In Which My Life is Very Busy

So it feels like I arrived here in Japan both yesterday and a lifetime ago. I haven't posted anything because my life has been crazy busy, mostly because of my homework. I have tons and tons of it! But I do find time everyday to just relax and enjoy life, with my friends at school and my host family at home. There have been ups and downs, as there always is, no matter what is going on around you. But I have definitely grown as person and I notice all the time that my Japanese is getting better (which excites me to no end!). 

 Here are some various pictures, both old and new, to give you some idea of my life here in Japan!

 The parking lot for my building has one space (featured below) turn into three spaces (featured above)! All at the touch of a button!!!

I hope my video works right!

 This is ice cream mochi - a delicious sweet! And below is a yummy cookie - creamy filling on top of a wafer bottom! Yu~m!

 Here, in public parking lots, there is usually some method of locking your car up. This picture has a big old metal thing that raises up and makes driving up over it very difficult indeed. :P

 This is the entrance to a school I pass on my way to college. Here in Japan, they lock the gates at a certain time so you're kind of out of luck when you're late! I'm not sure if you can get in at all until much later if you are running late.

 Slug bug Steve!! I'm so going to beat you up when I see you next time because of the slug bugs I can't punch you for!

 A sushi restaurant I walk by everyday. It looks really legit and I want to eat there someday but I think its a bit too expensive.

 Lion outside my building because its called the Lions Kotoen Lounge.

 The method of gaining entry. You can type in an apartments number and call people - there is a video camera they can see you on as well as a speaker phone  - or wave your key in front of the little gray box and it senses some kind of chip or something and lets you in that way.

 We went to a little cafe and had sweets together one day. I had apple juice (best I've ever had) and roll cake, which is really popular here. Its just a cake rolled around some cream filling and fruit bits but totally yummy!

                                                   

 Naomi visited for a weekend and we had toooooons of fun together! It was totally awesome! She took me to Osaka fr=or my first visit there. Near the Umeda train station we rode a ferris wheel at a shopping mall called HEP 5. This is a picture of all the train tracks in that area coming into Umeda station.

 This is a really famous tourist spot in an area of Osaka called Shinsaibashi, specifically at two places called Namba and Dotonbori. Both have lots of shopping, just like Umeda, but they have even more places to eat. I guess Osaka is famous for "eating till you drop" so if you ever come visit, we might have to try doing that, cause the food is delicious! And I'm not entirely sure why this Glico man is famous . . . But Glico is a big food brand - they make pocky!

 I went with my host family to a baseball game in the Kyocera Dome in Osaka. Of course it was just nonprofessional teams that are sponsored by the corporations but it was still an interesting experience! Even better, the L'Arc~en~Ciel concert I'm going to in a week and a half is here in this same dome! XD

 The mascots the other team had - an alien, Sonic and friends, and Hello Kitty and friends!!!

 One weekend we went to see a couple places in Osaka that famous historically. This was a garden outside of a place called Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion.

 This is the Silver Pavilion. It was really small but still cool to see none-the-less!

 A different view, after walking through the little garden-y thing and climbing some stairs.

 This was just a building for the gift shop but I thought it looked cool.

                                                                  (BAMBOO!!!)

 Real (I don't know how real) green tea - it wasn't bitter at all! Really creamy and I liked it lots! And the little cakes were yum-yum!

 This is a famous temple called Heian Jingu. Its really old, was built in honor of some emperor and empress/in honor of making Kyoto the capital (because it was the capital before Tokyo was), and was really big and cool looking.

 These white pieces of paper are tied to trees because they are bad (or just not good) fortunes that people got at the shrine. In order to get rid o the bad fortune, you pray at the shrine and leave the fortune here in these trees. I will have to look more into the culture before I try to tell you anymore about it. :D

 Shrine maidens.

           I don't have any pictures, but today my friends and I all gathered and had Thanksgiving together! We actually all got to spend the night at Katie's house, all 6 of us, and the 7 of us made turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, chicken, gravy, pumpkin pie, and lots of chocolate things! It was yummy and all around a great time! Ok, goodnight! I'm super tired and have class tomorrow so happy Thanksgiving to you all!

