Ninja Temple

This weekend I went to the prefecture over to a town called Kanazawa. It is also known as Little Kyoto, as it has many elements that are quite like Kyoto, which is a very traditional-looking city filled with temples and shrines, lots of vegetation, and in general feels like stepping into a long-ago Japan (I'll be visiting Kyoto for a second time in the next coming weeks - and I can't wait!!)

Like Kyoto, there were many exquisite temples - one of them being the famously known "Ninja Temple". It is not so named because ninjas once lived there (unfortunately), but even cooler, a bunch of samurai lived and prayed there and defended their clan Lord long long ago. The temple is appropriately named "Ninja Temple" because it is outfitted with countless traps, hidden exits, concealed staircases, and much more - and it's unfortunate to say that I was unable to take any pictures, as they are forbidden in the temple. 

However, with the magical and wondrous power of the Internet, I can show you all what really went on inside Ninja Temple. If I remember correctly, there are 24 total rooms and 29 staircases within the temple.

The tour began with the offertory box, which is where visitors go to pay (literally, with coin) their respects before worshipping or praying at the shrine. 

The offertory box, however, actually doubles as a pitfall once the top wooden grate is removed - which is precisely what one did in case of an invasion.

The narrow staircase further into the shrine leads to where the Lord would stay - and the stairs could be hoisted up easily to prevent access if necessary.

Pretty cool, I thought - convenient, anyway. Little did I know how many more secrets this temple held.

This is a sliding wall screen that acts as a one-way mirror - you can't see in from this side, but those on the other side can see you, through the wooden paneling.

This looks like a normal floor, nothing to see here. Until you push the door aside...

The door acts as a key - once it is pushed open, you can begin to remove the floorboards...

Which reveals a hidden staircase down below, making for a sweet and stylish escape. Imagine a Lord in danger who needs to stay alive during a clan war - one of his samurai can open up this hidden stairway for him, put the boards back in place, close the door and secure its exit, then go and fight for his leader and defend the temple.

Here's a view looking outside, into the space enclosed by the castle walls, like a mini-courtyard.

If you look closely at the ground, you can see a half-circle - this is a well, which is rumored to lead to Kanazawa Castle. Nobody's checked to be sure, because it's old and that'd be really dangerous, but it would make sense for there to be an escape route to/from the temple that leads to the castle so that an escaped Lord could disappear to deal with business matters without going out in the open - especially in the case of an invasion.

This one is my personal favorite. It looks like a typical door.

The door on the left leads to the outside.

The door on the right, however, reveals a hidden staircase.

When the door from the left is opened, it conceals the right-side. So if an ally were to run into the temple while being pursued, he could come inside from the left, do a u-turn, open the other door and jet up the staircase. Then, when the enemy follows him in, he inadvertently conceals the staircase by opening the door for his unwanted entry. Thus, the ally is safe while the enemy is puzzled as to where he disappeared off to.

Below is another secret pitfall once the boards are removed. 

It also reveals a hidden staircase. The opposite side from which the staircase comes from is near the entrance to the temple - so invading enemies would fall when invading, while the samurai of the temple who knew better could make a quick escape. 

The circle in the wall that shows other parts of the temple beyond it represent the moon with fog coming down in front of it. Meanwhile, the ceiling is designed in such a way that it appears taller than it really is. It was purposely designed low so that enemies could not use their spears or swords here.

Another room, unfortunately not pictured, is one with not one or two, but FIVE different escape exits. It was a room filled with reserved samurai that connected to many different areas of the temple so that in case of trouble, they could separate to the individual areas that needed them most. These exits were concealed by false closets that led to hidden staircases or hallways, a hidden crawl space exit, false walls, and if I remember correctly, false flooring.

Finally, the spookiest room in the temple - the Harakiri room. It has four tatami rooms in it, as in Japanese, the number "four" and "death" are pronounced the same - shi.

