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So, on Sunday I woke up obscenely early and went with M. on a "make friends with foreigners" tour of Nagasaki. It was probably one of the more surreal days of my life, but I kinda expected that. When you only pay 3000 yen (about 27 dollars) for a trip that would cost you over a hundred dollars one way on your own... Anyway, we got there and it was basically six foreigners and twenty-five japanese people. I'd expected to be bused there and back and that we'd have a tour or something when we got there. What we actually got was one of those actual Japanese tour ladies compete with crazy flag and wacky traveling games.
Seating was assigned and I sat across from M. and next to this lovely lady who spoke pretty decent English and perhaps more importantly, was willing to help me study Japanese (since the JLPT is on the 3rd and I need to study like mad) for almost the entire trip. I returned the favour by sharing English of course, but she really was quite helpful. She let me speak Japanese and corrected it as I went, and when I pulled out my flashcards to go through them she helped me remember lots of words in different ways or gave me hints in Japanese. She also laughed herself silly at how I write kanji *g* (I decided long ago to ignore that whole stroke order thing...) I had several different conversations with people in Japanese, mostly about the same thing, but it was good practice at least. Also had a great conversation with one woman who actually asked me questions I've never tried answering in Japanese before (no one's ever had the patience for me to have a long conversation with them in Japanese (which is fair enough since I usually get to frustrated and switch to English)). Things like how many pets I had growing up and interesting but inocuous stuff like that.
I hadn't expected, but wasn't too surprised when everyone had to introduce themselves at the beginning of the trip. I was only slightly weirded out when our tour guide sang us traditional drinking songs and the like. I couldn't help but grin when we were all roped into a massive game of janken in order to win cheap souveniers from where we had visited that day, but when they asked all the foreigners to sing a song from their home country, I actually had the thought of trying to sink through the floor. M. and I were horrible and sang Itsy Bitsy Spider (this is now the official anthem of the USA, just so you know), but it was still very embarassing. (Though one of them actually asked me later if that was a famous song in America, and when I told her it was a children's song, she was like, "But every child knows it, right?" Oy vey.)
The weather was kinda gray and rainy all day, but that really didn't ruin anything. Nagasaki is actually a pretty small city. I was expecting something much larger and more industrial but it was hardly bigger than Shimonoseki. We went to the Peace Park first which was rather misleading since the park is in a residential area and looks particularly out of place. There's a giant statue there, lots of paper cranes, the remains of the prison that was vaporized and a fountain. We took a huge group picture. I posed for lots of pictures with random people (it's kinda expected of you, no matter how odd it seems). After wandering around for a little, we headed to a nearby Chinese restaurant, Izumiya which despite their obvious set up for tourists had delicious Chinese food from egg drop soup to pineapple chicken. It was kinda annoying how they kept bringing us tastes of things and stuff so that you would buy it later on in the shop, but it was tasty so oh well. At least I found my usual pins from Nagasaki (and got Satsuma Ryoma... who died in the Ikeyada Inn incident in Kyoto).
Next was Dejima, the artificial island created for the Dutch traders back in those very short days of the Edo period when foreigners were actually welcome. It's not an island anymore except on one side, but most of the houses are either there or reconstructed. I had a great time wandering around though there was nothing much I hadn't seen before (mostly reconstructions of rooms with the only weird part being the tatami floors). There was a cool scale model of the island (and I took a pic of Sauron-chan in it, which looks very odd since he's actually the proper size). There was an archaeology room too, which I quite enjoyed, just for the fact that it was actually labeled 'archaeology room'. There was actually a fair amount of English in the place (and in the museum later as well) which impressed me since Japan is usually sorely lacking in anything more than hints of English. My only regret is that we didn't have time to watch the show they were putting on.
After that was the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture which was a pretty cool building. Very airy and recently renovated. I was a bit weirded out when we actually had to take off our shoes and carry them for the exhibit on Nagasaki's government and how they dealt with foreigners (specifically the Dutch and Christianity) but considering we went through several tatami rooms, I guess it was to be expected. There was some interesting stuff on the persecution of Christians though it was all in Japanese which made it a bit harder to enjoy. We then had a rather decent 3-D movie following an administrator through a year in Nagasaki during the Dutch era. (Though why it was 3-D is beyond me.) Afterwards, I thought we would just continue on but we were mostly pulled into this Edo period drama that was reenacted in front of us (it's kinda comforting to hear the Japanese around you exclaim "Samurai!" when they see someone dressed like that. It makes me feel less touristy and geeky *L*). The costumes and hair during this thing were great and the acting was unusually intense, so much so that one of the actors was actually crying at the end. Of course, half the audience was as well...
The story was about a young girl who was given to this man when she was young since her family was too poor to care for her. He became a drunk and she was forced to steal (or he forced her to) to survive so they went before the magistrate. The parents came in as well, now rich and wanting her back, but she still loved her husband and wanted to stay with him and once he broke down and admitted he wanted her to, I think he then took her punishment or maybe she was allowed to stay with him. (It was old style Japanese and very difficult for me to follow.) I personally found it too over the top and had to keep covering up my smile (considering the person next to me was crying...), but it was fun to watch and afterwards they invited people to take pictures with the actors. So I asked two to hold Sauron-chan *g* and M. and I posed with the magistrate (I'd like the picture a lot more if I didn't look so fat in it. I was having too much fun to remember to pose properly.). Of course, the tour organizers also took a pic of that so I'm pretty sure we'll be plastered all over Onoda by the end of the week... The rest of the museum was very nice to look at, but could have used more English. I snapped one final pic of Nagasaki's streets and we were on our way.
