three days?!

My last week here is flying by fast (as is my money, ha ha). Don't think I could possibly recap all of it, but I'll try to hit the highlights.

- My last Chunichi Dragons/Nagoya Grampus games - It might just the Japanese twists on baseball games, but I've come to love the sport a lot more than I thought possible. (Maybe it helps that the Dragons actually win games?? Sorry Mets!) And nothing makes me more excited than riding the Dragons-decorated subway! I've also seen the Grampus lose twice now, but again, the crowd atmosphere always makes up for it!

-Discovery and abuse of purikura - what's not to love about taking ridiculous pictures and slapping on a ton of sparkles and random adorable animals?

-Scoring over 100 in bowling for the first time ever! (shh, I know this is a very Japanese experience :P)

-Two visits to the sento (bathhouse) - definitely one of my new favorite activities, it is a shame I didn't discover it earlier. Nothing makes me feel more Japanese than soaking in a hot bath for 2+ hours. Well, more like 10 baths - there are indoor and outdoor, cool and hot options, and even one that runs electric pulses through you (a bit creepy and sometimes quite painful). The lack of clothes threw me for a little loop at first but once you get used to it there is nothing as relaxing as soaking in an outdoor bath with a soft rain falling.

-KABUKI! I had more or less given up on this one but Aaren's host mom gave him tickets to a performance today! The Japanese was more or less impossible to understand but it was really neat to watch, especially because all the actors were male, including the ones playing the lead female roles.

I have a few regrets, but I wouldn't trade my experience for anything. Besides, my sad lack of Japanese friends just means I need to come back soon. :)

the Simons Family (minus Jenn, self-dubbed "coolest member") Takes on Japan!

Jenn protested my facebook album title so I thought I would acknowledge her complaint in my blog post. :)

sorry I haven't written in a while! Things have been incredibly busy here - travel travel travel, study study study. It's hard to believe there are less than 20 days before I leave Japan...I'm trying not to think about it, though it will be nice to go home for the summer.

Anyway, about 2.5 weeks ago (yes I really am that behind, it is only upon Mary's request that I am writing this), my family flew into Narita airport in Tokyo! Jenn is lame and had school. After some escapades in Tokyo, they came to Nagoya on Tuesday evening just in time to have dinner with my host family. That turned out way better and less awkward than I expected it to be, translating wasn't too difficult and dinner was fish/veggies/delicious beef cooked over a charcoal pit so a lot of attention was diverted to food. The fam spent a couple days in Nagoya, where I showed them Nanzan (what little there is to see), Nagoya Castle, and lastly a Dragons baseball games!

I wish I'd thought to post about baseball games here before, because in Japan they really are something special. This was the second game I'd been to, and my host dad bought my family great seats. Anyway, Japanese baseball is awesome because

1. both the home and away teams bring drummers and trumpet players to play while their team is up at bat. And then of course there are the accompanying
2. cheers! The fan section goes crazy for certain players (huge signs, flags, etc), and they have a fair number of songs and chants, which the crowd can get into with their
3. noisemakers! The crowd gets way more into the game than in America, and a lot of people have plastic bats to bang together along with the cheers. I can't even explain how much fun this is.
   

so long story short, after going into extra innings with the score tied at 2-2 vs the Yakults, when no one scored by the bottom of the 12th the game was declared a tie. Interesting, but very practical - it was an exciting game but all the same we were getting a bit tired of watching.

That weekend we went to Kyoto! Kyoto is special because it is one of the few major cities in Japan which was not largely destroyed by air raids during WW2 due to its cultural significance. I'm grateful, because it meant seeing some legit temples and shrines for once! We hit up Kiyomizu Temple (with a beautiful view over Kyoto), the bamboo forest (one of the prettiest places I've ever been), Ryoanji Temple (famous for its simple yet powerful zen rock garden), Kinkakuji (as the name suggests, entirely plated in gold), and finally Ginkakuji, which was carpeted in beautiful green moss and plants.



We stayed in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese hotel, while in Kyoto. A typical room consists of tatami-mat floors with a low table, and you lay out futons on the floor to sleep on at night. The pricier ryokans often have onsens, or public baths, but we made do with our small shower unit. Sleeping on a futon on tatami was a pretty neat experience.



The last night there we went to a very touristy show which demonstrated some of the traditional Japanese arts, like tea ceremony, flower arranging, court dance, Japanese harp, and puppet theater. The puppets used for puppet theater were amazing - rather than being hand puppets they are large and operated by three people wearing black. Their movements are really lifelike and the actors work seamlessly together to tell the story. I wish I was in Japan longer, I would love to see a longer show.



Oysh, sorry for the ramble! Hopefully a post to come about this weekend (my first trip to Tokyo!) in a couple days!