It Was Like a Scary Movie

A lot has happened since I last posted about my time in Japan. I went with my family to Kyoto and saw an opera concert in a temple. I met both of my host parents' parents and went to a random field day at a school. I went to a parade-of-sorts in a nearby city. I got a 45% on my "grammar you should know before taking this class" test in Japanese. These are all probably things that I should write about (and may write about at one time), but this weekend was truly crazy and deserves a post of its own.

First, I need to give a small intro. As I've talked about a little bit before, my host dad is a doctor and my host mom is a psychologist. Both of them are interested in the effects that the mind has on a person's health, especially a person with cancer. Therefore, they set up a seminar this weekend and invited a specialist on the Simonton Method to come and speak. The Simonton Program/Method is basically a program for cancer patients and their supporters to improve their quality of life. It helps patients think more positively and work towards a happy life with cancer. I can't say I completely agreed with all of the program, but it definitely has its merits. But really, I don't think anyone wants to hear my thoughts on the program anyways. On to the good stuff.

Last week my host parents asked if I would like to come to the seminar, and I told them yes. At the time it sounded like a good idea. In hindsight, I'm extremely happy I went, even though the seminar was all in Japanese and I only understood like 25% of what was going on. But by going to the seminar, I was able to have my first big adventure in Japan.

The seminar started Saturday afternoon. I went and helped set up the room (though I honestly wasn't much help), then I sat through the first day. I was pretty gung-ho about paying attention and trying to see what I could understand on Saturday, so the session went by pretty fast. Afterwards, I rode home with my host mom. Also in the car was a friend of the family. Also a psychologist, Ryoko (the family friend) studied/worked at the University of Michigan for 3 years (pretty recently, too, I think). Right away, I could tell that Ryoko was a pretty energetic, spontaneous person. She also spoke really good English, which was kind of fun because she liked being able to speak in English with me.

That night, our family hosted a dinner party for the lady speaking at the seminar, Ryoko, and another doctor that helped out at the seminar. It was a lot of fun to get to see everyone communicate with each other, and the food was really good, too. On a side note, the lady that hosted the seminar spoke English almost perfectly (I think she lived in the US for more than 5 years at one time), and she liked trying to explain different Japanese words/phrases to me, so I think I learned a lot at the dinner. 

The next morning before we went to the second day of the seminar, Ryoko and my host parents asked me if I wanted to go to Hiroshima. Ryoko had told me she was from Hiroshima, so I figured they were probably trying to plan out a family trip together where we could meet her and travel together. I told them I definitely did. Turns out it wasn't a future trip; they were talking about going that day. And then I figured out that it wasn't a whole family trip, because it would have to be a multiple day trip. Ryoko had invited me to go there with her and she would be my sightseeing tour guide. A little flustered, I agreed.

I mean, I wasn't scared or anything, and I definitely trusted Ryoko even though I had only known her since Saturday afternoon, but I'm definitely not the spontaneous type. Truthfully, going to Hiroshima and sightseeing so suddenly seemed like a dream. I didn't have to do any of the advance planning or anything. Ryoko had work off on Monday, and I don't have classes on Monday. Ryoko lived in the area and knew what trains to take, had a place for me to stay, and knew the best places to go in Hiroshima. It seemed too good to be true.

So I sat through the second, much longer day of the seminar spacing out, thinking about my trip that I was about to go on after the seminar. Also, the lady running the seminar gave me an English packet, which I read through a couple times until I felt like I knew what they were talking about even if I wasn't paying attention. After the seminar, we cleaned up, stopped by the house one last time, then my host mom drove Ryoko and me to the train station.

I just want to note here that I can't believe how lucky I was. This weekend I basically accidentally accomplished at least 3 of the goals I wrote about earlier in my blog. You'll see what I mean right... now:

When we arrived at the train station, I realized that we weren't going to be able to take a normal train to Hiroshima. We were taking the Shinkansen! The tickets were a little expensive, and it was dark outside when we got on the train, but it was still awesome. The Nozomi was the name of the train/line we rode, and it was pretty much like an airplane. 

On the train, I agreed with Ryoko that I didn't mind speaking with her in English during my trip because it was only going to be a short time and she really wanted to speak English. Still, throughout the trip, she constantly spoke back to me and Japanese and made efforts to try to teach me new Japanese words/phrases. I really appreciated it.

Okay, here I think I'm going to talk a little bit about Ryoko. I'm going a little out of order because I didn't really discover all of this stuff about her right away, but I think it's necessary that I write it so you understand more of what the trip with her was like. I'm going to start out by saying that if I could compare her to anyone, she is without a doubt as close as you can to a real-life equivalent of Luna Lovegood. If you've read Harry Potter, then I assume you already understand enough about Ryoko for me to keep telling my story, but I'll clear it up for everyone who hasn't read the series. Ryoko is short, a little mysterious, and very energetic. And she believes in some of the weirdest stuff. She's not afraid to talk about whatever she feels like. She told me how she thought that the mountain we were going to visit in the Hiroshima area used to be visited by aliens a long time ago, and that she thinks astronauts commonly see UFOs in space. She said she doesn't like watching the news because a lot of the stuff seems fake. Etc.

