Synagogue, King Crimson, & Innocent World

Last Friday I decided to check out the Chabad synagogue in Kobe. On the website it didn't list a specific time that Shabbat services start, just that they "begin at sundown" so I went around 5:30, which turned out to be too early. After a while the Rabbi came and we talked. He was very nice and put in effort into welcoming me, which I appreciated. He explained that though he was fine with my wearing my kippah and I should just do what makes me happy, that some other members might react oddly to it, as its an orthodox synagogue and women don't wear kippahs. For the time being, I decided to keep on the kippah.

However, another man arrived, and as the rabbi introduced me, the man told me I should not wear a kippah. The rabbi intervened, saying that I'm from a different community in America, etc, people practice Judaism differently and such, but the man seemed very upset and I didn't want to cause a confrontation so I just took the kippah off and put it in my bag. The man (Yitzchak) then asked if I wear tefillin. I said no, and he said, "Thank god! When a man wears kippah and tefillin, he has a very direct and powerful connection to ha'shem. If a women were to do that, the connection would be too powerful, you would burst into flames. You would never come back." I thought this was a rather outrageous claim, but I just smiled and nodded, which is how I get out of most awkward situations. 

After a while the rabbi's wife arrived and we talked a bit, she was also very nice. Because it was an orthodox service, the women sat behind a mehitzah and just gossiped in Hebrew while the men prayed. The rabbi had a young son of about toddler age and some daughters and a niece who were there too, and they were just running around and playing during the service which was nice and reminded me of how Zippy and I would play during synagogue services. It was quite sweet: during the service, the rabbi was praying with his son sitting on his shoulder and holding hands with one of his daughters. Even though I couldn't participate in the service, it was nice to see and listen to it. 

The service was shorter than expected, and afterwards was a meal. Many more people showed up for the meal than the service, which was kind of funny. The congregation was mostly Israeli, with some Japanese converts and two or so Americans. I sat next to this one older Japanese guy who spent around thirty or so minutes complaining to me about the customer service at his credit card company. 

After the dinner, which ended around 8:45, I went back to Sannomiya and walked around a bit. Sannomiya is a part of Kobe with lots of bars and restaurants and interesting nightlife, there's always something interesting to do at night. I ended up at a 70s music bar, which was a tiny room about half the size of our kitchen back home. The master was this older Japanese guy with a long ponytail, a giant leopard-print coat, a bright red bedazzled cowboy hat, and cowboy boots. The wall behind the bar counter was comprised of bookshelves which were completely crammed floor to ceiling with records. There were two record turntables, and while one record was playing, the master would find and prep the next record, so that there was no wait between songs. 

He asked me what bands I like, so I told him David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Deep Purple, etc. He nodded, got my drink, and then put on a record of Ziggy Stardust that was some single version I had never heard before. Next were a couple Led Zeppelin songs, and then he put on "In the Wake of Poseidon" by King Crimson! Dad has talked about how records and CDs sound different, but I never really got it until then. There really is a difference!!

It turned out the master is a big King Crimson fan and he has a huge collection of old records! He had this old bootleg of a live performance of Starless/Easy Money from 1974 called Heretic that was incredible. There was only me, the master, and one other guy in the bar, and everyone was nodding their head along to the music and getting really into it. I didn't want to leave, but I had to catch the last train, but I'll definitely be going back again.

The next day was a Christmas event put on by my favorite lolita fashion brand, Innocent World. Innocent World was founded in the early nineties by a fashion designer named Yumi Fujiwara, and she is still the owner and designer to this day. Yumi Fujiwara describes Innocent World as a "new brand of clothing inspired by classical European designs that embodies the ideals of elegance and cuteness but is suitable for young women of the modern era." The clothes are, as she writes, similar to old European fashion, with Victorian and Rococo influences, but with modern accessibility (shorter skirts, shirring panels in the back to accommodate many sizes, less corsets). Many also have prints with cute or classical motifs, such as old cathedrals, roses, stained glass windows, etc. 

