Random Life Stuff, Vol. 53

It’s time for another Random Life Stuff post!  It’s been a while since I’ve done one, so let me explain: RLS posts contain lots of random things that are noteworthy, but not long enough to deserve their own posts.  So, on with it!

Fresh Blood I mentioned a while ago that the new JETs were moving in.  Well, they’ve been here for a little over a month now.  The JET experience for those of us living in that one juutaku is quite different from that of other city JETs simply because there’s so many of us concentrated in one place.  In fact, due to the number of apartments there that are vacant, there may actually be more foreigners than Japanese people!  Counting myself, 12 JETs live in that juutaku, and one’s partner recently moved in, meaning there’s 13 foreigners living there!  Honestly, I was a bit worried, since we stick out like sore thumbs as it is, and with that many in one place things are bound to get rowdy.  So far everything’s been okay; though I do wonder about one of our new folks. ^_^;

House Protectors In my early days in Fukuoka I’d sometimes come home and find little grey critters dashing about my apartment. I didn’t know what they were, so I’d been calling them geckos or salamanders depending on my mood.  Turns out they’re geckos called “yamori,” which means something like “house protector.”  Like spiders, they get rid of yucky bugs you don’t want in your house, but unlike a few spiders, they aren’t harmful to humans at all.  I think they’re cute! Lately I’ve been seeing more of them.  Guess they heard about the gecko-friendly apartment.

Yamori on my ceiling

I saw a rainbow But it wasn’t electronic.  (Any 19.5 Collective fans out there? ^o^)  A while ago another JET who lives in my juutaku caught a rainbow in nearly the same place. BTW, you can hear a sample of 19.5 Collection’s “Sugarpil – Whole Lotta Rainbow” on their website by clicking on the 2nd tab (the blue one, which is the CD of remixes of their track “Sugarpil.” Just in case you wanna get my reference or just hear some good electronica.

Rainbow

Sane Eating There’s several little shops and restaurants behind the shrine Dazaifu Tenmanguu (something people doing checklist sightseeing never find out).  One of them has the most incredible kitsune soba ever. Kitsune means “fox” but in this case refers to a type of sweet fried tofu which ends up being fox-colored.  Soba is buckwheat noodles.  It’s simple, yet so wonderful.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Nom nom slurp nom

Actually, I can’t slurp noodles without making a mess, so I sorta fake it.  ^_^;

Insane Eating A while ago I went with some friends to Sweets Paradise, an all-you-can-eat dessert place out of Tokyo that has one store in Fukuoka in the new Parco department store next to the Nishitetsu Tenjin Station Building.  They have a little bit of real food too.  It was delicious, so I’m never going back there again. ^_^;  About fifteen USD buys you 70 minutes of pigging out.  I put at least 10 minutes between plates, but still.  I actually don’t get sick from eating sweets as long as they’re not the ridiculously artificial kind so…yeah.  Not going back. ^o^;;;

You should go with someone who knows CPR.

If you’re gonna steal… you probably shouldn’t do it on the store’s grand opening day. Not to say you should be doing it at all, but that just seems like a particularly bad move.  It’s what one of my kids did.  After giving himself one five-finger discount, some friends requested he pilfer some other items.  All of the involved boys now have shaved heads as part of their punishment.  Interestingly, while considering whether or not all students should wear school uniforms in debate class, both the affirmative and negative teams listed “Everyone can tell what school you go to” as reasons supporting their case.  But one negative team wrote it a little differently: “If one person does something bad, everyone from that school has to take responsibility for it.” Ouch.

More GACKT ♡ I got my ticket for the play Nemuri Kyoushirou! I wonder how much of it I’ll be able to understand?  I’ve a couple of months before the performance in which to study.  Oh yeah, I should probably study for the JLPT as well eh? ^o^

Parkinson’s Law Here’s an article I read.  Painfully true. ^_^;

Hmm…what else? I have the feeling I’m forgetting something.  Oh well.  Till next time, O Reader!

Buddha Bless You

Tags

篠栗町, Nanzoin, Nanzouin, Reclining Buddha, Sasagurimachi, 南蔵院

There were a couple years during which my shita no ani (younger older brother) and I would watch lots and lots of kung fu movies.  The raspy, dubbed voice of a monk saying to the protagonist in one of them “Buddha bleeeeeess youuuuuuu” has stayed in my mind for all these years.  I don’t know why.

