Friday, October 12, 2012

Konnichiwa Nihon!!!

Rice field at Sunset
What an amazing adventure! I am absolutely in love with this country even though I have seen so little of it! Although I recognize I might be in my honeymoon stage with Japan (today was my first real day exploring, shopping, speaking), there are so many amazing things to see. 
Garden behind the temple
Right now, I am in Kinomoto, a small town in the northern part of Shiga prefecture near Lake Biwa. It is such a beautiful little town. There is a gorgeous temple right up the street from where I am staying right now and I have walked to it twice already just to admire it. 
Temple in Kinomoto
The temple is the obvious part of the allure to this city, but today I decided to walk down a bunch of side streets and it is so neat to see the different styles of buildings and also the little shops that people live in the top floor and open shops on their bottom floor. I have already seen incredible artwork and had a lot of fun speaking with one shop owner (in VERY broken Japanese) about the history of Sake. 
Walking in Kinomoto
Not too far from the temple, I had my first encounter with Heiwado, I would mark it as the equivalent of Walmart, but higher quality. It has everything you could ever imagine and its many stores in one. The one in Kinomoto has a clothing store, cosmetic/cleaning/health store, and then the grocery store. I know now though that not being able to read Japanese is going to be a challenge. It took me a lot longer to figure out what everything I was looking at was and so even a little task like trying to find body wash took me quite some time. Not only am I unable to read the aisles and what they contain, I can't read the labels on anything!!! Luckily if one has the English translation of let's say "Shampoo", then I was able to look at the Japanese writing and figure out the difference between the Shampoos, Conditioners, and other hair products. I felt like Japan was going to be very survivable once I figured that out. My next goal is to come up with shopping lists and write them in English, find the Japanese writing online, copy it, and then find everything from that! (My theory is it will make it a little faster, and I might learn more Japanese!) The next challenge is having a food allergy, although mine is not a deadly one, it is enough to make me a little wary of EVERYTHING! Especially since Japanese cuisine LOVES to put fish in everything. I mean even unexpected places like rice crackers. But, I still had a fairly successful trip to the grocery store and even cooked my first meal in Japan! It was egg drop soup with cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, and rice noodles, and red chili sauce. So far so good, and we'll see how my journey continues in Nihon-land!
A hidden gem on my walk home