Winter

It is getting cold. The summer is over. I am thankful that this year I had such a long summer. The weather in Oita is oftentimes sunny, warm and cloudless. But now since two weeks we have to take out our winter coats and turn on our heaters. The winter in Oita is supposed to be like my kind of perfect weather: cold, but sunny with a blue sky. I am looking forward to it.

View from the 4th floor of our Kaikan.

Oita Art Museum

I hate museums. I find them boring. It is like mental torture. Going into one is something I would never do in Germany.
I remember the last time I was in a museum in Europe. I was standing in front of some scary pictures in the Louvre, walking down the aisles, looking at more scary pictures with wounded and fighting people on them. And it made me feel unhappy, uneasy, depressed. I kept hoping that it would get better, but after the scary pictures there were only objects that were boring to look at. This experience confirmed yet again what I had already known - I shall never scare my mind again.
So you understand how special the time in Japan is, as I voluntarily joined some friends and went to the Oita Art Museum. And I loved it!
The exhibition showed oeuvres from Raoul Dufy. I have never heard of him before, but looking at his pictures made me happy.
My friends and I actually had a very nice afternoon. We waited for an eternity for the bus, while it was cold and raining. But we still had fun and the architecture of the art museum and the exhibition were impressive. The museum is located on a hill, so the view over Oita City is also worth a trip there.

Tischlein deck dich!

This izakaya called Shifuku No Toki offered tabehodai (eating flatrate) and nomihodai (drinking flatrate) for 3000 Yen (about 22 Euros). The food and drinks were good, but the atmosphere and the design of the place could not reach the last izakaya's level. It was more like sitting in somebody's basement. 

Edamame - a delicious snack!

  

They look like "Salzstangen", but they are not!

They are deep fried noodles!

The raw fish was also delicious (so I was told)

Restaurants and izakayas like it better if a group pays one large sum, instead of everyone paying for their own (betsu betsu)

One participant ate so much, that she felt sick the next day.

There was too much to eat. The table kept filling up with delicious food. 

Some participants could not let the good food be wasted. 

Look at that innocent face ^^ It is the face of a sweet potato lover, who rescues some for breakfast. Are you happy to see me or do you have sweet potatoes in your pocket?

I went to Kyoto again

The last sentence in my post about Kyoto a few weeks ago was: I would come back anytime. And I did.
This time the weather was sunny and more maple tree leaves have turned red. So everything looked even more beautiful than the first time.
And again I am so disappointed that I cannot catch the beauty, atmosphere, and feeling of what I see in Kyoto. Not only do the colours of the trees and buildings look faded. But I also wish I could capture the smell of the wood in the temple buildings, the crowing of the ravens in the temple gardens, the sound of somebody raking the stone stairs of the shrines, the sombre singing voices of the monks,…

Watching the sunrise from the ferry

The Golden Pavillon – because of the sunny weather even more beautiful than the last time

Geisha at the Kyomizudera Temple – the second one to the right looks so scared because suddenly ten people shot out of nowhere in order to take a picture of them. It is an interesting group phenomenon among tourists: If one person starts to take pictures, ten others will notice and join in opportunistically.

A cat not enjoying the view at Kyomizudera Temple

Lights at night at the Yasaka Shrine in Gion

The common room at our hostel – it was very comfortable and not like a typical hostel at all. We felt like staying at somebody’s house.

The Taisha Inari – we got up early to see it without tourists. 

It looks especially pretty when the sun is shining.

Beautiful trees at Tofukuji Temple

Zen Garden of a sub-temple of Tofukuji

At Tofukuji we could witness a ceremony where wooden plates were burnt. It was quite a fascinating ceremony, but we did not dare to take more pictures.

Kyoto is known for its tofu. Here soy milk is heated so that a skin builds on the surface. It is called yuba and tastes delicious.

The leaves of the maple trees turn red.

Eikando Zenrinji Temple – The highlight was the pagoda in the mountains, which allowed a good view over the city.

A place to sit and watch the colourful trees at Eikando Zenrinji Temple – unfortunately there were so many tourists that it was not peaceful at all.

I went to the Nishiki Food Market again. 

This time I ate my way through it. 

I tried so many different foods – it was vegetarian heaven!

These are bamboo shoots. They are have a soft and subtle taste.

Yuba salad – delicious!

Maybe I will come back a third time...

I cut my hair in Japan

Japanese hair is naturally black and straight.
So everybody's hair should look the same.
But it doesn't, because Japanese are so stylish.
There is apparently so much one can do with straight black hair: you can dye it in different shades of brown, blond, and orange. You can accessorize your hair with bows, pins, head bands, etc. (I am not only speaking of the girls... seriously.) And you can curl your hair. Which I wanted to do. Yes, living in Japan for some time and watching all those people around you ponders on your subconscience!
I decided to try my luck and take my straight black hair to a Japanese hair dresser.

I wish I could tell some exciting story about an exotic experience in a Japanese hair salon. But it was pretty much like a hair salon in Germany. There is no huge difference. Except before cutting my hair he touched and stroked my hair for a very long time - like 5 minutes he stood there behind me and checked the structure of my hair. In Germany hairdressers would do the same, but not for 5 minutes! (Of course, I do not know enough Japanese hairdressers in order to make a generic statement about Japanese hair salons.)
But the head massage during the hair washing procedure was really good. He even cleaned my ears. This was weird. Never has anybody touched my inner ear with his fingers... Like a German hairdresser would do, he started a conversation. But unfortunately he did not speak English and I did not speak Japanese. So the conversation was pretty much two people talking to themselves. I also noticed that when I did not really know what to do with my hair, and I asked him how he would do it, but he did not give his opinion although he is the professional. But the afternoon in the hairsalon was still much fun! We were his first foreign customers ever. So also for him it must have been an exciting afternoon.

Thorough examination of my hair

My first haircut in Japan!

Marion and I with our Japanese hairdresser.
Notice my hair? 3 hours and they look the same. Haha.

I had a Salsa lesson in Japan by an American in Japanese

I like the group dynamic of exchange students. They are easy to motivate to go out together as a group. When you are in a foreign country, where you have been cut out of your familiar networks you are usually stick together in a group of people who are in the same situation and who also look for new people and activities. So in the end we were about a dozen people who went to Salsa together.

First steps

 

The Salsa teacher was overwhelmed by the amount of exchange students that flooded her Salsa course.

If one comes, many others will come, too. 

It was fun!

Dangojiru

I love traditional Japanese food. It is so different than German food.

I wondered if there is a dish that is not only traditional Japanese, but even locally specific. I asked our Japanese turors if there is an Oita specific dish and there is! It is a noodle soup called dangojiru. Dango are long and flat noodles made of wheat flour, which are served in a miso soup with vegetables. In addition, a locally specific fruit is kabosu, which tastes like lemon and has a really aromatic flavor and smell. This fruit is produced in Oita and known all over Japan. Outside Oita is is quite expensive!

I also like to eat in little local restaurants, because the individual character of the owner shows in the interior decoration and the taste of the food. Our tutor took us to a place where the owner was very talkative and communicative. The decoration of his dangojiru shop was colorful, cozy, chaotic. And he had singing fish hanging on his wall, which he proudly presented to us, because he was so excited to have Germans in his small shop.

 

 

 Cozy local shop

 

My first Dangojiru - very delicious!