The last Saturday in August I went with two friends to the Buddhist temple Nanzouin (南蔵院) in Sasagurimachi, which is about a 30 minute train ride from where I live.  There were very few people there when we went, though we did get there kinda late, at around 3PM.  There’s not much to explain of the pictures themselves, but since I don’t like going to famous places without knowing anything about them, snapping pictures, and leaving, I did a little research and will write the fruits of that effort below.  Contrary to what the foreigners around here know, it’s not just because there’s a really big Buddha there.  (Can you tell that checklist sightseeing is one of my pet peeves? ^o^;;;)

According to the Japanese version of Wikipedia, Sasagurimachi has been considered sacred ground since the Tenpou Era (1830-1844).  If I understood the article correctly, a nun who had made a pilgrimage to the designated 88 holy temples of Shikoku arrived in Sasagurimachi, saw the distress of the people, and began praying for them and spreading the teachings of Buddha.  Soon thereafter there was peace, so the villagers started making many sculptures of Buddha, and to correspond with the 88-temple pilgrimage circuit in Shikoku, there came to be an 88-temple pilgrimage circuit in Sasagurimachi.  So, on the way to Nanzouin’s main hall proper, we saw many sculptures, small temples, and minor halls.  Also a kitty cat.

Nyaa?

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Not sure if these are supposed to be monks or Buddhas. I'm aslo not sure if the names indicate a person funded the sculpture, or that their ashes rest there.

We walk down a very narrow path shaded by trees, turn a corner, and come upon this rocky clearing with its green-roofed temple hall. A very mysterious atmosphere. We're getting closer to the main hall.

These monks drew my attention. A spider chills on its web above the left monk.

The offerings here are prayers for the souls of miscarried and aborted fetuses.

Soon after that, we reached the main hall.  There I bought a 交通安全お守り (koutsuu anzen omamori), a traffic safety charm, but one specifically for bicycles.  The back is adhesive so you can stick it on your bike.  It looks like a red reflector.  I’ll add a picture of it later. (I kept forgetting to do it. ^o^;)

The front of the main hall of Nanzouin.

Then it was time for the highlight of the temple, the bronze reclining Buddha.

The largest bronze reclining Buddha in the world. For a sense of scale, look at the grown woman at the left edge of the photo. This sculpture is as large as the Statue of Liberty (the copper portion).

According to the temple’s website linked above, this sculpture was built to house the ashes of a Buddha and two disciples that were donated by a Buddhist society in Myanmar (Burma) as a thank-you for years of donations made by Nanzouin to the poor in Myanmar and Nepal.  The canisters in front of the Buddha contain sand from the grounds of each of the 88 temples of both Shikoku and Sasagurimachi.

In the foreground to the right you can see what just one of the coils that make up the Buddha's hair looks like. To be honest when I first saw it, before reading the plaque, I was like, "Why is there some coiled poo--ohhh." ^o^;;;;;

That’s pretty much it.  If you want to visit the Reclining Buddha, it’s very simple: from Hakata Station, get on the Sasaguri Line (AKA Fukuhoku Yutaka Line) and get off at Kido Nanzouin-mae. When you exit the station you’ll see the top of Buddha’s head peaking out from some trees.

Everybody Was Circle Walking

Tags

baguazhang, hakkeshou, 八卦掌

Not kung fu fighting. *Rimshot*

(I can’t help myself.)

Ahem, ANYWAY…I’m running my usual 2-weeks late with this blog.  The next thing that happened chronologically might not be of much interest to the Casual Reader or the Reader Who Ended Up Here By Googling “yasashii kyoutou sensei” (@_@?), but as I’m a forgetful person and this blog serves as proof of my existence in Fukuoka, I will chronicle it.

When I first got to Fukuoka, I did a homestay with one of the teachers from my school. In the linked post I erroneously referred to the class the teacher invited me to as a tai chi class, but it’s a baguazhang class. (From my Wiki-understanding, both are “internal arts” but they are, in fact, two different things.)  In Japanese, this martial art is called “hakkeshou” (八卦掌) meaning “8 trigram palms.” Anyway, while I thought it was very interesting, the combination of the class being held at a community center outside of my city (though I don’t even know if that matters) and the fact that I had arrived in Fukuoka just two days prior made me not quite ready to randomly become a martial artist. (Not that that doesn’t go hand-in-hand with my rock star fantasy.)

