Even more snow!

I just arrived from a trip to Nikko Xmas party and Yokohama. Don't have time to prepare a complete post now. More things for my backlog. I hope I'll comment these two soon. Besides, New Year in Japan is the most important holiday here. Almost everything closes during the last days of the year and the first days of the new year. Including things like supermarkets and some touristic places. That means I'll...

1- not be able to post for a while. By "almost everything", the lab where I use the computer is included.

2- have to buy some (food) stock in order not to starve.

Meanwhile, just to keep the blog rolling, another snow pic.

That was the heaviest I've seen in Himeji so far (it snowed heavier in Nikko, but I can't even compare...). Some centimeters of snow in the floor, morning classes cancelled because of it (buses stopped for some time in the morning, trains also)... But it was nice to see "real" snow scenary.

Comments:

• I tried to use the time I got from the cancelled class to do laundry. But the water was frozen, so it was impossible to use the laundry machine...

• After staying for long outside, when you go indoors, it seems like you got out of somewhere with heavy illumination, although it was cloudy outside. Guess that it's the excess of white in the landscape...

• It's funny to use umbrellas with snow. And it's hard to hold the umbrella, the camera and take pictures.

• Cars with chains on their tires are noisy, but without it bad things may happen. The next day the snow wasn't completely melted and one car almost slipped from a ramp at the university parking lot.

• I can't believe that some people were by bikes in that weather...

• I should not wear my Havaianas when it's snowing... ^^;

• For my friend who recommended me to hit a snowman with both feet at the same time (flying double kick!), I didn't do that this time, but I did that in Nikko. It's funny, especially when you fall, but terribly cold after you do it...

• And for those asking for a snowman...

Memories - 大阪 (Osaka)

One memory calls another... or that's what it seems. Since I mentioned that in my post about Shoshazan, I'll write about the "trip" to Osaka (May 3rd, 2005).

Osaka isn't exactly far enough to call it a trip. Almost one hour by shinkaisoku train. Even so, that was my first time out of Himeji. That was during the Golden Week, when Jon, Silvia and I decided to go to Osaka and visit some places. Since Jon had been here for some time, he guided our way through the stations we didn't have problems about riding the wrong train or anything. Yep. My first time in a Japanese big city.

So, the places we decided to visit were:

• Umeda Sky Building: A skyscraper with an observatory on its top. The "Floating Garden Observatory" (didn't see any garden up there though... but the view to one down below was nice). Nice panoramic view of the city (at least the north part of it), with rivers and bridges at one side and the city at the other.

"The Umeda Sky Building is a spectacular high rise building in the Kita district of Osaka, near Osaka and Umeda Stations. It is also known as the "New Umeda City".

The 173 meter tall building consists of two main towers which are connected with each other by the "Floating Garden Observatory" on the 39th floor. The observatory offers a great view of the city for a 700 yen admission fee.

The Takimi-koji restaurant mall, a replica of a Japanese street of the early Showa Period, can be found on the first basement floor. Offices occupy most of the building's other floors. "

• Osaka-jo: The area around the castle was crowded. There was an event (probably because of the Golden Week) there. So, we didn't enter the castle (well... it's said that Himeji Castle is the most beautiful in Japan anyway, and I've been in Himeji-jo already... uh... another Memories...). One interesting thing was some kind of quiz. During the quiz, some people were wearing samurai costumes and some had my family crest on it... After searching a little, I found the possible reason...

"Construction on Osaka Castle (Osakajo) started in 1583 on the former site of the Ishiyama Honganji Temple, which had been destroyed by Oda Nobunaga thirteen years earlier. Toyotomi Hideyoshi intended the castle to become the center of a new, unified Japan under Toyotomi rule.

However, a few years after Hideyoshi's death in 1615, Tokugawa troops attacked and destroyed the castle and terminated the Toyotomi lineage. Osaka Castle was rebuilt by Tokugawa Hidetada in the 1620s, but its main castle tower was struck by lightening in 1665 and burnt down.

It was not until 1931 that the present ferro-concrete reconstruction of the castle was built. Major repair works gave the castle new glamor in 1997.

Inside the castle is a museum that documents Toyotomi Hideyoshi's life and the history of the castle. "

We still went to the Panasonic Square (which is near Osaka-jo), where some interesting products can be seen, and strolled around the city. Doing that we mismanaged our time and Jon lost his last bus... That's where the post about Shoshazan starts...

Online habits

Since I'm quoting Claus again, I think I should mention one of his posts. It's about differences between Brazilian and Japanese online habits, especially about anonymity.

That's something very interesting and I'd noticed some parts of it, but never really thought about posting about.

For those who want to check it out, follow this link.

工大祭 - Koudaisai

Trying to reduce the backlog, this post will be about the Koudaisai, the University of Hyogo (Himeji campi) Culture Festival (November 19th to 22nd, 2005).

To define a "culture festival", I'll borrow something that Claus wrote in his blog (it's been a while... ^^;): "The culture festivals, for those who don’t know it, are events where the universities many "student clubs" gather to present their activities to the community. Many clubs just set up some kind of shop, while others prepare some kind of performance".

So, many shops, usually selling food (Those familiar with the Londrina Matsuri can make a good image in your heads), some stages and events. Most clubs had some kind of shop, and also had something to show. Some clubs that I didn't even know that existed, like the Tea Ceremony Club, the Astronomy club, the Robot club and the Photo club had impressive things...

The thing that drew my attention was the number of people with some kind of (strange) costume. Guess they took the slogan "everyday is carnival" too seriously... XD Most were freshmen, and the costume was really to draw attention to invite people to their clubs' shop. But... hum... ah... Ok. See for yourselves.

Some performances, including BMX and those of the martial arts clubs (most of my pics are from the Aikido club performance. They performed some enbu. This post tells a little about it, but is almost like kata) and one that looked like... hum... what I could call it... "Cheering club"!? I dunno... Especially because it's done in Japanese style, which is different from the American definition of cheer... although there were girls dressed as cheerleadres...

Games, like a softball tourneament; different events like mochitsuki; and shows. In this latter, there were a show on Sunday of... I think the name is ガガガSP. It's a band that I believe it's kind of popular here...

As some might have noticed in the album, I tried to help the aikido club in their shop, selling taiyaki. Tried because there wasn't much I could do, but anyway...

To close the event, a bingo game (I guess Japanese like it... The other university party - Technofesta - that I went before this blog also had a bingo game in the end...) and some fireworks. Not impressive after those I've seen in Nara, but we can't compare the events, right? And they were good enough.

And after that, a ending party with the aikido club in a yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku means roasted meat, and that makes me think of barbecue... But that's not like that... and it's expensive. It's good, no mistake, but it makes me miss a good steak... Guess I should show them the Brazilian restaurant in Kobe... Anyway, that was fun!

And these festivals are a nice chance to see your classmates in a different way... out of classes. I met many people during this festival... teachers, exchange students, classmates, colleagues, friends... That's the fun of it, I think.

Memories - 書写山 (Shoshazan)

Since I mentioned the Shoshazan some posts before, I decided to open a new series, covering interesting things that happened before I started this blog (just what I needed with my current backlog... Oh, well...). So, I'll write about them as they are mentioned in other posts.

Shoshazan is a mountain near my campus and my home in Japan. I went to that next door place on May 4th, 2005.

"Shoshazan Engyouji, once one of the three training centers of the Tendai sect, is nestled in a peaceful mountain and has many important buildings and statues. Founded in A.D. 966 by Shoku, a holy Buddhist priest, the temple is noted as a pilgrimage site. Visitors can see the Manided, the main building halfway up the mountain; the Daikodo, the great audithorium; the forty meters long Jikido, both a priests training center and a boarding house; and the Kanzaido, sopported by four statues made by Hidari Jingoro, a famous sculptor. Another must is the grave of Mikinosuke, an adopted son of Musashi Miyamoto."

This was during the Golden Week. Some kind of almost consecutive holidays when many Japanese travel around (and abroad). I had gone to Osaka with Jon and Silvia the day before (hum... another Memories post...) and we stayed longer than we should, so that Jon lost his last bus. In that case, we decided that he'd stay in my place and we'd go see the Shoshazan the next day.

Surely a classic temple place... Solemn, peaceful (when there're not dozens of people around)... Really a good place to film scenes with a classic Japanese atmosphere (I mentioned this before, but in any case, it was used as stage for some scenes of "The Last Samurai").

And that time we used the ropeway to go up and down... Expensive, but I guess it's better than climbing when the weather is hot.

More snow

Well... now I got a picture. The weekend was colder than previously, and seems that it was a sign. When I open the door out of my room on that Sunday morning, what did I see?

(That IS the view when I open the door out of my room...)

ブラジル知っていますか？

Besides the always present backlog, the tests (it's midterm exams time now) and Japanese study (thing that I've been neglecting for longer than I should...), last week I was busy with something else: preparing a presentation about Brazil.

We were asked to do it by a person of the International Communications Center in Himeji (ok... sounds too important... a lady who works at the Egret building ^^;) because of the NHK drama "Haru to Natsu" （春と夏） that was broadcasted some months ago and had the Japanese emigration to Brazil as background. I think I mentioned that drama in this blog already...

Anyway, so we were supposed to talk about the emigration (immigration from Brazil's point of view) and add some stories from our families if possible, since we're Japanese descents (nikkeis). The funny part was finding out how much I didn't know about it. Even about my family's story... Nothing that some e-mails asking for information and some books and Internet ressearch couldn't solve.

