Orbs in Photos on Obon

These photos are in order as we walked to the obon festival in Nara. Obon week is a week in August when your dead ancestors return. This ceremony in Nara was the closing festival to send the ancestors back. I have more pictures from the actual festivities later, but this is the walk down there as it was getting dark. All the lanterns were lit and it was very beautiful, yet creepy. The forest in the dark reminded me of the creepy tree level on Mortal Kombat 2, the living forest, or whatever it was they called it.


Here you can see some lanterns up close. They had just covered the openings in the old stone lanterns with paper. They were very beautiful though.


Ok, here is the orbs I'm talking about that show up in photos sometimes. Some people say it's dust, some people say it's spirits. Markian of course thinks they're dust or itty bitty gnats or something cause he is the biggest skeptic in the world. I don't know what I think, but it was a clear night, and it's a little freaky that it was obon and all these were turning up in my pictures. I have more, but I posted the ones with the most in them. I don't know what they are, but they look kinda cool. It reminds me of all the fairies in zelda in the forest level on Zelda 64. So, yeah, living here sometimes kinda reminds me of a video game, but all of life reminds me of video games or cartoons somehow...haha
Below, here is a large modern lantern up close.

Dragon

This fountain was just too sweet. I couldn't stop taking pictures of it! This was in Kyoto at at Honganji temple. The largest wooden structure is the main hall here, though it was under construction and you couldn't go on. This fountain is one where you cleanse yourself with spring water before entering the temple. This has to be my favorite of all the little fountains. The dragon looked so cool, no matter what angle you look at him from!




Above and below you will see another nice dragon fountain. This one was in Nara. While must smaller it serves the same function. Here you can see the ladles that you get the spring water with.

A lizard and an itchy deer

Isn't he cute? I saw him next to this temple in Nara in August. Actually, I didn't see him/her until Markian pointed it out to me. He's got a really good eye for seeing little critters like lizards and frogs. When he showed me I thought it was a sticker. It just didn't look right. So I said, "Cool sticker" and tried to touch it. Then it moved and I freaked. haha He was a cute lizard although I have no idea what type of lizard it is. It made me happy to see a cute little lizard whatever it is.
Then there was this huge deer that wouldn't stop scratching itself on this tree. It must have been seriously itchy. I tried to get the deers attention and he didn't care. He just wanted to keep scratching. Maybe he had fleas. It reminded me of that scene in Disney's "The Jungle Book" where Baloo scratches himself on a tree and shows Mogolee (or whatever that kid's name was) how to scratch on a tree while them sing some lame song or something.
The rest are more pictures from Kofukuji. Here is the main temple hall that all the deer were in front of.

Deer Unko

These pictures were taken in August in Nara at Kofukuji temple, the one in my previous post with the very tall pagoda. There are sacred deer that live in Nara (like the kind I posted months ago at Miyajima) that room all over the city. The park is full of them, and therefore the temples in the park are as well. They're quiet friendly, a little too friendly sometimes, when they think you might be carrying something edible.

Last year when I visited Nara the deer didn't have any horns. That was in March 2006, so now in August 2007, a different season, the deer have these huge horns. I was actually quite afraid of them at first. I saw signs with someone trying to pet ones with horns and the outcome didn't look so pretty. These deer seemed pretty well situated here, and it was too hot to move at this time, so I deemed it safe to have my picture taken.


In a previous post months ago, I brought you the monkey turd(or in Japanese we say, "unko") story. So, now everytime we see an animal turd, we just laugh. So, Markian wanted me to take a picture of the unko to add it to our collection.


This deer was extremely friendly, and no he didn't make the poo! Another deer did it, but the stupid poo was in my short which Markian thought was funny. There are plenty of deer turns lying about when there are thousands of them running about in the town. It doesn't matter how fast people are trying to clean it up. Brown turds sure show up on white gravel.

So this deer was super friendly. Below you can see Markian petting his antlers. He let me pet them too, and they were really fuzzy and soft like velvet. He was such a nice big deer!

