Mornin'

Today's Monday and I wish I had more to show for the weekend, but I'm sure it's more than enough to write about. Sit tight, because here's Saturday. Oh, what happened to Friday? The excitement with Kim and Maria? Yeah we were all beat from the weekend so I went over to the seminar house until like 9:30 where I fixed (or tried to fix) Drew and Erica's computers and found out when giving Drew some Pirates of Penzance that A LOT of people have anime stocked up on their computers. So I'm sitting on the complete series of Emma at the moment and will probably finish Samurai Champloo and Midori no Hibi if Drew helps a sister out. Regardless, Saturday started early because it was an architecture field trip to Nara and we were meeting in Tammabashi (near Kyoto) at 8ish. Once we got going I had to figure out what to do with myself, I didn't know anyone in the class, so I tried to be social and eventually hung out with a set of twins and a few other folks who I forget their names (nice). The twins were cool, I'd met Rachel before, but not Danielle and trying to tell them apart was a problem because they had the same glasses and the same t-shirt on (they didn't realize this until later, but thankfully one was a different color only the same design).

Our professor was definately an architecture professor he loved the buildings WAY too much, he brought heavy camera equipment and didn't care that we were all dying from the sun and couldn't keep up with him. I don' know if Mr. Prugh is as energetic as this guy, but they diffenatly have the same passion for buildings. I was funny to watch. It was also funny to watch the deer and how they'd just wander through our little circle while the professor was giving lectures, it was so crazy to have happen. Who gets to pet a deer in class? Did that just break the awesome scale?

Anyway, I edited out a bunch of the pictures I took of the buildings for my paper, just because they're mind numbing enough for me and no one (except Mr. P) would be interested in the details of gates or of the way the windows sit in the temple. There are still about 100 pictures I uploaded to flickr. I don't know if you can actually hear flickr cry or not, but I'm pretty sure it is. It hates big uploads. Hrm. The city of Nara was one of the first capitals of Japan and was modeled after the cities of the Tang Dynasty in China. The entire city was laid out on a grid with the palace at the north and the poorer people going in order down until the southern side. There were supposed to be two huge temples guarding (spiritually) the west and east sides. The eastern temple was built first and called 東大寺 (Todaiji) or Eastern Big Temple. It was there that they put together a huge temple complex in the 700's AD that had two gates (with walls) leading up to a HUGE wooden structure with 100 meter tall pagodas on either side. The main attraction of all of this was what was inside the huge wooden building, a huge bronze image of Buddah. They did this because the Empreor (or the Prince, I can't remember) started to follow a sect of Buddism that believes that building images of Buddah are good works, not only that but once they are completed the Buddah itself comes alive.

The idea here was the bigger the better so they built one out of bronze, which meant building an original model out of clay, then casting it piece by piece from the bottom in bronze, then putting a layer of dirt over the part you just cast, moving the forges up a level and then casting this level, until you reached the very top when you could then start to unbury the statue and try to fix the parts that didn't cast correctly. When they were first doing this in China they would mess up and have to start ALL OVER again. Luckily Japan brought over some Chinese techinicans and they supposedly got it right the first time. What's funny is that once the image is done, you then build the building around it. Now, since 700 AD a lot has happened, typhoons, wars, fires, etc. so the image we see today is a hodge podge, the bottom is original, the mid-section is from the Kamakura Period (1192 - 1333), and the top is from the reconstruction in the 1700's. The building is mostly from the 1700's I think and the same goes for one of the gates, while the first is from the 1200's. Regardless, old and very very cool even if you're not a history nerd. This Buddah is HUGE, even the pictures can't put it into scale:



After the Todaiji, we didn't continue to the 西大寺 (Western Big Temple), because it was way too far away and actually quite small due to the fact that they ran out of money with the Eastern Temple. Opps. The being to far away part is true too, since the original city was abandoned for Kyoto in 1100 or so it wasn't so much a city anymore. The "city" part today is mostly just the western section with the temple, which is something I never realized until the trip. On the train we passed some weird looking "temple" structures the middle of a field and our professor was telling us that thanks to archeologists (:3) they know where the palace used to be and are now reconstructing it. It looks like the middle of no where, which gives a great impression as to how the landscapes changed in 1300 plus years. Okay, history nerd will shut up now. Where we did go next was to stop and have some lunch, which was bento (boxed lunch) we'd picked up at a store near the station. Mine cost me about $6.00 all together and included: some mochi on a stick (rice paste that's sweet and come in Pink, White and Green), a bento of rice, a little samon, potato salad, breaded chicken patty (Katsu) and some veggies, then I got some muffins and a tea, but I didn't eat the muffins at that point. Everything was great, I couldn't actually finish the bento box or all the mochi so I shared with my new people I was with.