The second problem: putting the data together and building a presentation... in Japanese. I must admit that it's not the impossible thing that once was, but it took much more time than I thought it'd take. And even more to correct it (special thanks to my Japanese teacher).

The third and the reason why this week was a total chaos was something that I thouhgt I'd got rid of years ago: leaving things to be done later... That's a dangerous habit I noticed that had returned in Japan. I must eliminate it ASAP!

Laziness apart, we manage to finish the thing in time. On the presentation day, I still hadn't everything as I'd like to. Most things about my family were still in the "draft" phase and somethings would have to be said by heart. Even so, things went smoother than I thought.

One thing I don't like much is preparing a presentation without knowing the kind of people you'll talk to. So I just tried something formal... And fortunately this is Kansai, so I could relax a little in the moment of truth.

About the people there. More than I had expected (considering that I couldn't invite anyone. The Japanese friends that I'd really like to invite had club activities/part time job/were unavailable at the time by other reasons. Mostly people from the International Center and people who study Portuguese/have been in Brazil (one man had a good Portuguese... I dare say it was better than my Japanese). One person was one of my igo teachers. I should say that they were very considerate with us and our broken Japanese.

So it started with the International Center person making a brief presentation about Brazil, followed by Silvia's explanation about our hometown (don't ask me...), some of our families' stories and I talking about the emigration. After that, a break to eat some "pao de queijo" (the Egret person found a book in Japanese teaching how to make it...) and some kind of game where we try to teach some Portuguese words... We spoke the words associating them with it's Japanese meaning which were written around a poster with a Christmas tree printed (don't ask me...)

As I said before, I think they were considerate enough, so everything ended well. And that event was quite useful for me to notice how my Japanese has improved. Before coming to Japan, I wouldn't even think about doing a presentation in Japanese. Now, although I still nedd lots of time and someone to correct things, I know it's possible. And I was even relatively successfull in saying some family stories from short memos... in Portuguese. Besides, that theme isn't a simple thing to talk about in English or even Portuguese either...

Snow!!!

Another silly and quick post. Today I was in my lab preparing my presentation about Japanese immigration to Brazil (it's this Saturday, and I'm way behind schedule) when I recieved a C-mail from Silvia in my mobile phone. (C-mail is a feature of au mobiles. Short messages mailed by entering the other person's phone number, unlike e-mails. They are charged as calls as far as I know.)

"Ta nevando!" ("It's snowing!")

I went out and see that it really was... just a little and only small flakes. To the point that the picture I took is no good at all to show snow. But even so, that's the first time I remember seeing snow in my life, so I thought it was worth an entry.

Perhaps I may be sick of it before going back, since it's not even winter... And just today that I didn't bring my "best-for cold-weather" clothing. Think I should go back home early...

And the sun is out again. Guess the snow won't last long today. Worth the wiew for the first time, though. Flakes falling from the sky... Reminds me of sakura in spring a little...

Baka gaijin

Some people seem interested about it, so I'll write about some funny situations. Most of them happened during the first months in Japan.

• My worries when arriving at Itami airport where I was supposed to look for someone knowing only the name. (Actually that person found me first... I wonder why... hehe)

• My face when I first entered my room (or should I say "cube"?). It's smaller than my bedroom in Brazil. Plus the fact that was my first time living alone and I imagine that I made a funny expression. At least the reactions I noticed from Silvia and the coordinator for international students (who were with me at the time) make me think so.

• Feeling like an illetarate for being unable to read things properly (that even now. It's way better than in the beginning, but there're still lots of things I can't read or I just guess).

• My first time buying things for home at a supermarket.

• Being unable to find the way back home from Silvia's house to mine. It's less than 10 minutes walking far, but it's hard to find your way in streets here. And that happened at night... I couldn't find the right road to turn.

• Not being able to find out the correct bus fare. It changes depending on where one gets on and where one gets off.

• Entering the wrong bus, noticing the mistake and riding another wrong one. This time one that loops and returns (only one terminal). I wonder what the driver thought when he noticed that one passenger haven't got off when the bus started to go back...

• Taking almost a week to learn how to use the washing machine with everything written in Japanese. Solution? Throw the clothes in and press the start button. XD

• Having to use for the first time a "traditional Japanese style" toilet (where one have to crouch in order to... hum "do what nature demamds you to").

• The first Engineering class in Japanese (Electronic Circuits using a Japanese textbook). Guess my first thought was "what I'm doing here?" and "this gives a new meaning to the traditional students' complaint of not understanding the teacher..."

• Surprised with Japanese women wearing miniskirts even though it was cold.

• Feeling like in some kind of anime when seeing students wearing sailor uniforms.

• Discovering that almost all exchange students that arrived in April or May have the same mobile phone model and color. That's because au company offers student discount, only one 0 yen model have option for menus in English and that model is available in black, lemon green or pink colors...

• Looking at the menu in some restaurants without knowing what to order for not understanding descriptions and dish names (for the last one, the solution is pointing).

• Mistaking wasabi (or some other spicy thing) as noodles and eating a mouthful at once.

I'm sure there's more... I'll continue this series as I remember more situations.

紅葉 - Autumn colours

I might have said, or you might know, that seasons are well defined in Japan. The main feature in autumn/fall is watching the autumn colours that change the landscape with beautiful colors.

So, in order to see that, I went to two places. Arashiyama in Kyoto (November 19th, 2005) and Shoshazan in Himeji (November 20th, 2005).

The trip to Arashiyama started unusually. Friday after my classes I recieved a mail from Jon inviting me to spend a night in Yamasaki (the city where he lives... I've been there once before... Way before I started this blog) and go by bus to Kyoto from there.

Ok, some fun before the trip. So off I went. A sushi restaurant and a Constantine later we were on our way the next day. Of course something must go wrong and we couldn't make reservations for the bus we wanted to, so we went to Osaka and from there to Kyoto by train. No sweat. But a little more expensive...

In Kyoto we met Silvia, Tatiana (a Brazilian exchange student who lives in Kyoto), Arten (Russian exchange student and Tatiana's boyfriend) and Micha (Russian exchange student and Arten's friend). (Just a note: we've scheduled this meeting the day before.) Following Silvia's hunch (actually she saw it on TV the day before) we went to Arashiyama, which is said to be a good place to see autumn colours in Kyoto.

And that was a beautiful place! I'll let the pictures talk for themselves, but it was sure worth the trip. And, as any seasonal event in Japan, that place was crowded. At least it wasn't impossible to walk like the Kenka Matsuri.

Also, since we were there, Arten had the idea to spend some time in some boats available for rent. So, we spent one hour laughing at our (bad) hability with oars (actually Jon got it quick and the Russians too... and I didn't try), trying to dodge other boats and other funny things... Including Arten and Tatiana leaving Micha on a rock in the middle of the lake for a while. I wonder what people passing by thought about the scene... XD

Another (for me) dinner at a sushi restaurant later, the group was dismissed. And back to Himeji.

The following day we (Silvia and me) decided to check the momiji festival at Shoshazan out. Again, I've been to Shoshazan once, before starting the blog. If I have time (hum...) I may write about things that happened before starting the blog. But for now I already have enough to do with my current backlog. It's a touristic place in Himeji, although way less famous than the castle, that was used as stage for some scenes of "The Last Samurai".

Back to the subject, "festival" maybe isn't exactly the word. They open some areas that aren't usually open, and people can enjoy the place. Ok, not exactly this, but as I was only walking and taking pictures, I couldn't realize the objective of the "festival" other than appreciate autumn colours...

Again, beautiful, breathtaking places. And it was so different from when we went there for the last time... The landscape in Japan really changes with the seasons. (I was there for the first time during spring... although way after the cherry blossoms.)

Ah, and this time, in order to save money we decided to climb instead of using the ropeway. Thankfully the weather was cool.

Check the albums if you have time. The photographers aren't so good, but the scenery surely is.

A death and a warning

This is SURELY a bad day. The first thing that I read today ruined it...

After waking up, I noticed that I got (cell phone) mail. This early in the morning, it'd be usually from my family.

It wasn't.

It was from a guy from the English club (ESS... ow man... what a way to introduce them in the blog... No, I'll make this in another opportunity) saying that a member died on Nov 30th in a car accident...

Oh... S***!!!

Guess I still haven't realized the loss... She was surely one of the best members in the club. Not by her English level, but because of her interest in learning. Also, in one of the few conversations we had, I found out that she had a reason to choose the major she choose, to study English and other things... A dream. A big one that I wondered if would resist the pressures from society (especially the "after-marriage" pressure on women in Japan...), but I was looking forward to her realizing it. The first time we met, I thought she was almost the perfect stereotype of Japanese women: Kawaii (cute) and cheerful, but a little dependent and naive. Time proved that I was wrong about the bad characteristics. She surely has guts and works hard for what she wants... Really. To the point I respect her. A lot.

Writing style might be a little different. The fact and the music I'm listening make that. "Aeris's Theme" from FFVII Soundtrack. Can't think about a music I know that is more appropriate...

Ok, nonsense to write in the blog about it. Too sentimental for me and, besides, not proper. The "knowledge" topic of today is the cause of death.

Car accident.

She didn't have a car. I guess that she collided with one when cycling from, or to, the university. That's a thing that doesn't happen so often as it could, but more often than it should. Some streets here are damn small, or have bad sinalization and/or visibility. The picture below is from my neighbourhood and might give you an idea.

So, imagine this place with cars, pedestrians and people riding bikes... Note there're NO sidewalks! Dangerous to the very soul, isn't it? And it's also hard to notice when there's a car coming from a crossing, unless there's some kind of traffic light, which not always happen. At night? Even worse. And I go through places like that almost everyday.

