Monkey See

I'm back in the States! Still trying to get organized... But while I'm doing that I'll have more posts of photos. (I have soooo many) One of the many highlights of my trip was my Aunt B visiting me. We started in Kyoto and traveled Southwest managing to see quite a few cities in a week; my favorites being Miyajima, Matsuyama, and Naoshima. The first day she visited we decided to check out Arashiyama to explore the bamboo forests and the monkey park. Here's my Aunt at the entrance to the park:

The entrance to the park is at at the base of the mountains. Like many places in Japan the tickets are purchased out of a vending machine but then handed to an actual person. After making sure we didn't have any food sticking off of our backpacks we started our climb up the steep path to see the monkeys.

The monkeys were super cute! kawaii! (if you like furry animals with pink butts) but I've seen enough monkey attack videos to know that I didn't want to provoke them and so I made sure to give them plenty of space.

The monkeys seem pretty uninterested in the people walking around, they are mostly occupied with picking up things from the ground to eat and chasing each other.

As we made our way to the top of the mountain we saw the monkeys crowded around a small wooden building with fenced in windows. The monkeys liked to hang out here because from the safety of the building visitors are able to feed the monkeys!

For about 100 yen you can buy a bag of mikan slices, peanuts or apple pieces.

Feed me!

I do not have a photo of me actually feeding the monkey because they are tricky little guys and take the food quickly. But I did actually hold food out on my hand for them to eat.

The monkeys like to run around on the roofs and sides of the building. Sometimes the bigger monkeys would get upset and screech until the other monkeys got out of their way.

I really liked this monkey balancing on the post.

Looking at me!

Action shot!

We went outside to check out the view and I photographed this guy looking introspective by the pool.

Here's the building and my Aunt.

Monkeys on the roof also looking deep in thought.

The view from Arashiyama, which is the most Western part of Kyoto.

It was a beautiful day and here's some of the mountains in the North.

It's me with a one-eyed monkey! No really he only has one eye! He was also extremely camera shy, looking away when I tried to photograph him.

I am finally set up in my studio again with a scanner I can use in English.. this means I will soon be posting more of the work I did on my trip!

Apaato!

I've officially been living in Japan for a month. The language barrier still sucks and I haven't gone out for sushi... boooo. But I have gotten a few things ticked off my checklist:

-signed up for classes
-bicycle
-cellphone
-My very own flat or in Japanese: apaato!

I moved into my new apaato last Thursday. It's about 15-20 mins by bike from campus and less than 5 from Takagaraike Park and Pond. The park is nice to cut through on my way to classes and I can go running around the lake in the mornings.

Most Japanese apartments require utilities, a deposit and key money in addition to rent. Key money is essentially a gift given to the landlord for a couple months rent that they dictate. Some places I looked at had a low rent but when adding on the key money it was double the rent! The apartment building I'm staying at is geared for foreigners, its furnished and there was no key money. (sweet!) The rent with utilities is about the equivalent of what I'm paying in Providence for rent and utilities. Not as cheap as the dorms (photo above) but at least I get my own kitchen!

So here's my place! It's on a busy street that heads into town and under a motorway but the traffic isn't that loud. I'm also really close to a couple of grocery stores, stationary shop, bakeries and a hyaku-en store!

I bought all of these things at the hyaku-en store or (100 yen store) for 1,995 yen!

Although my apartment is furnished it was missing some basic cooking utensils and I was desperately in need of some hangers. I've spent less than $50 though and made some big improvements.

Here's the entrance way where you leave your shoes and switch into house slippers.

Here's my kitchen table/desk/work space in the apartment and my tv/bookshelf!

My bed and kitchen area: the mattress is a traditional futon but its on top of a frame. It's pretty thin but at least they gave me a real pillow. In the dorms they had these other pillows that drive me crazy. The pillows are really small, like half the size of a normal pillow and they are filled with tiny plastic pellets. I suppose they offer lots of support to your neck if you sleep on your back. However, I sleep on my side or stomach so sleeping with one of those pillows is like having your face stuffed into a bag of legos.

