久能山東照宮 - Kunozan Toshogu Shrine

On Sunday, I took a short trip to Shizuoka City (静岡市).  Here is Shizuoka in relation to Okazaki.  Mt. Fuji is circled in red.

I went to visit Kunozan Toshogu Shrine (久能山東照宮).  First, here's some terminology.  Japan has two religions that coexist rather well, and many people belong to both.  They are Shinto, Japan's native religion, and Buddhism.  Shinto has shrines, Buddhism has temples. 

In daily life, they each perform certain functions.  For instance, there are ceremonies to pray for children's health at certain ages that take place at shrines.  Weddings are often at public halls, with a Christian style ceremony even though nobody involved is Christian.  The other popular option for weddings is at a shrine.  Funerals are usually Buddhist, although the only Japanese funeral that I've attended was a Shinto ceremony.

Shinto and Buddhism coexist so well that there is often a shrine and a temple on the same grounds.  This coexistence was not always the case.

Shinto is a polytheistic religion, in which many things can have a kami (神 = spirit or deity), like mountains, really old trees, rivers, etc. Of course, people have spirits, too.  Toshogu shrines are shrines where the enshrined deity is the spirit of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified Japan in 1600 and founded the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan until 1868. 

The most important Toshogu shrine is at Nikko, in Tochigi Prefecture, which I visited and blogged about when I lived in Nasukarasuyama.  Kunozan is another important Toshogu shrine.

It's possible to take the Shinkansen from either Shin-Anjo or Toyohashi to Shizuoka, but I elected to take regular trains, transferring at Toyohashi and Hamamatsu.

There are two ways to get to Kunozan.  The first is to take a ropeway from Nihondaira, and the other is to climb over 1,000 steps. I chose the latter!  A bus brought me close to the foot of the staircase, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean.  The weather was mostly clear, but it's still hot and a bit muggy. 

The entrance to a shrine is a torii gate, which may be close or far from the actual shrine building.  Here it is at the bottom of the steps.  Torii gates are most often red, they don't have to be red.

Here's the view partway up the stairs:

There are a lot of greenhouses down there -- my guess is that they are there because there is no risk of anyone building anything to block the sun!  One thing that Shizuoka Prefecture is famous for is tea.

There is a larger gate at the actual site. And more steps.   

You might notice that the buildings are very ornate, compared to Zen architecture or modern Japanese minimalist architecture.  This is not a site for Buddhist contemplation.  One of its purposes is to reflect the power and grandeur of the Tokugawas as rulers of Japan at the time this was built.  

Shinto deities find saké to be a perfectly acceptable offering.  Saké is also part of a Shinto wedding ceremony.

You can buy omamori (お守り), or charms, for most aspects of life:  success at studying, safe driving, career success, health for yourself and your family, finding love, general happiness, etc.

I have a book for collecting stamps from shrines -- that I actually remembered to bring with me -- so I got a stamp and calligraphy instead of a charm.

There are a lot of carvings here, similar to those at Nikko.  At Nikko, you'll find the 3 "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil" monkeys, as well as a famous sculpture of a sleeping cat.  The carvings at Kunozan are not as famous, but the style is the same.  These are behind glass to protect them.

I noticed the colors, because they are the traditional colors I learned about in the Japanese embroidery classes I used to take.  Sailor also makes some urushi (lacquer) fountain pens in these colors.

After enjoying the shrine, I took a ropeway up to Nihondaira.  The main attraction here is the view.  

Yep, that's Mt. Fuji!  That's definitely a good reason to choose a clear day to visit.

At this point, I was tired and hungry, and still had to get back to Okazaki.  I took the bus back to Shizuoka Station.  

Many restaurants will have either pictures or replicas of their menu items outside so you can decide if there is anything you want to eat.  I found one in the station that had something called "Fish & Chips & Onion Ring". That looked and sounded good!  But when I ordered, I found out that it's not available at lunch.  So, I tried a seafood and mizuna (a leafy vegetable) pasta thing.  I don't dislike many Japanese dishes, but I didn't care for this. Anyone who likes pasta more than I do (most people) might like it.  I had a local beer that was pretty good, though.