The trip home was long and involved everything I've mentioned before. I got tons of Japanese studying done, even if it eventually made my head ache. Right before the end, some of the kids gave me some very cute pictures drawn by them for us (meaning, the foreigners) and they're currently gracing my fridge. Owari.
Seating was assigned and I sat across from M. and next to this lovely lady who spoke pretty decent English and perhaps more importantly, was willing to help me study Japanese (since the JLPT is on the 3rd and I need to study like mad) for almost the entire trip. I returned the favour by sharing English of course, but she really was quite helpful. She let me speak Japanese and corrected it as I went, and when I pulled out my flashcards to go through them she helped me remember lots of words in different ways or gave me hints in Japanese. She also laughed herself silly at how I write kanji *g* (I decided long ago to ignore that whole stroke order thing...) I had several different conversations with people in Japanese, mostly about the same thing, but it was good practice at least. Also had a great conversation with one woman who actually asked me questions I've never tried answering in Japanese before (no one's ever had the patience for me to have a long conversation with them in Japanese (which is fair enough since I usually get to frustrated and switch to English)). Things like how many pets I had growing up and interesting but inocuous stuff like that.
I hadn't expected, but wasn't too surprised when everyone had to introduce themselves at the beginning of the trip. I was only slightly weirded out when our tour guide sang us traditional drinking songs and the like. I couldn't help but grin when we were all roped into a massive game of janken in order to win cheap souveniers from where we had visited that day, but when they asked all the foreigners to sing a song from their home country, I actually had the thought of trying to sink through the floor. M. and I were horrible and sang Itsy Bitsy Spider (this is now the official anthem of the USA, just so you know), but it was still very embarassing. (Though one of them actually asked me later if that was a famous song in America, and when I told her it was a children's song, she was like, "But every child knows it, right?" Oy vey.)
The weather was kinda gray and rainy all day, but that really didn't ruin anything. Nagasaki is actually a pretty small city. I was expecting something much larger and more industrial but it was hardly bigger than Shimonoseki. We went to the Peace Park first which was rather misleading since the park is in a residential area and looks particularly out of place. There's a giant statue there, lots of paper cranes, the remains of the prison that was vaporized and a fountain. We took a huge group picture. I posed for lots of pictures with random people (it's kinda expected of you, no matter how odd it seems). After wandering around for a little, we headed to a nearby Chinese restaurant, Izumiya which despite their obvious set up for tourists had delicious Chinese food from egg drop soup to pineapple chicken. It was kinda annoying how they kept bringing us tastes of things and stuff so that you would buy it later on in the shop, but it was tasty so oh well. At least I found my usual pins from Nagasaki (and got Satsuma Ryoma... who died in the Ikeyada Inn incident in Kyoto).
Next was Dejima, the artificial island created for the Dutch traders back in those very short days of the Edo period when foreigners were actually welcome. It's not an island anymore except on one side, but most of the houses are either there or reconstructed. I had a great time wandering around though there was nothing much I hadn't seen before (mostly reconstructions of rooms with the only weird part being the tatami floors). There was a cool scale model of the island (and I took a pic of Sauron-chan in it, which looks very odd since he's actually the proper size). There was an archaeology room too, which I quite enjoyed, just for the fact that it was actually labeled 'archaeology room'. There was actually a fair amount of English in the place (and in the museum later as well) which impressed me since Japan is usually sorely lacking in anything more than hints of English. My only regret is that we didn't have time to watch the show they were putting on.
After that was the Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture which was a pretty cool building. Very airy and recently renovated. I was a bit weirded out when we actually had to take off our shoes and carry them for the exhibit on Nagasaki's government and how they dealt with foreigners (specifically the Dutch and Christianity) but considering we went through several tatami rooms, I guess it was to be expected. There was some interesting stuff on the persecution of Christians though it was all in Japanese which made it a bit harder to enjoy. We then had a rather decent 3-D movie following an administrator through a year in Nagasaki during the Dutch era. (Though why it was 3-D is beyond me.) Afterwards, I thought we would just continue on but we were mostly pulled into this Edo period drama that was reenacted in front of us (it's kinda comforting to hear the Japanese around you exclaim "Samurai!" when they see someone dressed like that. It makes me feel less touristy and geeky *L*). The costumes and hair during this thing were great and the acting was unusually intense, so much so that one of the actors was actually crying at the end. Of course, half the audience was as well...
The story was about a young girl who was given to this man when she was young since her family was too poor to care for her. He became a drunk and she was forced to steal (or he forced her to) to survive so they went before the magistrate. The parents came in as well, now rich and wanting her back, but she still loved her husband and wanted to stay with him and once he broke down and admitted he wanted her to, I think he then took her punishment or maybe she was allowed to stay with him. (It was old style Japanese and very difficult for me to follow.) I personally found it too over the top and had to keep covering up my smile (considering the person next to me was crying...), but it was fun to watch and afterwards they invited people to take pictures with the actors. So I asked two to hold Sauron-chan *g* and M. and I posed with the magistrate (I'd like the picture a lot more if I didn't look so fat in it. I was having too much fun to remember to pose properly.). Of course, the tour organizers also took a pic of that so I'm pretty sure we'll be plastered all over Onoda by the end of the week... The rest of the museum was very nice to look at, but could have used more English. I snapped one final pic of Nagasaki's streets and we were on our way.
The trip home was long and involved everything I've mentioned before. I got tons of Japanese studying done, even if it eventually made my head ache. Right before the end, some of the kids gave me some very cute pictures drawn by them for us (meaning, the foreigners) and they're currently gracing my fridge. Owari.