Tall Pagoda, Kofukuji

In our August trip to the Kansai region, we visited Nara for the second time. This was one of the places we went on our first trip to Japan. Nara was the ancient capital before Kyoto. It was still blazing hot here, but not quite as bad as Kyoto. I don't think anything can be as bad as Kyoto. Last time all I got to see in Nara was the Big Budda and some deer because we were short on time. This time we went to Kofukuji which has a five tiered pagoda, one of the tallest in Japan. The sheer size of this monument is was makes it so impressive. However, this really can't be seen in the photos. This thing is freaking huge! I recommend that you go see it yourself to get the full effect. However, if this isn't possible, just take my word for it. :-)

I'm goin' off the rails on a Ninja Train

This is by far the coolest train I've ever seen. In the ninja town, Iga Ueno, trains were decorated with ninja stuff. The pink ninja train was the best! I wish I could ride on a pink ninja train everyday. That would just make everything better. I mean come on, it's a ninja, and it's pink. It doesn't get any better than that!

In more recent news. I have been taking my medication and though I in no way feel that great, I feel better than I did, so the meds must be working. I still am hacking my head off, which is really embarrassing in public, but there isn't much I can do about that. Nights are much worse than days too.

I'm crabby

Yeah, that's lame and cheesy, I know. The picture above is of an other crab I saw in the peace park at night. However, I'm feeling crabby cause I'm sick of being sick. I have awesome students though, I have to say that. Last night one of my students drove me to the pharmacy and got me some medicine. It was very kind of her. However, the medicine didn't do so much, though the cough drops seemed to lessen the coughing a little. I think Japanese OTC drugs are much weaker than American ones. That's what I'd heard from a lot of my colleagues, and now I think that might be true.

Then today another really awesome student did me the hugest favor, and she volunteered, I never would have asked this of her. She lives an hour away and drove into town and took me to the ear, nose, and throat doctor who deals with allergies and played translator this morning. I am so grateful that I have awesome people like these that are there when I need them. I couldn't have gone to the doctor without her. The paperwork alone was unreal, which I couldn't read except for the kanji for "name" and "address" and "date". The doctor spoke a little English, but my student is a higher level, so I really needed her there to describe my symptoms. I called into work today because my body is just shot after working a busy schedule all week when I felt like absolute turd. Last night was the worst though. I couldn't breathe right, so I didn't sleep at all. So today I feel like ass, naturally. I just took my medicine, and now I'm waiting for something to kick in so I can feel decent enough to get some sleep.

So the doctor was really nice and I got metal shoved up my nose and got to try some breathing machine thing. It was kinda cool. No needles so I was extremely happy. Apparently I have really bad hay fever most likely, but they are unsure as to what the allergen is. It's obviously something they have in Japan we don't have in the US because I've never had extreme allergy problems like this.

Thank goodness for generous, kind people. I have been showed so much kindness here. I think about the way a foreigner gets treated in American (at least in the south where I grew up), and it makes me sick. People go out of their way to try to help me here because of the language barrier and cultural differences. In America, in the south, people in general don't talk to the foreigner. I hear them saying bad things about them like, "Why don't those damn &**$# learn to speak English!" or "Dirty foreigners!" No joke... I want to punch someone when I hear that, even before I came here and experienced being the foreigner I felt that way. Now that the tables are turned, I feel it even more strongly. I hope to show a foreigner in the states the same type of kindness I have been shown here. I wish more people would do the same. I want so desperately to learn the language here, and I'm making progress, although it may be slow progress. People want to learn the language of the country they're in for nothing other than it would make it a hell of a lot easier to get around and do daily activities. However, it's easier said than done, and we should be nice to people that want to learn about our culture, and we can learn about them at the same time. I have learned so much from my Japanese students and friends here, and they ask me questions about America and they learn something as well. It's a wonderful thing. I wish people would be more open minded. That's why there is no way in hell I can move back to the south if I can help it when I get back in the good old US of A. Just because something is different than the way you're used to doing it doesn't make it wrong, or make you any more right! America is a great country, but it's not the "know all, end all". I understand you might have pride for your country, but thinking every other person from another country is a "dumb foreigner" or whatever is screwed up. It's that whole, "America, F&$# Yeah!" attitude that I can't stand. Have you seen that movie? Team America, World Police? Holy crap, that song is the best part! haha I know people that listen to that song and think it's serious and it makes me laugh. Ok, I'm going to get off my soapbox now.... I've probably pissed some people off, but I'm crabby and really care, cause honestly, that's how I feel.

