Proverb Comparison

I was looking up Japanese proverbs, when I found this one:

出る杭は打たれる。
Reading: Deru kui wa utareru.
Literally: The stake that sticks up gets hammered down.
Meaning: If you stand out, you will be subject to criticism.


This proverb probably reminded you of one that we have in English that goes:
The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
Meaning: If you speak up, you'll get what you need.


Although the concepts of these proverbs are similar, they have very different connotations! In the Japanese one, if you 'stand out', it's a bad thing (literally 'struck/beaten down). The English one seems to encourage speaking up, and standing out. These are two very different mind sets. Again, the Japanese proverb would make you think being one with the group regardless of your own personal discomfort is best while the English proverb does not.


Just a little thing I noticed today :) What do you think?

Snow 雪

Woke up to quite a few inches of snow on the ground, plus snow falling most of the day!

There was talk of a snow fight after class today...

...it was fun :p

This was the 'ice skating rink' (I use that term loosely here) at Sakae. It was basically plastic :/ I couldn't glide...it made me sad. But at least we got a picture or two out of it. Also they forced us to wear gloves. Very odd.

And here's a random crane game prize from an arcade in Akihabara, Tokyo!

Exploring Yakushima

Hiking...

Snow stuck to the ground the higher up you got on the hiking trails. We had to turn back after a certain point on this one because we were worried about it being too slippery on the way back down.

I can't stress enough how many oranges there were! It seemed like everyone had an orange orchard in their backyards or something on Yakushima.

A small shrine. It didn't seem to be kept up very well, but it was the closest one to our hostel.

The forests here are said to be quite ancient with trees dating back thousands of years.

Flowers

Some flowers of Yakushima (Island south of Kagoshima). It rains frequently on Yakushima. Most of these flower pictures have droplets of water on them from a recent rain. If you know the names of any of these flowers feel free to post! I haven't been able to look them up yet.

It was interesting to see an abundance of Bougainvillea on the island. We had this kind of flower at my house back in California as well.

Sick

I can't believe I got so sick right as the semester is starting. I had to miss class, luckily just 'review' classes but I kinda wanted to go. You know, to review...but I guess I can do it myself over the weekend as well. I'm definitely on the mend though. Instead of going into more detail on that, enjoy some lovely food pictures!

A set of mochi (pounded white rice with sugar). They all had red bean/anko in the middle, but were shaped and colored so nicely. 

A ridiculously tiny orange from Kagoshima. Barely larger than a quarter is round.

Some food at one of the only open restaurants in Yakushima in the evening. As I recall, it wasn't even that late...there just aren't a lot of restaurants or shops in general in the area we were staying at on the island.

Some soba noodles with seaweek on top, edamame, and fried veggies at a little restaurant in Kagoshima. The staff was nice, and actually gave each of us the tiny orange as a parting gift (pictured above)

Fruit plethora on Yakushima. Lots of tropical fruit that would normally be quite expensive in Nagoya was free or next to nothing here.

Animals!

I did about 5 straight hours of Karaoke yesterday, and now my throat is pretty much dead. Although it doesn't just feel like strain from singing (which I don't usually get) it almost feels like a small head cold :/ Hopefully it clears up. Perfect timing though, right before school starts! Anyway my theme for today...well I'm sure you can figure it out.

A particularly friendly preying mantis in Kyoto. We put him back down on the bush, but he kept his arm raised as though he wanted to be held again.

Simone surrounded by cats in a Cat Cafe. You pay a few hundred yen (depending on how long you want to stay), you get a little tea or drink of your choice, and you get to pet and play with cats to your hearts content. Very relaxing actually.

A monkey at the Monkey Park in Kyoto. This one walked right by me...he was only a meter or so away from me when I took this! You can actually feed them, but you have to go inside the building for safety reasons. The monkeys can then reach in through the cage-like windows and grab the food right from your hands! Basically, they reversed the traditional concept...the animals run free, while the humans are in a cage :p

A deer in Yakushima. We saw soooo many deer and monkeys on this trip it was ridiculous. The best times to see them was when you were actually hiking on a trail though. They would get rather close to you!

A large spider in Yakushima. These guys were everywhere, even though it was winter on the island. I guess it was still warm enough there for them to survive. Including its legs, its almost as big as an adult sized hand x_x

Manholes?

"Japanese culture rates aesthetics so highly that beauty can be found around every corner. Even underfoot, the maintenance-hole covers...are cast-iron works of art." A quote from Lonely Planet's Japan travel guide. Here are just 2 that I've seen so far.

This one is outside Sakae, if I remember correctly. Usually the covers have images that represent things from the area.

This one was found in Yakushima. On the left, you see 3 oranges. Oranges grow everywhere on Yakushima, so you'll never go hungry (and never run out of vitamin C either). You can see a mountain and forest motive that the island is famous for.

Colorful sock display.

Masks sold at Kinkakuji temple, Kyoto.

Keychain display in the Pokémon center in Sakae.