ゲイブは日本に行く※ A Song of Japan in the Key of Spring: 日常生活と冒険　※　Daily Life and Adventures

3/8/2015
みなさん、こんにちは。最近、楽しくて、忙しい生活でブログを書く時間をあまり作らなかったです。すみませんでした！一ヶ月間に何も書いていないので、今回、本当に色々なことについて書かなきゃいけないような気がします。でも、ブログポーストが長すぎないように少し短縮しようと思っています。それで、ちょっとだけ生活について書いて、後で最近の冒険について書きたいと思います。

日常生活
日本の日常生活が面白いです！いつも新しい経験ができて嬉しいです。今、日本についての観察がたくさんかけると思います。それに、僕の日常生活で、気に入っている日本の物もあります。そんな経験や好きなことについて書きます！

１）和食
日本料理が大好きになってきました。健康にいい食べ物が多いし、深くい味の食べ物もいっぱいあるので気に入っています！でも、レストランの食べ物だけじゃなくて、普通に買える料理とか家庭料理もたいてい素晴らしいです！この頃、家でお好み焼きとオムライスと様々な丼物を作ってみています！作るのは簡単で面白いから、楽しみます。それに、レストランの食べ物も美味しいです。名古屋の名物（赤味噌とえびフライ）と刺身と沖縄しゃぶしゃぶとすき焼きと納豆と色々な種類のそばを食べています！全部が好きです。甘いもの（特に抹茶と餡子が入っているもの）もたくさん初めて食べてみています！これからも、色々な日本料理の作り方を覚えておきます！（アメリカに帰っても、日本料理を忘れてはいけません！）

２）日本で走ること
アメリカにいた時は、よく走ることにしています。名古屋の道が混んでいて、狭いですから、安全に走れる場所は見つけにくいですが、諦めません！最初に走ったところは、やっぱり車が多すぎて、危ないと実感しました。この頃、とても広い川のそばの公園を走しっています。走っている時、町の色々な雰囲気が感じられます。高級な近所もあまり素敵じゃない近所も通ります。工場も小学校も病院が見えて、毎日の生活をしている人々にも会います。学校から通っている学生たちもお年寄りの人たちも犬と散歩をしている人たちも、みんなで川のそばに歩いています。川の隣で踊っているお年寄りも見ました（可愛いと思いました。）別に嫌いな景色だと言えないかもしれないけど、こんな景色が見えて嬉しいです。やはり、「本当の日本」は観光の場所だけじゃなくて、普通の場所にもあります。
(^_^)　

３）名古屋がもっと分かるようになってきました
前にあまり知りませんでしたが、名古屋の色々な近所がわかるようになってきたと思います。例えば、東の方の町はお金持ちの所だとすぐわかりました。次に、金山という町は若者が多くて、賑やかな所です。それから、栄の町には、東京の銀座のように高級なレストランとホテルとデパートがありますが、普通の店とか大きい公園があって、学生にとって楽しい場所です。最後に、大須というアーケード商店街で様々な店があって、あそこで香や着物やカバンなどの物を売っているので何も買えます。でも、すごく大きいので、道に迷わないように気をつけなければいけません！大須のような所が日本でしか見つけられないと思います。探検で名古屋の雰囲気がもっと深く分かってきて嬉しいです。日本で、東京の人々は礼儀正しさで知られていて、大阪人は元気さとユーモアで知られていると聞いていました。名古屋の人々は、何で知られているでしょうか？あまりわかりませんが、僕によると、誠実です。もちろん名古屋だけじゃないですが、名古屋で会った友達が親切で、すぐなんだか手伝ってくれたがっている人です。その点が大好きで、いつまでも覚えます。自分がそういう名古屋人のようになりたいです。留学生として、全ての名古屋の事を採用しました。(^_^)

冒険
最近、色々な経験ができました。まず、学校の遠足でトヨタ工場を見学して、トヨタの有名な制度について教えてもらいました。初めて工場に入りましたので、行けてよかったです。トヨタの制度がすごいと思いますが、その会社について疑問があります。南山大学の経済の先生がおしゃった通りに、トヨタで管理と工場の社員として働いている女の人が少ないことに気がつきました。工場で働いている人で女の人を一人もみませんでした。男女の平等の問題ではないかと思いました。トヨタは資源が多くて、日本を代表する会社なので、もっと平等が発達してほしいと思います。でも、日本人じゃなくて、日本の社会が全部わからないので、こんな問題についてもっと知っておいた方がいいですね。

最初のブログポーストで大好きな「となりのトトロ」について書きましたね。実は、トトロをもとにして、サツキのメイの家が作られました。名古屋の近くにあので、もちろんみに行きました。詳しくて、すごかったです。映画で出る服やお菓子などの小さい物がたくさん入れておいて、びっくりしました。

