Motivation Pt2

So while doing my daily non strenuous internet surfing I found a health website, as I often do to see tips, tricks, pointers that I could (and will... some day. Some day soon) be doing to be active. On that website I saw this:

"If I don't take care of my body, there are thousands of doctors willing to take my hard earned money to do it for me."

Ouch. That is definitely a good point that nudged me in the right direction. I'm not at the place where I wake up every day going "Yeah! Exercise time! Woo!" but I'm definitely a step further in that direction. Hooray for progress!

The beginning she had shared

I have an option to see the search terms used to find my blog and apparently this is the most common.

The beginning she had shared

Awesome, guys. You are all crazy.

Flavoured Toilet Paper

WHY DO YOU EXIST?

I'm assuming that this is bad Japanese-English and that they meant Scented toilet paper, but I'm still unsure why it needs to exist. Scented things are used because we want to smell nice or we want other things to smell nice. I have sniffed the toilet paper and I assure you that the smell is not even that strong. Though I suppose it is like scented deodorant. And yet, even with deodorant we don't go up to people and say "Hey! My armpits smell like strawberries today, wanna take a whiff?"

49th Day After Death

Which was today. As probably over 90% of my readers are from places that are not Japan I will explain why this date is important.

The dictionary states that souls of the dead alternate between the after world and this world during the seven weeks after death. There is a memorial service on the 7th, 49th, and 100th day after death.

Japanese funerals are probably one of the most expensive - Averaging 2.3 million Yen ($30, 500 CAD). My guess is that first there is probably not a whole lot of space to plant the grave stone at these days, and second seems to be the memorial services. There is a whole bunch within the first year after death but every year after for five years or so there will be memorial services. I don't know what all goes on in them as today was the first but there seems to be a lot of money being passed around.

The family gives the money to the Buddhist monks at the wake. The monks give the family some money afterwards. The family gives more money to the monks. Other family members give the immediate family money. The immediate family gives back the money in the form of food (Everyone goes out to eat and the immediate family pays for it). More money to the monks.

Today my family went over to my husband's uncles house where the five of us plus my husbands aunt and the monk were all crowded in a tiny, tiny room. (Everyone's knees were touching if that helps give you a visual) The monk began chanting some sutras (Or just one very long one) and at the end of it my legs were dead. Because I had to sit on a Japanese pillow, in a traditional Japanese sitting position, for an hour. You try sitting on your legs for an hour! It's hard, man! I stood up afterwards, and guess what happened.

If you guessed that I fell down, you were right! Choco cookie for you! Luckily my husband caught me. It was kind of like a movie scene where the male lead catches the female and sweeps her off her feet, except that it involved a tiny room and many people (So you can probably imagine that the other people are ducking out of the way).

So I've been told that there will be many more times like tonight where there is painful sitting, a monk, chanting and afterwards a restaurant and meal paid for by my husband's aunt. She's a sweet lady although I haven't really been properly introduced to her so I don't even know her name.

I'm going to do a public service here,

Fellow train passenger, and let you know that you over share.

Not that you'd be reading my blog. Also, you can't speak English so I'm to assume that you can't read and understand it either.

The point is still valid.

I had been minding my own business with my English students (We were planning to go shopping in Sannomiya) on the train. We occupied three out of the four seats in one area. Two of them facing each other, and like any other kind group of train passengers, we stored all of our belongings on the empty seat. But the guy that came in on the next stop decided that he would like that seat.

That placed him in front of me and beside Yuki. This is the point when he looked up at me and went "Oh! A foreigner! Is she yours?" Because, you know, I'm an it. "A home-stay foreigner?" Yuki politely explained that I live in Japan. Now I don't know how the topic changed from me to the next one as my Japanese isn't that great but the next topic seemed to be breast surgery. And how he wants his wife to get some done, or a lot done, I wasn't too clear on that. I'm not sure how detailed he got with his want of new breasts for his wife because at some point I sort of tuned out and looked out the window.

