Blueberry danish of DOOM!

This guy says, "Let's lower our carbon emission! Dokoishou!"




Sunday
I got up at 8:00AM and decided I would do some laundry. I should post some pictures of these washers and dryers. They're pretty small, and everything is in Japanese, but the big red start button isn't hard to find. I did find out that I chose the wrong wash cycle- "zabu zabu" instead of standard. While I was washing two loads, I decided I would take a shower and cook some breakfast as the dining hall is closed on Sundays. It was going all right- I made some tofu with soy sauce and orange juice and some soba noodles. I had just finished making it when I decide to go back to my room and eat. I walk back to my room and discover my roommate has left. And he locked the door. And I didn't have my keys. I figure, "Ok, I can just go to the front desk, indicate that I can't get into my room, and have either of the Gohtos unlock it." However, due to forces I was not aware were in action at the time, the Gohtos were out. (Triumph for me-I said a complete sentence in Japanese to a stranger!) About this time, Laura returns with our friends Lisa and Sandra who had decided to go out to breakfast. Laura informs me that the bus we are taking to the train station which will take us to the subway which will take us to Nagoya Castle leaves in 7 minutes. I perry with a "I got locked out of my room and no Gohtos." She counters with a "get dressed using your clothes from the dryer and I'll pay for everything for you today." Touché. Quickly packing my breakfast into a tupperware from the kitchen, thanking the Japanese for their cultural idea of keeping shoes in lockers OUTSIDE of the dorm room, and sprinting to the bus stop, I hoped against hope that the bus hadn't left yet. It hadn't. We boarded, and on the ride to Jinryou station, Laura, Lisa, and Sandra explained what was causing our bad luck. It all started when Lisa accidently bought a blueberry danish. Sandra tried to get something from the vending machine by pressing 1 and 5 instead of 15 twice. After that, she didn't see a couple steps and face planted, scraping her knee. Suddenly, getting locked out of my room made sense. It also started to rain on and off, and some of us forgot our umbrellas. Regardless of our bad luck that morning, we were determined to have fun at Nagoya Castle. When we arrived, it was raining on and off still-clearly the danish influence. That's when we spotted the cha-shi-tsu- the tea house. Thompson-sensei paid for all of us to have green tea in this tea house.
First this woman in a full kimono served us kaori- bean paste and yam jelly with bean paste inside. The kaori leaves a sweet taste in the mouth to counter the bitter taste of the green tea.
Next, she served us the green tea. It is not called GREEN tea for nothing. The color of wheat grass juice and the taste of seaweed and, well, tea come to mind. A little bitter, but hey, the kanji for tea partially derived from the character for bitter.
Afterwards, we found salvation. Our host told us about this procedure for purifying the spirit. One takes the little dipper, fills it with water, and pours it over the bamboo lattice. One then puts one's ear to the large bamboo tube and listens to what sounds like a cross between a Jewish harp and a bell.
Really it's the sound of the water droplets. The ringing sounds purify the spirit. Needless to say, we were anxious to cleanse the bad luck from the blueberry danish. The first test of whether it worked or not- no one slipped on the stones in the garden. Yosh! Although the green tea was cool, it wasn't filling, so we decided to head to the udon shop for a bite to eat. While the omnivores ate cold soba noodles in miso (plus fish) broth, I ate my breakfast, and Thompson-sensei explained the finer points of Japanese contextual based communication. For example- ikaga desu ka? means "what do you think about...?" and relies solely on the context. If a waitress were to say it, it would mean "would you like me to refill your glass/take your plate away/etc." If I were to say it after we all have finished a meal and were just sitting around, it would mean "are we ready to go?" If I were to say it to a waitress, waving my empty water glass, it would mean "what do you think about how awful you are at your job?" or "I hope you feel like a horrible person..." J/K. Full of filling food, we proceeded to climb the many floors of Nagoya Castle. The castle has been reconstructed from when it was bombed during WWII (btw, if Helen ever wants to watch a movie called A Grave for the Fireflies DO NOT let her. I just watched it; it's really really sad. Really.) Interesting story here: the Japanese had time to remove one of the giant golden shachihoko (ferocious golden dolphin) from the roof of the castle before it burnt down. However, the gold from the destroyed dolphin was melted down and made into a large teapot, in which water is boiled every Friday (Friday=Kinyoubi, kin=gold, get it?) for a tea ceremony. Well, anyway, we made it to the top of Nagoya-Jou and took some pictures of the city.
It was getting pretty late, but first we had to go back to Sakae the mall to get more cell phones for those of us who weren't there on Saturday. We went to a different au cell phone store this time, and they were much more helpful, and, though they reminded those getting cell phones that they are marketed toward senior citizens because they are more "easy to use" (still 5 years ahead of US cell phones,) everything went through without a hitch. Yay for purifying water sounds! To top that, we found an ATM that will take American issued VISA cards. It was at that point that we decided to eat the danish. We ate at a french bakery for dinner (I had a melon cream muffin- SO GOOD,) and left for home.
Mr. Gohto had returned, so we gave him an omiyage we had picked up at Nagoya-Jou, and I had him unlock my room. Well, that's all for now. It's really late, I hope I can get up at 8:00AM.
-Jonathan

PS. Emily called me on skype today. If any of you want to talk to me and see me, look up giraffe1089.