STUDENT LIFE IN KYOTO

It’s a bit late, but here’s my catch from Tokyo.

I went with my Finnish comic pal Myla, a night bus back and forth with one night in a hostel in between. Upon arriving on the morning we toured the Imperial Palace Garden and the little museum in there, and the Jump Shop on Tokyo Station. Then we had a look at Shibuya and finally Nakano Broadway. On our way to the hostel we passed Sensouji, too. The night lighting there was quite nice.

There are some post cards of old Japanese paintings and fliers that are from the museum of the imperial family’s collection, and the Sengoku Basara merch is mainly from Nakano. The Basara hanafuda deck was the main find on the trip… Also, Tokyo Ghoul vol 1 redrawn! I couldn’t find this version in Kyoto at all.

I went to see Kalafina with Strings on 12.9. It was a winter/Christmas themed concert, Kalafina’s first in Kyoto, and their last live this year. Kind of special, yay!

I got the tickets thanks to a Taiwanese exchange student who lives in the same dorm, as she’s also a fan and unlike me, can read Japanese websites. X,D

It was AWESOME. ;_; I’m so glad I went. Ofc I couldn’t take photos in the concert hall itself, but trust me when I say it was lovely. They had these snow lantern-like lights and electric candles, and the concert hall has a beautiful pipe organ on the wall. And the ladies’ outfts....so nice! I think I’ll have to try and doodle a picture for reference.

Wakana’s voice is so strong and she goes so high! And she had pretty awesome biceps. XD Keiko has a low-pitched voice that really speaks to me and she is so beautiful.....I think I have a favorite. Her long notes are just. To die for. ;_; Hikaru’s talks were so cute I almost died...she tried speaking in Kyoto dialect, and I ofc can’t really tell if it was correct or not, but the audience was pleased. All in all their talks were super cute and nice and made me feel all warm and fuzzy. :,D

They sung so well!!!?!? I had to keep looking at the stage or I would stop believing it’s a live and think it’s playback. And since it was “acoustic with strings” there were 3 violins, a cello, and a piano. I LOVE CELLO.... I cried a couple times. 8,) They were all so good.......

They did Christmas carols (in English mostly) which was pretty special, and many of my favorite songs... To my disappointment, Snow Falling never came despite the winter theme, but Kimi to Gin no Niwa did! At the moment I can’t remember the name of the song I was most moved by at the venue, but ya. I haven’t had that much chills since I had a 39 degree fever!!

The encore applause was amazing, too. SO LOUD! So long! So many people!! My arms were so tired after the concert, lol. The encore was oddly long though, I feel? Like they did 4 songs and some really long speaks. Not that I’d complain.

I’m not dead yet!

Have some photos of the fall colors in Yamashina, Kyoto. The temple is Bishamondou. I think I will come back here come spring and cherry flowers!

It seems fall colors, called “kouyou” are a huge deal in Japan, much like cherry blossoms. One course’s teacher even made us have a day off from her class so we would go see it. : D These, however, are from a Saturday trip we made with a different teacher. Tourists don’t really know about this place yet, so it was very peaceful.

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A weird thing I’d like to share: One day in class, a Thai student asked the teacher: “Which flowers bloom in winter?” While I was busy being really confused as to why anyone would ask that  - I mean, flowers don’t bloom in WINTER, that’s why....that’s why it’s winter, right??? - the teacher didn’t even miss a beat and rattled off a list of flowers such as camellia.

FLOWERS BLOOM DURING WINTER. In Kyoto. What the heck is this. : D To me as a Finn, this is unthinkable. But they do.... You can even see some blooming right next to the yellow fall leaves in one of my photos here.

Wild.

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Special update! Yesterday I went to see Buddhist idols perform live in a small family-owned temple called Ryuganji.

There was a regular ( I think) service before the music, which was very interesting. The resident priest chanted sutra and at one point, the whole audience (maybe 20-30 people, it wasn’t a large space) beat the mokugyou bells in unison with the “namuamidabutsu”. I understood a single word here and there, but I wonder if even the native speakers can catch that all. All in all, very different from the Christian services back home!

