereal.

The things that make me smile:
-The little obasan (grandmother) dressed in a kimono and geta (wooden sandals) riding down a busy Kyoto street on a motor bike, complete with helmet and sunglasses.
-The post office is also a bank.
-When walking down Kawaramachi Street during rush hour, you begin to blur together all of the shop fronts selling clothes, fast food, kusuri (medicine), and ketai (cell phones), until out of the corner of your eye you catch a patch of darkness and realize that the flat surface to your left is not a glass door nor a sign, but a simple wooden Shinto shrine set between Nice Claup and Mos Burger.
-The ever present "Irrashaimase!" ringing out from every store clerk in sight whenever a customer enters their store.

As an avid ultimate frisbee player, one of my major goals in coming to Japan was to find a frisbee team to play with. On Saturday I found one. I am now an honorary member of the Kyoto University and Doshisha University Ultimate Frisbee teams. They do things a little differently here and they have different words for different areas, but at the same time they use lots of english expressions. They stall count in English and many of the basic terms are English-ish. Backhand=Bakku; Forehand=side-uppu.
The major difference is their dedication. It was Saturday, right? Practice started at noon and did not end until sunset. Sunset is around 6ish. That is a long practice. My muscles are very sore.

May I suggest not getting sick in Japan. I have a bad headcold, and I wanted it to go away, so I went to a doctor. Here is the conversation:
Dr: Why are you here?
Me: My throat hurts a lot, my sinuses are stuffed up, and my head hurts.
Dr: You have a temperature too.
Me: Okay.
Dr: Let me look down your throat. (proceeds to do so)
Dr: Okay, you have a cold. Let me give you some medicine.
End of visit.
My host mother says that Japanese doctors never run tests. They don't need to know exactly what's wrong with you, just generally. I said, but what if you can't see what is wrong. She says, that's the way Japanese people do it. Okay.
But the medicine is working, so Japanese doctors must be really good guessers.

It has recently come to my attention that I have been in Japan for one week. It seems like longer. I have settled into my family, I have ceased becoming lost when going to and from school, and I have fallen in love with the food. And it only took one week.

Last night I was showing my host family pictures of friends and family from home. In one picture you could see a bit of our backyard through the window. My host mother says, “Oh, you have a little garden!” It took me about 15 minutes to explain to her that we had an acre of grass surrounding our house. It is a concept quite foreign to a city-dwelling Japanese person. There is barely enough room for roads here, let alone grass. I think that the street I live on is about 4 inches wider than the car we drive. And it is not a one way street.

Ah! Jishin!! I have just experienced my first earthquake. My host mother did not notice it at all. I was just sitting on the floor typing, and the ground moved back and forth about four times. For a second I wondered if someone had just shut the door really hard, and made that part of the house shake. But that is impossible, because the doors all slide, they don't shut. The television just said that there was a small quake farther north, and we just got the tail end of it. How very nice.

A short introduction to the Kishida family:
Otosan (father): a commuting postmaster who loves to golf
Okasan (mother): an enthusiastic housewife who cooks amazing food; her favorite English phrase-"Please eat a lot."
Shinnosuke (border collie): I am convinced that he knows more Japanese than I do.

My host family is exceedingly nice. I am their fifth student, and they have definitely figured out how to be the greatest host family. My room is the second story of the house, and it is quite large. The house is a mixture of Japanese and Western styles: tatami floors, kitchen table, sliding doors, air conditioning. I live in Nagaokyo, which is an area of south-east Kyoto. My commute (walk, then train, then bus) takes about an hour.

Back to the food. I was going to complain about the lack of variety in Japanese food, but that was before I moved into a home. I have now had sukiyaki ("Japanese cassarole" but not really), soba (buckwheat noodles), ika (boiled squid), all sorts of vegetables, and lots and lots of tea. I think that I will not mind the diet here at all.