time and eating

I have eaten out at mediocre food establishments every single day for the past month or so. I feel disgusting.

and that's the way the candy crumbles

For as long as you're alive, life has this way of reminding you how awesome it is.  I'm in Australia right now, and after waiting ten minutes on an empty street for a taxi, I finally gave up and dragged my weary legs to another location to catch one.  Along the way, I passed by a convenience store and caught a glimpse of purple.  LO AND BEHOLD! It was a Violet Crumble bar, which I suddenly remembered, in that moment, is a chocolate bar that I absolutely adore, and it is manufactured in Australia.  I bought two.  And then, as I came out of the store, a taxi was just approaching.  Life rocks.

Anyway, what the heck am I doing in Australia?  I have no idea.  My dad had a business trip, so I decided to tag along because I've never been in the southern hemisphere before.

OH MY GOSH SUDDEN REVELATION.  VIOLET CRUMBLES ARE LIKE TIM TAMS.  AND TIM TAMS ARE ALSO AUSTRALIAN.  Australia is an amazing place.

So anyway, I'm staying in the city of Manly, which is half an hour away from Sydney by ferry.  The city name cracks me up because every time someone uses it in a store name, it just sounds like an overly masculine...everything.  Manly Supermarket.  Manly Wharf.  Manly Life Saving Center.  I crack a stupid grin every time I read a sign.  That aside, it's a pretty nice place.  There really isn't much except beach and some restaurants, but I love the ocean, so it's quite nice.  The day I arrived was a full moon, so seeing the bright big moon over the night water was amazing.  I also caught a glimpse of some night surfers, who I think must be absolutely nuts.  Surfing looks like fun though; I think I'll give it a try this summer.

That's if I have any free time.  I finally feel pretty certain about the next path in my life, and I'm definitely going to go to law school.  For that purpose, my summer will be completely occupied with test prep.  Woo.hoo.  Let's go LSATs.  I've also decided (if anyone will take me) to volunteer at a law firm or some law-related place to get a good idea of what it's like.  Since the main reason I want to do law is to help people out, I'm starting to lean quite heavily toward working at a nonprofit organization.  We'll see how that works out...

As is obvious, I am no longer in Japan.  I know I will miss being there eventually, but I think I really had enough of it for a while during my study abroad.  Even though I've been away for two weeks now, really all I can think of is still, "I'm so glad there's this here.  And I'm so glad that this is like this here."  With that said, that refers to Korea and Australia because I still have yet to return to the USA.  I'm really rather homesick.  But I've been spending a lot of quality time with my dad, so being with family definitely takes a huge edge off the homesickness.  Still.  I miss my mom.  And my brother.  And my friends.  And California.  But just a few more days left, and I'll be there!  In the meantime, I've got some koalas and kangaroos to distract me.  I am so excited to go pet some koalas!

Right, back to serious reflections on Japan.  I can't write any.  Much as I'd love to sum up my experience in Japan into some tidy little paragraph about life and character growth and whatnot, it's not going to work.  There's too much stuff there, but I think anyone that's had the experience of studying abroad, or even just being in a completely different setting for a while, will understand exactly what I mean.  It's ironic that I turned this blog, originally a food one, into a travel blog for the sake of documenting my study abroad experience in Japan, yet I barely wrote about being in Japan.  Oh well, things never go as you expect, I guess.  But that's a good thing too.  I wasn't expecting to find my favorite chocolate bars, which I haven't had in years because the one store that sold them stopped stocking them, but I did.

Life is really good these days.  I actually think Japan did a lot for my positive thinking, so if nothing else (massive understatement since there was a whole lot else), thank you Japan for that.

fluttering pink

It's cherry blossom season in Japan! Whenever I pass by parks or roads or...anywhere that there are sakura trees, I feel like I'm floating on pink-tinted clouds. And then I notice the hoards of people sitting below them. Oh, hanami, the viewing of sakura while picnicking. I swear there are more people than flowers sometimes. Despite my hatred for crowds and large gathering, I can understand hanami. Sakura are definitely worthwhile, and I'm glad I've had the chance at least once in my life to enjoy them in Japan and see where all the inspiration in manga and anime comes from.

That aside, I still like ume, or plum blossoms, better.