Then I had crackers thrown at me, and was told "Crackers!" And when I looked down at the crackers that were now in my lap, and then back up at the man he went "Crack-ERS" Because obviously my confusion stemmed from not understanding what they were and not why they were being thrown at me. He gave me a really wide, creepy grin before moving onto the next topic; horse racing. I had my backpack on my lap and the man decided he needed a solid object to draw invisible markings on to get whatever his point was across. I really didn't care what he was talking about, my thoughts were just on the fact that the guy apparently did not have a personal bubble and he happened to be invading mine.

Luckily he got off at the next stop.

Toothbrush Buffet

So I talked with my husband about my brush being used. I've done so before but he just brushed it off. However this time he tells me that recently he's been finding his toothbrush in odd places, places that he remembers not setting it down at. So he and I agreed that it was probably not the women in the house, which narrows my suspect list down to two. I hadn't really considered the women anyway as I couldn't see them being the type. However I don't know the guys all that well which just raises my suspicion more. I had told my husband that it's not a buffet, you can't just pick and choose which toothbrush you want to use for the night. I mean, who thinks like that? That's kinda gross. In any case I'm still sticking to my new toothbrush which I've placed in my bedroom and I am still continuing to salt, vinegar and sugar up my old toothbrush head. Maybe I'll start in on the baking soda. That stuff is really gross tasting.

Mmm Vinegar

Have you ever had that disgusting feeling that come right after picking up your toothbrush and having the excess water from the head splash your hand? The excess water that should not be there if you last brushed your teeth twelve hours ago and yet is still on your brush and running down the handle, dripping into the sink. I have. In fact I've had this happen so many times to my toothbrush that I've decided that someone else is using my toothbrush. It is always in the little plastic holder that is in such a place so that it shouldn't be easy to tip over. The only way you'd be getting my toothbrush out/wet without getting the others out/wet is if you had purposely taken it out.

I've bought countless toothbrushes because in the beginning I thought "Oh, maybe they mistook my brush for theirs" but now I have no idea what's going on. I can't imagine anyone here doing it on purpose.

So what I decided is that I'm going to put things on my toothbrush. Things that are edible but that shouldn't be on your toothbrush. Vinegar, salt, sugar. And I'm going to do it every day until I hear someone complaining. I will be storing my new toothbrush upstairs in my bedroom while my old toothbrush, the one someone has apparently decided they want to share with me, will stay in the toothbrush holder downstairs.

Am I evil? I don't know, maybe. Am I paranoid? Justifiably I believe.

Now in theory this shouldn't effect anyone. Seeing as everyone should have their own toothbrush. So placing things on my toothbrush shouldn't really affect anyone but myself.

I know that I can rule out my husband as he had been asleep all day today as soon as he came home from work (plus the other times that he was outside the house when I found my toothbrush wet). So that leaves the four other people in this house. I have my suspicions but I don't know why they (or anyone) would want to do it.

Of course the other option is that someone is running my toothbrush under water just to freak me out. But that's just the really paranoid part of me talking. The other side wants to believe that they are using the brush for whatever reason they want to use the brush. Hopefully they will get an interesting taste the next time they decide to use it and complain to the other members of the household.

What do you guys think? Am I crazy? I know I'm a little crazy but am I the kind of scary crazy for thinking and doing this?

Facebook Translations

So I, like many other people, have a Facebook account. I also happen to have friends who do not speak English as their first language. So often times these people will post messages that I cannot understand. Recently I've noticed a "See Translation" below these messages, and just because I find them amusing I want to share a few with everyone who reads my blog. Of course I won't post the names of the people or anything. Here we go:

_____

Come enjoy the happy time in Mamas ㅎ ㅎ watch ♥ points two wiggle love ♥ (Translated by Bing)

Even the word ' religious life, such as the gem to turn around and ♥ and the good times go good with the song seems to be an exciting and more!! Blah blah blah blah blah (Translated by Bing)

Happy new year! Cavort Dragon happiness! (Translated by Bing)

Spouse must meet the ability of the brother superior and the recovery..ㅎ ㅎ (Translated by Bing)

Lulu took what Lou Christian new eyes in this cupboard seems to be the pastor saw the book it's only just unfold the tramway @@ (Translated by Bing)

