Late last spring I had a haunting experience at my host family’s house.

I came home late one night after dinner out with some of my friends. As soon as I opened the door to my host family’s apartment, I was hit with the overwhelming smell of rotten meat. The stench caught in the back of my throat and stuck, almost gagging me.

I wandered to the back of the apartment where my host mother was working on the most intimidating fruit I’ve ever seen.

The durian is native to South East Asia. It’s known there as “The King of Fruit,” but it’s actually banned in most public places, especially hotels.

Why, you ask?

Because of delicate tourists such as myself.
I cannot stress enough how much it stinks.

My kind host mother offered me a piece of her precious fruit, brought back to Japan by her daughter who had just returned from sunny Okinawa.

And what do you imagine that I did?

Well, I tasted it, of course. I’m no whimp. And it tasted just like I expected. Like rotten meat. Even thinking of that taste/smell now makes me gag a little.

I spit it out, I couldn’t stand it. But at least my host mother thought it was funny!

But, over the next few days, I realized why this fruit is banned in hotels in Thailand and other countries.

That smell lingers. It suck around for over a week. THAT is why it’s banned in public spances in Asia, hotels have to quarentine a room and air it out for several days using charcoal and air filters.

So, Hold the Durians, please.

I can honestly say that 2010 has been the best year of my life so far. I spent the first six months in overseas- 5 in Japan and 1 in South Korea. When I got home I found myself in a relationship with one of my closest friends. I spent my last semester in college, endeavoring to solve the question of “What’s next?” I started a business. I graduated. Here’s my 2010.

日本-Japan, January – May

韓国-Korea, July

Back in America, July-December

And one of my favorite things from 2010: Kawaii K*tsch!

There is a legend in Japan that if you make “senbazuru,” or 1000 paper cranes, that you will be granted a wish. So, everyday in the hospital Sasaki made cranes so that she could wish to be cured.

Tragically, Sasaki died before she could make all 1000 cranes. But, her school mates all pitched in after her death to complete her work.

Today, at the Hiroshima peace memorial, there is a spot dedicated to Sasaki and all the children lost to the atomic bomb. It’s common to see stands of 1000 cranes all around this memorial site with one common wish: world peace.

Last spring, I put my hands to good work and, with the help of several classmates, was able to hang up my own strand of paper cranes as a gift from the international students of Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. It was one of my proudest moments when I got to show an atomic bomb survivor our handiwork. She was very happy such a gift came from American students.

We watched Takes and The Expendables… Two of the worst movies you could hope for. But it was a lot of fun, we really enjoyed getting outside of Springfield.

Initially, when I had these fresh from a stall next to a grocery store in Hirakata, I didn’t like them at all. I thought the sauce on top was really weird, it tastes like a mix of BBQ sauce and ketchup… But I had it a couple more times and really started to like it. When I got back from Korea and had only a couple days in Osaka, I made sure to hit up an okonomiyaki joint. <3 Tasty.

Tired of making Japanese food, Jake, Hewson and I made some rad fish tacos. Tilapia with lime/avacado sauce. Yum~~

My yummy sushi

Here are some of the crafts we made:

Soot sprites!

Justin's Robot, and my mini-Totoro's and Ponyo. Pikachu is back there, too

]]> http://ramitia.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/818-ghibli-night/feed/ 0 ramitia blog1 blog2 blog3 http://ramitia.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/81010/ http://ramitia.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/81010/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:46:30 +0000 ramitia http://ramitia.wordpress.com/?p=120 ]]> When I visited the Ghibli Museum in Japan, I really wanted to make soot sprites, because they’re so ridiculously cute and the ones to buy at Ghibli were so ridiculously expensive.

From An1mel0vah

For anyone that is unfamilar with either Hayao Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli, I highly suggest you watch one of these:

or

I’m going on a double date Saturday with my awesome friends Aimee and Justin. We’ve decided to watch Miyazaki and do something crafty, I’m super excited.

When I first got here, of course I had a mild case of culture shock. Not anything like I was expecting, but everything was NEW and some of it strange… I noticed all the small things that were different than America and I really noticed all the large things. There was so little space, everything was small, the English is really bad, the Japanese care more about design than actual function, all the Anime, all the Pachinko parlors, all the people dressed up, etc.

But being here for more than just a couple weeks, everything seems normal. Because it IS.

Japan isn’t a novelty…

Whenever I look at YouTube videos made by tourists in Japan, you can really see how disconnected they are from the real culture. (I’m not trying to say I’m in the thick of it–I’m a foreigner. I can’t BE Japanese, even if I lived here for years and years.)

I just feel like to most people, including myself when I first got here, Japan is so completely alien that we tend to forget that it’s… normal.

Hmm. I am wondering if that makes any sense.

This is a movie made for adults and children alike so that they can see the devastation caused by the bomb.

Warning: It’s really graphic and disturbing.