October 16

October 16

Emi promised an easier day but it wasn't. She says that a lot and it's always a lie; it's always longer or harder than what she says. Her modus operandi is like a used car salesperson. Promise the dupe anything just to make the sale and I fall for it every time. We walked 17 miles to Komatsu, hitting Temples #59, and #62, on the way. Tomorrow is a hill temple, 6 hours up and down. We never did this because the trail was washed out by a typhoon when we were here before.

Subject 1: Test. I have taken many Japanese language classes and studied many Japanese language text but not enough to survive Japan by myself. For example I try to read the signs, the ones in hiragana, katagana, and kanji. I can actually read some of it. Katakana is the funniest and in some ways the hardest because even after you read it you don't know what you've read. I must explain that katakana is used to write foreign words, mostly english in a Japanese way. So if I succeed in reading a word like sa n do i chi, it doesn't necessarily tell me the word. That's an english word but do you know what that means? Hint, you find it on a menu. It means sandwich. One katakana word that stands out to me is a su pa ra ga su....asparagus. I would never have connected the two. The worst part is for me to understand what the people are saying. To me I hear “bla, bla, bla, sugoi, bla, bla, bla, da.” It's not really good enough to understand. This whole trip is a “practical” and I'd hate to see my grade.

Subject 2: Weight loss. Emi and I have lost some 4 plus kilos or some 8-10 pounds. Emi is so neurotic about weight loss that she carries it over to this trip. We barely get enough calories to survive and she's still worrying about gaining weight. As for me. I'd wish there was more to eat but there isn't, at least not what I want to eat, like Lay's Potato Chips, prime rib, real spaghetti, pistachios, etc, etc, etc

Subject 3: Sandals. Japan has this thing about slippers. There are slippers for going outside, for the kitchen, for the bathroom, for the hallways. At first I didn't get it. I'm from Hawaii, just take off your shoes and you're home free. Then I saw this 150 year old ryokan and then I got it. There, the floors were all dirt, the kitchen, the bathroom, the halls, except for the actual living areas, thus the reason for slippers.

Subject 4: One long field trip. Being a biology major in college, this trip has been like a real field trip for me. I'm just sorry that I couldn't collect specimens and have field books to research all that I have seen. My only compensation was to take pictures and I did. There were certain days in certain areas where the mushrooms
were as plentiful as hookers in the Tenderloin and I looked at all of them but never touched. I took pictures of dragon flies crimson red, others with eyes of green. One large toad made a gem of a photo. As for the flowers and other plants, I have taken pictures of them all. I'm so surprised that I recognize many of them, like Little Imp, Kerria Japonica, “Hot Lips” and etc.

One interesting discovery were the road kill snakes. At first I didn't believe what I was seeing, confusing Japan with Hawaii where snakes do not exist. I then recognized my mistake and later we confirmed it's existence by seeing a live snake. I didn't try to pick it up, a good thing because on another day we saw a sign with a picture of a snake that said “dangerous...mamushi”. I didn't want to jump to conclusions since my reading ability was limited. Did it mean it was dangerous for the snake or humans? As it turned out mamushi is a pit viper, dangerous for us. Who would have thunk, poisonous snakes in Japan.