Go Go Gaijin Rangers!

My first week in Japan was a very hot and humid one. I had to take several trips to the pharmacy and generally learned my way around the area we are in. Already, I've managed to get lost on the bus once, when the coordinator told us any bus driving by Kansai Gaidai's main gate will go down to Hirakata-shi Station and City Hall.

No.

Only buses going in that direction will end up at Hirakata-shi Station. All others go to Nagao. Which is further into the countryside. On the brighter side of things, we met a little girl and her mother, who we did our best to speak in Japanese with. Eventually we were able to make our way back to Kansai Gaidai and from there to the city hall. Something interesting to note, is that in Japan spiders don't really care what kind of weather it is. They just enjoy relaxing in their webs, despite how big and terrifying they are (as opposed to house spiders, that just want to scurry everywhere).

The bus system is also really easy to navigate, though we've mostly been using it to get to Hirakata-shi station and our house. We did take a trip to Kyoto by train one day, and the trains here are ridiculously fast. Just to get an idea of how fast they are on film, you need to take a video, as still photography does it no justice. It's actually a little terrifying to think about what its like to be passed by a bullet train in that event.

Right.

Trip to the pharmacy first.

It's actually a bit more like the Japanese equivalent of CVS, called Kirindo. Because I am as sweet as andoughnut (a doughnut filled with sweet bean pasted) to mosquitoes and poisonous plants in Japan, I have had to pick up cream for my legs several times, even though I keep asking for anti-histamine. As fluticasone is an over the counter cream here, though, it did end up ultimately helping. Most pharmacies also have at least one staff member that can translate from English, which was very helpful as my Japanese is not quite good enough for me to say "my leg is inflamed and I itch really bad, what is good?"

On our trip to Kyoto we were surprised to see that many of the Japanese students had face towels with them, so the next day our group planned to buy some, and with the new Pokemon movie coming out I was able to get myself a pretty snazzy one. Face towels are actually so common, because when its hot out you need something to get rid of the sweat from your eyes, that the most expensive one was probably seven dollars.

The walk up to the shrine was pretty intense, as we went up a street full of Chawan. It was worth it, though, as nature was wonderful as well as the architecture of the building. The Kannon that was enshrined was pretty big, and makes me wonder just how large Daibutsu is. That is a trip for another day, though.

Food wise I've tried everything that looks out of the ordinary and limit my consumption of anpan and onigiri. I've had takoyaki and okinomiyaki which are both popular in Osaka, but I was not a big fan of okinomiyaki because of the egg in it. There are a lot of desserts that involve custard, which is even crazier, almost as much as having class on Labor Day.

~Zenko~