Harvesting Rice and the Egawa Family Manor

Hello hello! I know, I'm so behind on posting about events that happen here in Japan. I've just been kept so busy that I don't have time to post! D: To give you an idea of the business I have been preoccupied with, please take a look at my Japanese practice!

To the right is the (incomplete) list of words I had to study for my Japanese II class...which is the drama class. Every class we have a quiz on the new words that popped up in the episode we watched the previous week. It's quite a hassle. And to the left is the kanji (character) practice I have been doing. x_x;

Put that on top of socialization and we have lots of business. xD; (I'm not really making my point, am I?) But here I am.....about to post about my experience last Saturday, when we went to Nirayama, a farming town about 15 minutes by train from Mishima, to help harvest rice and sweet potatoes. I can't say it was fun, but it wasn't awful. I certainly wouldn't want to do it ever day of my life though, hah.

So basically this is the process by which rice gets harvested:

First you harvest the rice....the old fashioned way (with a scythe and your hands). Later they brought out a harvesting machine. But this is what we did. Then you put the stalks into piles of four, criss-crossed.

Then you take the piles and tie them up, either with string or straw, and then put them in piles. We learned how to do it was straw...it's actually kind of hard. The aforementioned harvesting machine also tied the stalks for us. Very handy.

Then you hang them up on large bamboo poles, grain side down, like such so that they can dry out and the rice grains can easily be removed.

Then you cover them, I guess so they don't get too burnt out by the sun. Or maybe as protection from bugs. I'm not too sure. lol. And you tie the cover down with ropes or strings so they don't fly away.

And then you sprinkle flower seeds in the soil! To keep it fresh for next season. =D

After that, we got to join all the small children and their parents who helped to harvest the rice (and the sweet potatoes but I have no pics of that--basically it's just digging in the dirt until you find one) to a delicious home-made vegetable soup and some roasted eggplant.

We were also allowed to take some sweet potatoes and eggplants and even goya (the green vegetable in the back) home with us as thanks for coming. It was nice. The sweet potato was really yummy, but unfortunately, my eggplant went bad before I could eat it. :( I did not take a goya because I hate goya. xD;

After that, even though most of us were pretty tired from harvesting rice, we decided to head off to a famous historical manor in the town, which was owned by the Egawa family, which has existed since the 12th century. The manor itself was built at the end of the 12th century, so it's quite old and treasured as a historical landmark in Japan.

(Left) The gate of the house.












The front of the house. It's designed crooked from the gate so that intruders would have the illusion that they were shooting arrows from the gate into the house, when instead they were shooting towards to the side.

Right: Ancient well from which quality water was taken to make quality sake, some of the best in Japan.













Monument Honoring the 36th Patriarch, who not only brought various war technologies to Japan, but also was the first make bread in Japan as well.

Below: Old bullet holes. I'm not sure what battles they're from, but I thought they were cool to still have bullets in them from more than 150 years ago.















A tree growing in the courtyard that happens to be three in one: oak, maple, and cherry blossom. Supposedly the three trees grew from birds dropping seeds in it's crevices, and they sprouted there.

Below: A rice storage facility.

The ancient urn used to bake the first Japanese bread.

THE CANNON that Commodore Perry brought to Japan with him in the 19th century when he came knocking on Japan's door. Well, the center in refurbished, but the wheels are original. Apparently he was so relieved when Japan agreed to open up to the West that he just left it there with them.

This was a tree used as the center pillar of the building. Instead of cutting it down and using it's trunk as a pillar, the house was built around the tree, which continued living on for a long time as the central pillar of the house. Since it lived on, it's now revered as a Shinto god.

The roof of the house is very high; it's built so high, in fact, that it can accommodate three stories. This was an unusual design for Japanese places at the time. Additionally, it's built without using any nails, because they were considered damaging to the wood. Therefore, the building is very flexible and can move with the wind and the environment.


Tatami study room where many famous politicians of earlier times studied war tactics and other such things.










Inner garden, viewable only from the inside of the house.












Finally we went to the spot where Yoritomo Minamoto defeated the Taira clan, ending the Heian period and beginning the Kamakura period and the era of Shogunates and Samurai. It's quite a monumental place, especially considering that the Japanese history class I took last semester was centered around this even in history. Very cool. We all took a picture around the statues of Yoritomo and his wife for the memories. :)




So yeah! Good times. I'm going to be now....got a nine o'clock class tomorrow morning. Toodles!