The event was rather small, I was very lucky that a friend managed to reserve me a spot. There were around fifteen attendees total, everyone decked out in Innocent World. We talked for a bit, had tea, and then were taken in groups of three to meet and talk with Yumi Fujiwara, the designer. I met and talked with some Japanese lolitas as well as my friends from the Kansai comm. Then I was taken to meet Fujiwara-san. 

I was really nervous about meeting her since I really admire and respect her. She created her own store and brand when she was in her twenties and in the beginning would sew everything by hand herself. She also does all of the artwork and designs, which is really impressive, considering the intricacy of some of the prints. She was really sweet and kind, and talked with us a bit and then showed us some of the upcoming releases, explaining how she made it and what she was inspired by which was really cool. 

After the event finished, we all went and got okonomiyaki, which is sort of like a savory eggy pancake. Then we went to karaoke. Needless to say, lots of Malice Mizer was sung. It was kind of a funny image: around five or so ladies dressed in cute frilly Victorian dresses, singing songs like "Beast of Blood" and headbanging furiously while holding onto our bonnets. 

It was a really fun weekend, and I'm looking forward to the next meet this Saturday, an afternoon tea party to celebrate International Lolita Day. 

My coord for the Innocent World event

Gothic&Lolita Museum and Kyoto

Long time no post. I've been pretty busy with schoolwork lately, and in my free time I've mostly been going places with friends so I haven't had much time to write.

This weekend was pretty exciting and something I've been looking forward to for a while. On Friday I went to a popup museum in Osaka called the Gothic&Lolita Museum with the Kansai International Lolita Community. The focus of the museum was on old-school gothic/lolita fashion from the 80s-early 2000s. It wasn't so much a museum as a showcase of several old pieces from the time period, as well as old lolita magazines such as early editions of the Gothic & Lolita Bible, KERA Magazine, and more.

One thing that was really cool was they had an old Kazuko Ogawa dress from 1998 that had been worn by the "founder" of gothic lolita and guitarist of Malice Mizer, Mana. You can see him in it on the right. 

Since the focus of the museum was old-school lolita, I wore an old-school inspired gothic coordinate with the oldest piece in my wardrobe, a 2002 black Metamorphose onepiece with pintucks on the bodice, cross lace, and venetian sleeves. 

After the meetup I went to a concert for a band I really like called Buck-Tick. They've been around since 1983, so their image has changed a bit over the years, they don't dress as wild as they used to but their music is still very, very good. 

They never tour outside of Japan so I really wanted to see them while I'm here. They came to Osaka on tour for their new album so I went to the concert, which was at Zepp Diver Osaka. There were probably around 2,000 or so people in attendance, and unfortunately I ended up towards the back and stuck behind a group of three tall guys so I couldn't really see anything most of the time except for the very top of the drummer's hair, even though I was wearing my three-inch platforms! That was really disappointing to me. They also only played songs from their new album and one from the previous album, and didn't do any of their classics, like "Die" or "Aku no Hana" or even "Dress." The music was excellent though; Imai Hisashi (the guitarist) is amazingly talented and Sakurai-san's vocals were impeccable. 

After the concert I met up with another gothic lolita friend and we went to Shin-Imamiya to eat oden. I got home around midnight and slept until one pm the next day, when I got a call from my friend. I had forgotten that we were going to Kyoto together!

I got dressed in a simple coord and met my friend at Okamoto station. From there it was around 1.5 hours to Kennin-ji in Kyoto. Kennin-ji is one of the oldest Zen Buddhist temples in Kyoto. It was really gorgeous in the late afternoon golden light, and the autumn foliage was stunning. 

Unfortunately, we got there too late to enter some of the buildings so we'll have to go back sometime. One building that was usually closed off to the public was holding a special art exhibition, so we went to go check it out. The art was pretty cool, but what was really stunning was the Zen Japanese garden. 

After the exhibit closed, we wandered around a bit and got ramen, Kyoto-style. 

We walked some more, and then headed home. I got home around midnight on Saturday, and went to sleep around 1:30 am. I woke up today (Sunday) around 2:30pm!!! Now I have a lot of homework to do...

