Happy New Year!

What a busy couple of weeks! In the past two weeks we've had to prepare monthly tests, do regular grading, book report grading, test grading, posting comments about our students, and go to Japan to finish up our Visa paper work. Japan was amazing, the rest however was not. I still hold firm to the fact that we are enjoying ourselves, but the work of it all is becoming increasingly more difficult. Curtis and I also have extra classes for two months starting this week. They put it in our regular schedule, so we have more marking and preparation to do and less time to do it in. They really try to squeeze every pennies worth that they can out of you.

Ok... so that was the bad news... here's the good news. We had such a great time in Japan. Our flight was delayed so the first hour on the ground was a bit rushed because we needed to be at the Korean Consulate by 3:00 pm in order to get our visas the next day. We got turned around a couple of times but finally headed in the right direction and got there with only 10 minutes to spare! Phew!

With the bulk of the stress out of the way, we went to the Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan) which boasts the largest fish tank in the world. Now... I think they are only counting ones that actually hold fish... or non-mammals, because it's not as big as some of the ones at Sea World or other aquatic parks with mammals. It had a really neat set up though because you enter and right away you take an escalator up 8 floors. From there you see otters, some shore birds, and some turtles. You never actually see steps again because the whole thing continually spirals down for 5 floors. As you spiral down the tanks get deeper and deeper and you see what happens below the waters surface. The main central tank doesn't start until about 3 floors down and near the surface of the water you see a large whale shark - about 4 meters in length. The next floor you see a couple different species of fish and the last two floors you see rays and sharks. It's quite amazing, without nets or guides, these animals are behaving much the same way they do in the wild.

We got back to our hotel, The Dormy Inn and I decided to try the public bath. There was a separate tub for the women and the men and I couldn't figure our why until I read the English information sheet that said, "Please do not wear your bathing costume in the public bath." I was a little bit scared, but made my way there determined to experience the culture. I used a key code to get in the room and the entry way blocked the view of the rest of the room. I was certain naked people were right around the corner so I froze. The next thing I knew I could hear the key pad beep as someone else was trying to enter the room! Another young woman had just entered but looked alot more confident about what she was doing. She walked right past me a proceeded about her business as I stood there motionless. After she had removed her shoes and was about to enter she turned to me with a puzzled expression. I said, " It's my first time." She was so empathetic that she told me the proper ettiquette and regime for public bathing and had a good conversation with me. It turned out she was a Korean visiting Japan for the week and was very interested in what I was doing in Japan and Korea and just really friendly and helpful. I don't know if I would have made it past the entry way without her!

The next day in Osaka it was rainy and we didn't have anywhere to leave our bags so like heavy burdened camels we headed off to see more sights before departing for Kyoto. We saw the Osaka Castle (Osaka-jo) and were so drenched and tired that when we got to the entrance neither one of us was interested in walking through it so we admired it from afar and then headed to the train station to get out of the rain. On the way we saw an Apple store, and since we hadn't ever seen one before we did the tourist thing and took pictures of something completely normal to locals. Curtis picked himself out an Ipod for Christmas as well.

It was still raining when we arrived in Kyoto so we found our hostel and stayed in most of the night. We went out to get Ramen noodles and found out that it's nothing to write home about. It's really fatty, rich broth with fatty fried noodles in it. Nothing like Sapporo Ichiban as I had hoped. We spent some time in the common room of the hostel and met a woman from Belgium named Sofie and talked about everything from science to music. It turned out that we were headed to many of the same sights so we agreed to keep each other company for the day. She had been to a few of them already and knew some Japanese so, I have to admit, we got the better end of the stick on that deal! She was a really amazing travel companion though and we shared similar values and sense of humor so the day was really relaxing and fun.

We went to a famous path system with red tori gates, called Fushimi Inari. It was in a forest so the walk was amazing and it was also really neat to see these red pillars like a tunnel over a few hundred meters of pathways. Next we went to Kiyomizudera Temple. We were interested in it because it was a UNESCO World Heratige Site and because it looked really neat in the pictures. The walk to the Temple was almost as much of a highlight as seeing the temple itself. On the way, it's a really traditional part of the city and most of the buildings are made out of wood and have sliding bamboo doors and the whole nine yards. They also have the tiled roofs and the wooden carved details that are characteristic of traditional Japanese architechture. We were lucky enough to spot about seven maiko which are geisha apprentices. We asked to take their photos and they graciously accepted and posed for us. It was really amazing to see though, I did not know that geishas were still around. It was like walking though another time. The women are also strikingly beautiful - not beacuase they are any ideal on a glossy magazine either, but because they are elegant and mystical.

After seeing the temple we went to the Golden Pavillion (Kinkaku-ji). It is an old shrine that is completely covered in gold. At first I thought the concept was tacky, but seeing it is something else. There is a small lake in the foreground with little islands of small trees (I'm pretty sure they were bonsais with the way they were only 4 feet tall and how they were manicured). The shrine was about 3 stories high and even on a cloudy day it radiated. It was really amazing and I didn't think it was possible, but the shrine beautified the nature as the nature itself beautified the shrine.

The next morning, we met up with Sofie again and went out to a place called Arishyama. It was a Monkey reserve. At first we did not know what kind of monkeys we were going to see. It turns out that they are Japanese Macaques. I read a case study on them in an animal behavior class in university which was about their mimicing of humans. In the winter, these monkeys actually go into the hotsprings to warm up. The babies have also been seen rolling and throwing snowballs. It was so great to be able to see them in the wild and be so close to them. We actually were able to feed them as well.

When we finished up there we had to get to the airport to catch our flight so we said goodbye to Sofie and promised we'd visist her in Belgium one day. Two buses, one train, and one flight later we were back home. We worked New Year's Eve and we will have New Years Day off. It is currently 1:30 am so.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!