The first performer was Idol Bosatsu, who is apparently somewhat famous. Her skills were certainly up there. Her speaks reminded me very much of Christian sermons, but the feel is somehow quite different with the sparkly gold Amida Buddha in the background... XD Sadly, my Japanese skills weren’t enough to get the point of her jokes. Everyone else laughed... But really, I was strongly reminded of my high school days, going to see Christian rock/pop bands with my pals. So unfamiliar, but also nostalgic?

The main event I suppose was the brand new idol group てらぱるむす (Terapalms). I haven’t been to see any regular idol lives, but I would imagine they’re somewhat similar, with the main difference being the venue. Terapalms consists of 5 young women with different boddhisattva themes. There was Miroku Bosatsu (Maitreiya Buddha), Kannon (Avalokitesvara), and others I didn’t actually know beforehand. : D All in all, they were Very Cute. My favorite was the yellow-themed Henki-chan. Her outfit actually comes with a little tail...I asked about it, and apparently it’s because her theme is Fugen Bosatsu/Henkitsu (Samantabhadra Boddhisatva), who often appears riding a white elephant. I was told he’s an ally of women, and in a time when people thought only men can attain enlightenment, he claimed that women can just as well.

Today I experienced my first earthquake! It was really weird! I’m still weirded out. It felt like I was on board a large, smoothly moving car, or an amusement park ride of some kind. I’m really glad it was weak, though.

If I had been outside, I might have freaked out. Since I was in an underground classroom, it felt like a ride, but outside I might have had to face the fact that it was the WORLD moving, and there’s no way to step out if the shaking gets to be too much. I can now see why earthquakes are scary! It also made me a little bit nauseous for a short while.

Also, the beginning of the quake was signaled by everyone’s phones suddenly starting to ring in unison! Mine doesn’t even have a phone function as I only use it for Line and internet, but it too started ringing right in the middle of some other students’ presentation. While it was set on mute, no less. All the phones made a beep beep beep sound, and a female voice said “じっしんです“ (jisshin desu= it’s an earthquake) for a while. Almost scarier than the quake itself, that! Big brother is watching....to warn us about earthquakes.

The teacher quickly googled what’s up, so we all just had a moment, feeling out the quake. All the Europeans were super excited, me included. XD; But it really was just SUCH a weird feeling...! I do hope everyone’s ok in the neighboring prefecture, though. It was magnitude 4 over there, apparently. Nothing happened in here though, not even a manga book was toppled over in my room.

Loot, part 2!

I’ve been buying manga even though I can’t even read it… Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun is the only one with proper furigana. :’ )

The pillow….followed me home. There was nothing I could do. <_<

There’s also a cute fuzzy cat bag I carry my showering stuff in, with a towel for when I sweat like a pig on hot days, drawing supplies (they’re so cheap here and there’s so many kinds!), a couple Xtra otaku clear files, a hair thingie, candy, an omamori bell, an Animate special TouRabu Hanamaru prize badge, and what think is a Kodomo no Hi-themed scarf/cloth.

Zuiki Matsuri helper horsies and the olde paintings in Kitano Tenmangu, where I went on Saturday 1.10.

Special update! Sorry for the lack of activity btw, but I have been tired.

And I keep making misfire posts when I’m just trying to upload some photos from my cell into my drafts...damn those tiny touch keys. 38

ANYWAYS! Today in the morning the teacher of the first morning class, Sugiyama-sensei, put a paper bag from a fancy traditional sweets store into my hands. Inside was that temari you can see up there. It’s a bit larger than my fist and it makes a rattling noise. The teacher said it’s a get-well gift to my Finnish pal, who has been sick lately.

Ô_Ô ?????

But that’s a dang fine temari, alright. I hope my pal starts feeling better soon.

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Second! Today I went out to have dinner with my local pal who lives in the same dorm, and his mom and dad.

