As I start posting more regularly, I think I will start off with a summary of current events. Then move on into the pictures.
Today is Wednesday, everybody goes off to the bar on Wednesday nights, but I stay back. Well, not everybody, but a good portion of people. I would like to go, but it being the middle of the week and Wednesdays being what they are I would really rather not strain myself that much.
On Wednesday I have class in the morning, then I ride directly over to USP (that's the University of Shiga Prefecture) to meet with the ESS (English Speaking Society.) There are ESS clubs at most universities.
Firstly I'll say that USP is a bit of a ride. About 15-30 minutes, depending on the wind and weather. I usually bring headphones to wear while I ride.
ESS today was not bad. Each day one of the students volunteers a lesson. I attend to help out with English and also participate in the lesson. It's hard for me to speak English here since I'm surrounded by Japanese kids, but I try my best. Today the lesson was 'music listening.' We listened to a song and looked at a sheet of lyrics with some blanks in it. The students were to write the word that went in the blank by listening for it in the song. It was actually pretty hard, but I only got one wrong. Obviously it was much more difficult for the Japanese kids, but they gave it a good try. I was impressed. I ate lunch during this class. Though I usually get Curry Rice from the cafeteria, today I got two pieces of garlic toast, a bagel, and some juice because I wasn't very hungry.
After that class I go to my four-hour religion class. Last week we watched 'Sanshiro', a movie about Judo by Akira Kurosawa. We also watched 'Hoichi the Earless', an adaptation of a japanese ghost story.
This week it was 'Haunted Junction', a rather silly and (I thought) boring anime by the same guy that did Ranma 1/2. While it was a little funny, mostly I was just bored by the animation, the slapstick, and the dialogue. I guess I'm growing out of that sort of anime, or perhaps it was too old.
The story was about three kids living at a school that is full of ghosts. The lead character is the son of a christian priest, the boy is the son of a buddhist priest, and the girl is the son of a shinto priest. Their respective 3 homes (and temples/churches) are at the points of a triangle of power centered on the school, which is the cause of the ghosts. If it sounds a bit occult, don't worry, the anime mostly just pokes fun at all three religions and is mostly very silly, with a lot of running around and surprises from the school spirits. In each episode the three combine their skills to fight off demons that try to attack the school, and the various ghosts of the school help out too.
Afterward we watched 'Princess Mononoke.' This is avaliable on DVD in america. It's a movie that is a good example of 'Animism,' or the idea that living and nonliving things have spirits in them, and there are things like 'the god of boars' or 'the god of the forest.' It refers to a spiritual energy that is created by the life of the trees and animals in nature, and generally attributes a lot of mysical power to nature itself. In the movie a young boy comes across a boar god that has been taken over by some oily blackness, an evil. He kills the god/demon, but not before some of the evil black stuff burns his arm and the god curses him with its dying breath. From there he leaves his home village and travels the world to find a cure for the growing black rot on his arm.
While it seems strange, the movie is basically about the evils of an expanding human civilization that doesn't care for the sacred woods or nature in general. People wielding guns attack the 'gods' and attempt to steal the head of the god of the forest in an effort to obtain eternal life. In the end of the movie nature rebels against them and almost kills off humanity, but the young boy risks his life to retrieve the head and return it to nature, repenting for the sins of mankind. In the end nature reclaims the lands that man had covered with buildings and spoiled with mines, but allows humanity to live, having learned its lesson.
So the message is 'don't be reckless with nature, because before you know it you might find your life in danger because of your carelessness.'
Now for a couple of pictures before I go to bed. I spent a lot more time talking about my day than I did getting photos ready, so here's a couple...
Here's a picture of a bridge in the castle. This bridge is built so that the part on the side of the castle is higher than the one that visitors would enter by. This is so that the lord greeting the visitors would not only seem taller, but also be able to see everybody that was standing there. Nobody could hide from the archers up in the castle, either.
And here's a picture of the castle grounds. Not even all of it either. This is just a part that we could see from up top. The castle hill/mountain is quite tall. You can see the castle from most places in Hikone.
Well, it's time for me to go now. Hope that I get to post a lot more pictures tomorrow.
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