電車（特に日本の電車）が好きなので、自分で日本の鉄道館に行ってみました。休みの日だったので、家族と小学生がいっぱいいて、僕が一人の大学生だったので少し恥ずかしい気持ちでしたが、やっぱり新幹線の動き方と物理学についてたくさん学べました。日本の古い電車もかっこよくて、レトロのスタイルがあると実感しました。色々な種類の電車は、日本で昔の時から大切ですから、鉄道の展示で日本の社会の発達について学べたと思います。そして、今度新幹線に乗りたくなりました！

それから、恵里の家族に岐阜県の高山と白川御に連れて行ってもらって、素晴らしかったです。高山という町は、「小さい京都」と言われていて、本当に京都みたいと思いました。古い建物がたくさんありました。それに、伝統的な食べ物や芸術を売っている店が多かったです。その町でゆっくりブラブラしたら、古い山の町の雰囲気が味わえました。もっとも美しい日本アルプスは雪が深く積んでいて、夕日の光でピンクと紫いろに見えました。それは一生に一度見えることだったとおもいます。高山から、白川御にも連れて行ってもらいました。その世界遺産の村も綺麗でした。寒かったですから、観光客が少なかったです。三角の形の家を見て、景色を楽しみました。

日常生活でも、最近の冒険でも、日本人と日本の文化について、いつも学べていて嬉しいです。こういう経験で、自分の観察が出来たり、好きな日本のことが見つけられていて、嬉しいです。また、今度書きますね！(\^0^/)

3/8/2015

Hello everyone! It has been such a busy, roller-coaster of a month that I didn't even make time to keep up with my blog. I really have been up to so much here in Japan that if I were to try to write about everything I've done, I would certainly bore you to death... So instead of that, I thought I would write a bit about my daily life here, and then a bit about some of the adventures I have been on in the past month.

Daily Life
Daily life in this country is quite a ride for me! All the time I am making new discoveries about Japan and my city, meeting all kinds of people, trying new experiences, and of course making big and small mistakes alike! I decided to write a little about a few major points of my life over here on the far-east end.

1) Japanese FOOD!!!!!
Japanese food... it is so much more than what I ever thought before coming here. It's sweet, spicy, savory, colorful, fried, grilled, fresh, crisp, decadent, light, delicate, deep, sophisticated... and often beautiful to look at. In my three months here so far, I have barely tasted anything that I did not absolutely love. The Japanese have truly mastered the art of combination- all the tastes of the different ingredients just fit together so well. That even goes for food that I didn't expect to go well together at first. This is not to say that I have become a gourmand in Japan (yet)- I'll have to come back with some sort of salary to speak of before I can do that- but I do enjoy the occasional dinner out as well as the cooking I do at home! There are a few simple, at-home standards I've been practicing that are inexpensive and tasty: spicy kimchi with sautéed tofu and collard greens with a nutty sesame paste over rice; soy sauce-covered rice in a thin vegetable omelet wrapping; okonomiyaki (fluffy cabbage hot-cake with spicy syrup and savory Japanese mayonnaise); and of course many Asian hot pot variations (basically Asia's version of a "stone soup"). The two take-home messages from this part about food is: 1) Japanese food is SO much more complex and wonderful than sushi/sashimi/similar seafood dishes that appear in America and 2) if you come and visit I will (try to) prepare something tasty for you that I wasn't able to make before now!

2) Running in Japan
I think it's appropriate to cover my exercise routine, after all that talk of food (^_-) Yes, even over here I have been hitting the asphalt a few times a week, though it has not been so high of a priority for me as it was back in NC. The streets are often maze-like and very narrow, the cars come surprisingly fast, and to complicate things they happen to drive on the left side of the road. But through my runs, I have gotten to explore the outskirts of my city much more thoroughly. It's possible to travel Nagoya by metro, without ever getting a sense of the geography at the surface level. With a good sense of direction and a little Google route-mapping, it's possible to run plenty far and take in the many different atmospheres around the city's perimeter. Honestly it is not always so pretty; there are more than enough faceless buildings and concrete walls to scar the landscape. But it has been a great chance to observe a very normal and everyday Nagoya, which is actually a rarer thing than you might think. Normally I would gravitate towards sightseeing in the more special neighborhoods, and I am sure that I could spend most of my time in those places if I wanted to. While those spots are also good, I now think that it's important to fight that tendency of mine and explore the unglamorous spots as well. In my running encounters with dog-walkers, lively middle school students, other joggers, and strolling grandparents across the quite outer rim, I feel that I've seen a little more of the "real" Japan than I may have otherwise. Not to mention that I much better understand the geography of my part of the city than I had before.

