Good morning Japan!!! Please do not rain on me today!!!
Either ways, heading up to the Aobayama Campus of Tohoku University for classes today, and I just realized I never show the bus I take to classes in the morning.
This is a Sendai City bus chartered by Tohoku University! In my point of view, this shows how big Tohoku University is! Before it was Tohoku University, it was the Third Imperial University of Japan!
Well, I have arrived at my stop! So I am off to class!!!
Golden week is swiftly coming to an end, but my time with family in Japan continues to be tons of fun!
Today on 子供の日 (Children's Day), I went with my Uncle, Aunt, and Cousins to Mishiko!!! We enjoyed Toshigi's famous ceramics and painted some ceramics ourselves!
Here are some ceramics I painted!!!
The gray sections will fire to become brilliant shades of blue, while the pink parts will become an even more beautiful pink and red sections a dark brown. I can't wait to see how they came out. Thank you Uncle, Aunt, and cousins!!!! おじさんとおばさんとみんなさん! こんにちの旅行をありがとうございます!!!
Hello Friends!
On Constitution Memorial Day here in Japan I am headed to Nasushiobara to meet my family in Yaita!!!
My favorite aspect of all travel in Japan is using the Shinkansen! It has all the class of flying on an airline, but with the convenience of train travel! Also, no TSA for the Americans out there.
Here are a few pictures to show how I see Shinkansen travel in Sendai, Japan!
The Departure Board!!!
The Departure Lobby inside the gate!!!
Here is my train!!!
Hello all!
So, given how good of a response I received on Wednesday's post, I will continue to talk about Japanese Culture in general (which I just realized I should be writing about to begin with on this site)!
So, holidays in Japan have been quite an interesting experience for me. Japan have both many holidays, and very few holidays at the same exact time. Using http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/japan/, the best list I can find on the internet as reference, Japan has 16 national holidays, and a total of about 25 holidays in the year. In constrast, the United States has 11 national holidays, and an insane amount of holidays based on which state you live in and your religion (I think around 35-40 on average, just an estimation on my part though).
Apart from having a numerically fewer holidays than what others would have in many Western countries, they also celebrate different holidays as well. For instance, Japan does not officially celebrate Western holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Also, Japan has Japanese holidays such as National Foundation Day, Showa Day, Coming of Age Day, and Respect for the Age Day.
What makes holidays Japanese in Japan is how the Japanese observe these holidays. The Japanese takes a day off ONLY on national holidays. To translate that into numbers that people can understand, that means that people in Japan normally only get about 16 days off in a year. Now, that is not entirely true when you include Sundays off and other days off that people take, but it is true that workers in Japan take far fewer days off than many other similarly developed nations.
Spring-boarding off of the previous statement, the Japanese seldom take days off before or before a holiday to connect it to the weekend. They will often go to work on a Monday, take the national holiday on Tuesday, and go back to work on Wednesday if a national holiday falls on Tuesday. The one exception to this trend is Golden Week, which is the name given to the holidays Showa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day (which also happens to be on of my favorite holidays!!!). These four holidays occur in a seven day period, hence the name Golden Week. Because of how Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day are string up on May 3, 4, and 5 respectively, people usually take a holiday from Showa Day on April 29 to Children's Day on May 5.
As a result, Golden Week is one of the few (and I really mean few) times in the year when people in Japan are able to spend time with family and travel. Train stations and airports in Japan are absolutely packed on Showa Day and Children's Day!!!
Well, I hope that this post gives a good explanation of holidays in Japan. Please ask questions in the comment if there is any other pieces of information about Japan holidays that you might want to know. To end, I will stick a picture of the recent game I picked up to enjoy over Golden Week!
Bravely Second!!!!
Long time, no see!
So, if you live in Japan, today is Showa Day. The day of the Showa Emperor's birthday. Rather than a holiday to celebrate the last emperor's reign, it is a holiday that is intended to reflect on the turbulent reign of the Showa Emperor from 1926 to 1989.
This day also marks the start of the Golden Week period. In Japan, multiple holidays are lined up one day after another in the end of April and beginning of May called Golden Week. For the majority of Japanese, this is their only vacation period apart from a few days for New Year.
As for me, I am using this as a chance to revisit my family in Yaita in the Tochigi Prefecture, as well as enjoy the beautiful spring weather in Sendai at the moment. Everyday averages extremely sunny with a high at around 25 degrees Celcius, absolutely beautiful!
If feels wrong to post without pictures, so I will tease some of the pictures I am working on!
Mutsukokubunji Yakushido Temple
Shiogama Shrine Flower Festival
Back-to-back posts? I really have a problem!
With 7 months behind me in Japan, I have finally started a proper school year in Japan. Since this is the beginning of the Japanese school year, it is a great time for me to try something new!
My New Year's Resolution is to join a club at my host university, Tohoku University. I am thinking of joining the traditional music club if the dedication requirement is not too imposing on my prior obligations to my classes and lab. Maybe I will be able to learn to play the Shimansen before I return!
Well, that is pretty much it. Wish me luck!
Good night world!
So, despite all of my best wishes, I was not able to enjoy the cherry blossoms in Sendai today due to rain, but the rain cleared up to give me a beautiful view of Sendai at night from my room. I call this piece Sleeping Sendai. My favorite part of this composition is the lone Peach Blossom tree near the front of the picture. That tree smells wonderful!