Anyway, I have just two and a half weeks left in Japan. A lot of things have happened during this semester so far, which I am far too lazy to write about. However, as the end gets closer, I am--here comes the cliche--having mixed feelings about going home. Since the weather has finally started warming up, I don't feel the dying need to escape the cold anymore. And also, I'm really getting into mask carving and woodblock printing classes, so I'll be very sad for lessons to end. But I miss my favorite foods. And I miss my friends and family. And I miss those things enough to look forward to looking home. I'm going to make the most of my remaining time in Japan, somehow write the two papers that are due soon but haven't been started yet, and leave on the best note I can.

Just a quip on my thoughts of the Japanese stuff. Lately I've stopped caring about fitting into Japanese society because I've realized that I am happiest when I'm me. I know it's important to respect other cultures and whatnot, but I'm done with being excessively quiet and obedient, passive and polite. I'm a direct person, and trying to refrain from being so just makes me frustrated and irritated. So while I respect Japanese set-phrases and hierarchies of status and respectful language, I'm good. I'll pass on that.

That aside, I think I love the Japanese language way, way, way more than when I first arrived. The more I can read, write, hear, speak, and while doing all those, understand, the more I love the language. And the more I want to learn. There's something so rewarding about suddenly being able to read and recognize a character you weren't able to until two days earlier. Or being able to finally say exactly what you want and mean to say in exactly the way you want and mean to say it.

The length of tradition and history is also something amazing that America lacks. Though the standard, academic meaning of the previous sentence applies, I actually meant it in a completely geeky way. As I learn more about Japanese history and traditions, I'm starting to recognize the references and meanings in pop culture. When I read a manga, I suddenly know who or what characters are named for and what the name means. Or I'll get the legend that the plot is based upon. Or something like that. That's exciting. I'm almost thinking about starting a log on all of the moments and places where a light bulb lights above my head as I realize something while watching anime...

the feeling settles in

Tomorrow begins the first day of spring semester. Usually I feel a sense of dread at the end of vacation, but my winter break has been a good one month, and I feel that it's about time to have some regular, time-keeping event in my life again. I've been a house bum for the past few days, and I'm starting to feel myself becoming one of society's giant bugs, so, if nothing else, school will get me out of bed in the morning, and it'll keep my mind from turning to mush. I just wish it weren't so cold in the mornings/all day long.

Even though, aside from going to Hokkaido, I didn't do much over break, at least I somehow feel that inspiration has been returned to me, and my sense of wonder at life has been restored. I can't place exactly how or why, but I feel great. It seems like it's been a really long time since I've been in such high spirits even just sitting on my floor and typing.

trouble in the north

I decided I wanted to go to Hokkaido.

I decided I was going to Hokkaido.

I decided I was going to Hokkaido, even if it meant going alone.

I went to Hokkaido alone.

In Japan, there's a very handy thing called the seishun jyuuhachi kippu, which basically translates to "youthful 18 ticket," or put in a more cheesy and anime-like way, the "springtime of youth 18 ticket." With this ticket, for a whole day, midnight to midnight, you can ride any local train on any JR line in Japan, and it only costs 2300 yen per day, which is something like 23 dollars. It actually comes in a 5-pack, so it's more like 11500 yen for 5 days, and it's really just one piece of paper with 5 boxes for stamps. Because it uses stamps, you can't feed it through the regular ticket machine, and you have to go through a staffed entrance gate, but that's not a huge issue. The ticket isn't consecutive, so you can use one stamp slot on one day and the next slot a few days later. Multiple people can also share the ticket. For example, if you get two stamps, two people can use that ticket to get through various stations on the same day.

seishun 18 kippu

Being on winter break and wanting to take advantage of the inexpensive ticket plus adventure, I bought a ticket (which is actually 5 tickets) and planned my trip to Hokkaido. My plans were perfect. I laid out my entire route, transfer times, which stations to transfer, which stations to stop at, etc. Everything added up perfectly. I made a reservation for a youth hostel around Lake Toya, which is in the south-eastern part of Hokkaido, and I packed my things. On the night of January 1, New Years Day, a huge holiday in Japan, I made my way to Kyoto station and got ready for midnight to pass so that I could activate the first day of my ticket by taking the 00:03 kyuukou, express in English, night train at perhaps the earliest time possible.

There were more hitches in my plans than I could even imagine. Like, way more hitches than I could ever even imagine. First things first, I failed to read the fine print, and when I got to Kyoto station, I was immediately told that I couldn't use my pass on express trains. I understood that I couldn't use it on tokkyuu trains, or limited express trains, but the plain express trains part was news to me. Since I got to the station really early just in case I couldn't find the platform, I immediately sat down after that and re-routed my trip. In the end, I had to bite the bullet and shell out some extra money for a short ride on the express train, which brought me to Fukui, where I waited in the (wonderful, amazing God-sent) heated waiting room to catch my connection. The 6:20 am train took me to Kanazawa, where I connected yet again to Toyama and then connected again to...blah blah. Anyway, in the course of two days, I rode 16 trains to get to Lake Toya.

Fukui's heated waiting room

Yay for fun local trains and scenery and whatnot, right? Sure, except somewhere between day one and day two, I ran out of cash. Ah, Japan, a cash-based society, why? I looked into my wallet, which contained about enough money for the bus fair from the final station to the youth hostel, and figured I should make a stop to the post office, the only place with an ATM that would take my American debit card. Somewhere along the way, I dashed out of the station I was transferring at and headed to the post office, only to find it closed. I tried again at the next station. That post office was closed too. One more time at the next station. Closed. What was going on???

Finally I asked a station attendant why the post offices were closed. Apparently, New Years Day is a much bigger holiday in Japan than I expected, and the post offices all close down not just January 1st, not just January 1st and 2nd, but January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, meaning that I was out of money until January 4th, which would be the day after I arrived at the hostel at Lake Toya. Fantastic. Not only would I have to ask the hostel if I could pay the 2nd day in rather than up-front, I also had not enough money to eat. For an entire day. Thankfully I had packed...a chocolate bar...which was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day.

Between Kanita and Kikonai, the northernmost station of Japan's Honshuu island and the southernmost station of Hokkaido, holders of a seishun 18 kippu can ride the limited express train because no other trains pass through the 30-minute undersea tunnel connecting the two islands. Somehow, however, I was failed to be informed that they can only ride some of the limited express trains, the one I planned on riding not included. That meant I was going to be delayed, and I had no money, so I was unable to pay for an express ticket to cover that distance quickly.

This delay resulted in my reaching Toya station not around 6:40pm, as I had originally intended, but at 9:04 pm, precisely 5 minutes after the last bus left the station. Penguin-ing through the snow to the taxi area, I tapped on the window of the first taxi driver in line and asked how much it would cost to get to my hostel--roughly 3500 yen. GREAT. I didn't have enough money. And it was dark, late, and cold, so I couldn't just walk either. The taxi driver suggested that I call the hostel to ask if I could borrow money for the taxi and then pay them back later, which I did, and thankfully the hostel owner said that was fine. So I hopped in the cab and was driven to the Showa Shinzan Youth Hostel.

I arrived, the owner paid the taxi driver, and the taxi driver left. After that, I stood at the front desk, and the owner stared at me for a while. And then he chewed me out. "This is unacceptable. Do you know what time it is? The check-in period ended 30 minutes ago. Did you read the instructions? Can you read?" To add further insult to injury, he pulled out the hostel manual and switched to English. "You. made. the. reservation. right?," jabbing his finger at the place in the manual that said "Check-in: 3pm - 9pm" with every word. In my state of sleep deprivation, hunger, and coldness, I just started bawling and didn't stop. Eventually the guy grabbed the keys to my room and started walking, so I followed. Per hostel policy, I switched from shoes to slippers and then noticed that all the other slippers were still on the shelf, meaning that I was the only visitor. Greeeaaat. Not only was I staying at a place whose owner probably despised me, I was staying there with no other people around to soften the situation.

We walked past the bathroom, to which the owner crankily muttered "bath," up the stairs, down the hallway, and finally reached my room. The owner opened the door and then walked off, leaving me to finish my sobbing in peace. The only upside to the experience was that since there was no one else at the hostel, they put me in a private, Japanese-style room, rather than in the multi-person dorm room, which I had originally booked, and there was a heater. Oh, the wifi saved me as well. I took a bath, sobbed my story out to my mom via Skype, and then went to sleep, hungry.