Harakiri means "honorable suicide" in Japanese. For example, if the samurai Lord were to die due to inadequate protection, avoid a torturous death from information-seeking enemies, samurai committed a serious offense or brought shame upon themselves, they would be directed to save their honor by committing suicide. This would be done by plunging a short blade into their gut and cutting from left to right, properly disemboweling himself and then, eventually, dying (often being decapitated by an assistant). In this case, however, the suicide was likely a lonely, solitary commitment. For once the door is closed, it cannot be reopened from the inside. 

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with the Ninja Temple - its traps and tricks and hidden staircases were a sight to see, and I'm glad I found pictures online to share with ya'll. I'll definitely be paying a visit to Kanazawa again, but I wanted to blog about this now while the information was fresh.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the Ninja tour!

Update via...VIDEO BLOOOOOOG!!

CLICK HERE To watch Haley's latest VIDEO BLOOOOG   

Note: I refer to my base school as my "middle school." It is actually a junior high school. Thank you for your attention.

Aaaand other things!

I went to a festival called Owara Kaze no Bon and saw some beautiful dancers doing traditional Japanese dance. I went with a woman named Noppi and her awesome family - two girls, a little boy, and then her husband and her mother. We had a great time watching the dances and eating festival food - like ice cream sandwiches (a little different from the American kind; it's like a rice breading around vanilla ice cream) and such. It rained a little bit and we thought we'd have to leave early, but the weather let up enough that everything turned out okay!

A shop window

Dancers in the street, outside a house that had paid them to dance.

Pink girls, blue guys. That hats are traditional to the dance and festival. 

The people who had requested the dancers

Just a pretty Japanese house

Streetlight

Ze Dance

I had also gone to a Kyudo (Japanese archery) competition in the same week, and saw some masters fling some arrows across the court. It was amazing to see them perform, and inspired me to work hard at Kyudo. In fact, I'll be leaving for practice in a few minutes - I go every Monday and Thursday to work on my form. Maybe someday I'll get the chance to shoot an arrow.

Players getting ready to shoot.

The scoreboard - circle means hit, x means miss.

Nice stance

The members board...

See the relatively simple letters amongst all of the complicated chinese characters? ヘイリー　アルト, it says. That says, "Haley Alt." I was recently added to the members board. C: Seriously touched, I've been welcomed into the dojo from the beginning...I won't let you guys down!!

My teacher's amazing stance. He does a lot of competitions, and he's third in the country. IN THE COUNTRY.

Sports Day was a huge event, as I describe in the video above. The art was sublime, and the kids were all jazzed to be there. Because this is the internet I can't put up pictures that reveals anyone's identity, but I'll try to work around that so you can see some awesome Sports Day activities and decorations!

A beautiful morning for Sports Day.

The red phoenix (the kids did all of these posters themselves, I was so impressed. Keep in mind these things are HUGE - at least twelve feet tall and fifteen feet wide)

The turtle-snake

The blue dragon (HOLLAAAA)

The white tiger

The scoreboard, early on

The tents in the distance, where the groups would assemble beneath when they weren't in a race, or relay race, tug of war, dance or other event.

A Japanese drum for the event

Everyone heading off to begin the games 

Teachers in the distance

It was a really great event. In the end, all the teams were given awards. The team that got second oddly received no awards. The girl in charge, a third year, began to cry, and then all of the girls were crying, and it turned into a spectacularly emotional event. Then the lead third-year boy from each team came together and sang (more like screamed, it was great) a song, arms around each other, and the girls came 'round and everyone congratulated one another on their efforts. It was spectacular to see.

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed!

Happy happy day day~!~!

OH HEY GUYS

So I'm a little amped on an interesting combination of beer and coffee and pain killers right now so YEAH HAHAH FUN POST. I AM A RESPONSIBLE ADULT

Okay so. Uhhh where to begin. Right. MY APARTMENT?!

THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE (Note: if you click on a picture, you can browse through them at a larger size)

THAT'S WHERE I SLEEP

(Tired of caps lock now, yes I'm sure you're a little mentally tired of me screaming in your head) It looks like the world is ending outside, but trust me when I say it's not. 

My wall in my living room!! I've got some bird decorations and put up pictures from home of my friends and family!! And also some inspirational quotes <3

Toooo the kitchen!

Ohoh! Here it is

Plenty spacious for one person (not pictured: rice cooker, far left, off screen. DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN MAKE CAKE IN RICE COOKERS??? (Oops not done with caps lock apparently, get too excited about cake) Yeah I mean it's just a little steamer machine but FOOK YEAH CAKE

The entrance, my pink rug and shoes~

Toilet to the left, washroom straight ahead, and shower on the right.

Shower. Nothing to see here, nothing to add. Actually yeah I do, the water kinda sucks, it takes me about five minutes to get it to a good balanced temperature.

That was the grand tour! Now you've basically been inside my apartment. Let us marvel again for a moment at how amazing it is that you can see my apartment from a world away. A WORLD AWAY!

Okay moment's over moving on.

     And today at work I took pictures of my base school! I call it my base school because it's the one I'll report to daily; the junior high school in Tateyama, with over 800 kids!! I'll work there all day Monday, and then every morning Tuesday - Friday. Thursday afternoons I have off, and Tues, Wed, and Fri I'll be reporting to one of the four elementary schools - the schedule shifts every week. I've met all the teachers for each school and they all seem great, and I'm real excited to work alongside them!

     In a week and two days, we'll have Sports Day, an annual holiday/festival for schools all over. The kids spend a little over a week preparing; practicing cheers and dances and flag turning or whatever that's called (color guard?), warming up and training for races and tug of war, the whole shebang. I was planning on participating in some of the events (joke's on the team that would get stuck with me for a relay race) until I done and went effed up my ribcage (I went to the doctor; apparently I bruised/messed up the cartilage that connects my lower ribs together, so in any case it'll hurt for about 3 weeks, hence the pain meds. He also gave me some magic patches that aren't unlike those hot/cold things (icy-hot! I've been trying to remember the name for that for literally 48 hours) but basically sucks the pain out of my abdomen. Total cost to see a doctor, receive a month of pain meds, 21 icy-hots, and 10 bandages; an estimated $30. Yup! National healthcare! This is what you're fighting against, America.) 

Anyway what was I saying before I interrupted myself. Uhhhh oh yes! So I went and effed up my ribcage and it hurts even just walking about so I probably won't be doing any running (Ohhhhhhhhhhh daaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrnnnn) BUT I will be there to cheer everyone on and witness Sports Day for myself so, get pumped for that, because if I'm there, that means YOU'LL be there too! <3 Basically

Moving on! I took pictures of my school today, check 'em out!!

While looking at these, keep in mind that in Japan, there are no janitors!! There is a special time everyday during school hours that the students set aside to get on their hands and knees with towels and cleaning supplies and run down the hallways and classroom floors to mop, while other students tidy up the rooms and just make sure in general that everything is in tip-top shape. They also clean the bathrooms, the cafeteria; everything. In fact, often times kids take turns acting as lunch-ladies and dish out everyone's meals. Is that one of the reasons Japanese kids, and in turn, adults, are so orderly, clean, team-oriented and well-disciplined? Hard to say, but I'd say it's an aspect of the culture worth noting.

Also, every morning in the staff room for about ten minutes, everyone picks up supplies from the cleaning closet and finds something to clean. I, too, partake in this culture, to which I am sure my mom is laughing about riiiiight...now.

The view outside one of the classrooms

And over hereee

And this way agaaaain

Staircase~

Another immaculately clean hallway

Out the window, into the courtyard

Tea ceremony room, probably for club, not sure there's a class about it

The library from above, from a window in the hall

One of the chalkboards of the classroom, the teacher seemed to have drawn some art on the board, including the word "cool/refreshing," as in a way to describe the weather. It has been rather cool lately, it's been a nice break from the usual 95 degree, 70% humidity that is a typical Japanese summer.

