We’re currently in a ryokan (traditional Japanese-style inn) so it’s expected that there’s no wireless around. I will have to post entries after we get back to Nagoya, possibly from the school.
Today we had to get up for breakfast at 7:30, which was not difficult with jetlag; I woke up sometime around 4am, when it was still completely dark outside. I almost fell asleep in the subsequent Japanese class, and I’m almost too tired to function right now, although it’s only 9:30.
After class we had a shorter-than-usual break for lunch – we went to the “toast restaurant” (the cheaper of the three available restaurants in Inuyama) and almost everyone got yakisoba. I have been finding a lot of Japanese dishes unnecessarily sweet, which is disappointing; I was hoping that fried noodles would be salty. What looked good was the “toast”, which was made with these enormously thick pieces of bread. Perhaps tomorrow. We still have a few days here before we go back to Nagoya.
Then we walked up the hill to Inuyama Castle, which was beautiful. It’s the oldest castle in Japan, did you know? I think that’s what it was. The view from the slightly shaky walkway-balcony was unbelievable. The castle is on a hill already, and so the view from the top of a castle on the top of a hill…
For Dylan - real armor in a real castle! It's even better than the Met!
After that we went to Joan Teahouse, which had some beautiful pristine Japanese gardens. The Japanese phrase いい感じreally makes so much sense with so many of these places. It literally means “good feeling”, but it’s very descriptive when used in the sense of “picturesque”. A lot of Japanese aesthetic setups (gardens, houses, etc.) seem to be made with the idea that they create harmonious pictures. It’s so close to framing a shot in photography; it must be easy to shoot pictures of Japan…!
The Japanese think through everything, even in the fifteen hundreds. The tea house had a very small, square, raised door that you would really have to crouch to get through. I figured it was so that you had to bow your head and show respect, which is not unlikely, but the real reason is even more thoughtful. The katana carried by warriors would be too long to fit across the narrow opening while strapped to someone’s back, forcing warriors to lay down their weapons when entering the peaceful place.
I am seeing things, out here in the hallway because my roommates are already sleeping. This is not good.
After the teahouse (and after waiting around chatting for about half an hour before we realized that actually, we were the last group and everyone had already gone back so we were not in fact waiting for anyone – oops!) a group of us wandered around by the river. That may have been my favorite part of the day. There was a lot of “oh my god, we’re actually in Japan” moments, which are cute. Because we were just playing around in an entirely foreign country. I do wonder how much they resent us running around being noisy. But the other students are fun, and even if we do speak English most of the time, they’re extremely funny and we’re almost always laughing. It’s like the best parts of Japanese class, twenty-four hours a day.
And there was the most beautiful, Japanese postcard sunset. I haven’t figured out how to get Blogger to want to post my photos, but that needs to happen very soon. There was also an island that happened to have a window in it.
I continue to see things that aren’t there. I think I will have to sleep.
Later:
Here are some more photos from that day:
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