Kitchen area complete with one burner and virtually no counter space. Making dinner involves a lot of musical chairs with various pots, pans and ingredients.

Here's my bathroom! On one side you have the potty and on the other the shower. There is a drain in the floor that allows this all to work properly. Even today bathrooms in Japanese homes have drains in the floor like this and usually a vanity where you can sit and scrub with soap. Then, you can rinse yourself off with the hose before getting into the already filled bath tub. One family will keep the bathtub filled and everyone will use the same water before it is changed, which is why you scrub and rinse yourself off before getting in the tub.

Shower heads here are usually a hose and the wall has places at various heights for it to fit. There is also a lower down faucet, this makes sitting down and washing much easier. Or if you prefer you can put the hose in the highest knobby thing and stand up and shower.

Here's the potty. There are some crazy high tech toilets in Japan, but mine is not one of them. However, it seems pretty standard here to have a toilet with two flush options chiisai or ooki (small or large) and before the new water refills in the toilet it runs through a sink at the top of the tank that allows you to rinse your hands.

One of my favorite features of my room is this light pull. It's a little guy in a peach. You can close him up in the peach and make the string short or pull him far away from the top and make it longer and easier to reach from bed. He also glows in the dark! That's it for this week, we've been getting a lot of rain from the typhoons and I haven't been able to go out as much. Keep your fingers crossed!

Day trip to Nara- Part 1 (Oh Deer!)

Even though we are just one week into the new semester there was a long weekend and 3 day holiday from Monday-Wednesday. I'm not sure what the holiday was for, but I was happy to have extra time to myself and the opportunity to squeeze in a day trip to Nara.



My buddy Victo and I were feeling ambitious so we biked from the dorms to the station (about an hour though mostly downhill) and then we hopped on a train! In about 40 minutes and only spending 690 yen ($7.50 each way) we arrived in Nara and walked up towards the temples. Nara is famous for its sacred deer so there are lots of fabulous deer souvenirs everywhere! Here's a poster with a deer and the Sento-kun the Nara mascot. Sento-kun is a Buddhist child monk with a rack of deer antler's sprouting from his head, this is supposed to relate to both Nara's rich Buddhist history and the "wild" deer that live in Nara.

On our walk towards the park and temple we passed many stores featuring deer signs, and displays.

Even the textiles on some of the buildings featured a deer motif.

Souvenirs and gifts ranged from stuffed animals, socks, deer headbands, cell phone charms, puppets and most importantly cookies to feed the deer. Do you see the stuffed Stitch in a deersuit? Amazing right?

We finally made our way from the city up to the park. It was very crowded, probably because it was a holiday. The deer were free to roam the park, but many of them seemed to lurk behind the fences. This gave the deer a chance to get away from the crowds. The deer are considered wild animals but in truth are very tame. I didn't see any children get bitten by the deer at all. However, I saw some children chasing and throwing cookies at the deer. Here's a little girl with a female deer. Is it me or do the deer look a little different from the ones we have in the States?

It was pretty hot out (mid 80's) so most of the deer were pretty subdued sitting in the shade and some were hanging out in small ponds trying to cool down. This deer spotted a boy with a cookie for him.

"tabetai, tabetai!" means "eat, eat!"

The deer weren't much smarter than my two Labradors. This one walked around with a cookie on his butt for at least 5 minutes. I also noticed that the deers horns were clipped or cut off the male deer; maybe to prevent them from fighting or mauling visitors. This deer must be a young male because he still has his horns.

A lot of the deer seemed very tired and no matter where they chose to sit they were constantly being visited by small Japanese children bearing cookies they wanted to feed the deer.

I liked watching this little boy try to talk the deer into eating a cookie.

Here's me with a deer friend.

It's a pretty good life for a sacred deer of Nara. After we made our way past the deer we ventured on to see the main attraction of Nara: Todaiji. Coming up in part 2: Todaiji and other Buddhist stuff. Also coming soon: beginning sketches! yay!