Fun, food, and friends in Japan

So here it's been about three weeks...wait, almost a month? I can't believe it's been that long already. Rather surprising. xD; Well anyway, my point was, it's been a month, so I've made quite a few friends already. :D The other exchange students and I have been out to dinner, to izakaya (a Japanese-style bar), and to karaoke with Japanese, Chinese, and Korean friends we have met in these past few weeks.

I promised some photos of random fun-age last week and never got a chance to upload them, so here they are:

Izakaya Part 1



Karaoke Part 1



Sorry for the crummy pictures. xD; There was too much fun for photo taking, haha.

Izakaya Part 2



Karaoke Part 2

Heh. As you can see, we have a fair amount of fun. xD; Especially when there are a lot of us, haha!

Also, I've got one more shot to add to this post, and it's this one:

This is us international students with the teaching assistants and Tanaka-sensei from the Thursday Japanese VII-2 class. They're all super nice and really fun. :D

So that's it for this post. Today I went to a farm and harvested rice and sweet potatoes, but that's a story for another post. xD

Schedule!

I have a final schedule now! Yay~

So here's how it goes. Classes in parenthesis are classes I'll be going to when I feel like it, because they are Japanese language classes that I won't be taking for credit since they're too hard for me to pass, but that will be useful for me to attend. I may end up scrapping them after all, but who knows; for now they're on my schedule.

Monday:
9:00-10:30 - Japanese III (Reading children's books)
(10:40-12:10 - Japanese VII (Making Speeches))
4:20-7:30 - Japanese II (Watching dramas)
Tuesday:
(9:30-10:30 - Japanese Communication II (Checking the logic of the news...in Japanese))
2:40-4:10 - Japanese Studies IV (Understanding Japanese Society)
Wednesday:
10:40-12:10 - Japanese VII-2 (Learn at your own level with a TA)
1:00-2:30 - International Relations II (International Criminal System and Prosecution of International Crimes)
2:40-4:10 - Gender & Society
Thursday:
(9:30-10:30 - Japanese Communication II (Checking the logic of the news...in Japanese))
10:40-12:10 - Japanese VII-2 (Learn at your own level with a TA)
Friday:
9:00-10:30 - Japanese III (Reading children's books)
1:00-2:30 - Business Practices in Asia (Korean Economic Development)
2:40-4:10 - Japanese Studies IV (Understanding Japanese Society)
Saturday:
(9:00-12:10 - Japanese IV (Grammar and Spelling in Japanese))

So yeah.....I guess I'll give a basic rundown of the classes.

Japanese III
I am actually taking this class for credit because I'm sure to pass it. It's at my level! Not too hard, like alllllll the other Japanese classes. lol. What happens is you go to the library and get children's books that are at your level. For example, if you can't read Kanji, you get a book with less kanji. If you don't have a lot of vocabulary you can pick books with smaller paragraphs. The aim is to start low, so you can read without using a dictionary, and then slowly work your way up. It's kind of tough because you have to read 100 books by the end of the semester, but they're short books, so it's okay. You keep a log of it, and twice during the semester your write a report, and 3 times you present. Not too hard, and good practice.

Japanese VII
I honestly don't remember much about this class because I've only been to it once (last Monday was a school holiday), but basically we'll do speeches. It seems really hard. It'd be good practice, but I probably can't do a speech at the level she wants us to do it, so I might just sit in and listen. It's especially not good because we actually have another class at the same time as the second class of the week, so I probably will end up dropping it.

Japanese II
So this class is actually rather difficult. They say it's like, second from the top of the hardest classes. Basically, it's all listening comprehension, but with colloquial Japanese. He gives us a LONG list of vocab words from the drama that we're watching, which we have to understand the meaning of for the next class for a quiz. He goes over it in class, which is mildly boring (pretty much everyone fell asleep....lol) and then we watch and episode of the drama and have to answer questions as we go. It's not easy, but I think I can do this because this is my specialty. ;)

Japanese Communication II
So I don't quite understand why Tanaka-sensei put me in this class because it's for the highest level students of Japanese, which I am obviously not, however much I might puff myself up. 85% of the stuff he says I don't understand, partly because he talks a million miles a minute, but also partly because I don't have enough vocab. I also can't read the handouts he gives us. xD; But it's all good practice. It's fun being in his class (there are only like 7 or 8 students) and I am learning stuff. Oh also, it's about communication (obv) and how reporters and newspaper articles skew things with improper logic. At least that's what I've got so far. lol.