Bonus pictures of my coord from Saturday:

Japan Exploration Report

It is now October, and I have spent a little under a month in Japan. Though I'd like to think I have become used to Japan, and in most ways I have, I still get surprised often. For example, taxis in Japan are old-fashioned: black, sleek, and the driver wears a cap, gloves, and uniform. The doors also open on their own.

During the week I have classes, which are going well. I had my first Japanese test last Friday, which went relatively okay (I got a B). The Japanese classes are really hard, and they're also in the mornings, which make it a bit difficult for me to stay awake. Not that they're not interesting, it's just that I have the natural circadian rhythm of an opossum, and as such have the unfortunate tendency to cease functioning from 6am-11am.

On the weekends I typically go out and explore by myself. I've made some friends with other students in the program, but I haven't really gone out with them much. So far I've gone to:

(1) A cat cafe in Koshienguchi.
Koshienguchi is one stop after Nishinomiya, where I usually get off. Around two weeks ago I was zoning out while on the train and missed my stop, but decided to walk around for a bit. I came across a cat cafe, which is a sort of cafe unique to Japan, although they've started spreading to other countries as well. Because lots of people in Japan live in apartments, it's hard for them to have pets. So "cat cafes" came about, where you can pay a certain amount of money and just sit in a room full of cats for an hour. You can also get coffee, and treats to feed the cats.

The one I went to was 1,200 yen for one hour, which is about $11.50, including a drink and cat treats. It's pretty pricey, but a lot of the more popular ones are 800 yen for 30 minutes, and don't include a drink or treats, so I figured it was a pretty good deal. And the cats were amazing. 

I talked with the lady who owned the shop, and she explained to me that most of the cats were adopted strays from the area, though some were purchased special breeds, like a pair of Russian blue siblings and a Scottish fold cat. The cats were all pretty friendly, and one climbed into my lap almost immediately. There were also several kittens, as one of the cats had given birth recently. It was fun and I'm glad I went!

(2) Another place I went to (and then went back to again and again and again) is Amemura in Osaka. 
Amemura is the nickname of the west Shinsaibashi area in Osaka, an anagram of America (Ame) and Mura (village). There are lots of trendy fashion shops, most of which used to (and some still do) sell American and European styles, hence the name Amemura. Nowadays the stores cater to fashionable young people, as well as people interested in alternative fashions, such as punk, lolita, visual kei, goth, etc.

Since I wear lolita, this place was pretty much heaven. There are several lolita clothing stores all within several blocks, as well as the famous store Closet Child: a secondhand lolita and goth/visual kei store. There I bought a rare, older dress from 2007 for 800 yen (around $7.50)! While walking around the area (wearing lolita of course) I also spotted several other lolitas, which was really cool. When I've gone to Harajuku in Tokyo before, I rarely saw other lolitas except for other foreign lolitas, probably because of the amount of tourists. However, apparently Amemura hasn't suffered the same fate (though I did see several tourists), and still serves as a haven for lolitas and other alt-fashion wearers!

Also in Amemura is a pancake restaurant called "gram," famous for their fluffy Japanese-style pancakes. Apparently whipped egg whites are added into the pancake batter, and then they are cooked in a certain way, making them super fluffy.

They really were fluffy!!! It was like eating a cloud dipped in syrup. They also jiggled!!! They were super sweet though, much sweeter than American-style pancakes. I'll probably revisit that restaurant, but next time I might order a more savory style of pancake.

(3) Hiking at Nunobiki Herb Garden and Nunobiki Falls in Kobe. 
During the original orientation at Konan University, I mentioned to a Japanese student that I was interested in hiking and if he knew any good trails. He told me he didn't, but introduced me to his friend who I'll refer to as S-san, who loves hiking. We exchanged contact information, and around two weeks ago she invited me and another student to go hiking with her.

The other student invited a couple friends, who then also invited friends, and when S-san and I met up at Shin-Kobe station, we were greeted with nine other international students, some of whom did not realize we were going to be hiking and came utterly unprepared. To me, this was a bit irritating, but S-san took it all in stride and adjusted the plans. We ended up taking a ropeway (cable car) up to the top of the mountain, where there were gardens and such that one could walk around in, and then some of us would hike down the mountain after exploring the gardens, and some could just take the ropeway back down.

