Alright, here is the lengthier post that I promised you last time. So last Saturday me and Hannah scrambled to get ready to leave Hikone and move in with our host families in Otsu. We had just finished sorting her trash when the taxi that was taking us to the train station pulled up. We loaded in our stuff and sped off towards Hikone Station where we would meet Kitamura-sensei who was escorting us to Otsu to help us meet our families. We arrived at the station and found our families and went our separate ways. My host dad Otoosan picked me up in the family car and took me to a cafe where we got coffee and had a conversation in broken languages. We then went to Ishiyama Station to get me a bus pass and to show me where to get on the bus. After I understood how to commute to school every day. Then it was time to head back home to see where I would be living the next three weeks.
I arrive and he helps me bring in my luggage. We enter and of course the first things that happens in the shoes come off. We learned a bit about this on the first day of class but I will talk about that later in this post. I come in and meet my host mother (Okaasan) (note: Otoosan and Okaasan are father and mother in Japanese not their actual names). We talk for a bit about house rules and getting to know each other. My host dad is a traditional business man who commutes 2 hours by train everyday to Kobe. It's kind of intense because I think he leaves the house around 6 and isn't back till around 9 or 10 but I guess that is normal in Japan. Okaasan is a stay at home mom but she also teaches English among other things to kids after school. I have an older sister who is a year older than I am named Ayako who is a college student at Shiga Univ. who is studying to be a teacher as well as having two part time jobs at the grocery store and teaching at a cram school. My younger brother is 14 and his name is Wataru. He is in junior high and plays soccer and swims. They are all very nice and welcoming!
After a few days to settle in with the family it was off to school! I had practiced my commute the day before so luckily I didn't have a problem finding anything. The only problem was that my bus ran late making me late for my train but I just caught the next train and was able to get on the next bus right away. I made it to class with 15 minutes to spare. We walk in and meet our professor for the course Denise Saint Arnault We started off the class with introductions and Denise explained to us that she started off as a Pysch nurse and did that for a while but decided to go back and get her Ph.D and is now an associate professor at U of M. She is a medical anthropologist and has done some very interesting research concerning Japan. We also have a professor from Shiga Univeristy of Medical Science (SUMS) named Aiura. Her and Denise have been colleges now for 5 years.
After introductions we drove right into the first topic; Religion. I won't go into too much detail (mainly because I have a limited battery life right now) but there are two main religions in Japan: Shinto and Buddhism. The two are not mutually exclusive. Most people are both in fact or have parts of both. Shinto is considered the "indigenous" religion of Japan. Based a lot on maintaining relationships with the Kami. Kami are the spirits or dieties of the land, but can also be the spirits of heroes and even things that were just awesome to early man. The kami reside in things such as the rivers, mountains and even in things like trees. Kami are neutral in nature but can do good or bad depending on your relationship with them. If you are respectful and treat them with respect they will bring you good, but if your are neglectful and disrespectful they can bring misfortune. Shinto is also about purity. This is where the whole taking shoes off when you enter a house. Inside, whether it be a house or just a metaphorical sense, is pure while everything outside is impure or polluted. The shoes are taken off because they are from the out side and considered impure. Shinto places of worship are shrines. Shrines, unlike churches, are not usually visited regularly. They are visited when you are born, age 3,5,7 and on New Years, but they can also be visited whenever when you are looking for purification or just for favorable things. The other main religion is Buddhism. Now I know I had thought I had a pretty good grasp on what Buddhism was but it was a lot more complicated than I thought. Buddhism is based on 4 truths. 1) Suffering is inevitable in life 2) This suffering is caused by desires 3) You can release yourself of these desires and therefore release yourself from suffering 4) The Noble Eight-fold Path that can lead you to the peace of Nirvana. There are also 3 Treasures or Refuges of Buddhism: 1) Buddha 2) Dharma (teachings) 3) Shangha (or community). The goal of Buddhism is to reach enlightenment to release yourself of suffering caused by desire. There are a lot more to these religions that the nutshell I put them in, so I recommend taking the 5 minutes it would take to pop over to Wikipedia and read about them really quick because both are FASCINATING! I would go on myself but my laptop is litterally dying as I am typing this so I hope that my brief summary of those two religions were interesting and that you learned something new or even just cleared up a misconception you had on the topic.
Note: we also talked about Confuciusism but like I said laptop about to die. Maybe next time I will add a quick note about it but again take the few minutes to punch it into Google or you can always ask me about any of this in the comments, email or if you can wait until my return I would be open to discussion of this or any topic covered in my blog!
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