I took the ordinary train back to Okazaki.  On the way to Shizuoka, the trains had been the sort with seats that face front (although you can move the back to face either way).  The last two were quite plush, actually, with seats that reclined a bit and footrests.  Not so the trains on the way back -- these were commuter trains with seats along the inside wall, facing inward. On the way out, I had caught a "Home Liner" which was an express train that costs only a few hundred yen extra, but is much faster than the ordinary trains.  That wasn't an option on the way home.  These trains stopped at every single station. Luckily they weren't crowded.

Red bike

Despite how hilly Japan is, bicycles are a really popular mode of transportation.

Usually, there aren't parking spots for cars around train stations, so commuters will bike to the station.  Older school kids will bike to school, rather than being ferried back and forth by parents or a school bus.

I finally got one today.

It's coincidentally about the same color as my car back home.  It's an ordinary single-speed bike.

I got it at a bike shop in Wing Town Mall, near the dormitories where I stayed last time.  I had hoped to pay less than ¥10,000 ($89), but this was close enough.

Japanese addresses don't usually list a street.  They list prefecture, municipality, ward  or "ku"(of large cities, like Tokyo), town or "cho",  neighborhood, block number and building number. The town I'm in is Hane-cho (羽根町, which literally means "Wing Town".  These towns are just part of the address, not an administrative unit like the Town of Fox Crossing is.

I had to register the bike when I bought it -- my name and address, and I used the school's phone number since I haven't got mine sorted out yet.

Theoretically, when I'm out on my bike, a policeman can stop me and ask to see the registration.  This is because bicycles are among the rare items that are regularly stolen in Japan, along with umbrellas.  If an office worker misses his last train home, he might "borrow" one of the bikes left at the station to get home.

There are anecdotes of foreigners being harassed by police by being regularly stopped and asked for their bike registration, much more often than anyone else would be.  I had a bike when I lived in Tochigi and this never happened to me.  My bet is that it varies by place and foreigner.

Since foreigners are more likely to buy a bike at a "sayonara" sale or from a friend, and not go through the process of re-registering the bike, it's more likely that the police will find an unregistered bike that way.  Even if a bike is truly abandoned, it's considered theft to take it.  Also, in some prefectures (like Aichi, where I am), the owner must cancel their registration and the new owner must register the bike, so it's a bit of a hassle for the seller, too.

Since bikes are more likely to be stolen, they come with built in locks.

Here is the lock open.  You can't lose your keys when your bike is unlocked -- the key won't come out!

Here is the bike locked -- the bar goes through the spokes, so the rear tire can't move or be removed.  Oddly, people will leave things in their bike baskets, fully expecting them to be there when they get back, but still lock the actual bike.

Before I ride my bike to school, I'll have to get a parking sticker for it from the school.  I think this is to prevent students from abandoning bikes at the school when they leave, and to keep them from riding stolen/abandoned/improperly registered bikes.

Some things that it's illegal to do with a bicycle:

• Ride holding an umbrella
• Have a passenger, unless it's a child in a child seat.
• Have earbud in or headphones on while riding.
• Have a blood alcohol level higher than 0%.
• Make a one step right hand turn, like cars do.  Bikes must do a two-step right hand turn, like pedestrians do.  

Even if I walk my bike up and down the steeper hills, there is enough flat road that it will make shopping so much easier than walking.

Tuna

If you could get this seared tuna for $1.75 at the grocery store, would you choose anything else for dinner?  

Testing, Orientation...and the Sweet Potato Truck

On Monday, we had our placement test.  It included an 80 minute written test and an interview with a teacher.  The teacher would use various grammatical patterns to see what the student could understand, and respond properly to.

The AIJP (Academic Intensive Japanese Program) has 3 beginner levels, 2 intermediate levels and those who test into advanced are placed in the AJSP (Advanced Japanese Study Program).  I expected to be placed in the upper beginner (103) level, and I was.  I'll review some chapters from Minna no Nihongo (again!), then move to a more intermediate text.  When learning a language, immersion helps and without it, it's easy to lose what you've recently learned.

