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en t nearly as expensive most exciting and disconcerting was when the highway went straight through the mountains which was often it took us several minutes to drive through the longest tunnel it took us about an hour and a half to reach our destination nagaokakyo city seemed much larger than higashiomi and it was certainly more busy after navigating many twisting narrow streets we arrived at the house of ojii san and obaa san their house as okaa san had described was more western in style and since this house was in the city considerably smaller than a house in higashiomi obaa san served us a very tasty meal of onigiri and daifuku and we chatted about marquette michigan and travel to the united states as it turns out obaa san and ojii san had traveled to the american southwest after lunch okaa san obaa san steph myself and miyu chan okaa san s neice took a short walk to the nagaokatenman gu shrine one of the first things we saw was a group of children feeding a flock of pigeons nearby in the large pond a group of large koi and even turtles were waiting for handouts the shrine was absolutely gorgeous we climbed a series of steps to get there and it was simply magical here is just a glimpse of the whole experience after exploring the shrine for a while we headed back on the way we saw a few things of note train crossing i ve had to wait for trains to cross in michigan and other states but i ve always been inside a car this was the first time i ve been a pedestrian waiting for the train to go by there was also a massive bicycle parking area outside a grocery store bicycle parking lots are taken quite seriously in japan in hikone we saw a policeman ticketing bikes that were left in non designated parking areas we stopped briefly at the grocery store for sweets then continued home obaa san surprised steph and i with some very pretty gifts then we bid farewell and headed back to higashiomi exhausted both steph and i fell asleep posted by j o brien at 3 18 pm 1 comment labels host family nagaokakyo city nagaokatenman gu shrine tuesday june 15 2010 o toire wa doko des ka this post is all about toilets so if you re not into toilet humor you ve been warned so being an interstitial cystitis patient i experienced quite a few toilets in japan i would say it s about 50 50 mix of japanese and western style toilets i don t have any pictures but i will link to a few by people i don t know this is a japanese toilet the first time i used one on a train fortunately there was a nice steel handle on the wall to stay steady i came out just fine some people seemed weirded out by the squat toilets but i never really had a problem it actually seems a little less gross because you don t have to sit on anything then again the floors aren t always clean around them but that s why you take your shoes off before you go into your home anyway i quickly learned what the two kanji on the flushers meant the one on the left means big and the one on the right means small you get to choose how much water you need depending on how much of a mess you made i also learned that this toto company seems to have the monopoly on all things related to japanese bathroom hardware like toilets sinks and showers western style toilets aren t exactly what we re used to either they have a different shape and a heck of a lot of buttons i played it safe and avoided the butt shower and bidet buttons and opted for the flush button exclusively by the way these toilets almost always have a heated seat i didn t know such a thing existed until we went to japan on both types of toilets when in public there is almost always a button or a sensor you can activate to play a fake flushing noise if you re bladder shy i know many people in the us would kill for that little fake flusher i never purposely employed it in japan but there were many times when it went off accidentally or i mistook it for the flush button each time made me laugh i think the best toilet was probably our host family s they had it remodeled only days before our arrival and our host mother decorated the toilet room so it was adorable the light in the room automatically turned on when you walk in and then the lid on the toilet opens automatically it also flushes automatically if you don t press the button first pictures of it are here at our host mom s blog yopi s room new toilet at home or at school unlike in public you don t leave your shoes on when you go to the toilet you change into special toilet slippers more photos that don t belong to me interestingly toilet paper is not a given in japan you must carry a pack of tissues with you at all times or you might get caught in an unpleasant situation soap is rarely available at sinks either unless you re in a nice department store or grocery store we carried santizing wipes for this reason there aren t paper towels to dry your hands anywhere but there are hand dryers about 50 of the time so we also carried handkerchiefs just in case when we got back to the us it was kind of a relief to find bathrooms stocked with all of those things we re used to however the japanese way of stocking bathrooms may lead to less paper waste but is it sanitary it s interesting to look at the pros and cons of each system a phrase i came to know very well before even leaving for japan is o toire wa doko des ka meaning where is the toilet i used it a lot thankfully there was never a situation where there was no toilet available with my condition it was a very fortunate thing so if you have ic and you re planning a trip to japan fear not toilets are everywhere even on the train posted by stephanie at 2 55 pm 2 comments labels culture ic toilets wednesday june 9 2010 what we brought back though steph and i filled a backpack entirely with our purchases in japan once unwrapping everything and what nice wrapping and packaging it was it s safe to say we didn t buy that much during the three weeks we were away what we did buy were small things items that you can t find in america and certainly not in marquette steph has had some of these items for a while such as the large maneki neko black maneki neko and daruma but the teeny and fat maneki nekos are from our trip to japan the teeny one was purchased at todai ji and the fat one which is a bank full of our leftover yen was bought at nijo jo the two owl pendants are from the nunobiki ceramics studio in higashiomi and the two omamori good luck and dreams come true are from kinkaku ji as steph mentioned in a previous entry the two tanuki figures are from the ohmi merchant village and hikone castle the nihonga painting behind the large maneki neko was made during one of our workshops at jcmu with mayumi kakimi we did get some useful things we found a small bento box that matches the one our friends molly and caroline sent us a few months ago we also bought plenty of chopsticks little cups for bento boxes teeny bottles for soy sauce and of course a totoro bento box i love bugs japan loves bugs it should be no surprise then that i purchased some buggy cuteness the stickers and magnets are from a book cd dvd video game stationery store in higashiomi the store was amazing and full of very cute things and it s a wonder we only escaped with a select few items the glass beetles which are absolutely tiny are from the glass museum in nagahama there were many beautiful things for sale and again by some miracle i left only with these teeny beetles the trip to nara led to the