Blah blah blah I feel my bangs-style viewing before cropping (Translated by Bing)

Chun Ho-Dong added a restaurant come packed to Sammy sister!
This delicious product I've been eating salt roasted cusp Al window is really good if it's a niche next to the ground per ^ ^ ~!!!! (Translated by Bing)

I need to set aside the time to write the kinds of Gong, ~ ~ ~ ㅎ ㅎ body!!ㅋ ㅋ (Translated by Bing)

In my life than within the chapel worship characters boldly move forward ...
For me, a new day ...A closer look at the new power ...♥ (Translated by Bing)

I was surprised that the two hot-Pack glue for arm squealing blotched guess who that Tobias coffee ssob dya ~ ~ ~ ~ ♥ (Translated by Bing)

Lindor so much delicious. Gel-like chocolate!!
It also reminds me of the old ...To evil to evil. (Translated by Bing)

_____

Bing is a trustworthy translator, don't you think?

It's Fai. Not Fi

I have a Japanese Wii, and so I play Japanese versions, this includes Zelda: Skyward Sword. And in the Japanese version, your partner's name is ファイ. When using an alphabet that native English speakers can understand best, the name would translate to Fai. Pronounced as you may guess; Fay, Fai, Fa + Eye.

However in order for me to play the game I need to find an English version and read the text (At least if I want to know what's going on story-wise) and that's when I learned that the English version has her name as Fi. As a native English speaker myself, my first thought was to pronounce that as Fee, although I suppose I could see it being Fff + eye but that seems a bit of a stretch.

For me, Fai's name will always be pronounced and written as that. Fai. But I began to wonder about other players, so I did a little search.

Here's the Etymology, straight from the Zelda Wikia:

The Chinese character 輝, which is pronounced "fai" in Cantonese, means brightness, possibly referencing the metallic lustre of the Goddess Sword. Fi could also be a reference to the term "Sci-fi" and how Fi is more technological and robotic than other companion characters, such as Navi and Midna. Her name could also be a reference to "Fe", the chemical symbol for the element iron, since the Goddess Sword is made of metal. "Fi" could also be short for the Latin word "Fideles", meaning faithful, a reference to Fi's loyal nature.

What do you think? Did the translators of the game make a good call in removing the A in her name or no?

Zelda: Skyward Sword

Warning: The following post may contain spoilers about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. If you do not wish to have your gaming experience spoiled, please skip this post.

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I'm going to safely assume that has scared away everyone now and proceed to comment on things I've noted from the newest Zelda game.

First thing: Hidden Song - Zelda's Lullaby

Admittedly, I didn't find this so much as I stumbled across a video on You Tube way before I knew what Skyward Sword was. Here is a different video with the same information.

Oh, hello Zelda's Lullaby :o

I've heard a rumour that all the songs in Skyward Sword, if played backwards, resemble songs from former Zelda games but I'm not so sure on that. I will have to check that out and see if it's true or not.

UPDATE: Here's Fai's song backwards (And I realize that I put an extra letter in her name. More on that after)

While it's certainly an interesting song backwards, I don't know if I've ever heard it before. That being said, I've not played all the games in the Zelda series. I'll have to look to my expert for that and get back to you.

#2 - Final Boss and the Bug net

I really enjoyed the final battle's epicness. The lightning and overall scenery, plus Demise is a pretty awesome looking bad guy. Although I did find the fight to be a bit on the easy side... So on my second playthrough, I decided to have some fun. I took out all my items to see if they had some sort of effect on him. Guess what? Someone wants to know what the bug net is...

Obviously a thing of pure evil.

#3 - Field of Kittens

So after you get the clawshot you should be able to access an area by the Goddess statue that you weren't able to before. In the following video they use a cheat system to jump through the wall, but you can easily clawshot your way to the same spot.

Speaking of those kittens...

#4 - Remlit - Gremlin

You know the ones. Those demon cats. Cute by day, evil by night. Say, have you ever heard of a movie called Gremlins by any chance? They make it easier to see the similarities in Japanese than they do in the English version, but trust me. They totally took an idea from Gremlins with their Remlit's.