An aside: as I'm typing this, the yaki imo truck just went by.  It's similar to an ice cream truck, but the product is roasted sweet potatoes.  Like an ice-cream truck, the yaki imo truck has a song to announce itself.  It sounded like this one.  I hope I can catch him sometime, but I'm on the second floor so I'll have to learn his schedule.  I bet those are really good when it gets chilly!

Back to school!  Today we had a 2 hour orientation and tour. Most things seemed reasonable and straight forward.  Poor attendance can lead to loss of visa status. In Japan the drinking age is 20 (the age of majority), and the blood alcohol limit for driving or bicycling is 0%.  Health insurance is simple:  as a student on a visa we will all enroll in the national health insurance, which pays about 70% of medical costs.  

The last time I was in Japan on a visa, I had to apply for a residence card at my city hall once I moved my assigned city, and then wait for it and go pick it up in order to open a bank account, set up internet, etc.  

That process has been revamped and now if you come to Japan on any visa that includes resident status (such as student visas, work visas, but not tourist visas), you receive a residence card at the airport.  If you've filled out the form, you can get work permission at the same time, which I did, just in case something presents itself.

However, you do have to register at the city where you'll live and sign up for health insurance and pension.  Next week, we'll all fill out our paperwork for that, and the school will bus us to city hall to take care of everything.  

As a student, I think I'll be exempt from the pension requirement, and I'll be able to apply for a discount on my health insurance since I earned no money in Japan last year.  Health insurance premiums are determined at the local level.  In Okazaki, without the discount, mine would be ¥7000 (less than $70) a month.  

Yamasa tries to avoid concentrations of students from any one country or language, and I think they do a good job at this.  It's good for the students to have only Japanese as a common language, although that's not really the case because of how many people learn English in school.  

Here is the breakdown of the October intake of 44 AIJP students:

• Brazil - 4
• Canada -1
• China - 4
• France - 1
• Germany - 2
• Indonesia - 4
• Israel - 1
• Mexico - 1
• Philippines - 1
• Singapore - 2
• South Korea - 1
• Taiwan - 13
• UK - 1
• USA - 7
• Viet Nam - 1

Tomorrow the fun begins!

Bento Lunch

The entrance ceremony is today.  The last time I was at Yamasa, I usually bought lunch from the deli at the nearby grocery store, Domy.  Since I have my own kitchen now, I intend to make lunches most of the time.  Here is today's very simple lunch.

Some gyoza that I bought pre-made but uncooked, mock crab legs, seasoned cucumber, rice. 

There is a company connected to Yamasa that makes and sells bento lunches (Japanese-style ready-cooked meals).  Their specialty is healthy bento -- organic veggies, no additives, that kind of thing.  They sell them in the lobby at lunch time. The menu is posted, so when there is a particularly good one, or one that I just can't make myself, I'll buy it. 

Isn't it expensive?

One question I was often asked when I said that I'm going to Japan is, "Isn't it expensive?"

Well, kind of, but not as much as you'd think.

First of all, I'm not in Tokyo, so that makes a difference.  I'm about 190 miles/300 km away from Tokyo.

Okazaki has 372,357 people, according to Wikipedia, while the metro Appleton area has 367,516.  Okazaki's density is 992 people per square kilometer, while Appleton's is 1172.  Okazaki's cost of living is less than Tokyo, like Appleton's is less than New York City, or even Chicago.

I did some shopping today, so I'll give you some prices to compare with costs where you live.

2L green tea (not sweetened) = ¥118/$1.04
This can of beer (Kirin Platinum Double -- 0 purine, 0 carbs!) = ¥128/$1.13

500 g/1.1 lb sugar = ¥125/$1.11
2 kg/4.4 lbs uncooked short-grain rice = ¥880/$7.80
5 bath's worth of bath salts =  ¥100/$0.88

Conversely, I can get some things here that I can't find at any price in the Appleton area -- mostly a greater variety of fresh seafood, mushrooms and tea.  Like maitake mushrooms:

Sales tax here is 8%.  If you want a plastic bag for your groceries, you'll pay a few yen for one -- or just bring a reusable bag of your own.