purchase of cute deer it s interesting to note that most of the deer stuffed animals sold in america are fawns or does but almost all the deer toys we saw in japan had antlers i desperately wanted to find one of these while we were in nara but apparently they re only sold at the kasuga shrine which we did not visit oh well there s always next time we definitely bought our fair share of keychains and mascots hikonyan was irresistible and he now jingles along with me wherever i go while in higashiomi steph and i thought we were going to run out of toothpaste so we bought a new tube just in case it s delightfully menthol flavored also amazing is this hand sanitizer whose mascot is a raccoon steph spotted it at lawson s the convenience store across the street from jcmu one of the first nights we were in hikone and we just had to buy it while in nagahama steph and i discovered a shop that sold studio ghibli merchandise it was amazing to say the least and again i m astounded we purchased so little there we left with a tiny magnetic gigi a totoro heating pad and plenty of totoro handkerchiefs napkins across from the nunobiki ceramics studio in higashiomi there is a shinto shrine it is said that the owls that roost there are good luck we encountered some very beautiful fabrics and papers steph bought a couple lovely scarves and looks very nice when she wears them we did bring some books home as well steph bought two children s books as well as a very nice guide to the animals plants and insects of japan the art inside is beautiful also purchased an amazing t shirt and nekopanchi posted by j o brien at 7 10 am 1 comment labels souvenirs monday june 7 2010 differences when jorie and i had our first day out and about in marquette after returning home from japan we had a bit of reverse culture shock in japan we never really felt shocked or homesick at all but upon returning home we definitely felt a little strange the roads seemed very wide everything here seemed way too far apart useless water wasting lawns sprawled everywhere trimmed neatly for no apparent reason other than cultural tradition space in japan is used very wisely and for good reason but one can t help but admire the way the space is used no matter the reason there are no useless lawns but instead every home has a garden whether it s a good size or a tiny one even homes along the streets have many potted plants out front if there is grass or a field wild plants are allowed to grow if there is a large space not being used in town it becomes a vegetable garden or a rice paddy it does make one think about how we do things like this in america we have strange zoning laws that prevent that kind of integration lawns both at businesses and at homes are really quite strange and quite demanding when you think about it they require fuel and time for cutting they require far more water to stay green than native plants and people often cover them with poison to control weeds and insects it s rare to see this phenomena in japan at least where we were transportation cars in japan are small to match the narrow roads it seems to work fine even when our host mother had to fit jorie and i along with our matching suitcases and carry on bags into the car sometimes the old roads are a little too narrow though and people must pull over so the other car can get by bicycles are used a lot more as well as people s own two feet we walked a lot in japan and we noticed a lot of bicycles too in places where it s feasible to walk or bike to their destination that s what they do we decided to walk a little more in marquette and today we did all our errands on foot for a change it was actually quite nice there are also buses and trains everywhere in japan they are seldom late public transit does not go to waste by any means when we came home jorie and i were discussing how useful trains would be in michigan a bullet train in lower michigan sure would be nice buses aren t a common thing in this part of michigan but we re hoping we can utilize them once we move downstate the japanese take good care of their skin on bright sunny days people wear clothing that is light and thin but covers their skin they also tend to carry umbrellas and wear hats our host mother mentioned traveling in america and having an umbrella to block the sun only to feel out of place since no one else was using one it makes sense but we explained that people would stare or laugh at you here if you used an umbrella because it s not common jorie and i wonder if the difference is that people in america always want to get a tan this photo of some ladies shopping for grilled takenoko was taken on an incredibly hot sunny day yet they are covered head to toe i tried wearing my hooded jacket that day and it wasn t as bad as i expected i m glad i did because everything that wasn t covered was horribly sunburned especially my poor nose other random things we noticed on our first day or so back is how simple our own english letters looked we could read the signs and the packaging on items in the store it seemed like magic after weeks of being confronted with complex kanji characters we had no hope of reading we didn t greet people as much when we arrived in the minneapolis airport one of the first things we saw after customs was people being driven around on small vehicles inside the airport instead of walking there aren t vending machines in strange places here and certainly not with the frequency in which we saw them in japan also the only japanese restaurant in town the one on campus was serving rice that didn t quite taste japanese the miso soup had a little too much miso and the inari sushi s aburaage pouch seemed to be fried in a little too much mirin and not enough soy sauce i guess we re connoisseurs now we eagerly await our vegan japanese cook book in the mail posted by stephanie at 7 06 pm no comments labels bullet train cars culture differences food transportation saturday june 5 2010 giant kite festival today was the yokaichi giant kite festival it was a hot and sunny day maybe a little too much so it was neat seeing all the kites but it was also hot and tiring the first thing we saw at the festival was the shinto priest from the shrine we went to as a class he was the one who allowed us to participate in a shinto ceremony he s a very kind man we ve also heard he travels abroad a lot i think he s even been to marquette he was blessing the kite and praying for a good wind we also saw people with their own small kites as well as groups of people under the shade of tents with big kites propped up outside they had many different designs all following the tradition of having two animal figures and a kanji these kites always form a sort of word pun jorie and i managed to find the forest nearby and go inside for awhile it was really lovely and we wanted to stay but we didn t get to explore for long we heard music and followed a path that ended in a small area with people selling goods okaa san was there and flagged us down she and oba sensei were having some takenoko that was grilled with miso we got to try some but there was no time for us to eat our own we had to go back to see the giant kite our classmates helped pull the kite but jorie and i just wanted to watch and take pictures and video it was a little difficult because of the crowds on the first try the kite was off the ground for less than a minute then came back down half an hour later oh that hot sun they tried again and it crashed befor...