Fast-forward to August 2010, and the teacher I did the homestay with is asking me to translate for an English-speaking Chinese master of baguazhang who would visit the class at the end of the month. I asked her if it was okay with the teacher to have a non-professional translator, and she said, “yeah, of course, don’t worry.” I wasn’t sure whether to attribute the carefree attitude to a small class not being able to afford hiring a real translator, or a mistaken belief that either a.) translating live is easy or b.) that I’m actually good enough at Japanese to do that kind of translation. Whatever the case, I said okay as long as I could get a list of the technical vocabulary in advance.  Since things like “Striking Bear Palm” are not a part of my Japanese vocabulary and all.

(…well, then again, I’ve learned some random things from the kind of J-rock I listen to, not to mention all the Warring States Period Japanese I know, so I guess I shouldn’t try to be funny on that point. ^o^;)

Shortly before setting off for Hitoyoshi, I went to a class for a brush-up and to receive the list of vocabulary.  I took notes and practiced the particular techniques of magui baguazhang that the Chinese teacher was to introduce.  I’ll probably not forget for a long time the phrase “en no chuushin” (「円の中心」) meaning “the center of the circle,” which is what the teacher would say when beginning a circle walk, a training move characteristic of baguazhang.

Now, me being the horrible procrastinator that I am, after the class I only glanced at the list and kept putting off serious study.  ^_^; The day before the actual demonstration I was cramming: “Souken = circle walking. Souken, souken, souken. Yuukei = Bear circle walking.  Yuukei, yuukei, yuukei.  Tankanshou, single changing palm; soukanshou, double changing palm…” Etc. ^0^;;;;;;;

Come showtime, somehow, I made it.  I thought to look up words related to martial arts that weren’t on the list, but since I’m such a genius I forgot to look up “martial arts” itself and was using the words meaning “technique” instead.  Now, the Japanese teacher knows the basic words of his art in English and Chinese, so he caught it.  As our circles overlapped, he said, “Eli…Eli, ‘martial arts’ is ‘bujutsu.'” ^_^;;;;; Luckily, random things such as ogling Tetsuji Tamayama in the movie Hagetaka helped me remember how to say “hawk” (okay, okay, I already knew “hawk” thanks to the SoftBank Hawks, but then I would have no reason to mention Tamayama) and a particular GACKT song taught me the word for “snake” so I was well prepared to translate things such as “move like a hawk flying through the forest” and “attack like a snake” into Japanese.

It was very interesting to see another teacher of baguazhang.  The Japanese teacher has a very…how shall I describe it?  His moves are flowing, yet staccato, pensive. It’s like there’s this pause, and heavy shift between each move, but between those pauses, he’s very fluid.  It’s as if he imposed the stiffness of karate on the fluidity of kung fu.  Granted, I’m not a martial artist so perhaps the metaphor is quite wrong. In contrast, the Chinese teacher moved in an almost carefree way.  Like, “Oh, hello there.  I just happen to be walking in a circle with my arms held up this way. Hmm hm hmm hm hm.” ^o^

Overall I think I did a decent enough job translating. (We don’t need to talk about my form. ^_^;)  What left the biggest impression on me was the following. The Chinese teacher said, to paraphrase: is there someone who is terribly weak in the arms? No.  But when people are tired, what hurts?  It’s always the lower back and the space between the shoulder blades, no matter what.  Athletes always end up with aches and pains after a few years. Other martial arts and modern sports teach you how to make that which is already strong stronger.  They train the muscles. But baguazhang teaches how to make strong that which is weak, by training the tendons and the bones.

I thought, what if we all trained our weak points instead of just our strong points?  I don’t just mean physically.  If someone had the drive to improve their weakest ability, rather than just that which comes easy, imagine what they could achieve, at least in their strong point.  A bad singer might only be able to go from being dreadful to being mediocre, but it’s something, especially if it pushes them to work harder in that which they do have a talent for.  Personally, I think this thought has helped me get back to working on my weak point: laziness. Specifically, spending too much time procrastinating on the internet instead of doing something productive.

And on that note, I end this post. XD