Thinking about it, I had my close calls too. Especially in crossings you don't see until you're too close. The closest one happened when I was cycling to my Japanese class downtown (I live 6km far from it), a car was leaving a parking lot... and because of a building we couldn't see each other until our vehicles got almost a meter from each other. I managed to detour and only my bike hit the floor in the process, but I've heard worse stories that make me think I'm fortunate...

So, a warning for me (and for people who use bikes in Japan, if interested). Be more careful from now on when cycling here... Really. Got a message in the worst way about what might happen...

Yeah... pretty bad. But guess that, as this site mentions, I should change the background music to "Highwind" (FFVII Soundtrack). Quote below.

"I asked some Japanese friends about this later, and they said it was just the Japanese way of dealing with death. Life goes on. The victim wouldn't have wanted them to be sad all day over his death. They find comfort in returning to their everyday lives. It doesn't mean that the boy is forgotten, far from it. It's more like, a respect of the life he lead, by continuing to lead it. Do the Japanese have a better handle on death than we do? Much like many other aspects of this country, it was something I had a hard time understanding...but this time I got the feeling I didn't really need to understand it.

When I think back to that day, I remember the boy who could only stare off into space, and the girl who couldn't even pick herself up off the floor. But then I also remember them smiling and happy, laughing with friends, playing games and having fun. I like the latter memory much better. And I think that's what "Student A" would have wanted too. "

And hope she has a good journey... wherever it is. Hope it's to your beloved stars...

---------

Added on December 3rd:

I wanted to write some kind of small homage... Some sentences that most people might have heard, but I wanted to write it in Japanese (because the person is Japanese) and couldn't put myself into translating it into it, even though the main message isn't something hard to translate. I accidentally found a quote with the same meaning, so there is it.

｢誰かがその人のことをおぼえているかぎり、その人に本当の意味での死は訪れないんだ。だから、私は死なない。あなたたちがいる限り私は生き続ける。」
- ロゼット＝クリストファ　（クロノクルセイド）

Quotes

After a good, but tiring weekend, once again lots of things to catch up. In times like this some cheering up is nice. So, as I still haven't prepared the albums to post (it's taking forever, I know. Hope to upload some soon...) just some quotes to prepare myself for the week. To make justice, one in each language.

"Humanos não são perfeitos. Você tem o direito de falhar. O que te faz uma boa ou má pessoa, é O QUE você faz com essa falha. Se aprender com ela, ótimo. Senão, merece mesmo ser chamado de inútil."
- Ban/Dekared (Dekaranger)

“If you believe that you can do a thing, or if you believe you cannot, in either case, you are right.”
- Henry Ford

「きみと僕の差は今まで歩いて来た距離の差でしかないんだよ。ひとはみな・・・同じだ。精算しきれなかった悔恨（かこ）と・・・目の前（げんざい）の障害と・・・行き先（みらい）への不安と・・・闘いながら歩いて行くんだ。あきらめるのは・・・道が途切れてからでもいいんじゃないか？」
- レミントン牧師 （クロノクルセイド）

KOF

Well... After a long time, I finally could play video game again. I'm not talking about arcades, but games you can play at home. Namely PS2 games.

Ok. That'll be a silly post, but what can I do? My albums are still not ready to be posted...

Exaplaining. Thursday after the aikido practice some people decided to eat out. Usually "eat out" with male students here means "going to a lamen restaurant". Nothing new so far. I didn't have classes on Friday morning (there's a Japanese class, but I wouldn't classify it as "morning", I guess...), and they invited me this time, so I went there. Besides, it's usually at these times that I can practice my Japanese.

And that was it. Lots of chat at the place. Guess it's because of these times that my conversation level has reached a decent level, although I really should study more reading, writing and vocabulary from now on. I found out that changes that happen in Japanese manga and anime when overseas is a good topic. They usually don't know, and it's a subject that I have some familiarity with... Like techniques/names changes and meanings. In Rurouni Kenshin, giving the translation of technique names such as "Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren" or "Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki". And I discover some things too. For example, that Chaos in Dragon Ball is read like "gyoza" (some kind of food) from Japanese kanji reading.

Note to my otaku friends: No, I didn't tell them about the bad side, like cuts, script changing, bad dubbings... Guess they'll live better without knowing. And I'd have a hard time explaining.

But the topic "game" appeared and I don't know how everybody decided to go to someone's house to play PS2. Which game? The gaijin chooses. Well, since it's going to be a versus... "The King of Fighters".

They brought the 2002... Niiice. Way after I stopped being a strong player. Fortunately I remembered some combos and was able to play well. Still a bit rusty, but won most matches. Ok, ok... I could say that I won more than 90% and the others were impressed (a joke about "Japanese pride being broken" was really funny at the time. Can't reproduce correctly the situation and the words, though), but I still think that strong players in Japan are somewhat better than in Brazil... at least after some matches I've seen in Tokyo. I'll post about it later.

As we had enough people, we could even do matches with each person chooses one character in a 3 vs 3 (traditional KOF) match. I really missed this kind of thing... Gather friends to play games...

Just to finish, a little of Tekken 5. Nope, I'm not good at Tekken. The best I could do was choosing Christie (whose fighting style is capoeira) and do some crazy (but easy to execute) combinations of high and low hits. I was better playing KOF...

And I'm really becoming rusty in games... Guess that's the result of not playing so often anymore. Even Time Crisis 3, that was the game I was best at I can't reach the scores I could reach before. And I've heard that my records at the shopping center arcade place in my Brazilian hometown were beaten... Ouch! If so, I might have to change the blog's name soon...

(Note: I wrote at the first post the reason for "ITS madness". For those who can't understand Portuguese, in brief, that's the way a friend in Brazil used to call me, because I was a good player in TC3 - so the "madness" - and I signed my records as "ITS".)

IC Card

Well... another interesting article on the net. This one might be of some interest for people wanting to come to Japan...

"The 'IC you' card
Computer-chip card proposals for foreigners has big potential for abuse,
By DEBITO ARUDOU

People are still reeling from September's LDP landslide election, realizing that Koizumi can essentially legislate whatever he wants.

For foreigners, that brings some bad news.

One of Koizumi's platforms is economic recovery through tourism and increased contact with outsiders ("Yokoso Japan") yet his administration can't shake its preconception of foreigners as potential terrorists and criminals.

Koizumi's previous Cabinet bore no fewer than three ministers who mentioned, in their introductory speeches, the alleged foreign crime wave (even though the media, including this column on Oct. 7, 2003, has long debunked this).

In December 2004, the Cabinet released its "Action Plan for Pre-Empting Terrorism," explicitly stating the terrorists to be targeted are essentially foreigners (Community Page; May 24, 2005).

Now Koizumi the tour guide wants to institute high-tech tracking of every foreigner he invites.

On June 16, the LDP's Political Affairs Research Committee ("seimu chousakai") issued their "Proposal for a New Immigration Control Policy" ("arata na nyuukoku kanri shisaku e no teigen").

Their plan: Issue "IC Cards," or credit card-sized identification cards, containing computer chips to track people.

One form of IC card (the "shutsu nyuu koku" card) will be issued to anyone (Japanese or not) crossing the Japanese border, upon request and at their expense.

The other, the "zairyuu card," is obligatory and replaces the Gaijin Card. All resident aliens (except the generational "Zainichi" ethnic "foreigners," who remain unchipped) must still carry it 24/7 or face arrest.

This "Gaijin Chip" will contain data such as: "name, nationality, birthday, passport information, visa status, address, workplace, educational institution if student etc."

Fingerprints will also be encoded "if the person wants." But just in case, fingerprinting will be reinstated to imprint foreigners both entering and leaving the country.

The LDP sweet-talks the reader by insisting the system is for people's "protection" ("hogo") and "convenience" ("ribensei"). They mention benefits to both foreigners and society by tracking alien visits to, quote, "museums, consultative government bodies, national art museums . . ."

It still amounts to central control of untrustworthy elements, and treating foreigners like criminal suspects. "

For those who'd like to read the complete version:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20051122zg.htm

Impressões sobre o Brasil

It's been a while since my last post in Portuguese. Guess it's time to change language a little. For people who don't understand Portuguese, sorry.

Já que é pra escrever em português, deveria continuar os relatos das férias de verão... Só que, apesar das fotos de Tokyo estarem prontas, meus comentários ainda não estão. Então vou escrever um pouco sobre as referências que normalmente ouço quando digo que sou brasileiro.

