October 25. 2004 21:28

Catching up

Now this is something... I'm writing this in the bath tub of ANA Gate Tower Hotel Osaka, next to Kansai airport. Mum and Dad are staying here for the last night before leaving and they reserved a room for me, too. I have a room for two just for myself and they're in the next one. Theirs is a corner room, so it's even fancier than this one. This hotel is even taller than the one in Tokyo, this is 54 floors high. And pretty fancy, just like the one in Tokyo... They must've been devastated at the travel agency when they had to give a mediocre one in Kyoto... Mum and Dad didn't really ask for fancy hotels, Hotel Gimmond in Kyoto was alright with them, but if you ask for a holiday in Japan and don't specify "cheap", that's what they'll give you. But that's okay, it's nice to have some luxury sometimes... Though I was a bit taken aback that they reserved an extra room for me in Osaka even though I didn't say I wanted to come, just that I'd come if they needed me...

So. I've been coming home so late this week that I haven't had a chance to write my diary at all. I don't think I'll get everything down during this bath, but I'll continue tomorrow in the train back to Kyoto. (Note: It took the whole train trip and some more to finish this entry.) It feels like it's been ages since I was last in school, even if it's only been a week.

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Um, the bath was so nice I stopped writing... Now I'm continuing in the train. The train system in Osaka is pretty messy, by the way. I got to a wrong train before this and had to change. I should be going the right way now, and I have Tako-chan here with me, the cute octopus plushie I got from the ANA hotel ^_^ (I also stole a yukata belt there... I'm a bad person. I thought they wouldn't miss only a belt.)

The last time I wrote, I think it was Thursday evening after Kodosan. Friday we went to Fureaikan, Jidai matsuri and Kurama Fire Festival, on Saturday to Ryoanji temple and (tried to go to) Kinkakuji, Sunday we relocated to Osaka, went to the Osaka Aquarium and around town a little.

Friday

We started Friday by walking through Yasaka shrine, where we ran into a wedding in progress (hmm, the wife was pregnant), and Maruyama park. My parents have fallen in love with the Japanese maple tree (I love it too) and we're wondering if it would survive in Finland. Maruyama park looked very autumny now, not like the summer's green I saw it in a month ago. It was still very nice to stroll through even though the grass was getting brown.

Then we walked to Fureaikan and hurried a little to get through it before Jidai matsuri would start. The website of Kyoto Visitor's Guide said it'd start at around 12 and we wanted to make sure we wouldn't miss it. But then I went to a tourist info while waiting and heard that it actually passes Heian jingu at 14.30-16. Waiting until then would mean we'd be late for the Fire Festival and in any case we wouldn't be able to go to my dorm in between, as planned. So we changed the dorm tour for the next day and started walking towards the starting end of the procession so that we'd see it soones. We stopped to buy some souvenirs at a 1000 yen shop (or mainly 1000 yen) and some snacks, because we wouldn't be able to eat lunch, either. We ate the snacks on the street and in a while it was time for the matsuri to start passing us.

The point of Jidai matsuri is to display famous people and groups from the history of Kyoto in the form of a procession clad in historical costumes. The costumes were very interesting and I took as may photos as I could so I could use then as reference later on. I actually took so many that I ran out of battery. It took some perserverance to watch the whole matsuri through, as it took 1,5 hours and we were standing on the sidewalk the whole time. Well, almost the whole time, first we were sitting on the railing but a police came and told us not to.

Jidai matsuri stopped around 15.30 and we went straight to the train to Kurama. It was already packed full and a line went all the way down the station stairs, but the trains were fast so we didn't have to wait long. Mum got a seat in the train but Dad and me had to stand in the crowd.

The Kurama village was already packed as well. We ate a quick dinner and placed ourselves on a little opening with a large bonfire in the middle of it. We had no chance of seeing the main thing on the steps of the local temple (or was it shrine?) and the crowd was so nasty we couldn't even catch a glimpse of the festival men carrying the big torches up and down the street. We soon settled with standing in the warmth of the bonfire and looking over the heads of the crowd. It was a lot more comfortable not being pushed around and the fire kept us warm. I had counted on changing into warmer clothes when we visited the dorm, but now that we skipped it I had only a light jacket on. I can't imagine how the scantily clad festival men could do it... They practically had thongs!

We could see the torches nicely enough from the opening, but when it came time for the mikoshi (protable shrine) to be brought out, the police drove us further away. We abandoned all hope of seeing the mikoshi and instead walked up along the now empty street, enjoying the lanters, fires and displays the houses along it had put up. We stopped at the onsen (hot bath) house at the top of the street, where some guys offered us a cup of sake from a big barrel, and when we came back down the mikoshi went straight past us. We couldn't see the temple at any point, but we got all the other goods without having to push through the crowd!

On the way down we went to see the temple now that the main events had ended. It was pretty impressive even in the dark, or maybe because of it, and particularly this age-old tree that was standing right next to the steps. It was at least 2 meters in diameter. There were a lot of people going to the station when the main events of the festival ended, but I think we missed the biggest crowd when we were at the temple, so there weren't so many people when we got in the line. On the way home I noticed we had all bought return tickets even though I was only going to Iwakura on the way back... Well, getting something else in the crowd and in Japanese would've probably been too difficult.