Housing is more expensive in Japan than in Appleton, partly because so much of Japan is mountainous and not suitable for building on.  A positive side of that is that Japan has a lot of forest.  I'm avoiding some of the costs of renting, such as unrefunded fees paid to landlords and real estate agents when signing a lease.  That's because the school owns the building I'm living in.

Gasoline is more expensive than in the US, but not as expensive as places like Norway.  But that's an expense I won't have -- I intend to get a bicycle and take trains and buses for long distance travel.

Of course, if you come to Japan and want to eat only Western-style food and drink imported beverages, you'll pay more than someone who eats and drinks local fare.  Japan is not a cheap destination, but it doesn't have to be ridiculously expensive, either.

Sakura -- just in the nick of time!

I was afraid I'd have to leave before seeing a good sakura show.  Yesterday, I used an app to find a spot that had almost full bloom.  Yes, there's an app for that!

It was in Kariya, which is  a city between Okazaki and Nagoya.  When the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the Japanese partake in Hanami.  It's a festival atmosphere -- lots of food stand with okonomiyaki, takoyaki, frankfurters, choco-bananas, beer!, etc.  People either buy food from the stands or bring their own, and picnic under the cherry trees, enjoying the flowers' brief, but beautiful, appearance.  There are some carnival game for the kids, too.

Here are some of pictures from Kijou Park:

This guy might be saving a space for a group. If it's a group of employees from a company, he is likely the most junior person there.

You can see some food stands here.  The one that says たこやき (right behind the light pole), is selling "takoyaki" or cooked balls of dough with octopus in it.

Usually that translates to "octopus balls" and my late, friend Mako used to say that there were 8 per octopus.

On an unrelated topic, here are some new homes that I passed by.  

Some people already have gardens going!  I won't be able to plant mine for another month at least.

Here's how to provide a spot for people to rest while they wait for a ride without having people sleep there.  I've seen this in other places, too.  Japan does have homelessness -- I've seen people roughing it in Tokyo.

On my way home, I saw that the trees near the pond had bloomed a bit more.  Just in time!!

Another Sakura Update

I have only 2 school days left.  I gave my last presentation today. I can discuss pow-wows in Japanese, which is a skill that looks good on any resume. There is also a small group of Japanese who now have a craving for fry bread.

Cherry blossoms are blooming late this year, because of course they are.  I wonder out loud if I'll get to see them before I leave.  I usually get a "Maybe"sort of response, which really means "Maybe if you're really lucky and have awesome karma".  But I'm not getting the "It's difficult" response, which translates to "No way in hell".  So, that 's  good.

At the pond, there are some blooms.  Here are some pictures I took this morning.  My plan is to head up to Okazaki Park, where the castle is, after graduation on Thursday.  Yes, I have to give a speech at graduation.

Sakura update

Of course the day I'm not traveling is absolutely gorgeous outside!  I even have my window open!

I went to the pond for a sakura update.  They are starting to pop!

I was making a beeline for the tree that I thought was furthest along, and almost walked right past the one that IS the furthest along!

 

Here is what the tree I expected to be doing the best looked like.

While there, I took some duck pictures.  The internet tells me that they are Eurasian wigeons.

Also, some bamboo grows there.

Hamamatsu

Yesterday I went to Hamamatsu after class.  I took a train from Okazaki to Toyohashi, then another to Hamamatsu.  There is a shinkansen from Toyohashi, but I just took a regular train.  The whole trip took about an hour.

It was raining, though, so the camera didn't leave my backpack.  I hope to come back to Hamamatsu on a nicer day to see the castle and seashore.

I went to Shikisado, which has lots of traditional Japanese craft items.  There were lots of chopsticks, lacquer bowls as well as handkerchiefs, towels and bags with Japanese motifs.  There is also a tea shop inside.  It's a good place for souvenirs because it's not kitschy.

Then I went to Bungu Box, a pen shop that's well-known on the internet.  I was stunned by how small the store was -- about two people could fit inside.

They say that you can't buy happiness, but I did: