~Three little things~

It's finally starting to get colder in Japan now. I'm guessing it's still not as chilly as it is in Belgium but I've worn my new winter coat a handful of times now, so that must mean something! Winter is on its surely way and the once so richly colored trees are shedding their leaves. It makes me sad to see the pretty scenery go but on the other hand I'm excited for Christmas! Can't wait to redecorate my room for Santa-celebration-day!

Now, I don’t know whether we have this in Belgium. I think we have similar things but I’ve never seen them the way they’re sold here and they are definitely a lot more common here (and by that I mean they’re everywhere). 

These are heat packs you can stick to your body during winter and they’ll keep you warm all day. My Japanese friend leant one to me to use one day and I've been loving them eversince! 

They have an adhesive side and they’re specifically designed to stick to your skin, underneath your clothes (usually your back, your belly, or for women with menstrual pain, your pelvic area). I can imagine they work great against muscle pain as well. They really stay hot all day and they’re not expensive at all. 

Now for something really random: I've been getting into rugby lately. 
Not playing rugby myself (I don't want to die), but our school's team is pretty good and I know a guy on the team. So I've been seeing their games and it's such a fun sport to watch! I'm sad to say the season will end in a few weeks, but hopefully by then I can say that the Kandai team managed to move up into the A-list again! 

The last thing I want to mention is that I've been going to the gym lately (yes I'm one of those people now). A good few people from the dorm go to the gym often and since I have naginata class in the same building on Tuesdays, I figured why not stay a little longer and do something that's good for me? 

The guys I'm going with are the real deal though! These are people that squat more than their own body weight and one of the guys is the dude on the rugby team so that should say enough! My whole body aches as I'm typing this! 

But no worries, they're going easy on me for now, they're nice teachers! ^^

XXX

Autumn is THE BEST!!!

 Seasonal change is an incredibly important part of Japanese culture. I always learned that in school, but only now as I live here, do I understand the full extent of what that means.
From mid-September on, stores will change their decor completely to celebrate autumn. There's gold and red leaves on the walls, as bouquets in vases, you can buy gorgeous, overpriced autumn postcards with fine glittery leaves , autumn letter paper, wrapping paper, ribbons, jewelry, everything autumn! The Japanese have a word for this beautiful changing of the leaves in autumn: 紅葉(kouyou or momiji).

Because November is supposedly the prettiest period as autumn goes a lot of people travel to Kyoto during that time, because there are a lot of beautiful sights there that look even better with the colors of autumn.  

 So that’s exactly what I did and I was so mesmerized by the experience!

I took the one hour train ride from Osaka to Arashiyama, Kyoto and instantly I was met with gorgeous nature. The sky was open and bright blue, the trees the whole range of gold, orange, red and purple and the horizon consisted of curvy mountains all around us.

We walked around the area for a little bit, enjoying the sights. There was a pretty little park and after a short walk we arrived at the famous bamboo grove. I visited this place before, 5 years ago with my family when I was in Japan. I remember loving it the first time around and I loved it just as much this time!

  

Bamboo grove

 After the bamboo park we went to visit the Tenryū-ji(天龍寺),which is a famous Zen Buddhist temple and a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s a popular place to visit during the fall, so it was very busy when we went. But it was worth it, it was stunning!

I got some macha/sesame seed ice cream after the temple and it was AMAZING!








Finally, we took a bus to the other side of Kyoto, to visit the Tōfuku-ji(東福寺). It’s a temple surrounded by a beautiful forest. Now, if the Tenryū-ji was crowded, the Tōfuku-ji was a death trap! Since this was another one of those ‘you-have-to-visit-in-November’ places, it was insane!

I’ve talked about feisty old ladies in a previous post but my experience at this temple site made me realize just how hard core exactly these people are. The Tōfuku-ji site has this one bridge that looks over part of the forest. It is one of those sights you have to see. As we were lining up to go onto the bridge (yes, there was a huge line), there was a guy with a megaphone walking through the crowd going: “笑って下さい！ケンカしないで下さい！” which means “Please smile everybody, don’t fight!” At the time we thought it was hilarious but in hindsight, we should have known then what we were getting ourselves into. I was not at all prepared for the claustrophobic bridge war that occurred next.

So this bridge is packed with about 90 percent old people, a few younger couples and the four of us. We’re walking ridiculously slow because people weren’t moving forward on the bridge. Everyone wanted to stay on the left side of the bridge because that’s where the pretty sight is, right in the middle of the long bridge.

This is the view from the start of the bridge as we're lining up to get to the center, where the prettiest view is. You can see the edge of the middle compartment of the bridge, that's where we're heading.. very, very slowly...

So we’re waiting in line of the left side and the crowd there, of course, isn’t moving much at all. The pack of old ladies behind us weren’t shy to complain loudly about the frozen state of the line and they also didn’t mind pushing us forward. I’m not kidding, this one old lady had her full body weight against my friend for almost the entire time we were on the bridge. It was so bad that my friend’s back was hurting a lot by the time we got off the bridge. I was terrified these people would actually manage to push me over the edge of the bridge! And then you have people who move along of the right side of the bridge and then shamelessly squeeze themselves in between the people on the left side who’ve been waiting for a really long time. Seriously, if you thought Japanese people were polite, go sightseeing in the Kansai area on a busy day, that might change your mind! It’s really funny how these old people weren’t even trying to be subtle about their actions, it’s the stereotypical sassy obaachan (grandma) attitude I had heard so much about before coming here.

You can see this behavior as rude, but I can’t help but feel there’s something great about how no-nonsense they are. In other areas people might always be polite, but you'll never know how someone is truly feeling on the inside. In Kansai, if an old lady has an issue with something, you will know about it, she'll make sure of that. In a sense, I think they're a lot nicer. They're really easy to talk to because none of them are shy. They're generally really lively and have a great sense of humor.

But yes, that bridge experience was really something! We truly felt like heroes after getting out of that place alive!

 

 Bridge adventure here =>

After that we went to get some parfait, which apparently is a signature Kyoto food. It was really good and then, finally, we took the train back home.

 It was such a fun day! I was really impressed by how beautiful everything looked. Autumn is my favorite time of the year in Belgium as well, because of how pretty everything looks. But Belgium autumn is nothing compared to Japanese autumn. The colors of the trees here are so vibrant and especially in a scenic place like Kyoto, you can truly enjoy them to their full potential! ♥ So happy I went!!!

Here's some more random pictures (I took way too many)
 

 

 

♥XXX♥