But don't get me wrong. Much like Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter, there's something about Ryoko that makes you want to hang out with her. During our trip she alternated between saying some of the most insightful things I've ever heard, and some of the most random, wacky things I have ever heard. For example, she asked me a lot about myself -- what I liked, what I thought my personality was, etc. Then she asked if I had any pets, and I told her that my family has two dogs but I really wanted a cat. I explained that I liked both dogs and cats, but cats are definitely easier to care for and much more independent. Her response? "You want a cat because you're a cat." I didn't know what to say, but when I thought about it, I had described myself just like I had described a cat. It just takes someone like Ryoko to say something strangely true like that, right?

But anyways, now that you know what she's like, back to the story. After we got off of the Shinkansen line, we took a normal train and then a bus to Ryoko's house. Well, actually, it was her parents' house because Ryoko is going through a divorce right now so she is temporarily living with her parents. I was jealous, though, because her parents' house, where Ryoko grew up, was about 30 seconds from the bus stop and only one or two stops away from the main station in Hiroshima. (Quite different from my host family's house which is more-or-less out of the way).

Also, their house was quite different from a normal house. Ryoko's dad owns a nursing home/hospital of sorts. Their "house" is the third floor of the building. It was really cool -- definitely something I'd never seen before. The first two floors were truly a nursing home, then the third floor looked like a normal Japanese house on the inside. The final surprise of the night was that Ryoko told me that since she was living in her parents' house, they were all out of rooms so I would be sleeping in one of the hospital/nursing home rooms. For some reason, I found this completely awesome.

Another side note, even though it was a hospital/nursing home, Ryoko's dad stopped keeping patients overnight because he was getting too old to manage all of that, and he only did outpatient stuff during the day. So the place was completely deserted at night.

When Ryoko walked me down the stairs and through the hallway to my room, it felt like I was in a scary movie. The lights were dim, fluorescent, and flashing a little bit. The hospital itself was a little worn-down and had a spooky feeling to it. Definitely cool :) My room was truly a patient's old room. It had a hospital-style bed, small bathroom and a sink. Even though I was excited for the next day of sightseeing, I fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning Ryoko went to visit a patient in a hospital in a neighboring city, during which time I ate a breakfast prepared by Ryoko's mom. Ryoko's mom said she was 72 years old, though I would have put her in her early-60s. Like Ryoko, she was friendly and energetic. She was also a really good cook. When Ryoko returned, we headed off to do our sightseeing.

We had decided the night before that I would not have enough time to see everything in the Hiroshima area worth seeing, so we skipped going to the Peace Memorial and A-Bomb dome this time and I said I would come back some other time to visit (which I intend to do). Instead, we chose to spend the day at Miyajima (Island), home to the Itsukushima Temple/Shrine.

The coolest thing about the trip to Miyajima was that we had to take a boat to get there, something I did not expect. Oddly enough, you purchase tickets for the boats in the exact same manner as you do for the subway. Efficient, right?

Simply put, Miyajima was awesome. Itsukushima Shrine was beautiful. We were there when the tide was low in the morning, and then we walked by the Shrine again before we left when the water was higher. We also went to the top of a mountain on the island (I forget the name right now, but the whole mountain area is a world heritage site). For me, going to the top of the mountain was the unexpected highlight of the trip. We took a ... I don't know what they're called in English ... rope way? Anyways, we rode a ski-lift type thing up to the peak of a shorter mountain, then followed some paths up to the top of the tallest mountain on the island. From the peak of this mountain, you could see the whole city of Hiroshima. But even better than that, you could see the large islands that all stuck out of the inland sea.

For some reason, I hadn't realized that I would be seeing the inland sea from the top of this mountain, so when I understood the view, I was thrilled. It was honestly like nothing I'd ever seen before. Also, since it was a little bit cloudy that day and it was sprinkling on and off, Ryoko pointed out that if you let your mind wander, the sea looked like clouds, not water, and the islands looked like they were tall mountains poking through the top of the clouds. I tried to take some pictures to share, but they didn't turn out very well. I'll post a few of the pictures, but the ones from the peak don't show the view very well. You can get the idea of the mountains poking out of the sea, but in real life I was able to see much much farther than you can in the pictures.

Side note, we saw a bunch of deer and a bunch (!) of monkeys on the top of the mountain. The little monkeys were cute, but I didn't get any pictures because... well... let's not talk about it. Let's just say that I'm buying a new camera soon.

Well, it's past bed-time for me now so I'll wrap it up by saying that I headed back home that night (Monday night) around 5 o'clock. Ryoko took me to the station, and I took the Shinkansen back to Kobe, then the subway and a bus to get back home. I made it back with (surprisingly) no problems. All in all, a great impromptu trip. 

One important thing I learned, though, is that impromptu trips are great only if you're with someone who knows what's going on. This trip gave me a taste for sightseeing, and helped me realize that if I'm going to start visiting places, I need to buy some guide books and begin planning out some trips. I can't rely on my luck all of the time!

Alright, there's tons more I should write, and there's probably a lot of mistakes in this post, but I'm too tired to write more or proofread. If there's something you want to hear more about, or something you want me to comment on, or anything, please comment. I love reading everyone's comments (even if I don't respond, though I do plan on responding more often), so please feel free to post. Sorry for the massive wall of text. I'll do my best to break my posts into more digestible pieces from now on. Also, I'll try to post all of my photos on Facebook, so keep an eye out for them!

Until next time!