Saturday & Sunday

The next day, Saturday, it was for once my parent's turn to ride the subway to me in the morning. This morning I was showing them my dorm and the University. Mum bought me flowers when we passed a florist shop, like she so often does, even though I didn't really want flowers in my room. They'll just wither away with no sun. But I wasn't quick enough to say no, so now I have a big branch in the corner of my room. (I hope it hasn't fallen down and wet the tatami while I was away. Note: It hasn't.)

We had a big lunch at the school cafeteria, then we went to the art shop and Mum and Dad bought some architectural books and a few Copic Comic Markers for me. Then I showed them our studio and then we set off to Ryoanji and Kinkakuji, afraid we'd run out of sunlight before we could see both. We went to Ryoanji first because it was more interesting. And it sure was pretty and had some genuinely "Japanese" sceneries. There were lots of people so it wasn't as serene as I would've hoped, but it managed to calm my mind nevertheless. I even took out the tiger's eye prayers beads I had bought the previous day for 1050 yen so I could "babtise" them at a nice temple ^_^ They are very meditative, I hope they absorbed some of the calm atmosphere of Ryoanji temple.

After that, just as the sun prepared to set, we went to Kinkakuji. We were hoping to see it lit up, but unfortunately it was just closing. Of course, I could've figured it'd close at five like all the other places, but I didn't think. This was the only thing we missed during the whole week, though, so in the end it wasn't that bad. A golden temple would've been an interesting sight, though.

The bus ride to town was a pain. We had to stand the whole way. When Mum and Dad finished shopping for souvenirs the night was totally free of things left to do, so we sat down for a good, big dinner at a nice restaurant. The place was perfect for a last meal, the type where you can order a food plate at a time as you go. We had meat and noodles and fish and black pepper cheese with honey (that was yummy!) and so on. None of us was really hungry, we ate a lot at lunch and had a few at Mr.Donuts, but the food was so good it vanished pretty fast anyway. We left the restaurant pretty late so the night's sleep was short again (Oh, how I'm gonna enjoy sleeping well now that Mum and Dad have left!) and I was 25 minutes late at Kyoto Station in the morning. It didn't matter, though, we got to the train we were supposed to and were actually one hour early at the hotel. We thought we'd have lunch in the meantime, but the restaurants were all full. (What kind of a luxury hotel is that?) We ended up buying pizza slices and eating them in the park, with the fancy hotel and its fancy restaurants in the background.

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure where I've heard so much of the Osaka Aquarium, but somehow I had registered it as a great place to see when in Osaka. My parents wanted to see downtown but I persuaded them to go to the aquarium first. It was a fantastic place, I could've spent hours there. I was amazed at how big the sea otters were, they were about 1 meter long. They were sleeping on their backs in the water, their feet crossed on their stomachs. They were so cute! There were also penquins and dolphins and giant turtles etc. I don't remember ever seeing penquins up close. The main fish tank, 34 m wide and 9 m deep, was amazing. The fish were so big, there was a giant tuna and rays and a shark. I liked the jellyfish, too, they were really pretty. And there was a pumpkin lamp in one of the tanks! This Halloween frenzy is so funny ^_^

Dad didn't think we'd have enough time to go downtown, but we had just enough time to get a feeling of what Osaka is like and buy sushi to take to the hotel. We ate kangaroo steak near the aquarium earlier, but Dad was so hungry he had to get an ice cream crepe and sushi to mend his headache. As a city, Osaka is much louder and smellier (and dirtier) than Tokyo or Kyoto. Kyoto has the same feeling to is as Turku and Osaka is more like Helsinki. Both are in bigger scale, of course, but the base is the same. Tokyo doesn't compare, it has a metropolitan feeling to it ^_^

And then we enjoyed the night at the hotel, as can be read from the beginning of this entry. We ate and then I had a bath, but I was so tired I couldn't do anything else. Mum and Dad gave their remaining money to me, and some papers and their umbrellas. Then we went to bed. In the morning it was early breakfast and then we were already on our way to the airport. We said goodbye at the gate and then they were off. It's funny to think how they'll be home tomorrow and I'll remain here for several months. The weather in Finland is totally different... Thinking about Finland makes me a bit homesick, but thinking about leaving makes me very sad.

Back to normal

Yaay! It's school again! I have to speak Japanese all the time again, but already many of my schoolmates came to say hi! And I'll have Tako-chan on my desk today ^_^ Now I have to draw something or at least flip through my work to get into the mood.

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Life has returned to normal now that I'm back in school and living normally at home. On the way from school it almost felt like Mum and Dad never were here, or that it was a totally different world... Which it was, really. I finished my colour pencil drawing at school, so now I'll start a little colour manga for kids, and I have the animation script and the Inu-Yasha doujinshi under way and the NaNoWriMo thing pending. Making all this manga seems like a little too much work, but then again, I'm really happy I get to do so much of it. Today I'll concentrate on other schoolwork, though, finish my English and Japanese homework before I get to anything else. Then I'll get to the paying work and then the animation storyboard, and then it'll be November already and I'll spend most of my time with the NaNoWriMo story. That'll be fun, though ^_^