3 Weeks?! What?

     Yes, it's true! I've been in Japan for three weeks officially today! And one month ago, I left on a plane from Kansas City airport with the sight of my mom waving like a madwoman to send me off! :P
I can't lie, I've been a little homesick. Mostly, I miss being able to talk and see everyone whenever I want. But I also miss my favorite foods - simple mac and cheese and real pizza and beef and noodles come to mind all the time, my beloved kitty cat, the two dorky dogs, and hugging all the members of my family. It's surprising how much you can miss hugs when you are cut off from them all the sudden. Hugs and having kids crawl all over you are probably my top two missed things. (Wait, my cat takes the cake so make that "my second two missed things.")
     But I'm having so much fun here! Life in Japan is so different from life in America but I'll save all of those differences for a different post. Right now, I have exactly one to report on - the presence of awesome historical treasures that are over a mere 200 years old! Last weekend I went to a city called Nara, which has a huge park that has many, many different national treasures to visit. Not only that, but it's filled with tons of deer!!!

     They are literally walking around everywhere. Not only that, but they aren't scared of people so you can walk up to them (if they haven't surrounded you already) and pet them without them being skittish or unruly.

     This picture is from before we started feeding the deer and there were that many around us! Generally you are going to have at least one beside you if you are standing still, but usually they all come and go. Just before this, my host mom had a map brochure in her hand and deer grabbed it to try and eat it! She had to wrestle the deer to get it to let go! And they like to try to eat your clothes too - or to get your attention! So funny! And a little scary! :P
     But back to the feeding the deer thing - do so with caution! There are smart ways and stupid ways to feed the deer and you'll quickly learn that you definitely want to do it the smart way! It's very easy for you to give one deer a piece of food (they are sold all over the park and are flat, round and basically a dryer and less appetizing version of a cookie), only to look up to see 12 deer crowding around you.

     Here is a picture of almost this exact situation, except the man had been walking with all of these deer following him, before he decided to stop. Just after I took this picture, one of the deer jumped up to  reach the food he's holding over his head. Can't say that I envied his situation. I honestly found throwing the food away from you was the best way to avoid having a ton of deer scare the living daylights out of you by bullying you around.

     We went to Todaiji as well. Todaiji is an ancient Buddhist temple that was originally built in the first half of the 8th century. It has been rebuilt several different times and is today considered the largest buikding in the world that is constructed mainly out of wood. Of course, this is despite the fact that it is actually about 30% smaller than the original size. (I barely managed to fit it into the view screen of my camera and I was really far away from it.)
     Todaiji houses the Great Buddha, which really is a great, giant bronze statue of Buddha. It's listed as being 49 feet tall! Thus, standing in front of it, you feel like a tiny ant . . .

     Of course, he wasn't the only cool statue. There were also the Ah-Un guards at the gate to the temple and two different vicious-looking guys inside the temple (one was standing on an ogre!), and two other, smaller Buddha-related statues as well.

 (Random photo of the back of the Great Buddha . . . XD)

 (This one below is standing on the ogre!)

     And they had a scale model of the original Todaiji - it was humongous!!!

Part of the gate that was surrounding the Todaiji building. It was really cool!

      I can't remember the name of temple right now but, sadly, it was all covered up for renovations. It was still really cool! But this was the steps leading up to the temple and a graveyard.

 One of the many places you must wash your hands (because you do this before entering any temple and other such holy places.) I really liked the dragon on this one!

 My first time seeing REAL rice paper doors!!! XD

The roofs here (even on normal, modern buildings) are so much cooler than in America! They have *style.*

 My first fortune and I got a bad one . . . DX Still haven't had time to go through and read it.

 A big five story pagoda! I don't know the full story but this one is especially big and famous! XD This also is not the full thing - I was way too close to be able to get the whole thing in the picture. It has a really tall, thin pole coming out of the top.

 The kanji on ends of the shingles say "Kiyomizudera Temple," which was the name of the temple we were at at the moment. It thought it was so pretty looking!

     Anyway, that is all for now, cause that's all the pictures I have. But, if you have any special requests for what you wanna know about,  tell me! Cause I'm running out of topics to post on. More like, there are so many that it's impossible to choose one or two! XD