(selfie from the cable car)

The Nunobiki Herb Gardens were very beautiful, but felt slightly bizarre. On top of the mountain, a sort of faux village had been constructed in a European style, so that it felt like I had just stepped into a miniature Disney version of 19th century Amsterdam, and then a Victorian style English rose garden, and then perfectly sculpted and pruned Versailles-esque gardens. 

Nevertheless, it was beautiful, if a bit unsettling. After walking around for a couple hours, we split into two groups and one group took the ropeway back down the mountain, and the rest of us began our hike.

The hike was pretty easy, around two hours and 5 kilometers (3 miles), but it was very steep downhill and it had rained earlier, making it slippery. However, the scenery was gorgeous. There was a lake/dam (the first dam ever constructed in Kobe!) and two waterfalls.

Interestingly, along the path there were several tiny shrines or rocks with characters or poems carved into them. Some of them looked quite old, whereas some looked relatively recent. There were also some small statues that were carved into the mountainside, and some just off to the side, covered with a small roof and with flowers or incense placed near them. 

All in all, the hike was really fun and I saw some really gorgeous scenery. I hope I can go hiking with S-san again sometime.

(4) Shin-Sekai in Osaka. 

Shin-sekai in Osaka, as I read on a travel website, is an area of Osaka which hasn't changed much since the 80s, and where one can get really great cheap Osaka food, such as takoyaki and kushikatsu. However, the website warned me, that it was a someone seedy area and one of the main hangouts for the Yakuza, so one should not go at night. Therefore, I went during the day. 

The website was accurate in some respects. There were certainly things that hadn't changed since the 80s: retro game arcades, and I spotted two "pink eiga" (softcore pornography) theaters (apparently the last of their kind in Osaka), but the area was swarming with tourists. Therefore, the food was not as cheap as I had been told. It was pretty tasty, but nothing spectacular. It was a good place to take pictures (and play some retro video games like Street Fighter II), but if one was looking for cheap, good food, they'd be better off finding some back-alley izakaya. 

However, I had fun wandering around and taking photos, so it wasn't a waste of a trip. I also talked to my host family about the place, and they told me that because it was featured on an NHK gourmet travel program, it's become a huge tourist area, and therefore the yakuza left and are now stationed somewhere around Nishinari. 

(the two sides of Shin-Sekai: the tourist area and the residential area)

(5) Lolita meetup at Old Rose Garden in Osaka.

This Saturday I attended my first meetup with the Kansai International Lolita Community! We met at a teahouse called Old Rose Garden in Osaka for tea, and afterwards went to Amemura to visit the aforementioned lolita mecca Closet Child and do purikura. Purikura are Japanese photobooths, where you and a friend (or as many people as you can fit into a booth) pose in front of a green screen and get your picture taken by an automated computer. You can then choose backgrounds, stickers, draw on the pictures, write messages, and even add makeup and such to your face. 

There were four other girls at the meetup: two Americans, both of whom were around ten years older than me (one was married to a Japanese man and lived in Japan permanently, the other was engaged), one Canadian girl (who was my age and is in the same transfer student program as I am!), and one Japanese girl from Kyoto who was studying English and wanted to speak with other lolitas in English. Everyone was very nice and friendly, and I had a wonderful time! We talked (and ate) for hours.

The afternoon tea was fantastic. It was 1,800 yen (around $17.50) and I got: one slice of cake of my choice (I got berry shortcake), two cookies, two scones + clotted cream (actual clotted cream!!!) and jam, three tea sandwiches (cucumber, we asked them to take the ham out), ice cream, and a pot of tea (I chose earl grey).  We were at the tea house for around three hours, and the entire time we were talking and snacking. In summary, it was a lot of very tasty food for a very good price. For comparison, afternoon tea at The Drake in Chicago costs around $60, and includes much less food, and you have to leave within a certain time limit. 