• Futebol: Esse não poderia faltar, certo? Acredito que seja o comentário que ouço com mais frequência, apesar de alguns outros aparecerem quase na mesma quantidade. Imagino que o pessoal aqui acredite que minha habilidade futebolística seja muito melhor que realmente é, já que só joquei bola uma vez (com um grupo do clube de aikido) e geralmente digo que "no Brasil eu digo que não jogo bem, e além do mais geralmente jogo no gol. No Japão eu nao sei qual é o nível médio, então nao posso dizer nada." Depois da pelada com o pessoal do aikido, talvez dê pra dizer que, comparando com a média, estou melhor aqui que no Brasil, mas tem uns japoneses que jogam bem também. Sobre jogadores profissionais, ouço mais sobre Ronaldinho (especialmente sobre a habilidade dele que, convenhamos, realmente é fora do comum) e Ronaldo. Mas já ouvi sobre Roberto Carlos, Alex (o da seleção japonesa), Washington (ex-Atlético-PR) e alguns outros. Não ouço muito sobre Pelé, além disso alguns japoneses desconhecem mesmo que Zico é brasileiro. E ele sempre faz as entrevistas falando em português... Bom, acho que seria só "uma língua desconhecida". Não se pode esperar que todos saibam, certo?
• Vale-tudo: Incrível a popularidade desse esporte entre alguns jovens japoneses (sexo masculino somente). Várias vezes já fui perguntado sobre alguns lutadores brasileiros que nunca ouvi falar antes. Acho que eles são mais populares aqui que no país deles... E isso leva ao próximo tópico...
• "Artes marciais brasileiras": Estão ganhando certa popularidade. O estilo Gracie jiu-jitsu devido aos Gracie como lutadores de vale-tudo ou o que quer que eles disputem. Aliás, uma vez quando disse que fazia judô no Brasil tive que deixar claro que era "judô", não "Gracie jiu-jitsu". A outra "arte marcial" é a capoeira. Muitas vezes já fui perguntado se conheço (sim), pratico (não), consigo fazer alguns movimentos (não). Parece que muitas pessoas tem pelo menos interesse em saber do que se trata, talvez por ser tão diferente das artes marciais orientais em geral.
• Piranha: Essa é uma que aparece com frequência impressionante. É praticamente impossível entrar no tópico "floresta amazônica" sem que esse animal seja mencionado, especialmente quando se fala com crianças (episódio de Nishinomiya). Mesmo assim, em alguns casos essa referência aparece mesmo sem entrar no tópico acima... Algumas vezes como primeira pergunta sobre o Brasil ("Tem muita piranha nos rios?"). Mas a idéia geral é a reforçada por filmes de horror classe Z. Em segundo lugar nessa categoria vem "anaconda"...
• Ayrton Senna: Na verdade, essa referência é mais comum entre a geração mais velha. Nunca ouvi algum universitário ou mais novo mencionar esse nome (aliás, corrigindo, ouvi uma vez). Bom, já que ele foi meu ídolo de infância também, pelo menos esse tipo de conversa é agradável (não que as outras não sejam... mas elas são geralmente mais engraçadas, se você me entende...)
• Vôlei: As seleções masculina e feminina vêm fazendo um bom trabalho nas competições. Assim, como no caso do futebol, geralmente se supõe que gostamos de vôlei e/ou somos bons nisso. Ao ponto de convidarem a Sílvia pra uma partida devido à nacionalidade (não tenho muita certeza... meio que peguei o bonde andando nesse caso...). Bom, realmente acho que deva ser o segundo esporte mais popular do país...
• Carnaval: Já dei uma breve menção sobre isso no comentário sobre o Kenka, mas já me perguntaram se fui alguma vez no carnaval do Rio ou Salvador (não) ou se sei sambar (conheço mais ou menos as formas, mas falta ginga). Não sei ao certo qual a imagem que se tem sobre o carnaval brasileiro, contudo dadas as referências a palavra "carnival" aqui (incluindo a propaganda do matsuri da universidade na próxima semana), imagino que seja algo como "A" festa... Pelo menos pela cara que vejo em alguns homens aqui acho que a impressão pode ser meio distorcida...

Acredito que essas devam ser as principais. Existem outras, como café (eu não sou movido a cafeína, e inclusive prefiro chá. Já vi uma cara de surpresa quando disse isso), que também tem muito no Japão... Do jeito que esse povo dorme pouco não me surpreendo. Só achei um pouco estranho ter café frio (e em lata... como não bebo muito posso até não ter percebido no Brasil). Outras referências seriam a floresta amazônica, as praias e as mulheres... Estereótipo padrão.

Talvez esteja esquecendo algumas interessantes... Se lembrar de algo eu coloco em outro post.

Locked out

Another quickie "just for laughs".

I mentioned before that I went to a bar with friends recently, right? Well, I still don't like the taste of alcoholic drinks much, but quoting another exchange student, in Japan we get used to drink when the social situation demands so (and only in that situations).

Although I don't drink enough to get drunk (and hope never doing so), even after only a little I'm a little out of my normal self. (But not too much, fortunately.)

How can I say that? Well, after returning home that day, I found out after waking up that I haven't closed the door properly. I pressed the lock button at the doorknab (after pressing, the doorknab can't be turned from outside. You unlock it with a key or simply turning it from inside), but the door was ajar (slightly open)...

Fortunately this is Japan away from the town centre, so nothing happened this time (I really should be more careful from now on...). Anyway, I was going to take a shower (bathroom is shared where I live), so I gave little attention to it at that time. But did I mention that I'd pressed the lock button?

So, after shower I found out that I'd locked myself out. What I should do? Ask the renter to open for me? Play with the keyhole hoping I'd be able to open it? Look for a keymaker? (Note: I've never seen one in Japan yet.)

No. My room is at the first floor (ground level), so I opened the window and entered through it. Hopefully nobody saw me... But if somebody had seen it'd be funny (not for me at the time, though). Trying to break into your own room and being mistaken by a burglar or anything like that... Guess I still wasn't my normal self.

(Ok, it's no big deal doing that, but it seemed a little strange here...)

Immigrants in Europe

Finally I can breathe a little. After the Japanese class this week my amount of homeworks is at a bearable amount, especially because of the big holiday next week (Wednesday is holiday in Japan, and the university festival will be from Saturday to Tuesday).

I say that because I spent some time doing Japanese homework after the last weekend until today. We should read a Japanese newspaper article (not easy), list words we don't know and write questions about the article. Mine was about those characteristic double-decker red buses in London (called Routemasters). They'll be gone by the end of the year. It's something about accidents and, more than that, adequating the public transportation to EU regulations. And one of them determines that public transportation should consider handicapped people, who can't ride the Routemasters.

But, during class, we discussed another article about the riots in France. I guess most people should know about that, but there's a link with some information in case somebody doesn't. An interesting point of view was comparing countries policies about immigrants in Europe and the "results". England, which has supported immigrants in keeping their own culture had a terrorist attack by English muslims. France, which has "forced" immigrants to adequate with the "French way of life" (prohibiting use of the "muslim-style" scarf - I forgot the name of it, sorry - in schools, for example) has riots. So none is effective? Then what's the way immigrants should be treated?

Ok, that's not the way the comparison should be done and there's more to it, but it leads to the point of how dealing with immigrants and what's the risk of other countries having problems like that in the future. For the last question, the answer is a high probability for countries where, like France, have most immigrants belonging to lower social classes.

Now other countries are worried about the immigration issue as well. Germany has adopted a policy between British's and French's and now should decide its path. Japan has a decreasing workforce and is deliberating if immigration could be a solution. It's just my opinion, but I think that Brazil don't have a situation so different than France in that aspect. I mean, most poor people are from which echnicity? (Not muslims, of course, but there's also a majority.)

Talking about Brazil, during the discussion the topic turned to Japan for a while (that's when the comment wrote earlier about Japan was said) and I remembered the Brazilians working as "dekasseguis". Most immigrants who went to France, for example, also went to do manual labour... And also most who went to Brazil in the beggining the the 20th century (that includes Japanese). They usually don't reach higher classes in society and sometimes suffer some prejudice. Many riots already happened through times because of that... Guess it's History repeating itself. People go to other countries seeking a better life that may happen, but they're always "strangers" and "excluded" what makes riots happen...

I like to say we learn from our mistakes, but if this situation happens from time to time, does it mean that mankind haven't learned how to deal with that yet?

Oh, and it's getting colder here. It's almost like winter in my Brazilian hometown at night and I was told that this year it's getting colder later than usual... Argh! The good news is that I may be able to look for good places to see the leaves' color changing and take pictures...

Quickies

I have lots of things to catch up today... Guess that fall in Japan is full of events, so my weekends that I usually dedicate to homework, study and chores are taken by other things. The result is that I get desperated on Mondays and busy for the rest of the week. Since the university "Culture Festival" will be held on the next weekend, I think this rythm will continue... So, I'll just post somethings to keep the blog rolling.

Payphone

Mobile phones are almost a must in Japan, and almost everyone has one. Even the cheapest models are more advanced than most of models found in Brazil. I'd even dare to say that they're becoming mini-computers and some may be used to pay bills and watch TV, for example (things like e-mails and camera feature are already commonplace). Some would say that they're lowering people's intellect and I believe they have a point... but maybe not to the extent they usually take.

One would think about payphones in Japan. There are some, of course. Sometimes people still need one, and usually tourists, for example, don't have mobiles that work in Japan. Even so, I guess there're not so many as in Brazil (although I should state that they're usually in better condition... if you know what I mean...).

So, last Monday I was looking for one payphone to call my family. I've done that before, and I have one I usually use near - 5 min walking - home. But this time it wasn't working (I dunno why) and I started looking for another one. That took me about 30 minutes without finding any until I remembered that tourist comment I wrote before and decided to look near Shosha-zan (a mountain with a temple on the top of it. Some scenes from "The Last Samurai" movie were taken there) that's somewhat a touristic place.

Later I figured out that I passed near one while looking in the neighbourhood, but I couldn't see it because of a vending machine and a sign that were on the way...


"You look like Japanese"

That's something I hear quite often. I even wrote a little about it already. But somethings happened lately that make me think I might look more Japanese even than some Japanese...

First, comparing myself with Silvia. She's another Brazilian exchange student here under the same scholarship program as mine. Also, like me, all of her grandparents are Japanese and, as a result, she's also "Japanese looking". But she seems to be less mistaken as a native Japanese than I am... And I'm less mistaken as Korean/Chinese/other Asian ethnicity than she is. Example: during summer vacation, when recieving guides to places we visited, not rarely I was given the Japanese version guide while she recieved the English version... sometimes without even asking.