#5 - Sparkling Mushrooms

Okay, I don't know the exact name (I played the Japanese version, give me a break) however that's not the point. In Faron Woods, if you go to the mushroom patch by the Silent Realm Trial gate you should find a sparkly mushroom. Give it a good slash with your sword and swipe up the sparkles with your bottle.

This stuff is awesome. You can dump it on enemies and it'll daze them, allowing you to do a couple of strikes before they figure out what's going on, or you can dump it on some bugs to make them all sluggish and easier to catch. And if you dump it on a heart plant, it turns it into a fairy!

#6 - Goddess Harp

I know for a fact that if you begin to randomly play the harp in Skyloft or other areas, the harp will harmonize with the area's music. But what I have heard and have not yet tried is that you can play along in the credits by pressing the A button, making the credits less of a bore (You know if you find looking at what Zelda had been doing a bore or just watching the graphics while listening to some of the game music)

#7 - A Familiar Tune

When you fight your way to creepy snake guy and Zelda in the final minutes of the game, the red Bokoblin's play a slightly different tune than they usually do to call their friends over. It's a tune from one of the earlier Zelda games. Do you know which one?

#8 - Tingle Doll

I admit, I'm not very fond of Tingle. I feel kinda bad for him except for the annoying thing he does in SSBB. But inside Zelda's room you can find him in doll form on her desk/bookshelf.

The last two are, in my opinion, the most interesting of the bunch. And I also feel they require a bit more explaining, so I'm going to put them up in a separate post.

Motivation, Where did you go?

You know, according to the logic of one of my best friends, I could be eating more junk food. I could buy two packs of chocolate snacks instead of just one, so, really, in that stream of logic, I'm doing well with self control. But we (Him, me, and my other bestie who is also best friends with him) have a special word for his kind of logic. His logic is Naru logic. So I probably shouldn't go by that since it never makes sense in any other form.

But ... C'mon ... About 70% of the time I eat good stuff. So eating something sweet once and again won't kill me. But it will make the motivation go away. Ahh, it seemed to have disappeared. That motivation to get thinner and be healthy.

I've found out that I can always find a way, an excuse, to eat junk food. "Oh, just this once because it's my birthday" or "Because it's Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years" or "Special night with the family!" And I've heard it before so it's not a new thing. But it took me a while to realize that I was falling into a junk food trap, a bad habit began to form. "Just this once" turned into almost "Once a week". I'm trying to be more conscious of that now.

But it's not just the eating that's the problem. I need to exercise. And I hate it. Haaaaate.

Let me be clear on one thing, I like playing with people. Sports, games, team based things. But when I have to go at it alone I find ways to put it off. Most of the time the reason being "Ugh, I hate _______" Like running. Running is dull. There's not any sort of clear short term goal so my mind goes "We could just stop running at any time. Who would care?" The motivation for doing things by myself is extremely low. If I go "We could stop playing this right now, no one will care" during the middle of a sport, it wouldn't fly so well with the others. So motivation-wise, it's pretty easy to continue. Especially when we win. Short term goal - get the ball into the net = Feel good.

However it's difficult to find a team based anything in this area that would allow someone who can't communicate effectively (or quickly enough) to join.

Which puts me in a slump. I could go swimming, do laps in the public pool. But that's still a thing that you do by yourself.

The stupid thing here is that when I go out running with my husband (Which, to me, still feels like a totally alone thing. Two people doing the same thing but alone) I get all self conscious. He's much better at running than I am (And he's also terrible at motivation when it requires him to stop and tell me to move). He's so much more fit than I am. He's this and that and I'm just not. Not anything.

"But who cares?" Everyone says. "Who cares what you look like?" The correct answer usually being "Nobody" But yet I guess I'm enough of a thing to stop motivation from coming back to me.

Gotta get to work on that. Gotta get better.

Ha. I say that, but saying it is so much easier than actually doing it.

Ahhh, Stairs

Have you ever heard that if you hurt yourself you're likely to hit that area again? So if you stubbed your toe, you probably will smash it against something else in a relatively close time frame from the first time you smashed it against something.

