Japan, Buddhism, culture, food, people, etc. Oh my!

[lonesoullost3]

Hey all! I've been in Japan for about a week and half now. At first I was hanging out with my best friend in Tokyo but now I'm in Takuno (location explained later). I'm here for a few weeks studying buddhism with a Jodoshin priest. He's also showing me different aspects of traditional Japanese culture. I finally got internet access so I thought I'd post a mini-update, just an email I wrote to my friends explaining my recent activities (in a very summary fashion). I'm keeping a journal so that when I return I can look over everything and reflect on my experiences. I'll definitely write a lengthy post when that I come back in August. Whether it's a new topic or not, idk. But look for that in the 2nd or 3rd week of August. Maybe what I write about will even be new for people who currently live in Japan. We'll see . So read on if you're interested - I've done so much more than I've talked about, but I just don't have the time to type it all! hahaha. Take care everyone!
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I came to Takuno, about 1hr south of Izumo in Shimane Prefecture on the
morning of the 6th. I arrived around 7:30am. Yamagami (the priest I'm
living with) and I found each other and went to Izumo Taisya - a big
Shinto Shrine - while we waited for Gen (my friend who introduced me to
Yamagami) to arrive at the train station a few hours later. Gen stayed
until Saturday evening in which time he was really really helpful in
helping initial communications and understanding between me and the family
get started. While he was here I mostly spoke in English because he could
translate quickly and they spoke mostly in Japanese for the same reason.
We went to an aquarium, one of Yamagami's temples to clean (he has 6),
some silver mines, Shinto shrines, and actually, all the way to
Hiroshima...haha. Gen lives one hour from Hiroshima and he was going to
take the bus down to the JR Hiroshima Station, but we missed it because we
had the wrong time. So we ended up driving all the way down to
Hiroshima...that's COMPLETELY across Japan N to S. Takuno is ON the Sea
of Japan...I'm a 1 min walk from the beach - well beaches. Last night
with Izumi, Yamagami's daughter who's one year older than me, we went to
one of the beaches and I saw the MOST beautiful sunset I've ever
seen....I'll send you pictures when I get back (can't upload now).
Brilliant purple, yellow, red and orange setting on the ocean with some
rocks and the reflection on the ocean.....oooooooooooohhh. Takuno is
super small, 500 people...maybe. I absolutely LOVE it here. The
mountains go right down into the ocean (more or less), so in the evening
and early morning the fog creeps down/up the mountains and the sun sets
over the ocean (and rises behind the mountains). So picturesque.

Anyways, I was saying we missed the bus. So Gen had work the next day so
he had to get home, so we ended up driving straight across Japan, haha.
So now I've driven N to S, now I have to do W to E . On our way back
from Hiroshima (and this was a little after 9pm), the typhoon landed and
there was TONS of rain the whole way back. It was crazy, but fun to see
the mountains with the fog and the rain and the occasional lightning. I
didn't think I could, but I'm speaking almost entirely in Japanese here.
THere are times when I have to ask how to say a word in Japanese, but then
I can complete my sentence. Sometimes if I really can't say it in
Japanese I'll try to say it in English and see if Yamagami or Izumi can
understand, otherwise it's to the drawing board, haha. Izumi and I stayed
up all night once talking about music and animals and the sea once. It
was mostly in Japanese. I would speak to her in Japanese and she would
try and practice her English by responding in English. But I'd say that
80% of the time, at least, I'm speaking and listening/understanding
Japanese. Ryo-san, Yamagami's wife, doesn't speak any English, well a
little, but she said it had been many many years since she had spoken it
so when we talk it's a lot more charades. But nevertheless I think that
95% of the time we understand completely what the other person is saying.

In the early evenings, when Izumi gets off her part time work, we usually
go walking somewhere to see more of the region and to catch the sunsets.
Yesterday, walking back from the sunset we heard some music and Izumi said
it was Kagura, a traditional children's dance about a hero who slays a
couple of dragons. We went over and watched them practice it for a
little. The costumes were really cool!!! Yesterday I also helped
Yamagami prepare a ceremony for the anniversary of a woman's death. Her
family had come from Tokyo for the ceremony. I helped prepare the tea and
the seating area with the futons..though they're not futons, the small
square seat things (I can't remember their name). Oh that reminds me,
while Gen was here we participated in a tea ceremony in Izumo. It was
very interesting and Yamagami was able to explain a lot. His wife used to
teach people how to conduct and participate in the ceremony so she taught
Izumi and I last night the proper way of making the tea and the placement
of the bowls, tea, and manjyou. It's quite strict on how you do things,
this most be held like this, turned like this in this direction, face it
this way, stir like this, very regimented, but at the same time really
interesting and it was a great way to learn more about the culture. So
now I've both participated in and learned how to do it (the the exact
details I can't remember, but more or less I could probably pull it off in
front of an untrained eye).

I had my first small lecture today from Yamgami about buddhism, just a
brief story on how buddhists view life and its purpose. For such a grand
concept it was extremely short, but very mind-opening. I already held
similar thoughts to the teachings, which I found interesting.

Hm, other cool random things: I saw a monkey!!! Saw people cleaning out
the meat of sea urchins on the fishing docks. Saw some pretty cool big
hawks (actually, I see the everyday come to think of it). Saw a big bee
that's has a lethal sting. Swam in the Sea of Japan . Had Stone Fish
for dinner (tastes like eel actually) and Aaji(really bony, a little
difficult to eat, and I don't know the English name). Hm yeah.

Tokyo was a HUGE blast. I had so much fun hanging out with Francis. We
never came back before 12am, haha. He said I was becoming Japanese
because I was able to fall asleep on the trains and wake up right when we
arrived at the station we were getting off at. Some some crazy people at
Harajuku, ate some really good Yakiniku (Korean BBQ), great ramen, soba,
and sushi. Saw stuff at Asakusa, Shinagawa (really nice!), played frisbee
in Shinjuku park, got night pics of Tokyo from Tokyo Tower...so much.
I've taken probably 1000 pics already.... Thankfully Francis has all of
the ones I took while in Tokyo so I saved some space that way, haha. He's
sending them to me later.

Anyways, that's the haphazard update.