Second, there was a case lately that the person even doubted that I wasn't Japanese. Even though I was talking in "broken Japanese" he thought I was kidding. Maybe because, although it was broken Japanese, I have been recieved compliments for my good pronunciation... That I don't have a strong accent when I speak in Japanese. Plus the fact that I'm using Kansai-ben (local dialect) words and expressions quite often (and that may be a problem after going back to Brazil... or when having to speak politely). I agree that I use Kansai-ben, but I really don't think my pronunciation is that good. I have to agree, though, that my personality isn't so easygoing like most foreigners here. And that might colaborate to my "Japanese-looking image".

But when people start thinking that, between you and a Japanese, the latter is the foreigner then it's time to really think about it...


Articles

And some things I've read to finish.

"People Power" - This one is actually representing all the articles I've read about the "US forces realignment in Japan". In short (but slightly mistaken) could be "Japanese government wants US forces around, but people from some Prefectures, especially Okinawa (which has some bad episodes with them), don't want them in their territory". That's a complicated issue, but I lack details about it...

"Nobel laureate set to be garlanded in cliche" - Well, I'll quote part of this one.

"Perhaps the most virulent denigration of American policy dismissed as "anti-Americanism" in the 1950s was seen in Latin America. Opposition to the U.S. got so heady that Vice President Richard Nixon was physically attacked on a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, in 1958. Americans at the time were wont to say, "They hate us down there, and after all we have done for them!" (Perhaps President George W. Bush entertained just such sentiments on his recent journey to the region.)

But what was the "all" that Americans had done for the people of Latin America? The U.S. underwrote the brutal and utterly corrupt dictatorships of Somoza in Nicaragua and Batista in Cuba. America intervened in Bolivia and later in Chile. The United Fruit Company virtually ran Guatemala, and the CIA engineered a coup d'etat against that country's constitutional government.

What did ordinary Americans know of all this? Almost nothing. The press painted it all up as if America was bestowing freedom and unlimited wealth on "our neighbors to the south." Many more Americans would have more readily recognized the face of Chiquita Banana (the colorful symbol of the United Fruit Company) than that of the president of Mexico."

"Fooooo." - Another HG-related post. This one is more disturbing...

Nishinomiya, barbecue and enbu

Nice weekend. I'm a little sleepy, but as I don't have classes today that's fine.

Saturday (Nov 5th) I went to Nishinomiya with Silvia. The idea was talking about Brazil to some kids there together with two other Brazilians (Joao, an exchange student from Kobe; and Ana who has the best Japanese level between us... and she's been living here for some 15 years). And we're from Londrina, which is Nishinomiya's sister city in Brazil, so we were going to talk a little about that too.

Hehe... I don't know if I said this before, but Japanese kids are cute. And kids are kids anywhere in the planet. During the presentation some strange questions... Some I understand and some I didn't, but by the laughs I could grasp that there were some "darnest things"... One boy especially always said something "funny" whenever opening his mouth... and loud. A simple and inoffensive example was when the kids were asked to make a "quiz" answering questions about Brazil (such as "Is it colder to the north or south in Brazil?" or "What body part the guarana fruit resembles?"... Although some I didn't know the answer, too. Like "How many years is compulsory education in Brazil?") he asked immediately if there was any prize for doing it... And their faces while we did some "Brazilian greetings" (like cheek "kissing", handshakes and hugs...) and they were asked to do it with us (well, we're also floored by that one...)

Complete sincerity when talking (without any enryo - reserve) is something that I'm becoming less used to... and that's dangerous. I noticed that because kids are sincere even here. At least those were. Some Brazilian foods (guarana soda, "doce de leite" and candys) were given to them and some said that didn't liked the guarana soda much... Guess that the Japanese taste is a little not used to that kind of flavour...

In the end things worked and the kids seemed happy. My Japanese level was still a little below the necessary to talk about Brazil or Londrina, but the others backed me up. A post card and one local (Londrina region) nikkei newspaper as gifts later, we're asked for autographs... WHAT!? Yes... maybe it's not that uncommon when Japanese kids meet foreigners... still a little strange, though. Talk, pictures, even touch is expected, but autographs!? Wonder what's the point of having foreingers' autographs... Ah, just don't forget we're talking about kidS. Plural. And there're around 30 of them...

Well, funny indeed. After, Silvia, Joao and I had some talk with a man who worked in Hyogo prefecture's government. Can't remember all the subjects though, but an interesting one was that they're resuming international exchange slowly after the Great Hanshin Earthquake. After it, money became a little short because of reconstructions...

And I met a Japanese who's been in Brazil and that I was exchanging e-mails with before coming to Japan. At that time I was a little worried about life in Japan, so I was asking people for advice. Somebody from my Japanese school recommended I should mail him and I did... We exchanged a couple of mails, but I lost contact later. He's working for the NGO which organized the event, but will return to Brazil shortly.

Also, that was a chance to know the Koshien Stadium. The Hanshin Tigers stadium. As the pro season is over now there was nothing special unfortunately...

After that and going to a museum in Kobe (small one about emigration to Brazil... I'll have to make another presentation about Brazil, this time to people in my neighbourhood and more focused in Japanese emigration to Brazil, in December... but I was too sleepy to take notes or understand... It was in Japanese), meeting with the gang to do a "bonfire" (as Rezaur defined it).
My definition would rather be a "barbecue". Gathering friends to make (and eat, of course) barbecue, drink and chit-chat at night outdoors with only a fire and a flashlight as illumination... Sweet. And it wasn't so cold that night (or we were heated by the fire... some by the drinks also). Well, maybe the "bonfire" was because he was planning to use some fireworks... But fireworks season in Japan is during summer, so it's not that easy to find them now.

Sunday. I had to wake up early again to go to Kyoto with some members of the university's aikido club to watch (some also participated) some aikido presentations. They call it enbu (演武)... My dictionary translates it as "military exercises" although it's more like kata of some other martial arts. Formal suits were required and I only discovered that the day before, so I was worried that I'd have to iron them and that I forgot how to put on a tie... Fortunately the clothes were good enough and somebody knotted my tie when I was preparing my cases to come to Japan (I know who did it... Thanks.). To my relief I wasn't the only one that didn't know that...

Too bad that it was raining... At least the event was indoors. And it was impressive... The event was held by the aikido club of the Kyoto Prefectural University (京都府立大学), but other university clubs around Kansai also made some enbu (including the University of Hyogo which is the university I'm studying at in Japan... The senpais did it). And I noticed that my university style is slightly different... And another university also had a style a little different. Some people commented about those differences later.

I'm still not good enough in aikido to tell about the techniques, but some were impressive. Too bad that my digital camera dosn't take good pictures of moving things and I hadn't enough memory to make movies... But the amazing thing was the teacher explaining something in the end. I really couldn't understand his Japanese, but keep throwing 3 relatively young persons holding him using all their strenght (he kept saying them to "hold stronger") almost not moving at all (just little arm, hand or leg movement)... Sugoi! Just for a change, I didn't get any good visual reference... maybe only this (Note added at Nov 9th: I just realized that Yahoo! Briefcase doesn't allow direct downloads by people who doesn't have an Yahoo ID anymore, so I cancelled the link... You'll have to live without watching it ^^;) small movie that doesn't show the impressive things...

After the enbu a dinner event... Good chance to talk a little with people from other dojos. Nice to discover that I can talk for a while without people noticing I'm not Japanese... and I have to thank the club for that since the small talk they usually have after practice helped me to understand better spoken Japanese. Too bad I'll miss the training the University of Hyogo aikido club will do together with the Kyoto Prefectural University and Osaka Prefectural University... Have an exchange students' trip that day...

Culture and "culture"

Talking a bit about the last weekend and this week. Noticed that I haven't post much about what happens here except festivals. I'll just write the highlights though.

Saturday (oct 29th). Aikido examination in the morning. For those who don't know I'm trying to learn aikido with the university's aikido club. Still have some difficulties, but it's been interesting so far. Language barrier is more a good subject to chit-chat than a problem (in last case they simply show me with gestures how it's done), although I still have difficulties understanding reports and messages. Anyway, it's being good so far, and I've made some friends too. Back to the exam, I still have to improve a lot. Guess it's the result of skipping so many trainings during the first semester. At least I think I'll be able to go up a level (kyu).

Later, some presentations from junior high and high school students who spent some weeks in a host family in Himeji's sister cities. Seems that they have show something about what they've learned/visited/whatever there. Various stuff from a japanese garden in Phoenix (USA), differences between Korean and Japanese temples to a little opinion poll about how Japanese see Chinese and vice-versa. Good things considering that they're school students who have stayed less than a month abroad. By the way, presentations about Himeji's Brazilian sister city (Curitiba) were comparing bus services between the cities (note that Curitiba is a model of bus transportation system...) and comparing lives of nikkeis (Japanese descents) in Brazil with Japanese in Japan (duh...). There was even a graph estimating meal times and so... Just a pity that I couldn't talk to them. Wanted to, but there wasn't no time at all... and since they're wearing school uniforms it was hard to distinguish.

Last but not least, ultimate frisbee with the JETs. I really enjoy playing, people are nice and it's a good chance to work out a little. Need to say more?