It's back...and I'm NOT pleased

....the horrible sickness I had in the spring. Something is blooming, probably those stupid cedars again and I'm going insane. I must have only gotten a little over an hour of sleep las night, and that wasn't straight sleep. The pressure in my ears in unbearable. My eyes are running and my nose is running and stopped up at the same time. Ugh.....My head is killing me. I'm all nauseous and dizzy. It's making work this week hell. I feel like I got the flu or something. I really thought I wouldn't have to deal with this again till next spring. Why can't they get some freakin Claratin D over here? I gotta have something! I'm at the point that I'd just give assloads of money to go to the doctor, but I can't even do that, because I work when the dang doctor's office is open!!!! ARGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!!!!!!!!

As you can tell I'm seriously frustrated. So one can only hope this doesn't go on too much longer, although this has been going on since Saturday night.... Last time it lasted for weeks and weeks ....ugh....


Oh and yeah the pictures are of a shrine next to the ninja museum in Iga Ueno. I'm going to go take a nap while my rice is cooking, if I can....I doubt I will actually sleep.

Concert Tickets

So, I got up really early Saturday morning and went down to the Deo Deo (huge electronic store) to wait in line for concert tickets. You can't buy tickets online like you do at home. You either wait in line at a place that has a set number of the seats for sale (twenty or so), or you call a phone number that's almost impossible to get through. A machine answers the phone and you have to push all these buttons while it asks you questions (this is all in Japanese of course). I decided to go wait thinking it would be simpler as they will show me a seat map and I just could point and say "koko" (here).

I arrive at 7 something in the morning. The tickets don't go on sale until 10:00 AM. I thought people would be camping out from what I'd heard, but no one was there. I waited for about fifteen minutes and an employee walked out of the store (which didn't open till ten either) and I decided to ask in my bad Japanese if I was in the right place because I didn't want to stand here for three hours and then later learn I should have been waiting somewhere else! So I asked, and after a couple attempts, he understood and pointed me above ground at a different entrance.

I walked up there and there was NO ONE there either! So I figured, this can't be right! Well about fifteen minutes pass and a couple people start lining up behind me, so I figure I'm at least in line for something! Finally 9:30 arrives and the guy who I originally talked to comes up with a box with little pieces of paper in it and gestures for me to draw. I do so, and draw a piece of paper, though I'm a little confused as to what is going on at first. Then, it hit me, holy crap, I got up early and now at 9:30 everyone that's there draws a number and forms a new line! What in the heck? You think whoever got there first would be the first in line. Why even get there early then? Yeah, I got to draw a number first, but so what?! I still don't understand why it went down like that.

Anyway, so I go back underground to wait in my new line. I was lucky and drew a four. Only one girl was in front of me. I later figured out she was buying tickets for a different show, so it happened that I was first in line for my show! Yeah!

Then I get inside FINALLY and they show me a seating chart. Well, the best seats they've got are what appears to be (I could be wrong because of my illiteracy) were 15th row! Of course I took them, but at home if you wait in line like that you get killer seats! The whole system was so not what I was expecting. Oh well, I am pumped that I got my tickets, even though they are 15th row.

Oh, and by now, if you've bothering to read this far, I'm sure you're wondering, well who the heck are you going to see? The picture above is of the artist I am going to see. She is a pianist/ popstar. I love her music and I have been singing it weekly at karaoke. She sings mostly in Japanese. Occasionally a few English words are thrown in, which is common in music here. I bought her piano book, but of course I don't have a piano over here to play, so it's just sitting here in front of me on the tatami mat taunting me with it's awesome musical arrangements.... *sigh* One of the things I do miss....

Anyway, the waiting system for tickets was insane, but I am happy to have my tickets and very excited about the show in December! I have missed going to concerts!

So, enjoy the ninja world as if you yourself were a ninja.

Here are some highlights from the ninja museum in Iga Ueno. This sign above was funny to me. That's where the title of this post comes from. Below you see special shoes ninjas could use to walk on water like Jesus.
Below: A double edged saw that looks pretty sharp.

Above: The world famous batman grappling hook.

Below: Tabi, shoes that helped the ninja silently sneak into a house.

Check it out. I found a ninja! He decided to take a break from killing people and pose for a picture with me.

Ninja weapons. Pretty freaking sweet. These are to make my brother jealous and pissy that he didn't come see me in August as we'd planned. haha

A real ninja outfit. Dark blue farmer's wear as I talked about in my last post. So, those are some highlights of the ninja museum. I have a cool video of ninja weapon demonstation, but youtube is being lame and my videos are not loading for some reason. I don't know what the problem is! :-(