....You’re thinking “He was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it aaany more oooobvious”, right? I mean, that’s the usual reaction....a guy taking a girl to meet his parents, ya? But somehow, they didn’t even once ask if we’re dating, or if I have a boyfriend. Japanese politeness? Or maybe they’re just wishing really hard their son didn’t pick up some weird old gaijin woman. : D I should mention though, he was in Joensuu last year, as an exchange student. We didn’t hang out then, but we often chat in the dorm kitchen in here.

Anyways, the dad drove us to some fancy café/restaurant in Kyoto center, and then the parents ordered a crapload of everything. Japanese style shrimp pasta, ever so slightly roasted duck breast, karaage, clams, salad, mushroom/eel omelet, mushroom/meat/chicken breast rice in a pot, roasted perch... It was wild. And rreally good. My favorite was the pasta and the rice, with a special mention for the tsukemono that accompanied it: nagaimo! It was super crunchy and a little slimy, and it was mild at first, but as you chewed, it got mildly spicy! In a similar way as wasabi, not like chili. AMAZIIIIING! Japanese tsukemono are so damn great. ;_;

I didn’t shoot all of that as I felt it might have been a bit of a pain, but I had to take a pic of the dessert. That’s warm azuki bean soup with fried(?) mochi. The stuff I’ve always read about and wanted to taste! And the accompanying salted seaweed tasted a little like salmiakki.

Oh and I drank apple ginger ale. It was rrrreally good. Really strong and syrupy, it sort of seemed like some sort of an alcoholic drink.

And we chatted a lot about mostly Finland and it was quite fun. : D

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So like, I was eating my breakfast here, which is a  bread I bought for 100 yen at the bakery that’s 10 m from the dorm’s front door. (It’s called Marumo.) This bread has like a veil of crunchy cheese and the dough is quite chewy, and comes with black sesame seeds. (I love that stuff.) But see, inside! There’s finely chopped slivers of pickled carrot and....burdock root.

Now I’ve always liked those pickled veggie side dishes that are ubiquitous in Japanese cuisine. But I never checked what burdock root IS...

So my breakfast today is a bread filled with THIS. And we let those just grow and wilt as they please in Finland without ever using them! The waste is making me cry right now. ;_;

HMM WOW I can’t believe I last updated on Monday. :,D I guess the first week of actual studies took more out of me than I had thought.

Anyways, Tuesday we had a typhoon, and all the classes were canceled. In reality all WE had was some rain though, but it seems to have been quite terrible at Kyushu, again. 8( I went out to buy some lunch and such, and I also had to go see the doctor again before the storm really hit. My ears are finally fine and my cold is gone, by the way! I can hear properly again, and that is grand. I’m really thankful for our tutor, who had to go with me 3 times... I did give him some Finnish chocolate but maybe I should draw for him. ...If I knew what he likes. Hm.

Wednesday, the classes continued normally, and same today. This week is still just trials (as one of the English-speaking teachers said: we’re still shopping for courses), which means we’re going to see the classes to decide if we want to take them or some other course. I decided I (probably) won’t take any of the usual faculty courses yet, as I believe I will have my hands quite full with the JEP4 classes. As expected (I guess??) the materials are largely in kanji without furigana, and that’s going to give me some trouble. >: );; I will try and manage with level 4 classes rather than 3, though, hoping it’ll allow for more progress once I catch up.

That said, today our first kanji lesson was a starting level test, and I absolutely bombed it, as I knew would happen. XD I knew 2 kanji out of....idek, 40? Lmao. But that’s alright, as the lower level kanji group is indeed where I belong. I’ll pat myself on the back if I manage to persevere with the other classes at lvl4 with this kind of a handicap!

All in all, the courses seem quite engaging. We already received some homework for next week, and we also have to turn in our course applications on Monday, before 17:00. So that’s going to be my weekend goal.

...I also ended up joining the Broadway Musical Club, if only to help out with the English pronunciation occasionally. I still want to scope out the more...personally topical...circles, too.