Another blog entry so soon after the last, what IS this world coming to?
Let's start with yesterday's church, which was especially good for a number of reasons. Firstly Mark wasn't there (I kid! It's a joke!). Also the preacher this week, to my utmost surprise, was female. I guess I'd just assumed that with the traditional setting and traditional hymns, Doshisha church's beliefs would be likewise somewhat traditional. But no, nobody seemed to have a problem with the woman, though I still can't remember her name. She gave an interesting sermon on the tenderness of the Holy Spirit, linking Jesus' torment in the desert to her own long-suffering allergies. It was easily understood, too, as she was using more conversational styles of Japanese that I was used to from lecturers. Also met another Christian fan of Gundam, which was simply superb. He likes Zeta and Wing, and was interested in hearing what I had to say about 00. Next week is udon week, so I hope to meet the guy again. Can't remember his name, either.
So today was important for two things. Firstly I was going to get my form (Urgh) handed in that states that I can get back into the country after leaving for Korea in March. Second was dissertational research.
The form in question looked almost identical to one I handed it not too long ago, the form for working part time with a student visa, so I assumed the procedure was the same. Collecting together my passport, alien card, student I.D. and the form itself, I cycled off to uni to hand them all in. I first cottoned on to things not being right when I gave the woman at the desk my form, and she looked at it blankly and asked 'What is this?' You should know, was my desired reply, you gave it to me on Saturday! After handing it round to seemingly everyone in the whole office, it tagged to someone that they don't deal with them, you have to hand them in at the Immigration office yourself.
...
So off I went, map in hand, to find the Osaka General Immigration Office (Kyoto Branch), which was apparently on Marutamachi street, east of the river. No problem, I thought, cycling off to the riverside, extra-specially nice in the spring sun. Did you know there two Marutamachi's, parallel to each other? I guess they wanted to save time in naming the streets so thought 'Hey, it's practically the same road!' So after walking down past the Kyoto City Hospital, which incorporates the Kyoto University Medical School so is massive, I realised my mistake and headed south by one to get to the desired street.
The Immigration Office lies of the fourth floor of a bigger building. Handing over my form to the woman at the desk (who spoke unnaturally quickly), I was told that it would cost 3000 yen to get the thing processed. Not that surprising, I had been told about this before, so I fished into my wallet for the money. But oh no, Japan wouldn't make it so simple for me. On seeing my actions, I was told that I can't actually pay with money.
....
Holding tight to Ticket No. 29, hoping beyond hope that it didn't get called before I got back, I rushed to the thankfully close post office to get a stamp. A stamp!! And with that I could pay the form fee. The people at the stamp shop, by contrast, were very nice, and even gave me some discount vouchers for the duty free shop at Kansai International as thanks for buying their stuff. And when I got back to the office, I found that No. 29 would never be called, because I first had to put the form, stamp attached, into the box at the desk. And they neglected to tell me this... why?! I had to watch someone who knew what they were doing (somehow) do it first before I realised!
So that's that sorted. Now I can leave Japan and still get back in again.
So there's this building called a Daikyoukai (lit. big church) right near the Immigration office. Looks Buddhist, but I really couldn't tell. And there were people living in it. For the life of me I could not fathom such a building's purpose. Was it a themed hotel? I had no idea! I spend ages walking around it out of simple curiosity (and hoping to put off the next task on the list) and could not find out what the people in the building were meant to be doing.
Anyone know what this is? Please, tell me if you do.
Okay, so the big challenge of today. I cycled off to Shimogamo Shrine, the local one, with my new dictaphone, and started asking people what 'Praying' was. I think it went quite well, all things considered, and Shimogamo is a much better place to spend 5 hours standing around than a lot of other places I could mention. I was also blown away by just how nice everyone seemed to be. Well, maybe not everyone, but enough to make it count. The first woman I interviewed, for example, could not have been more helpful, and used lots of lovely keigo for me to analyse when I don't feel so sleepy. There were a lot of similarly kind people around, but I couldn't interview them all. People with cameras, I decided, were out, because they obviously weren't just here to pray. Same went for couples (and why is it that shrines are big date spots, huh? Why aren't cathedrals the same?) as they may have influenced each other's choices (plus I'd feel like a third wheel). So I was targeting the people who went in without any kind of photo-taking device (which made me look like a thief), and anybody who bowed on their way into the shrine complex was a dead cert for interviewing. Oh, and these people were clearly out of the question:
What I found is that people DO use keigo when they talk about Shinto gods, which is helpful, and have some evidence to back that up with. Not enough, though. Not quite. So tomorrow's task will be the same as today's: find a shrine and quiz the occupants. Hopefully now that I've mustered up a bit more courage I can save a bit more time. After that I'll move on to Buddhist temples, and on Sunday do the same at church. The I'll get to writing the thing, which I'm looking less and less forward to. Say what you will, Miriam and Mits, I'm not convinced I can get all 8000 words written on just this topic. But hey, I'll give it my best. Maybe if I quote enough other people it'll rack that word count up.
Until tomorrow, then.
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あぁ、結婚したいわぁ！＜３
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