The teahouse itself was also impressive. It was painstakingly English-themed, with tiny Union Jacks everywhere and aggressively floral wallpaper. Walking in, I felt like I had intruded upon some elderly lady residing in Chorleywood's home. The outside was similarly decorated: there were plants everywhere, as if to give the appearance of a comely country estate. It was a striking difference from the polished metal skyscrapers and office buildings of the area. 

Overall, it was really, really wonderful and I'm very happy to have made some lolita friends in Kansai! I'm already looking forward to seeing them again.

(my outfit for the meet. I wore a skirt with a rose design to match the "Old Rose Garden" tea house and coordinated with the colors wine and brown, matched with a blonde wig)

First Week

My first week at Konan University is over! Though, technically, I've only had two actual days of classes. Monday of this week was orientation, and Tuesday and Wednesday were testing days where we all were given various tests in order to gauge our Japanese abilities so that we could get placed into the appropriate class.

                                (view from my daily walk from Settsu-Motoyama Station to Konan)

Going into the tests, I was rather nervous: since I hadn't practiced Japanese during the whole summer, and hadn't taken a proper class in several years, I feared that I would get placed into a beginner's level class. However, I ended up getting placed into the highest Japanese class, Level 4. There are 4 classes, with 1 being the easiest and 4 being the hardest. At first I was elated, and truthfully, I still am, but now that I have actually started taking the classes, I've become slightly fearful. It's gonna be hard. Really, really hard. 

The class schedule is a bit strange. Every day from 9am-12pm we have 3 Japanese classes of varying topics, each with a different teacher. For example, on Tuesdays, we'd have kanji practice for an hour, then go over the topics in whichever chapter of the textbook we're currently on for an hour, then grammar and sentence structure study for an hour. After an hour break for lunch, we have classes in English about various topics in Japanese studies, for which we need to sign up for. I'm planning on taking Japanese History and an art history class called The Art of Kansai (the region I'm staying in is the Kansai region). Since those classes haven't started yet, there isn't much I can really say about them yet, but they look interesting. 

We can also choose to join clubs and/or become a paid English tutor for the university. I originally wanted to join wadaiko club, but since my Japanese classes seem like they'll be very hard and have a large workload, I met not. Wadaiko are these huge Japanese drums, and they're played as a performance at festivals and such. I honestly don't know much about it, but the performance the club gave during orientation was super impressive and looked very fun; the members were all jumping and shouting and banging the drums in unified rhythm patterns whilst grinning. It looked a little something like this:

I'll probably try out the club, but if it becomes too much, I'll unfortunately have to quit. I'm definitely going to do the English tutoring though. I heard from other previous students that it's the best way to interact with other Japanese Konan students and make friends.

And that's all for the academic side of my first week at Konan! In a separate post I'll talk about all the stuff I did after classes/this weekend. 

Welcome to Japan!

When I last wrote a blog post, I was stranded in Seoul. After publishing the post, I got on a flight to Chubu Centrair Airport in Nagoya, and when I got off I had an email from the coordinator informing us that a man named Hazama-san, the KIEC (Konan International Exchange Center) director would be picking us up in a shuttle bus. After going through customs and such, he was waiting at the International Arrival gate for us, holding a sign that said "Konan University." There was another group of students that had gotten stuck and would be arriving a bit after us, so we waited for around an hour and half for everyone to get to the gate before leaving in the bus. It was around a three hour bus ride to the hotel, the Plaza Hotel Kobe, which is on Rokko Island. Once we got to the hotel, we were given our keys and meal tickets for breakfast, and then quickly showered and went to sleep as we were all sweaty and exhausted.

The next day we had a sort of rudimentary orientation. They weren't able to do the actual orientation they had planned for us that day because many students still hadn't arrived yet, so they put together a quick schedule for us. We had breakfast in the hotel from 7-8:30 and then at 9:15 we all met in the lobby to go to Konan University.

The university campus is located in an area called Okamoto and is around a 15 minute walk from the train station. The town of Okamoto, on first impression, seems very nice and rather upscale, sort of like Aspen or Woods Hole. There were lots of cute cafes and boutiques and such, as well as cheaper restaurants for the university students. I can't wait to try them all out!!!