I don't know if it's the same deal here but remember how I mentioned tripping over the slide, and having the edge slam into my butt? Well it was healing up until this afternoon. When, uh, I fell down the stairs. Apparently I'm really clumsy these days. At least I didn't fall forward. I had enough reaction time to tilt backwards which resulted in me sliding down the stairs on my butt. Ahh my poor butt, I'm so sorry you're all black and blue.

Russian Audience!

Just for kicks, I decided to look up who was checking out my blog. Now I was born and raised in Canada, so I assumed that I'd have a lot of views from Canada, and I was right. It was in the top spot. But what I hadn't expected was that Russia would be number two. Ha, I don't even know anyone from Russia. But hey, that's cool. All Russian people (And the rest of the world, of course) are welcomed to freely view my blog.

I Don't Know Anymore...

Guys, have I been in Japan too long? Has the crazy affected me? Because I feel this commercial is kinda cute and funny. But I need a second opinion here. The first video is going to have it without subtitles, the second one with subtitles. I want to know if your opinion changes when you can understand what is being said.

A Mother's Mirror

A Mother's Mirror - A Japanese story that I thought I would share.

A long time ago there was a young samurai and his wife who lived in a small town. They had a daughter. Every year the father had to leave for Tokyo to do some samurai errands, while the young wife stayed at home with her daughter and waited for his return. He never failed to bring back presents for the two of them. Cakes and sweets for the two of them and pretty dolls for the daughter. The most treasured souvenir was a hand mirror for his wife. She was intrigued by the mirror because she had never seen such an object before. This was long ago when mirrors were only common for royalty and so common folk were sometimes surprised to see a face staring back at them.

This was true for the wife, she saw a face in it but did not recognize it as her own. It was a young, beautiful face smiling at her so she went to her husband and asked who was in the mirror. He proudly smiled and replied that it was she in the mirror, it was her own face. From that moment on she kept it safe from harm in a drawer for several years, taking it out every so often but always handled it carefully. She loved it so because it was a present from her husband.

After a few blissful years of happiness, the wife suddenly became very ill. Knowing that she would die soon, she called her daughter to her bedside and gave the mirror to the young girl.

"My lovely daughter, you know that I am ill. I need you to listen very carefully now. I won't be alive much longer but please don't grieve for my death. Look into this mirror and you will always see me."

After the mothers death, the daughter always would stare into the mirror, everyday, and was always happy to see her mothers face inside. She did not know that it was her own face she was looking at, when she looked into the mirror she had truly believed that it was her mother looking back at her because the daughter looked exactly like her mother, only much younger. Many times she would speak to the mirror, telling it her secrets and daily stresses until finally her father asked her why she was speaking into the mirror every day.

"Every time I look into this mirror, I see mother looking back at me. She looks young, healthy and beautiful and it helps encourage me to work hard everyday even though she never speaks a word." The father, who knew the truth of how the mirror worked, said nothing and let tears spill down his face.

You win this time, Slide

Every month I go to teach English at a nursery school. I've been there for about six months now (Which sounds like a lot but really I've only been six times). I think that most of the kids enjoy me being there and also enjoy attempting to explain to me how to play games with them. Some games I understand, like Tag, where I'm a demon and they all have to run away from me. Of course there are "safe spots" and as long as they are there then I can't touch them. And being kids they obviously make the game rules in their favour so there are several of these "safe spots" all over the place. Sometimes they just touch things and go "Oh, this is a safe spot now". And another thing that they do is never stray a foot away from these spots so it's pretty much impossible for me to pass the demon-tag-it thing to another, but hey, they're kids and as long as they're having fun then I don't mind.

Today I finally got one of the boys who is more outgoing than the rest of them (Also is easily riled up and seems to be always looking for a way to make him seem like the leader or the best) and just like the last time I fell on my butt and hurt myself, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Obviously I think that things behind me should magically move out of the way when I walk backwards or something. Anyway I tripped and fell on the edge of the slide. And now I have a grapefruit sized bruise to show for it on my butt. I'm happy that I didn't land on my tailbone or anything, just on the flabby flab that is my butt, one of the largest areas of fat on my body. I could have, though since nearish to my tailbone is all sore, so I'm grateful it didn't happen or I'd be in a lot more pain than I am now.

