ダニエルの冒険

This evening I’ll have been home in Ireland for week. It just so happened that the week I was back was a week where five of my friends had all left Ireland for various work and holidays. The remaining friends had started working a lot so they weren’t around either. I reactivated my World of Warcraft account and started work in the University of Limerick’s Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) department so the week went by fairly quickly, despite the lack of anyone free in my area. Over the last few days three of those friends who had left have come home and soon enough another one will. So much for my World of Warcraft account I guess!Anyway, Japan was incredible. I can’t wait to get back there again. Next year I’ll have three months in Okazaki and I already have lots of people I’m planning to meet up with – people I didn’t see enough of during the holiday, people I didn’t get to see at all during the holiday, and people who I’ve never even met! Maybe a friend or two can visit from Ireland too. I’ll keep a futon free! (more…)

We’re boarding in a minute. I’ll miss Japan! 

Before I left Ireland, I was talking to one of my Japanese friends living in Ireland and she was complaining that Irish people have no “joushiki”. Kenkyusha defines it as “common sense” or “practical sense”. It also uses “wisdom” and “common knowledge” to define it. She’s dead on though. They just don’t get it. I wasn’t convinced until I heard a story from one of the more odious girls this morning. (more…)

Today we went to Hiroshima for the day. It was a bit of a pain having to get up around 6am to make sure we got the Shinkansen (bullet train) but we got there anyway and got the ferry to Miyajima Island. There was the famous Torii (Shinto gate) in the water, a shrine (of course… they’re everywhere) and more deer! I wore my “日本人彼女募集中” (”Looking for Japanese girlfriends” — similar signs are up around cities looking for part-time employees, tenants for apartments, etc) t-shirt but though I got countless giggles and smiles there were no takers. I still have tomorrow left before I go home though. Maybe I can see that Maiko-san again if I go through Gion (old district here in Kyoto). (more…)

Yet again, I fell in love. This time it was with a Maiko! Maiko eventually become Geiko (Geisha) when they’re 20 but this girl was still in training: between 15 and 20. I spoke with her a bit while all the ladies in the shop in the hotel were doting over her dress. She was really lovely and joking around with the ladies. I introduced myself to her and stuff and she was just like any other Japanese girl, though noticeably more softly spoken. That might just have been her though. Apparently you have to pay to see a Geisha’s smile, but this one was laughing quite a bit. One guy was getting his photo taken with her and she started laughing because he was getting impatient with how long it was taking for the photo to be taken.
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Today was Nara! Lovely place but not really anything to say about it. It’s all in the photos. Nara Park (lots of deer), Toudaiji (biggest wooden building in the world), Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Horyuji (oldest wooden building in the world). Another day spent saying “haro~!” (”hello”) to middle-schoolers on day-trips. 

The next day was our journey to Kyoto. We decided to hop off the Shinkasen at Nagoya (no, you can’t “just do that”, but we made it happen) and get a train to Okazaki (about 30 minutes away) to see Yamasa. Turns out it’s just as great as I’d imagined! The main building looks great, but the other buildings often look pretty dilapidated from the outside with peeling paint and rust, but the interiors are fantastic. There’s one group of “villas” (number 5) and the rooms are totally new, every student with their own shower room, toilet room, kitchen/living room (with microwave, automatic washing machine, cooker, flat panel TV, leather couch, 2 desks, 2 chairs) and a “bedroom” which is basically a bed-sized platform over the living area with a ladder going up. The floor and stairs/ladder were all wood and it felt really modern yet really comfortable.

So eventually we arrived in Kyoto. That was 26 hours ago and it’s hardly stopped raining since. Apparently the rainy season has just started and today we went to lots of places like Kiyomizu temple, Sanjusangendo, Heian shrine, Kinkakuji, and Nijo castle. It rained non-stop throughout all of them so it was really a shame to miss so many “shutter chances” as the Japanese call them.

Anyway, tomorrow’s Nara and I’m looking forward to that. Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain again!

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It’s been a few days since I’ve had a chance to update the blog so I’ll write a few entries now. This is the first and is about my last day in Tokyo.

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Yeah, I went to Fuji and Hakone. I miss my friends from Gunma and I wish I could’ve been in Akiba or somewhere instead of a mountain! Sure, I enjoyed it. It is Japan, after all. But what an anticlimax after yesterday! I met the friends from my Japanese class again this evening, though this time thankfully not in Roppongi. Tomorrow I’ll meet my old friend Daisuke who I met in Ireland a year or so ago. Then it’s off to Kyoto!
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Yup, seriously the best day of my life. Almost everything I’ve been wanting to do since I became interested in Japan I was able to do, including getting purikura taken, going to a karaoke, going around Akihabara, seeing meido-san, seeing otaku, seeing cosplay, and lots more!

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