I do love the look to this school, it's rather chic 

Saw the Alice in Wonderland staircase and knew this was the place I was meant to work at. Love Alice.

Outside~!

Off the balcony from the teacher's office!

  Finally, some really exciting news from me. So as I damaged my rib area last week on my priceless and incredibly intelligent bike-ride in the dark, I was pretty bummed that I wouldn't be able to do Japanese archery for a while because I read online (and later it was reaffirmed by the doctor) that I would be in pain for about three weeks. But I decided that I wanted to see everyone again and get to know them, because I'm serious about joining Japanese archery, as it's the most bad-ass thing possibly on the planet, possibly ever. 

It all started some years ago, when I was about thirteen - a little before I started learning Japanese (I wanna say I was 14 when that happened - 9th grade...yep 14), and I was reading this manga (Japanese comicbook) called "Alice 19th," where a girl must fight off darkness to save her sister, or some awesome stuff like that. 

In the book, some of the characters were part of an archery club, and I remember seeing the uniforms and the huge bows and thinking, god DAMN that is bad-ass:

Kyo, the main character's crush, doing Kyudo. His form is so-so if you ask me, but...I also know nothing. Yet. ("So beautiful~")

The main character's sister, looking awesome.

The uniform from the back.

Also, I remember several instances of stumbling across these pictures (a quick google search led me back to them), when I would do random quizzes online (anyone remember quizilla? That shit was my life) -

She's the only one in these pictures wearing the actual Japanese archery get-up and doing the proper form.

I mean, those are just freaking gorgeous. It's no wonder I got into anime/manga for a while.

...And these pictures not only became inspirations for me as an aspiring artist at that age, for it was at that time that I started to learn to draw, but it also told me in a very direct way that Japan + archery = beautiful and badass. And so I kind of always had this image in my head of me doing it someday.

I joined archery club at UW Madison my first semester there, and eventually became too busy to justify ever going back - which is unfortunate, because I wasn't too shabby and it's fun as hell, and there's something really satisfying about the way your arm kinda stings from the string snapping against it so many times, and even missing and going out to retrieve your arrows brings about a new hope for the next time you'll shoot them. 

And when I studied abroad in Nagoya, I got the chance to go to a Kyudo (Japanese archery) dojo and try it for myself - I loved the feel of it, but a taste of it only left me wanting to participate even more badly than when I started.

And so, when my supervisor told me last week that I'd be able to go to a Kyudo dojo and try it myself, I freaked out in excitement and we went. When I first arrived, everyone was staring down the field with very serious faces, aiming at the targets; but once they were done they were all really kind and easy to talk with and before I knew it, I had started to make friends. The night was over too soon and I promised everyone I'd be back again.

Well, the next Thursday rolled around and my supervisor took me back to the dojo; for me to find that in the last week, they had prepared an entire uniform for me, to call my own. Which is UNREAL because usually that's something that takes months, as does joining the club - or so someone from the JET program told me. I thanked everyone profusely, and we went about putting it on; only to find that it fit perfectly; the shirt, skirt, belt, and even the socks,  which were 24 inches (about a size 7 and a half). "IT'S FATE!" I declared, to which everyone eagerly and firmly agreed. I got to chat with everyone some more before they had to get down to business and have a meeting; they have a tournament this Saturday that I plan on attending to cheer them on for. 

(I look a bit pained, and that's because the belt and skirt are meant to be extremely tight, and they happened to rest riiiight on my bruised rib, which also made it incredibly hard to breathe. Can't wait to heal up and look like a bad-ass!)

So me and my supervisor peaced out for them to have their meeting, and I left feeling ridiculously happy, extremely lucky, and yet again, very welcome in Japan.