Sitting down is somewhat painful though, but I hear that if I rub a vinegar soaked cotton ball all over the bruise that it will fade and heal faster. Let's see how that works.

Subscribe by Email!

I have added an Email subscription at the bottom of the page. Now you can receive notifications in your inbox instead of coming back here to check if I've made any new and interesting Blog posts. ("Interesting" Ha. Funny.) So all you need to do is put your email down, a window will pop up making sure you're human (So it will ask you to type some letters and numbers) and then an email will be sent out. You will need to confirm that you'd like to sign up for email subscription by clicking on the link in the confirmation email and that's the final step! After that you will begin to receive email notices about my blog!

Something I wanted to share

I read this on a Facebook status and found it amusing. Enjoy!‎

A Cup of Tea
"One day my mother was out, and my dad was in charge of me.

I was maybe 2 1/2 years old. Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a gift, and it was one
of my favorite toys.

Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought him a little cup of 'tea',
which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my mom came home.
My dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!' Mom waited, and sure enough, here I came down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy; and she watched him drink it up.

Then she said, (as only a mother would know), "'Did it ever occur to you that the only place
she can reach to get water, is the toilet?"

Chris Chenoweth, Daily Inspiration

Ise Shrine

Before I go into detail about what happened at the shrine, I'm going to talk about the shrine and what the purpose of it is and such, so this either will be a very long post or split into two. Probably the latter since I imagine this will take a lot of writing.

Ise Grand Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to goddess Amaterasu Oomikami, located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture. Ise Jingū is in fact a shrine complex composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, Naikū and Gekū.

The Inner Shrine, Naikū (also officially known as "Kotai Jingū"), is located in the town of Uji-tachi, south of central Ise City, and is dedicated to the worship of Amaterasu Oomikami. The Outer Shrine, Gekū (also officially known as "Toyouke Daijingu"), is located about six kilometers from Naikū and dedicated to Toyouke no Oomikami, the deity of agriculture and industry.

Amaterasu is one of the major deities in Japanese mythology. She is the goddess of the sun and the universe. Her full name means the Grand August deity who shines in heaven. Supposedly the current royal family of Japan are direct descendants of her. She rules the sun and the heavens with her brother, Tsukuyomi who is the ruler of the moon and the night. She was born from the left eye of Izanagi while he was purifying himself after returning from the underworld in an attempt to save his wife (And it's possible that she is also his sister but I am not clear on that), Izanami, when she died in childbirth.

In the beginning she had shared the skies with her brother (Who is also her husband... hmm...) but was turned away from him when he killed the goddess of food, calling him an evil deity she separated from him causing night and day to split.

Amaterasu also has another brother, the god of storms Susanoo, who would often visit her. He was a very rough god and would often trample her prized flower gardens, filling the rice fields with mud and in general not being very nice. However because he was her brother she endured his visits until one time when he went too far and killed several villagers and animals. She was so angry at his behaviour that she disappeared into a cave, and because of this the sun disappeared, plunging the world into an endless night.

As you may know, in stories, night time is the time for ghosts and goblins and this is no different. When she let the world plunge into darkness, the beasties decided to come out and wreak havoc on everyone and everything. All of the other gods and goddesses began to get worried about their sister and what was happening to the people that they discussed how they could trick her out of the cave.

They talked for many days until the god of wisdom, Omoikane, decided that they should have a party. A big rowdy celebration that will rouse her curiosity and make her peek outside. (Let it be known that in this story there is a door on the cave) One of the gods stood behind the door so that if she opened it a crack, he could take advantage of it and fully open the door. A mirror was hung just in front of the door.