Sunday. The festival of the weekend. International Friendship Festival. In short there were places selling food from different countries ("pastel" and "canjica" from Brazil. But the best was something from Peru) and some performances like dances from different countries. Went there with Jon and met Ravier (not sure about spelling. First met him playing frisbee...) there. Met other people too, especially foreign friends (like Steff) and teachers. Sorry, but no pics this time. I was too busy eating. XD

Later, went with Jon, Steff and Silvia watch some ballet. "Sleeping Beauty" by the Russian National Ballet Theatre. Impressive and beautiful. Some good culture for a change (my first time watching pro ballet performance). Most of the public was composed of old ladies and kids (mostly girls), though. Maybe, as Steff said, they might be the only ones having time and money (yes... expensive somewhat) for that. Dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant for the weekend's grand finale...

Monday. Halloween. Englist test. (Strange combination, isn't it?) Then the teacher enters wearing a Bin Laden costume! That was worth the day! Quoting the Master Card ad:
"Alarm clock: X yen"
"Textbook: Y yen"
"Bin Laden costume: Z yen"
"Seeing the students' face when 'Bin Laden' enters the classroom: priceless"
Plus, the terrorist costume was sooo appropriate for a test day... XD Should've taken a picture... Think I'll ask one of my colleagues who took some. (Note: the test itself wasn't so hard... at least for me...)

Tuesday. Another test. This time Electric Circuits. As I've studied that before, I thought I'd have more problems understanding the questions (in Japanese) than solving them, but I found out that I'm a bit rusty... and teachers can always come with tricky questions. I think I did well... There was a strange question, though... Anyway, the point was after the test. That was the first time I made a test and could stay and talk to other colleagues (usually, due to the fact that my timetable doesn't match any other students' I or they have to go elsewhere immediately after). It was nice having some chit-chat about the test... and useful to confirm that students are all the same here or there. That also brought memories of discussions with friends after tests in Brazil...

Wednesday. As Thusday's gonna be a holiday, the gang gathered to go bowling at night. Before that, the classic meeting at Starbucks... the rendezvous point for foreigners in Himeji. Meeting people here and there I found someone who's studying Portuguese! That's a first! There was also a Japanese who studied Portuguese in college (the reason was the necessity of learning it because of all the Brazilians coming to Japan... something like that). I volunteered to help, if needed...

In the end the Bowling group was Steff, Jo, Michelle, Rezaur, Jon (another one), Greg and me. If anybody asks me, my bowling sucks. Barely scored more than 70... At least some people scored less.

After that, Tigers Pub. Well, there was a drinking game that was the high spot (together with Jon's magic trick of changing 1000 yen bills into 10000 yen... There's someone who withdraws only 1000 yen bills... XD). Basically say the full name of a personality. The next person must say another whose first name starts with the same letter as the first letter of the family name of the name previously spoken. But additional rules make people spend more time drinking than saying names. Like, can anybody communicate well in this situation without using words like "you", "time" (time limit), "drink" or bad words?

Thursday. Holiday. Time to know the festival of the weekend. Seems it's something related with ceramics from various Japanese prefectures. The rest of the day I just hanged around with Jon (the usual one... have to think about some way differentiate between them when writing ) strolling around, staying at Starbucks and playing arcades... Not bad to celebrate the "Culture Day", isn't it?

Nothing really special that I remember on Friday, unless the funny situations between the teacher and a student during English class. But that's beside the point, so let's see what the upcoming weekend will bring.

Challenge Vader!

Quick post. Just a link that a friend has mailed me. The thing is that "Vader" says he can "read your mind" and discover a thing that you're thinking of after you answer 20 questions. Guess it's some kind of computer program with some learning/data gathering level. I don't know much about it though.

Well, if you want to challenge Darth Vader and the powers of the Dark Side, meet him at
http://sithsense.com/flash.htm

May the Force be with you.

What's on TV?

Although I really don't have as much idle time as I wanted to, and I do have lots of things in my backlog, still I often find myself watching TV here. I mentioned before that's something that I regret sometimes, but let's talk a little about TV shows in Japan.

Unfortunetely, in Kansai area some channels that broadcast animes I wanted to see (like "Bleach" by Tokyo TV) aren't open, and I can't afford paying for cable or satellite TV. So, the animes I've been watching so far are mostly Blackjack, Detective Conan, One Piece. (Reviews in English for Blackjack, Detective Conan - and I really don't like when they change the serie's name... "Case Closed"!? This reminds me of what was done with "Rurouni Kenshin"... yuck! -, One Piece.) Sometimes I see some different ones, like one based on this series (which is really funny, but I cannot say it's name... I read some episodes in Shonen Jump some years ago when I used to buy it), Tsubasa Chronicle (couldn' get this one right, but seems like a crossover of CLAMP characters... somebody correct me if I'm wrong...), Survive or Kyo kara maou... Hum... Thinking about it I've been watching a lot, huh? Well, Japanese practice! XD

Out of anime and news (fortunetely I found one that has SAP for English version, but I try some in Japanese), Japanese TV is... hummm... different. Lots of strange shows with strange personalities (including one, HG, which a friend commented in his blog), lots of music shows that make me think if I haven't tuned MTV (or I should say a different version of MTV) and dramas/soap operas basically.

A friend has recommended that I should watch a Japanese drama. That'd be a good way to learn "culture" and "language". Well, I wasn't a soap opera fan in Brazil, and some Japanese dramas seem even worse... I watch some for a while, but I was never able to follow any series here (I really miss CSI, CSI Miami, Junkyard Wars and other series I used to watch). Well, the current one at least is funny. Oniyome Diary. It focus one couple which the wife practically make the husband "lick her shoes"... Many times it's predictable, but it's funny enough to entertain me after a tiring day.

For example, this week's episode. The husband seemed to be a little overweight, so the wife put him into a severe diet... So follows situations where he had to resist to beer, sweet food and so on. Later, a friend says to the wife about "Mushroom Coffee" which is said to be good for health (or something like that... my Japanese isn't so good), but it tastes terrible... Guess what happens? She takes the thing home, and he, after noticing the (bad) taste of it, secretly changes it for normal coffee. It works well until he gets a cold and after some situations the wife found that out...

There're also some good shows here and there. One I watched some time ago was about teachers' life. Problems with students (bad behaviour, students who fall in love with the teacher...) and parents (overprotective, PTA... an interesting one was a case which a teacher recieved a complaint from a mother about the place where her son was seated. According to Feng Shui, it was a bad place...). Other more recent was showing signs that had mistakes. Like one that showed 「手作りたまご」 (tezukuri tamago). The meaning is "homemade egg", but this way seems that people make eggs with their own hands. The correct form is 「自家製たまご」 (jikasei tamago). Or another showing 「犬はひとりで歩きはいけません」 (inu wa hitori de arukiwaikemasen) which wanted to mean something like "no dogs alone allowed", but the verb form is wrong and, more that that, in Japanese there're lots of ways to count and it changes according to what you want to count. "Hitori" is "one", but it's used for people. Dogs are counted as "Ippiki". So, 「犬は一匹で歩かせてはいけません」 (inu wa ippiki de arukasetewaikemasen).

網干祭り - Aboshi Matsuri

Another weekend, another festival. In the weekend after the Kenka Matsuri, there was another festival in Aboshi (guess it's some ward in Himeji city), the Utsuki Hachiman Jinja Aboshi Matsuri on October 21st and 22nd, 2005.

This festival also had some yatai (portable shrines), although I didn't noticed any mikoshi (the ones they clash during the Kenka) and there was a different one that I can't remember the name now which, unlike yatai, people don't carry it on their shoulders, but only pull it.

But the thing I really wanted to see in that matsuri was chouchin (some kind of traditional Japanese lantern) fight, i.e. men holding bamboo sticks with a chouchin attached smash the sticks against each other (against other STICKS, not against themselves). But I just figured on Friday morning that these kind of fight would happen only on Friday, so desperate calls telling everyone to change their schedules...

I went to that festival with the same group who went to the Kenka, but this time we met other (foreigner) friends there. We were near the chouchin fight place, however we could only see it from a certain distance... Although the festival wasn't so crowded as the Kenka, near the fight was even more than it, perhaps... I even tried to get closer and take some pictures, but after being pushed, pulled, compressed and thown a couple of times I gave up. Some people of the group did manage to get closer, though. Maybe I'm losing my ability to walk through crowded places...

Well, according to what Silvia posted in her blog (she managed to get close enough of the thing) one person goes in the middle of the circle and then he starts to sing and ask everybody to fight, then people holding the lanterns gather and start to smash the bamboo sticks into the lanterns. It is dangerous to people who are watching it because of the flying bamboo and chouchin fragments which sometimes hit people who are nearby. Why many of fall's festivals are fight-oriented, I wonder... Stress relieving? XD

Also, just one note... Digital cameras are really bad to take pictures at night...

The festival ended a little later than I was expecting. No time to get the last bus to Shosha... and it's cold at night lately... Already like winter in my Brazilian hometown... (How could some people wear only mawashi?) So some of us stopped at a friend's house in Aboshi talking and drinking (yes, I drank a little this time... but my resistance is still low and I continue preferring juice to alcohol).

Rote or understand?

While checking my mails and preparing my pic albums I was reading the news and one editorial caught my eye. That's about learning methods. I'll quote the two first paragraphs to give an idea of the contents:

"One characteristic of Japanese universities is that they provide highly specialized education for undergraduate students. This is partly because high-school students receive a high level of science education. In fact, their knowledge level in math and physics is one of the highest in the world. Thus, first-year undergraduates in science departments are ready to take highly specialized courses.

