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This poem was written by Yoshii Isamu and is engraved on a large rock by the Shirakawa river in Gion, one of the geisha districts in Kyoto. That rock is actually a memorial to this man and twice a year, in April and November, the geishas and apprentices can be seen there and pose for pictures. The Shirakawa river area is very beautiful with its old Kyoto charm. In fact, during the cherry blossom season, this area is truly spectacular and magical. I went there many times during the time I was studying in Japan and I have many good memories. Even though some of my friends thought I was stalking geishas (*ahem* I was not and I'm a big girl I'll just do whatever I please) I really loved every moment I spent there. That poem brings back tons of good memories and for that reason I'm thinking of getting it tattooed on my shoulder blade. At first I was thinking the ribs would be a good place for it, but I'm a baby and not sure I want to go through that much pain. I didn't write this entry to say that I'm getting the tattoo because I still need to think about it and don't have money for that at the moment (how much does that cost anyway?), but to share the poem and pictures!

I went to a few maid cafes while in Japan and my favorite one of all was definitely Hand Maid Cafe in Osaka. As you can see from the picture above, the maids were also bunnies and the cafe was decorated to resemble the inside of a tree. Actually, you can't see it on that picture, but they were wearing rabbit ears and had a little round tail too. The idea was that when we enter the cafe, we enter a bunny hole! The cafe was really nice and all the maids were adorable. We were allowed to take pictures in the cafe, as long as it wasn't pictures of the girls, so I of course I did. The parfaits there were the best I tried in Japan. They had bunny themed plates, tea pots, etc. After I finished squealing over how cute the tea pot with the bunny head was, my friend Anna told me she saw it at a store in Umeda, so of course I had to go get it :)

In maid cafes, since you're not allowed to take pictures of the girls, you can usually pay (approx. $5) to have a polaroid taken with a maid. I really wanted to get one, but they had a different system there: you need 30 coasters (they give you one for tea/coffee, another one for parfaits, etc.) to get a picture and unfortunately I only managed to get 4. Too bad!

 
 

It's summer: Heroes, Lost and 24 seasons are over (the latest 24 season didn't grab my attention anyway) and therefore I have nothing to watch on TV. My good friend Catherine and I started watching Dexter and I am very much amazed by the introduction sequence to this series. The main character is a serial killer who, by day, works for the Miami police as a blood spatter expert so this show is pretty dark. The intro only shows him getting ready in the morning, but it's just so violent even though the images are not. I really love how they did it, great great job.

If you watch the video or have already seen it, let me know what you think :)

  

For a long time even though there were many cases of swine flu in North America, the virus hadn't came to Japan yet. Last week, the news started announcing 4 cases among students who had just came back from a trip to the United States. That was unfortunate, but nothing to get all worked up about. Then Monday morning, the news (again with them) announced around 40 new cases of the flu in Kobe and Osaka among people who haven't been abroad recently. I didn't think much about it and went to school to take my first exam (it's finals week). I don't know exactly what happened during the hour I spent writing my exam, but I swear all hell broke loose. Panic and screaming ladies in the streets.

When I finished my exam, my speaking partner was waiting for me outside the classroom to tell me that the university was going to be closed until Sunday. Yes, a university (with 2500 other schools in the neighboring prefectures) is closed during finals week, thus canceling not only our exams, but also our graduation ceremony. What's really funny is that NO ONE is sick at our school. I think this is so insane that I still can't get over it.

Nowadays, everyone out there is wearing a medical mask to protect themselves from the swine flu. It's impossible to buy new masks now because most places already ran out of stock. When I see Japanese people not wearing them I wonder if it's because they think everyone is overreacting or just because they couldn't find masks in time.



Shoko pointing to the empty space left by the masks being all sold out!

( pictures under the cut )

Last month, I was invited to enter a photo contest that National Geographic is running along with its upcoming exhibition Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor. Then, earlier this week, I was notified that I was going to be featured on the blog about the exposition as one of the forerunners in the photo challenge.



This is the photo I entered, I took it in 2007 when I visited the Forbidden Gardens in Texas with my boyfriend. They have a replica of the Terracotta Army found near the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of China. The original army was composed of 8099 statues of a height ranging between 184–197cm. The army in Texas has 6000 figures that are 1/3 of the original size.

It's not a very big contest with many professional photographers entering so it's not a huge deal, but still I'm happy that some people enjoy my photo.

Japan has very cute and elegant cafes. This afternoon, I went to "Repos de midi" with my speaking partner for some sweets and this is what I ordered: plum and mandarin juice with cheesecake. The cafe had a very relaxing and homey atmosphere and they even have a small shop where you can buy an assortment of different, but all pretty, things. The plate, glass and fork in the picture were available for purchase. I want to buy all of them and maybe I will :)

During the past two weeks, the cherry blossom trees were full of beautiful flowers and that kicked into gear sakura season 2009! Before coming here, one of the things I knew I had to do was to have a ohanami party with friends. When I came to Japan in 2006, it was mostly during sakura season and I saw a lot of people drinking and eating with friends under the cherry trees and I wished I could do it too.

Literally ohanami (お花見) means:
お = honorific prefix
花 = flower
見 = to see

It applies to other spring blossoms too, such as the Japanese plum and the peach, but the cherry blossom flowers are the most popular. So yes, people go out to view the flowers, but when hearing about ohanami it most commonly consists of eating and drinking and overall merriment. Last Saturday was a hot (25°C/75°F) and sunny day and we headed over to Osaka Castle Park for some traditional ohanami fun.

As a little side note, I want to say that as a foreigner I get stared at a lot here. It annoys me sometimes (depending on my mood) and usually staring back at them doesn't make it stop. Lately, I decided to wave at those who do it just to see their reaction. On the train to Osaka Castle Park last weekend, a guy around my age with tiny dots for eyebrows and who could have easily belonged in Harajuku kept staring at me. I stared back a him and held his gaze for long moments and he still wouldn't stop. Then, I waved and smiled at him and the look of surprise that appeared on his face was priceless. It was almost like he thought I hadn't noticed that he was staring at me. Fortunately, he smiled afterward so I was relieved. We finally got off the train never to see him again, or so I thought, but I saw him in the cafeteria at lunch today. I wanted to say hello to him when I passed by his table, but given how he reacted on the train I figured I might as well leave him alone.

Back to the ohanami, I thought it was a great experience and I'm very glad that I could do it. I went there with a friend from home and a couple Japanese friends. We ate, drank, played Uno and sang songs.



( ohanami )

Walking around Kyoto and randomly finding a place where two geishas are serving green tea and rice cakes.

  

On February 25th, I visited a shrine in Kyoto with Sarasa and her mother for Baikasai. It is held every year on that date in memory of Sugawara Michizane who was an admirer of plum blossoms. Besides gazing at the plum blossoms, the main event on that day is the tea ceremony held by the geiko and maiko of Kamishichiken.

I have been trying to find things to say to describe the tea ceremony, but I can't really think of anything smart to write. I'll just show the pictures already.



We were given traditional Japanese sweets to eat while drinking the tea. I only ate the one on the left of the picture (I still have the others in my room actually). I was a rice cake containing sweet red bean paste, just like the Hinamatsuri sweets I mentioned in a previous entry. It was very sweet and went well with the bitter green tea that they served at the tea ceremony.


    

Basically, there was a ton of maiko and geiko preparing and serving the tea to the guests. To me, it was a very strange feeling being so close to them. I am not one to be star-struck by celebrities on TV, but I guess this was a little bit how I felt on that day.