Montage! (Part 2)

Today's Japanese Word of the Day:
ぼふうう
Bohuuu
(Noun: Storm)

Yes, there are seriously three "u"'s at the end of that word.

Okay, I promised a second montage, right? Well, here it is!

On our way back from curry, we stopped by this place for pictures. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a shrine or a temple or something in between, but it was still very cool. Jackson (who knows more about Buddhism and Shinto than Jake and I do) confirmed that this guy is in fact a Buddha. There's another similar statue on the other side of the gate.

This is as far in as we went. We didn't feel comfortable walking all the way into the middle. Plus, I've got enough pictures of shrines and temples on my blog, that I don't really think we need too many more. Suffice it to say, this place exists, it is cool, and it is on the walk between Fujidera and the dorms.

The main attraction of this short montage post is the storm.

We were told this morning by those who watch the weather that we had a 70% chance of rain. Some people brought umbrellas. It turned out to be a pretty nice day. Good temperatures, not too bright and not too gray, just nice. Classes ended, we ate lunch at iTalk, it was a pretty typical day. I went back to the dorm pretty early to get some practice time for this singing thing we're doing that you'll hear all about tomorrow or the next day.

We had an official practice early this evening, so when it came close to time, I packed up and left. It was still pretty nice, there was some blue in the sky, I didn't think about bringing an umbrella. About five minutes after I reached iTalk to meet the rest of the practice group, this happened.

Look at that, it's got sound! I didn't know my camera could record sound! Apparently, it just lacks speakers, is all.

Anyway, I'm not too good at taking video, but you can see in some of the shots just how hard it's raining. Pay attention to the movements of the water on the ground.

In case the video doesn't work (this is my first time uploading video), here's a picture of the scene. It doesn't quite capture the same awe as the video might (if it's good enough quality), but nonetheless, here it is.

Note all of the blur back there. That is not THE blur, nor is it fog. That is rain.

Most of the way to from iTalk to the music building where we practice is covered, conveniently enough, by most of a building. However, there is still about ten seconds of the walk that you have to take out in the open, no matter what. Now as I have said, I didn't have an umbrella. Instead, I kind of ducked my head and ran for those ten seconds. This is what I looked like upon reaching the music building.

Soaked. And also, as you can see, very, very excited. That was one of the most awesome ten seconds of my life.

In those ten seconds, one umbrella completely blew out, one got somewhat bent, and another one snapped and cut into someone's finger. That's how fabulous this rainstorm was. Made me glad I didn't have my faithful umbrella with me, actually.

Note two miscellaneous things in this picture: my necklace, which I love and which I bought at Claire's in Fujidera (yes, there are Claire's stores in Japan; the Japanese students didn't even know they were from the US until we all recognized it); and also the decorated tree back there. I'm not quite sure what they're all about, but there are two of them at iTalk. I think it might have to do with the time of the year. A bunch of people made a bunch of origami creations or just simple tags with wishes written on them, and then hung them up on these branches. Maybe I should ask someone what they're all about (duh, Amanda).

About ten minutes later, we got word that the rain had stopped.

~Amanda