Elementary and junior high-school students also receive a relatively high level of science education, and their scholastic ability, as well as that of high-school students, in international achievement contests is also tops. However, the level of scientific thinking among adults is ranked 14th in a 15-nation survey of those aged around 30, one conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)."

Japanese students have great levels of science education... and I mean it. I've talked to some Japanese students at the university. About exact sciences, that is the part of education that I'm able to compare now, they learn things like calculus, differential equations, different electric circuits resolution techniques like using nodes (I wouldn't be surprised if I discover one day that they learn things like Thevenin's theorem...). Classes are more a less from 9h to 15h... Monday to Friday. Plus other things such as sport clubs activities. To the point that one student said to me that she has more idle time as a university student than as a high-school student (and she's taking around 20 subjects for this period). Perhaps that is really true if one doesn't have a part-time job.

So, they have basically the same things we have in Brazil: Math, Physics, Chemistry, P.E., History, Geography, English, Mother language (Japanese or Portuguese), Biology. Some schools, especially girl's schools have some other things, but I won't discuss that. But science stuff is seen much deeply. Is that a good thing? Could be. But I wouldn't agree so easily.

Seems like, although science level is high, it's not aquired by understanding things, but by roting and focusing university entrance exams. Doesn't look so different from that in Brazil? Well, I don't know about other high-schools, but mine at least had teachers that tried to make us understand and memorize things. At second year of university I met a teacher who enphacized more thinking and less roting... I still don't know if in a little exaggerated way, but that was a good lesson in the end.

If one learn only br roting, one's used only with the situations memorized, while by understanding, not only the knowledge stays in one's mind for long, but it's also possible to extrapolate, diversify and discover new things. Maybe that's one reason why Japanese are so good in science, but not so good in languages, for example. Also it's said that they're good in getting other people's ideas and improving them, but not in developing an new one on their own.

Don't know if that's true or not, but it shows what overuse of roting can cause. In a meeting between Japan's Prime-Minister and U.S. President (not the current). The Prime-Minister was talking in English:
J: "Who are you?" (Actually he tried to say "How are you?")
U: "I'm [President's name]. And you?"
J: "Oh, me too."

Maybe, based on set phrases he tried to estabilish a good impression, but as the situation got a little different of what he memorized ("How are you?"; "Fine. And you?"; "Oh, me too."), things went wrong.

Lately, I wonder if high-school education in Brazil isn't going the same way. I don't think it'll go back to memorizing names and places instead of background and reasons in History (it's still done here), but as the competition to enter a good university becomes fiercer, maybe schools may end up emphacizing more roting... I just hope they don't cross the line. Some university professors complain about students being too used to the roting way already... The ability to have high level classes earlier in university is surely something, but is it worth?

"The problem is that high-school education in Japan is oriented toward university entrance examinations. Because of this, little time is spent developing the abilities and attitudes required of adults, such as abilities to debate, to read and comprehend, to think scientifically and logically, and to collect and analyze information."

Well, that's it. Happy Halloween.

Fixing, festivals and prejudice

Fixing

Well, just some information about the blog first. Finally I changed the encoding from Shift-JIS to Unicode UTF-8. Hope that way Japanese characters and Portuguese accented characters will be able to coexist. Don't even remember why I chose Shift-JIS in first place...

Em bom português, agora os acentos finalmente vão aparecer. Algumas pessoas que postam comentários usam eles, e por causa da codificação o texto estava aparecendo truncado. E essa codificação também permite caracteres em 日本語. Mesmo assim, acredito que vá continuar os posts em português sem acentuação. O meu teclado, como a foto abaixo mostra, é em estilo japonês (observe, por exemplo, a localização da arroba... se é que dá pra ver isso na figura) e, apesar de ter configurado a teclado em português (brasileiro), quando mudo a configuração as teclas são configuradas pro formato do teclado brasileiro... só que no teclado japonês.


Então, por exemplo, no teclado japonês, o início de parênteses é feito com shift+8 e mudando pra português passa a shift+9. E esse tipo de coisa eu tenho que simplesmente lembrar. No começo tudo bem, já que estava mesmo acostumado com teclado brasileiro, mas agora já estou me acostumando com o teclado japonês e é irritante toda hora errar o símbolo que se quer colocar.

Festivals

Walking around the university, I noticed some advertisements for the university festival from November 19th to 22nd. Here's a picture.



Good chance to check what a university festival looks like. Just seems a little long... I wonder if there'll be events everyday... And another thing that caught my eye was the slogan "everyday is carnival". (Impossible not noticing it, right?) Not for any strong reason, though. I just remembered a situation with my Japanese teacher when I was telling some impressions about Japanese festivals such as the Kenka Matsuri and she said that's more a less the same impression that some Japanese have about Brazil's carnival (carnaval)...

Prejudice

And I was reading some posts at Claus's blog (for a change... I think I should stop always mentioning his posts... but the topics are interesting) about Brazilian Immigrants in Japan. It has a link to an article which "explains somthings about Japanese immigration and emmigration" and have a story about prejudice against foreigners. Quite an intersting one, especially for those who believe that there's no prejudice in Japan and all Japanese will recieve foreigners with open arms (don't laugh... I've met someone like that already...). Brazil also has its amount of prejudice anyway... and in the disguised form that I believe is one of the worst...

This time I'm not posting an direct link to the article, though. Check his site for the link if you'd like to read it.

Cherry

That one happened a little before first term (semester) exams. I was with some Japanese friends at the university's cafeteria. As usual, they were talking among themselves about many things that I couldn't understand completely, but I was participating the conversation as much as I could (which wasn't that hard since one guy occasionally asks me something about Brazilian "culture").

As the topic turned out to girls (and they were all male engineering students), they started to have more interest in inquring me. Well, asking the gaijin about girls wasn't that surprising, especially after one of them mentioned his view of Brazilian girls... Sexy. But the first question they asked completely floored me.

"Are you cherry?" Exactly like that... in English.

Now what question is that? After thinking for a while I gave up and supposed that was a meaning for cherry that I didn't know and that acually existed, so I searched for that word in my electronic dictionary (it saved me more times than I can count). No matching meaning in Oxford. I asked for more explanations and they told not to say that word aloud... Hum... dirty word?

I asked one of they to type it on the dic and he went to the Jap-Eng dictionary. Nice... Katakana-go (Japanese words created from foreign languages words such as "miruku" for milk). I know that some words have their meanings changed when turned to "katakana-go". He typed "cherii" and the result is really "cherry". But that dictionary also shows some synonyms and he wasn't satisfied with them. So, a word that has a meaning apart from dictionaries? Doesn't look good...

He then typed another word in Japanese (that I won't write) and then the meaning he wanted appeared. I looked at the English meaning and what was there...

...... Virgin.

?!?! Asking this before most common ones like "do you have/have you ever had a girlfiend?" or "Is there someone you like?"?! Usually the order of the questions asked reveals something... I don't want to know the meaning of that order, though.

Ah, and later they asked the "other questions" as well. Only the "first kiss" was missing (and, again, I don't want to know the meaning). And remember that we were at the cafeteria that, although wasn't crowded, was far from empty. They even demanded to point at one girl there who was more like "my type"... And some went to look at her closer later...Anyway, at the time I was surprised. But now, after seeing stranger things and listening to some stories from some friends who are teachers or other sources, it's not so surprising anymore. Just didn't know the "dark" meaning of "cherry" (and that Japanese could ask that kind of questions out of the blue)... Wonder how the original meaning was distorted... Might it be related with the Japanese cherry blossom (sakura in Japanese)? Besides, there's a music called "Sakuranbo" (the original Japanese word for "cherry"). If we put that meaning in the music...

灘のけんか祭り - Nada Kenka Matsuri

I just love how travellers' guides sometimes softens the truth... The Nada Kenka Matsuri is the most famous festival in Himeji (and the biggest kenka matsuri in Japan), so I just had to go check that out, right? Searching for some information before going I noticed something written on my guide:

"Kenka Matsuri (...): Portable shrines, shouldered by half-naked youths, jostle each other and the bearers vie to show their skill in balancing the shrines."

... Almost.

The festival was being held on October 14th and 15th, 2005. I was planning to go with some friends on 15th, but it rained a lot and the festival was postponed. So, we went to the festival on October 16th.

Since it's a famous festival, obviously it was crowded... REALLY crowded. Thankfully Jon "attracted" (being "gaijin-looking" surely has some advantages...) a "senior citizen" who used to participate the festival and he acted as our "local guide" explaining somethings (like the height of the yatai, a.k.a. portable shrines, and the height of the temple's portal are related so that the upper part of the yatai must be removed when passing through the portal... Something like when people put off their caps to show respect.) and guiding us to the good spots. So we were able to see some interesting things of the festival, like the mikoshi fighting and climbing the hill.

Now some explanations. According to the Metropolis Tokyo web site, "Nada's fighting tradition harks back to the Edo period (1603-1867), when Japan's emperor dispatched an armada to the Korean Peninsula. The clashing and grinding actions of the yatai during the festival mimic those the sailors used to dislodge offensive crustaceans from their ships' hulls en route to battle."

So, usually the first day is dedicated to some rituals and preparations for the next day, when each village brings its yatai/mikoshi (yatai is the beautiful-looking one and it's not used in direct clashings. Mikoshi are simpler and often end up with some damage) and men carry it from one shrine to another, and there're some kind of "rings" in the way so they can "destroy" the other villages' mikoshi/yatai. (The yatai rarely even touch each other... it's more like one team breaking others' balance... but for the mikoshi it's real clashing.)