3) Loving Nagoya
I didn't know this city so much before, but now I feel so comfortable here, as if it were my second home! I've developed a fairly solid mental map of Nagoya and its main features. The eastern side is mainly an expensive residential area. There's not much to do there for me besides go to school. I know that Kanayama is bustling until the wee hours with young people, but it's good for karaoke and cheap food. Oosu is basically a Japanese covered bazaar, filled with every kind of discount good from kimonos to incense to used cell phones. The glittering Sakae city has high-end retail, hotels, and restaurants much like Tokyo's Ginza. Additionally, there are normal department stores, and a wide-open grassy promenade oddly called "Central Park". The east side, Kanayama, Oosu, and Nagoya are just a few examples of the locales that I have come to know well in the past while. I often hear that in Japan, Tokyo natives are regarded for their gentleness and refined manners, while Osaka natives are known for their humor and forthrightness. Seeing as Nagoya is the #3 largest city in Japan, what are Nagoya natives to be known for? In my opinion, it's sincerity. Of course this is only a generalization, and there are plenty of sincere people everywhere. But the Nagoya friends I have made are truly special people- always kind, calm, and eager to help each other out in some way. I really love that kind of person, and I want to become more like that myself! In summary, I have definitely embraced this city, and truly like my life here :)

Adventures
I've done a few things outside of Nagoya this past month as well! First, I went on a field trip with my study abroad program to a real Toyota car factory, one of the many in the aptly named Toyota-city. This particular factory is actually home to global production of the famous Prius model. I am very glad to have been able to go to Toyota's factory, but I actually have a some doubts about equality there. As my native economics professor had predicted before the field trip, I saw no female employees in the factory, at all. Toyota is notorious for adhering to the traditional practice of barring most women out of high management and factory labor positions. I couldn't believe such an issue would exist in a modern company like Toyota, but I discovered that it sadly does. Of course, as an outsider I don't fully understand Japanese gender roles and related principles, so I think that I would like to know more about this issue to develop my opinion further.

I wrote in my first blog post about the beloved My Neighbor Totoro film by director Hayao Miyazaki, one of my role models. As a matter of fact, Totoro is very popular through all of Asia (with a significant following in the U.S. and Europe also), so a life-size replica of the movie characters' house was built for the 2005 Japan World Expo. That replica is just outside Nagoya, and I visited it last month! It was a perfect model, with more details than I ever could have noticed in the film.

I love trains and especially Japanese trains, so last month I also visited the Japan Railway Museum south of Nagoya. It happened to be a national holiday on that day, so the place was crawling with children and parents- that was a bit embarrassing for me as the only college student there. But the exhibits were fascinating. Beyond the amazing bullet train and maglev technology, I also learned a good deal about railway's historic importance in Japan, since its opening to the West in the 19th century. I was also taken by the colorful, classic railway cars from the 1950's and 1960's, which were preserved from before the bullet train era in a main display room.

Finally, Eri's family took me on a trip to Takayama and Shirakawago in the neighboring Gifu prefecture. That was a wonderful trip. Takayama is town located deep within some of Japan's tallest mountains, right in the heart of the main island of Honshu. It is known as "little Kyoto" because of its large historic district and traditional arts and crafts. As I strolled slowly along Takayama's old promenades of beautifully maintained wooden stores, I could taste, see, and smell old Japan all throughout. Foodstands abounded with traditional sweets, from dango (grilled sweet rice balls) to mochi (various soft fillings wrapped in glutinous rice flour dough). The late-February sun shone brightly across melting snow mounds, promising spring's imminent arrival. The Japanese alps loomed on the horizon, still cloaked in stubborn ice and snow; while potted plants at street level were just starting to bud. The sweet scent of fermenting rice wine wafted out of old distilleries, mixing with perfumes and old-fashioned incense from artisan shops. It was such a deeply peaceful setting that I didn't want to leave! Indeed, Takayama is a lovely town. I also visited Shirakawago, an ancient village even further within the mountains. This community of oddly shaped, triangular wooden huts is now a UNESCO World Heritage Sight- one of Japan's many. With snow piled up to as high as 5 feet and the sun having just dropped beneath the towering mountains, the village felt more like a frozen ghost-town. But the scenery was gorgeous all the same, especially when viewed from the top of a nearby hill. After departing from that deserted mountain village at dusk, in just over two hours by car we were back in Nagoya, eating late dinner at a lively cafe near the city center! It is still hard to fathom how close everything is in Japan, coming from a wide-open country like America...

In my daily life and special adventures alike, I am learning so much about Japan and its people. I have also learned more about myself, and the way I see my own homeland- but that's for next time! Until later, thanks for reading! ;)

食べ物・FOOD