Tired as I was, I woke up as early as possible to walk to the nearest post office and finally get some money. It was two miles away. The whole walk there, I worried about what if there was something wrong with my card, what if the post office hadn't actually re-opened yet, etc. However, when I got to the post office, it was open, my card went through, and I finally held in my hands some very precious paper money. I went straight to the nearest convenience store and bought some melon-pan, a fluffy bread thing surrounded in a crunchy bread thing. It was the best piece of bread I'd ever eaten in my life. Happily eating my bread and walking back to the hostel, I finally was able to relax a bit and enjoy the beautiful lakeside plus snow scenery.

snacks for future hunger prevention

I returned to the hostel, properly checked in and paid the hostel owner, and then headed straight to the onsen, (hot spring) and thoroughly bathed and warmed up. It was glorious. My next two days at Lake Toya were relatively smooth and enjoyable. I spent them between the onsen, chatting with my friends in California, and eating miso ramen, which was invented in Hokkaido. On the last day, even, a group of travelers checked in to the hostel and I was comforted by the footsteps and voices in the hallway of people who weren't me.

miso ramen

Here's a pause to praise one of the ramen shops I visited at Lake Toya. I walked in at 11:30 am, and the energetic grandpa-aged man behind the counter of the empty restaurant invited me to take seat. He pulled out the menu, and I ordered miso ramen, of course, but as the menu flashed by, I noticed that the store wasn't actually supposed to open for another half hour. Feeling my stomach grumble, I was happy that the guy let me in anyway. As he was making my ramen, he asked me various questions about where I was from, what I was doing, etc., and I was happy to actually talk to a friendly person for the first time in a long while. After my ramen came out, he asked if I had mochi to celebrate the new year, and I replied no, since I was travelling. He promptly rummaged behind the counters and came out with a piece of mochi for me. While happily chewing on my mochi, I thought, wow, genuinely kind people do actually exist in this world. He plopped down on the other side of the counter from me and started eating his own ramen--I think I came in during the time that he usually eats--and then cut up an apple for dessert, but first shared half of it with me. It came from Aomori, the prefecture right below Hokkaido, which is famous in Japan for its apples, and it was probably the most delicious apple I've had in years. I'm touched that he shared his apple with me since I was there, rather than hoarding the whole thing to himself. As I was leaving, he gave me a piece of caramel candy, explaining that he always makes them for his granddaughter, who's currently in high school. Meeting such a nice person after having such a rough time was probably the highlight of my trip. Being a pun lover, I also loved the name of the ramen shop, Menkoi. Men means noodle in Japanese, and koi means love, but in the northeastern region of Japan, menkoi is the word for kawaii, which in English means cute. Best thing ever. If I ever start up my own cafe, I might have to somehow incorporate noodles into the menu so that I can borrow the name and have an excuse to use it.

Menkoi

Anyway, I left Lake Toya on January 6th and headed to Sapporo for the day. I'm glad I went because Sapporo's an awesome city. I played Blazblue at a local arcade, ate some more ramen, did a bit of sightseeing and then took the night express train (which I paid for) from Sapporo back to Aomori. Normally I would have just meandered back to Kyoto, but since I had to return before Monday and I really wanted to go to Sapporo, I ended up buying the express ticket. And that wasn't a problem because I HAD CASH at that point! Before taking my trip, little did I know that there are two overnight trains that can be used with the seishun 18 kippu, but by the time I found it, it was too late. Since those trains are really popular, the tickets sell out a month in advance, and both the overnight trains are based in Tokyo. It would have been nice to have an excuse to pass through Tokyo, but oh well. After being on my feet for multiple days, I really didn't care.

outside Sapporo station

After transferring at Aomori and then again at Akita, I was comfortable and satisfied with my trip. I was on my way home, and everything was perfect. Oh, but of course, if I ever begin to feel comfortable, something has to go wrong. That must be some deeply engraved law of nature or something. Between Akita and Sakata, my train stopped for a bit due to the snow. The train attendant said it would be a short wait, so I didn't think twice. After half an hour, however, I began worrying about my transfer, but I checked my timetable, and I noticed that I could take the next train, two hours later, and still make it to my planned stopping point. Two more hours passed. And then some more time. By the time the train started moving again, it had been four hours total, and I had missed any semblance of being able to get anywhere on time. Once again, I had a decision to make. I could stop at a station farther away from home, or I could pay a bit for an express train to catch me up. Having already spend more money than I intended to get back in a timely fashion from Sapporo, the first option sounded like a better plan...until I looked at my timetables. If I just went the local train route, I would get back at not at 12:30 pm the next day as I had planned, but somewhere closer to 8 pm. That was too much, especially since I planned on meeting my host family in Osaka for lunch at...12:30. And so, once again, I paid for a short ride on the limited express train to catch me up, and I arrived at my original stopping point only two hours later than I had planned.