Many gods began to dance and laugh and generally have a good time. The goddess of beauty stood up on a barrel and began doing a silly sexy dance before falling down into fits of laughter. The sun goddess heard their laughter and asked through the door why they happened to be laughing when surely the world must be covered in darkness. The goddess of beauty replied that they had must grander gods than she, which caused the sun goddess to peak out and see a beautiful bright mighty goddess figure. Her curiosity got the better of her as she wanted to know who it was so she opened the door a crack more. That was when the god of might, who had been standing behind the door, pulled it open and got her out of the cave. As soon as she exited there was a big cheer from all of the other gods and goddesses.

For his punishment, the god of storms was exiled from the sacred place and sentenced to live in western Japan.

(Hey~ I live in western Japan. >:[ Thanks a lot for the crummy weather)

So that's a general sum up of the sun goddess, where she came from as well as a story. Onto things about the shrine.

According the the chronicles of Japan, it was about 2000 years ago when the daughter of an emperor set out to find a permanent place for Amaterasu's worship. Up until that point her place of worship had been moved around Japan. The daughter has wandered around Japan for twenty years before she heard a voice say "(Ise) is a secluded and pleasant land. In this land I wish to dwell." And so it was that the shrine was built. It is a very sacred shrine and the general population will never be allowed to venture inside the shrine. Instead we are only allowed to walk and pray and worship at places around the shrine. There is a tall wooden gate blocking all access to the shrine.

Allegedly the sacred mirror that was in the story is inside the building. However as no one but the imperial family is allowed inside, this is only speculation. This shrine has been the most famous shrine in all of Japan for several hundreds of years. A long time ago, Japanese couples would always wish to visit the shrine, some would live lives of poverty, collecting money and forgoing food, clothes and everything else to save up for a trip to Ise shrine.

Actually there are a total of 125 shrines inside Ise shrine. There are the two main ones that I listed above as well as several others for deities and gods of different beliefs. Naikū, by the way, is the place of worship for the sun goddess as well as two others and Gekū is the place of worship for the moon god as well as three others.

Proud Moment

So the four family girls had decided to go out together. It started off with me telling my mother in law that I had recently bought a movie with Tom Cruise in it (She really, really loves Tom Cruise) and the topic went to his newest Mission Impossible movie. I had said that I had never seen any of them and so she decided that we should all go together because it's cheap on Thursdays (Actually she was mistaken, it's "Ladies Night" on Wednesdays when the ticket price is dropped to 1000 Yen if you happen to be a girl). While getting ready to go, there was a little bit of talk about wanting to go sing karaoke instead of seeing a movie (request voiced by the young girl, my niece, understandably because the movie would be in English and she wouldn't be able to understand or read the subtitles fast enough to catch what they are talking about). Either way would have been fine with me (I really wasn't expecting an amazing movie experience - just a general feeling from the MI movies that made me think that way) but I knew that out of the four of us, one really wanted to see Tom Cruise up on the big screen so I leaned towards seeing the movie instead of singing.

On the way there, this conversation happened. I will put it up in Japanese first so you can see the misunderstanding and then I'll put the translation below.

Sister in law: ゆいかちゃん、なにたべたいの？(Yuika chan, nani tabetai no?)

Yuika: すし。(Sushi.)

Mother in law: むし？(Mushi?)

Sister in law: むしたべたい？(Mushi tabetai?)

Me: おすし。(O-Sushi)

Sister in law: Yuika, what would you like to eat for dinner?

Yuika: Sushi.

Mother in law: Bugs?

Sister in law: She wants to eat bugs?

Me: She said sushi.

So if you haven't already figured out, the word sushi (Which I hope I don't have to explain) is very similar to the word mushi (which means bugs). And the fact that I could understand the conversation, help and even explain when the native speakers misheard the word... yeah, -proud moment- :D

Plus it's kind of an amusing conversation.

Happy New Year

It's been a little bit busy for a while what with the end of the year holidays and prep for the upcoming year. Now in comparison to what some people call busy and my version of busy (At least at this point in time) you might not think that all I've done is considered a busy end of the year. Parties and social gatherings are always fun. I especially enjoy potlucks. I was invited to a potluck hosted by a member from the website Couch Surfing and it's really cheap too when compared to a few other potluck parties I've seen around. However I couldn't find anyone to go with me so I decided to forget about it. Another potluck will be happening in February hosted by a English student of mine. It made me realize just how much that class enjoys going out and doing things together. It's a great form of social bonding. Maybe I will give my other class a little nudge in that direction and see how things go there.