Once we got to Konan University, we sat in an air-conditioned room and the YiJ coordinators, Saji-san and Flowers-sensei (a resident director from the University of Hawaii) introduced themselves. We introduced ourselves and had a short Japanese lesson before meeting our assigned tomodachi partners. Tomodachi (友達）means "friend" in Japanese, and before coming to Konan University, we were each assigned a Japanese student at the university to be our partner and help show us around and introduce us to their friends and such. Because the schedule had to be changed, the meeting of the partners was very last-minute, and many of the students were late or couldn't make it.

We were shown around the town of Okamoto by our partners, and then got lunch. Our group went to lunch at a local soba restaurant, which was really delicious. Soba is a type of noodle made from buckwheat, and is often eaten cold with sauce. I had a lunch set that consisted of tuna on rice, pickled radish, and soba noodles in a cold broth. It was quite cheap, and very tasty!

After lunch we went back to the Konan campus and were shown around the different buildings and such. Because it is still summer break in Japan, there weren't many students around. The campus is very clean and beautiful! It's up on the top of a hill, with mountains behind it, and you can see it from the train. There are lots of trees and flora on the campus, and I was told that most of the trees are sakura trees, and in springtime the whole campus is pink from the sakura petals.

Like I mentioned before, there are lots of mountains in the area. Today was rainy and they were shrouded in clouds and mist and looked very ethereal, like something out of a painting. I asked if there were good hiking trails and my partner said that they don't know, they don't really hike, but they have a friend, who I'll refer to as S-san, who loves hiking. They introduced me to S-san and we exchanged contact info, and we're going to find a time to go hiking together before school starts! I didn't bring hiking shoes so I'll have to get a pair of good exercise shoes, but it'll definitely be worth it, I think.

After the tour of the campus, we went back to the hotel. I showered and then got dinner with a group of some friends. We went to an udon restaurant inside the hotel, which was a bit pricey and not very good, due to it being hotel food. By that time I was exhausted from all the socialization and walking (I walked almost ten miles that day!) and after dinner, went straight to sleep.

The next day we got up early, had breakfast, and then met our host family!!! My host mother, Sacchan, came to pick me up. She is a very nice woman in her sixties who has hosted around fifteen other international students before. She said she's been hosting students for around ten years now, and so she has many 'children' all around the world!

Sacchan showed me around her house, and after taking a short break, we went together to the city center to get my residence card. Once we did that, we went back to the house. It was very hot and humid that day and I was quite sweaty, so I wanted to take a shower, but realized I didn't have any shampoo/soap/laundry detergent. Sacchan told me how to get to a nearby supermarket and so I went and got some toiletries and such.

One thing I had trouble with is refill packages. In America, when you get shampoo, soap, etc, it's always in plastic bottles, regardless of the size. However, it seems that in Japan, you can get those things in either plastic bottles, like America, or in these sort of parcels that aren't resealable. Because the non-resealable parcels are cheaper, at first I thought I would get them, but it turns out that the parcels are for if you already have an empty plastic bottle of that certain product. They are refills, that's why they're not resealable. In this way, you don't have to keep buying and throwing away plastic bottles, so it's cheaper and better for the environment. As expected of Japanese innovation!

I finished shopping and went home and took a shower and put my clothes in the washing machine. After my shower, Shige-san, Sacchan's husband, came home from work and we had dinner. Apparently Sacchan has a cooking license, which I easily believe. The dinner was delicious!!! It was a bunch of small dishes, Japanese style: grilled yellowtail with lemon juice on top; a sort of salad with cucumber, seaweed, crab, and some other things I don't know; potatoes and carrots and squid legs in a broth, some tofu and vegetables, and seaweed with a spicy dressing. I'm not sure what everything was, but it was all incredibly tasty. I mentioned to Sacchan that I'm interested in learning how to do Japanese cooking, and she said that starting next week, she'll teach me!! Once I get back, I'll hopefully be able to make yummy Japanese food for all my friends.

Once dinner was finished, I went and unpacked my things. My room is a Japanese-style 4.5 tatami mat room. In the center is a kotatsu which doubles as a table which I can use for studying and such. The room is really cozy, I'm looking forward to living here!!!!