I'm actually really glad my train stopped and I arrived two hours late. It turned out that the station I picked, Toyama, which I checked out on my way up to Sapporo, had a heated waiting room, but I failed to notice while scoping it out that the waiting room closed at midnight and didn't open until 4:30 am. Originally I was supposed to arrive at midnight, but since I arrived later, I only had to wait for two and a half hours in the freezing cold, rather than for four and a half hours. Actually, I only waited two hours because the station worker opened up the room half an hour early. But in any case, I was really, really cold. Hopping on the the first train out of that station, at 5:38am, was a great feeling. From that train on, everything went smoothly, and I arrived in Osaka promptly on time.

I saw a lot of this

I had a nice, warm lunch in Osaka, marveled at the lack of snow, went to the bookstore (and even found some study books on the LSATs, for which I've been on the lookout for a while now), passed through Osaka's Koreatown, smelling the familiar and welcome smell of kimchi and kalbi, and then headed home. And I marveled at the lack of snow. And I, once again, marveled at the lack of snow. My trip ended on a good note.

I can't say that I had the time of my life during my trip, or even anything close to that, but I'm definitely glad I went. I learned a lot of things while travelling alone in a foreign country. On the most macro level, I've decided that I want to live in Los Angeles for the rest of my life because it is warm and there are people. I also learned that money is really important, and that while in a foreign country where you don't know the rules of money, always carry enough cash to get you through any emergency situation. Also, read the fine print on things, i.e. train tickets. In any case, my trip to Hokkaido was, at least, a series of very valuable lessons.

Maybe if I have time, I'll write a guide on travelling with the seishun 18 kippu and its caveats for anyone who wants to try something similar. There are a few on the internet, but they're kind of outdated and don't explain everything in detail, so I think that someone, somewhere, may benefit from such a thing. But only if I have time, which is sort of questionable given my life in Japan so far.

Click HERE for a few more/high quality photos of my trip to Hokkaido. They will be completely uploaded by January 15, 2012.

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For photos of my study abroad experience in Japan, check out my Tumblr, which is updated on a much more frequent basis! (Due to not having to write anything.)

transferring over

I've been super busy lately, and I'll write a proper post later to at least somewhat get this thing up to date. In the meantime, I'll just copy-paste (ko-pi-pe in Japanese) a small blog entry I had to write for my Japanese class about my CIP (community involvement project), aka the calligraphy club. It's in Japanese, so anyone who follows this thing that reads Japanese (which would be...no one, I'm guessing?) can read it, but it's probably impossible for anyone else.

私は日本の伝統的なことに興味があるので、日本に来たら、色々なことをしてみたかったが、上手になるように、一つを選んだほうがいいと思った。だから、書道部に決めた。茶道とか剣道も面白そうだが、必要な道具が高くて大きいから、かんたんには出来ないと思った。でも、書道なら、筆しか必要じゃない。そして、どこでもできる。アメリカに帰ってもし続けられる。

日本に来る前から、書道に興味があったが、経験は全然なかった。でも、日本人の学生と交流したかったので、先生から習うのではなく学生の書道部に入った。知らなかったが、実は書道部に先生も来るから、両方が出来ている。まだ下手で、書き方もきたないが、部員と先生のおかげで、だんだん上手になっている。みな親切で、私の質問にはっきり説明をしてくれる。

書展に出品するために、何かを書くつもりだ。漢字を七十ぐらい書かなければならないから、ちょっと忙しくなった。大変かもしれないが、書きながら楽しんでいるから、かまわない。書道部の部屋は静かで、たたみがあって、たたみのいいかおりもして、そこにいれば、落ち着ける。漢字に集中すると、頭がすっきりする。今からもっと練習して、うまくなったらいいと思う。いい趣味をみつけた。

I have to write yet another entry in English later, so I'll post that here as well. It'll probably be much better written too, given how minimal my grasp of the Japanese language is. My fall break starts on Saturday! Yay! I'll have time to actually catch up on things that I've been wanting to do for a while. Such as writing. And tweaking photos. And programming. And doing some self-study. And sight-seeing. And moving around in general.