Christmas came and went with no real celebration on this end of things. It's a shame, really, since I get a lot of enjoyment out of eating food together with family (Although granted lately I've been a little lax in family communication). There were the occasional Christmas lights that I saw while passing through some rural areas and when my husband and I went to the large shopping mall we heard some tinny Christmas music. But apart from those things there wasn't really anything else to put me in the Christmas mood, unlike how in Canada you will hear radios streaming the same Christmas tunes over and over for the whole month, you will see decorations and lights and parades, you will see millions of advertisements for donations and giving and feasting, there will be a Santa in every mall, shopping strip and library, and there will be snow. I didn't miss the snow. It can stay in Canada for all I care.

We did get some money from my husband's father to go out for a Christmas dinner to anywhere we wanted. My husband chose the place, and to be honest ... it was... okay. Not great, but not bad. It was average food at fancy restaurant prices.

After Christmas came New Years, which is a much bigger holiday in Japan than Christmas will ever be. It's the longest holiday that workers will get in the entire year (My husband got seven days off) and it's a family celebration, bringing in the new year together. Often there will be house cleaning and food making, some decorations hung up and temple visiting. It was fun, although I preferred last years celebrations to this years. We were very disconnected and I don't like it. My husband and I ate together, his brother ate alone and his parents and niece ate together. Where is the family togetherness?

Around that time we heard news that my husband's uncle was very sick in the hospital. I never met the guy, I didn't even know that he existed (I thought his parents were only children) until that point. Turns out that he had family not thirty minutes away. Unfortunately a few days later he passed away. Japanese funerals are very different from Canadian funerals. Of course everyone wears black and there's a coffin but the first thing that happened at the one I had been to was a monk had come to pray over the body. And behind the coffin was a grand wooden monument with dragons and fruit baskets and lights. After about ten minutes of continuous monk sutra chanting we got up one by one to take some incense and spread it over some slow burning charcoal. After everyone finished (And there weren't that many people there. Less than ten) we sat listening to the monk chant for ten or fifteen minutes more. Then it was time to eat. We were guided into another room where there were several platters of food and then they wheeled the coffin inside. So we ate with the body, which I found unnerving. My husbands brother was also involved in the funeral, wearing one of my husbands suits as he has none of his own. However he participated as little as possible. Sitting far away from everyone and only talking when asked a question. During the meal my husband's father disappeared. We all thought he went to the bathroom until twenty minutes passed and he still had not returned. It was odd but instead of thinking about that everyone went over to the body and began talking about him, lifting off the lid as there were pictures and other assortment of things with him that were to be burned with his body. Everyone had a strangely good time, laughing and talking and laughing some more. I couldn't, though. I'm not fond of looking at dead bodies while people tell jokes in a language that I can't yet understand. I was always taught that a funeral was a quiet, sombre sort of deal so I stood apart from everyone. Myself and my husband's brother although we didn't talk to each other. After they finished talking and chatting it was time to go home (We would come back the next day to do almost the same) and we went in search of my husband's father, but he and the car were nowhere to be found. Turns out that he just up and left us. So the seven of us had to squish in one car (We had taken two cars to the funeral hall) to get back home.

The next day there was more chanting and incense moving and then we were taken to the crematorium. Inside we had more chanting, more incense and then finally we saw the coffin disappear into the ... whatever the proper term for the place that they burn the body is. We all waited in a room for it to finish and here's the part where I thought it was a bit strange. They only burnt the body down to the bones and then the family will collect the important bones and put them in a special jar. The rest is taken to who knows where. I thought that in Canada we burnt the body until it was completely ash and then we took all the ash and put it into a special big urn. But here it seems that they only take the important parts. One of those parts was the Adam's Apple, which apparently looks like a man kneeling and praying. I did not take part in the passing around of the human bones so I cannot confirm or deny this.

Last week we went to a famous shrine called Ise shrine. I'll post more about it soon.