The trip countinued up the mountain near Todaiji and we went to the Sangatsudo and the Nigatsudo the third month building and the second month building respectively. The Sangatsudo is actually from the 700s and was attached to another building in the 1200's for more space. Inside it has a bunch of images of Buddah, guardians of the four directions, Kanton, etc. It's amazing how preserved the building and the objects are. It was really low light and we weren't allowed to take pictures (hence why I have none), but it was really neat to see. We ended at the Nigatsudo which is up on a hill and has a "rare Buddah" inside of it. Our Professor's thoughts on why it's a "rare" or "mystery" Buddha is that it looks like it was in a fire and probably was and then brought to this building. They also have a ritual once a year where they wash the buddah with water from a nearby spring and then have the LONG torches they set on fire over the mountainside and do something with the ashes. It sounds wicked awesome. Well once we broke up I didn't quite know what to do with myself so I wandered around Nigatsudo and bumped into a girl from my class named Genevieve who was also alone and just wandering around. So we teamed up and did a little more site seeing around Todaiji and did a LOT of deer feeding as well as some shopping. We chatted a lot on the train and she was pretty cool. She's an Anthropology major from Novia Scotia and she's doing her thesis on toilets, which is pretty damn cool.

That was Saturday, yesterday (Sunday) I slept in and got up and after cleaning a bit I had ramen for lunch with the family. I went back to cleaning and then while looking at my calendar I had a horrible realization: it was my Okaasan's birthday. And to beat that I'm retarded and didn't get her a thing. So, I did like any normal totally screwed person would do, I bolted out the door with a quick, "I'm going to Hirakata, be back at 6!" and was gone. I texted Minami (host sister) to see what I could get, but she didn't have a clue and said that anything I got would be fine. I decided a Minnie Mouse towel with a cute card and some nice hand lotion worked. Now, Minnie Mouse might seem random, but there's a ton of Minnie and Mickey stuff around the house and I'm about 99.99% sure it's Okaasan's since there's a wedding minnie and mickey in the hallway and she and Otoosan are the only two that are married and well, I hope it's not Otoosan's. I got back and even picked up some stuff I needed so it was good cover. I hung out in my room writing out the card until Soji got me for dinner.

When I went downstairs with my present I noticed two things, 1) No one else had presents 2) Riho was there. Riho's the girlfriend of their last homestay student and she's really good buddies with Minami so she comes over a lot to see the family and she helps me out because her English is awesome. As for the no one else had presents thing, I just set mine down and waited until I could ask Riho what I should do. Riho's advice was simple, just give it to her whenever, but let her know (Riho that is) when I do. I did in about five minutes after I talked to her and then I realized why Riho wanted to know when, she wanted to be there because my Okaasan cries when you give her presents. Here she teared up and was very very happy at what I got her and said that I didn't have to do anything. She also remarked that she felt bad that I went out in the rain that day to get them (I guess she figured out why I went to Hirakata). I'm very glad I got her something and I'm glad she liked it so much. I even wrote on the card: "お手伝ってくださってありがとうございました！” Thank you so very much for helping me! I know she read it and smiled so I'm trying to be as nice as I can in real life even though on the blog I'm frusterated.

We got huge amounts of sushi and it was SO very yummy and that night there was another big event! As if my magic I got a new futon! It's fluffy and I love it to little futon pieces! Okaasan talked to me about futons for 5 minutes and all I could do was stare blankly, I couldn't understand what she was getting at. So, she followed me up to my room and repeated it, so I asked some questions and I think it's VERY uncommon to have three mats and that if I don't need one to bring it downstairs. I mentioned that I slept on the comforter and she asked me not to do that since it's bad for the feathers. Noted. I didn't use it last night and it was HEAVENLY. I don't think I need the bottom mat, it makes the floor hard. Seriously the carpet has more give to it than it. So two fluffies and now I can use the comforter for when it gets cold like last night! It was cold last night, but I was too lazy to get up and get the comforter, but hey at least I can now!

I am a happy Panda. I got TWO emails from Pat, a comment from Hali and I chatted a bit with Jon. Soon I'll get a headset! Tomorrow I have lunch with Yoko (from UF) and I'll ask her futon related questions then. Erica, Drew and Nadia just knocked on my window. It's almost 3pm, I need to eat something, I've been here since 11AM. Crap.

P.S. Anyone (Like Elmer, James, etc.) who wants to send me stuff and has any of the following I will make sweet sweet Japanesey presenty love to you: LOST (season 1), Bleach, Eureka 7 and anything else you have. Hali and Cavin and hooking me up with One Piece so they're off the hook on getting me stuff. *hugs!! to them and Nata!*