Since it's a shinto festival, it's somewhat anti-feministic. The festival itself emphasize machismo for the violence itself and for the fact that only men can participate. Women aren't even allowed to touch the shrines, flags and these kind of things (our "guide" invited Jon, Rezaur and me to try lifting the yatai, but not Silvia). Besides, with cigarettes and beer, some may turn violent. And another thing that makes me think... Drunk people carrying portable shrines with weight up to 3 tons?! No wonder this festival is classified as having a certain hazard level... I heard that in some years there're even some deaths... Didn't noticed any, fortunately...

Ah... and another thing that is noticeable from the pictures is that people carrying the yatai/mikoshi wear mawashi (that sumo wrestler's "belt"). This website says that there's something related about strenght/stamina and nakedness (I really don't see the relation... neither the person who wrote that site...)... Yeah... that's strange...

More information in the following web sites:
Nada Kenka Matsuri Information in English
姫路・松原八幡神社-灘のけんか祭り

More Misc

Almost a week without any posts... hum...

Ah,well. Last week was pretty busy anyway. Classes all the week and a festival in the weekend (Aboshi Matsuri... I'll try to post comments about that soon...). Japan is full of festivals in autumn (fall)... most of them have their roots in rituals/partys/etc. to thank gods for a good harvest (rice harvest is done during fall). Come to think about it, if that's the case, there're some strange ways to "thank" the gods... Fighting, for example. I'll write more details when commenting the festivals.

While I prepare the matsuri posts (and the "Reminiscences" series), some other links with opinions and news.

"Weapon geeks in Japan aim for more firepower" - I' ve read about the referendum in Brasil about prohibiting the sale of guns and ammunition. And I guess the final result rejected that, right? This article is then a little late, but it shows an interesting thing about how "legal" weapons can be modified and become more powerful... And how people seek that. So, in the end, although Japan is a "country where citzens aren't allowed to have deadly guns" the reality may be a little different...

"M6.2 Hits Kanto, Tohoku" - Actually, this is old news already. This earthquake happened some days ago. This is just to put something to the people who wonders about earthquakes in Japan. And this year, it seems like most of natural disasters (typhoons and earthquakes) are striking the Kanto region... And I was told that they really don't strike often in Kansai (I'm liking this place more and more...), although things like the Great Hanshin Earthquake reminds me that this region is not completely safe. However, so far I haven't experienced such things... yet.

"Best to dig deep and study a language from its roots" "Learning a language is a cultural journey, too" - Just some interesting articles about language learning, and focusing a bit Japanese learning foreign languages. The interesting point is asking why learn a foreign language...

"Aso calls Japan 'one race' nation" - I saw this one at Claus's blog (again...). "Aso described Japan as having 'one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race. It is nowhere else in other nations'"... Yeah, sure... Are we talking about the same Japan? Anyway, I'll even avoid commenting this one too much...

Reminiscences - 京都 (Kyoto)

Volta aos posta em portugues e as viagens de verao. Depois de Nara, o proximo destino nas ferias de verao foi Kyoto (15 a 17 de agosto de 2005).

Kyoto foi fundada em 794, inspirada na cidade chinesa Tang de Chang-an. Ostentou a posicao de capital do Japao durante o periodo Edo, quando a balanca do poder passou para Edo (atual Tokyo). Apesar de nao possuir a vitalidade economica de Tokyo ou Osaka, Kyoto eh famosa por sua cozinha (kyo-ryori) e diversos monumentos e jardins que acompanham as mudancas sazonais.

A ida foi direto de Nara com a Silvia. Kyoto eh praticamente um polo turistico, com muitos lugares a visitar. Assim, a viagem foi dividida em tres dias, com companhias diferentes.

No primeiro dia, junto com uma bolsista brasileira, fomos ver alguns pontos na area noroeste.

• Kinkaku-ji: O classico "Pavilhao Dourado". Um dos principais cartoes postais de Kyoto. Construido por Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (nome no estilo japones. Sobrenome primeiro), que aos 37 anos abriu mao de seus deveres oficiais (mas nao de seu poder) para dedicar-se ao sacerdocio. O pavilhao eh uma replica exata do original, destuido por um incendio criminoso em 1950, totalmente folheada a ouro e encimada por uma fenix de bronze. Estranhamente nao se pode chegar perto da estrutura ^ ^;
• Ryoan-ji: Construido em 1450, o lugar ganhou fama com seu jardim de pedras, uma interessante composicao de cascalho branco e 15 pedras, considerado a definitiva expressao do zen-budismo.
• Ninna-ji: O enorme portal Ninna-ji mantem a memoria de uma epoca que este templo, da seita Shingon, possuia um conjunto de 60 subtemplos. Vitimada por incendios, a obra ficou reduzida ao tamanho atual (que ainda leva duas horas para se fazer o circuito completo). O Kondo (salao principal) e a imagem Amida ainda sao tesouros nacionais do Japao. Nessa atracao, infelizmente estava quase na hora de fechar, entao conseguimos ver as estruturas apenas rapidamente.

As companhias do segundo dia foram um colega japones (cujo primeiro encontro foi meio estranho... Um dia o professor de Economia Industrial mencionou os "alunos estrangeiros" na classe e ele apareceu depois, falando que queria praticar um pouco de ingles com a gente... Huh?) e dois amigos dele. Dia dedicado a alguns pontos turisticos na area sudeste e sul.

• Ginkaku-ji: Nome atual de Jisho-ji, tambem conhecido como Pavilhao de Prata e considerado uma obra prima em materia de jardinagem e paisagismo. Originalmente o templo serviu como refugio nas montanhas para o xogum Yoshimasa (1358-1408) que, em homenagem ao avo, que havia revestido Kinkaku-ji em ouro, pretendia cobrir o seu palacio de prata. A guerra de Onin frustrou o plano. Realmente, comparando ambos o pavilhao Kinkaku-ji eh mais impressionante, mas os "arredores" do Ginkaku-ji sao melhores...
• Kiyomizu-dera: Por mais de 1000 anos, peregrinos tem subido as encostas para oferecer oracoes a imagem de 11 cabecas de Kannon e beber da fonte sagrada (kiyomizu quer dizer agua pura). O complexo como um todo eh impressionante, por exemplo a varanda do salao principal, construida sem pregos. Nos arredores existe um santuario dedicado a divindade do amor, e alguns amuletos nesse sentido estao a venda (nao, nao comprei nenhum desses...)
• Nishi e Higashi Hongan-ji: O aspecto austero dos dois templos atesta o poder e popularidade da seita Jodo-Shinshu. A disposicao dos dois templos eh identica, refletindo a mesma origem. Cada um tem um enorme Goei-do (salao do fundador) e um alojamento menor Amida-do, para a imagem do Buda Amida. Infelizmente, algumas partes dos templos estavam em reformas na epoca.
• Toji: Embora esse templo nao tenha a exuberancia de muitos templos de Kyoto, este impressiona por sua importancia historica. Seus Budas tem observado a cuidado da cidade desde que Kukai fundou o templo em 796, sendo o local de onde os fundamentos religiosos da cidade surgiram. O pagode de cinco andares de Toji abriga as imagens de quatro Budas e seus seguidores (mas nao se pode entrar no pagode para ver). Com 55m, eh a estrutura de madeira mais alta do Japao.

Bom, nesse dia ainda fomos ate um restaurante brasileiro (churrascaria) em Kyoto, que o colega japones achou na internet. Mesmo nao sendo exatamente a mesma coisa, deu pra matar saudade de carne de verdade e dar umas risadas vendo os japoneses que estavam numa churrascaria pela primeira vez. Se algum dia voces tiverem uma oportunidade dessas, vale a diversao... E quem disse que acabou? Ainda era o dia de um evento pos-Obon em Kyoto, o Daimonji. Nesse evento, grandes fogueiras nas colinas que circundam a cidade sao acesas, marcando o fim do Obon, e as fogueiras acesas fazem desenhos nas colinas como o kanji "dai" (o unico que conseguimos ver). Pena que dura pouco... as fogueiras ficam acesas por cerca de 15 ou 20 minutos apenas. Ao contrario do primeiro dia, quando voltei pra Himeji, nesse dia fiquei na casa da familia desse japones, que sao de Kyoto (apesar de nao ser na regiao central)... uma mini experiencia de Home Stay, falando coisas do Brasil e afins...

Terceiro e (meu) ultimo dia. Dedicado a pontos turisticos variados que ainda nao tinham sido visitados.

• Nijo-jo: Com poucas das fortificacoes importantes de outros castelos do Japao, Nijo eh mais conhecido pelos interiores ornados e pisos rouxinol. estes foram projetados para que, quando alguem pisasse, reproduzissem o som do passaro, avisando sobre possiveis intrusos. O castelo foi criado pelo xogum Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) como simbolo de poder e riqueza do recem-instalado xogunato em Edo.
• Parque Imperial (Kyoto Gyoen): Com seus majestosos pinheiros e lindas vistas eh um verdadeiro oasis no coracao da cidade. Aqui se encontram o Kyoto Gyosho (Palacio Imperial) e Sento Gyosho (Palacio do Imperador Aposentado), mas cuja visitacao deve ser agendada previamente. O que, em bom portugues, quer dizer que nao entramos nesses lugares...

E de vota a Himeji...

Ah, sim. No caso de alguem ter notado uma foto estranha com garrafas PET (um tipo de plastico) entre as fotos de Kiyomizu-dera, essa foto deve-se ao fato de eu ter lido este artigo na epoca... E coincidentemente eu encontro um caso dessa estranha supersticao...