Sleeping Sendai
Happy Easter to the West. I only remembered this because my mother reminded me to be truthful. An old tradition of the family is to try to watch as much of the 1956 version of the Ten Commandments movie that always show on television back home. It is an interesting story, though I am not really a religious person and align more strongly with Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Shintoism, and Confuscianism (more an ideology than religion, but considered a religion, so oh well).
Either ways, as my family prepares to enjoy Spring Break off this week. My two month long Spring Break in Japan is coming to a close. To my anxiety driven wait, I have finally received my grades back from my first term in Japan, and I can't really be happier!
Apart from that, a new video game popped back up on my radar. If my post about the Artnia Cafe in Tokyo tells much about me, I absolutely love games by Square Enix, especially well designed strategic role playing games. They have gotten me excited with their sequel to Bravely Default, which I have easily enjoyed for over 100 hours, Bravely Second! I am so excited to see the opening theme done by Supercell, one of my favorite music groups here in Japan!
I am so happy to be in Japan for this release! Releases of games in Japan are quite different to game releases in the West. They hardly, if ever, do the midnight release in Japan. This is due to the lifestyle of the people in Japan. Because Japanese people spend around 60 hours a week at work, they hardly have time to go to "time wasting" events such as midnight game releases and the like. They like to pick things up whenever they have the time to do so. From my experience with a family friend in Japan, he hardly ever plays games, and only picks them up whenever he has time to even play, quite a different culture from the "Day One" play that we are used to back home.
Either ways, I digress. I had an exciting week this week. The Cherry Blossoms are starting to blossom in Sendai, so I am excited to experience Sakura Hanami (sakura viewing parties) with friends these upcoming weekends. Tons of picture opportunities there! Talk to you soon!
Hello again internet!
Finally getting back to a regular schedule after an entire month's time of new experience after new experience. That was a lot harder than I expected.
Either ways, enough about me, and more about my experiences in Japan!!! Last week, I was given pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the public forums of the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, the UN WCDRR in short. It actually happened in the city where I am living in Japan, Sendai.
Well, I might as well put everything in context. Sendai is the capital city of the Miyagi Prefecture, the prefecture most affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, and also the prefecture where the resulting Fukushima Nuclear Disaster occurred. Sendai city was central to the recovery of the the entire area, as it is the cultural and economic center of this region.
This conference gave me a chance to see how the region has changed since that time. I really enjoyed learning all about this disaster, despite how terrible was, as it gave me a glimpse into how resilient and respectful the Japanese people are to nature. Despite all of the suffering and sadness of such a disaster, I was able to realize the amount of work and effort Japan was able to put into recovering on an individual level.
I was able to attend the most popular public forum of the conference, "A Symposium Promoting the Forested Coastal Embankment". I was actually invited by one of my teachers this past term in Tohoku University, and I am so happy that I was able to attend. I learned many new ideas at this symposium that I love to be able to bring back home!
Well, there is too much for me to describe about this conference. There was so much available to the public for this event and I was so happy to see Sendai decked out and full of energy for what would most likely seem like a mundane event for the rest of the world! I would love to come back to Sendai for another such event!!!
Slowly filtering my photos and getting back to regular life, but in the meantime, I want to share my experience at Artnia, Square Enix's cafe, bar, and special ware store. This experience is what I want out of a studio's cafe experience: paying tribute to its franchises while also giving a solid cafe experience. I implore everyone to go experience this cafe if you love Square Enix games!
Let me start off with how to get there. Go to Higashishinjuku Metro station, exit via exit A3, go through the skyscraper which the right by the exit, and you will find Artnia to the left.
As soon as you get to the door, the experience begins. An attendant was there to open the door for me, which left quite an impression on the "level" of the experience here. If you are here just to buy Square Enix goods, you can just pick up a basket and start shopping, but I highly recommend to enjoy the atmosphere and take a seat at a table.
The dining experience is as classy as the building itself. As soon as you sit down, you notice the beautiful red, black, and white table setting.
Despite being a Japan-based studio, Square Enix did a masterful job creating a European cafe experience. I ordered a Mozzarella and Tomato Flatbread Sandwich and Iced Tea with Milk.
Even if you are not interested in having a meal, you can enjoy all the different foods and drinks you can think of from a regular cafe and bar. Another party was enjoying a set of parfaits while another table was enjoying a nice cake. I do recommend getting a drink of some sort as you can get a specialty coaster with either a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest theme. As you can see on my setting, I chose a Final Fantasy coaster. The attendants are even kind enough to place the coaster beside your drink rather than under if as they understand that you would probably want to keep it!
After enjoying a light and balanced meal, you are allowed to enjoy look around the exhibit and tastefully designed shop to see if you want to buy any of the goods. I especially enjoyed their music corner, with three headphone sets to allow you to enjoy their entire library of music and their Materia room.
As for the cost of all this, the meal I had cost around 1500 yen (14 USD). The items range in cost from pocket change to well over 10000 yen (100 USD). I highly recommend this as a nice away from the rest of Tokyo you would usually experience through regular tourism!
Pictures from my trip below!