water spiders that dance in your hands

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Okayama prefecture over the weekend. Everyone in my study abroad program--all forty-one of us--stayed there for two nights and three days. The program split us up into four groups, and my group went to a city called Kasaoka. Probably their most famous landmark is the kabutogani museum. The kabutogani is a fairly rare crab-like thing, and if there are any avid Pokemon fans out there, it's the model for Kabuto. As I learned at the museum, although they're called "kabuto crabs," or horseshoe crabs in English, they're actually much closer to spiders than crabs. They're basically spiders with water armor. They're ADORABLE. Especially the young ones. I think the kabutogani get so much hype because they haven't changed much in a long, long time. As in, they haven't really evolved for the past two-hundred million years. As my handy dandy kabutogani handout explains:

If the history of the world were equated to the span of one year, one day would equal 12,600,000 years, and one second would equal 146 years. By that analogy, the horseshoe crab would have appeared in November. Humans would have arrived on December 31 at 6:17 pm (Kasaoka Horsehoe Crab Museum).

I don't know if that makes their age easier to grasp, but I thought it was a pretty nifty analogy. Anyway, after that group activity, we went to audit a Japanese middle school's club activities, where we were paraded around like...a parade and stared at quite scrupulously. Well, the very American-looking students were, at least. Since I look Asian, and clearly not exotic, the Japanese students didn't even bother asking my name or where I came from. On the one hand, the complete lack of care was a little surprising, but on the other hand, it wasn't surprising at all. I know that made no sense to anyone but me, but that's all that matters. On the bright side, I feel like I can rest assured that I don't stand out as a blaring foreigner when I'm just strolling down the streets of Japan.

After the parade at the middle school, every was split up and scattered throughout the city into various homestays. We spent all of Saturday, as well as Sunday morning, with our Okayama host families. I had a BLAST. My host parents were in their late sixties/early seventies, and they were both of the kind-of-artsy, slightly-kooky breed. They both painted, except in completely polar styles, and they were extremely warm-hearted people. As soon as I met them, they told me to call them Mama and Papa, which in Japanese turned into mama-san and papa-san.

As a very Japanese activity, they took me to make soba. From scratch. I got to mix the water and flour, knead it, roll it out, and then cut it up using a special soba knife and plank thing. It was a great experience. And after working hard to make the noodles, eating them felt just that much better. Although all the KCJS(Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies--I can't remember if I used or defined the acronym already) students were supposed to be scattered around doing independent activities, I actually ended up in the same place as Cecilia, and we made soba together. Yay! Cecilia cut her noodles like a pro, and if all else fails, I think she can move to Japan and open a soba restaurant. On the other hand, mine came out a little chubby, but were tasty nonetheless.

My host mom's hobby was origami, so she taught me all kinds of fun, interactive origami things. Although I've made the standard, follow-the-book origami, I never really made things that were interactive. I learned how to make a cute little caterpillar that inches along if you blow at it through a straw, as well as a really unique paper airplane thing. I also learned how to make sunflowers, which made me very happy because, if I haven't already mentioned it, sunflowers are hands-down my favorite flowers.

My host family's daughter and grandchildren came over, and I folded flowers with the grandkids. They were adorable! The oldest one is fourteen, and she's just starting to study English in school, so we became pen pals, and I'm going to write her a letter soon. I think kids that are eager to learn are just so cute!

On Sunday morning, I went to do shodo. It's amazing how much I luck out with homestays. It turns out that my host mother's younger brother is a shodo teacher. I almost couldn't believe what a coincidence it was. Everyone in Okayama was so generous, to the point where I almost started feeling bad about accepting their gifts, and when they heard that I had a strong interest in shodo, and even joined the shodo club at school, my host family was ecstatic. And then proceeded to grab brushes and give them to me. I lucked out to the max. The younger brother (who's actually probably a dude in his sixties, which doesn't fit the image of "younger brother," but oh well) even carved me a hanko, which is a name stamp, usually, if not always, carved out of stone. If you ever see scrolls from Japan or China, there's usually a red squarish stamp in some bottom corner or side. That's produced with a hanko.

My host family was amazing, and I was sad to leave on Sunday. But since my Kyoto host family is fantastic as well, I at least looked forward to seeing them again. In any case, I have my Okayama host family's address, as well as their daughter's/grandchildrens' address, and I very much intend to write to them. They also invited me to come back and visit any time, which is an offer I just might have to take.