Japanese Studies IV
This class is actually really interesting. Umemoto-sensei knows a lot about Japanese society, and each class has a different topic. I'm learning a lot of interesting facts from the class. It's also an English class for Japanese students, so there are a few Japanese students in it, and sometimes we break up into groups and have discussions (which are basically just us international students talking and the Japanese students listening. xD;) but it's okay cuz we get to interact with the Japanese students a little. I like it.

Japanese VII-2
So this class divides us international students by language ability and then sets up a TA (a Japanese student who is good at English) to help you out. I'm not a huge fan of this class because I'm not sure if it will teach me much, but it's fun interacting with Japanese students, and sometimes we just sit around and chat (in Japanese) instead of going through our respective textbooks, like we did last class. It was fun. Above all (except for kanji practice), I need lots of speaking practice so that I can acquire more vocabulary. So it's good, mostly.

International Relations II
I thought this class was going to be interesting but unfortunately it's rather boring. xD; The subject matter is interesting, but unfortunately it's another English class for Japanese students, so the teacher talks very slowly and repeats herself very very often. So us English speakers zone out a lot. xD; But it's still okay because, well, the subject is pretty interesting, although it doesn't seem like we will have much in class interaction with students.

Gender and Society
At first I hadn't intended to take this class, but all of the other international students were taking it, so I decided to just go once, and it actually ended up being really fun. The teacher is this really kind of outspoken Indian woman who tries really hard to get the Japanese students to come out and talk. I'm sure she comes off as terrifying to them, but the boys at least seem to have fun with it. She, too, breaks us up into groups so we can talk about gender issues and such, and provokes debates and discussions without breaking up into groups. I really like it since it's great interaction and you can cover a lot of topics.

Business Practices in Asia
I really like the subject of this class because the economic development of Korea is something I wrote a paper on freshman year, although of course I don't remember much of it, lol. It's quite interesting. Unfortunately, it seems like all the Japanese students were scared away by the first class because only one came back to the second, and I'm not sure if he will come back again. xD; But as long as us 3 English speaking students stay in it, then it will be a class, which is important because this is the only class I need to apply to my major. xD; So yeah.

Japanese IV
Uhhhh I haven't been to this class for a while because last Saturday we had no class and today I skipped because I wasn't feeling good. But when we went two weeks ago it was quite difficult and we kind of didn't understand much at all. She said we could come to only half the class if that was easier for us, but I don't know if I want to keep going at all because it's on Saturday (ugh) and because I don't understand anything except for the katakana spelling exercises. xD; Yeah. We'll see.


So yeah. That's the lowdown. You really didn't have to read all that if you didn't feel like it. Lol. Tonight we have plans to go to an izakaya (which is basically a bar, but not western style--you basically go there to drink alcohol and eat bar food, but at a low table on the floor). I'll take pictures, and maybe post them here if no one in the pictures is opposed.

Toodles!

Yamanaka Castle and Mt. Fuji!

Today I visited Yamanaka Castle, a Japanese national castle built in 1560, and is famous for being one of the few castles in Japan built on a mountain slope. It was used as a fort that protected the main Odawara castle in the 16th century, making use of rolling hills and mountain ditches for its fortification. Unfortunately, because the castle was built at the very end of the Muromachi period just before war broke out, there is no castle left, but we were able to see some pretty epic scenery.

Entrance way and Map. As you can see, it's quite large.


Yes, we climbed all of those stairs.





Yamanaka Castle is famous for these square holes in the ground--dry moats that served as barriers to enemy attacks.






Very, very old graves. I'm not sure who they were for, but with the exception of the one on the top right, I'm guessing they're altars for those who built the castle.




Mountain scenery! Across from Yamanaka Castle is a great picnicking area where, on a clear day like today was, you can get lovely views of Mt. Fuji, seen on the bottom.

That's all! Hope you enjoyed the pictures! =]