Ise Jingu

Yay!! I got to mark a place of my Japan bucket list for the first time in a long time! My first two years in JET, I was living the life. I didn’t have to pay any taxes in Japan or America, and the exchange rate was in my favor which made loan payments much easier. From my 3^rd year, income and residence taxes began to burden me, and the yen became so weak, that I had to send home almost double the money…aka 1/3 of my paycheck. D: For these reasons, my travel funds have become nonexistent. I’m living from paycheck to paycheck.

However, when my friend told me she was talking a day trip during Golden Week to Ise Jingu (Ise Shrine) in Mie, a place I’ve had on my bucket list since moving to Japan, I felt like I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go with her. I always thought I’d have to go alone. Since Ise is somewhat close and doesn’t require an overnight stay, I just barely fit into my budget.

We woke up early, and met a Tsuruhashi station. From there, we took the Kintetsu line all the way to Mie which took about 1 ½ hours by limited-express train. You can save money by taking a much slower train that takes more like 2 ½ hours. We had three main goals. First, eat all the Ise food, second, see Ise Jingu, the most sacred Shinto shrine in all of Japan, and third, see Meoto Iwa, a famous and scenic spot.

On our way~

I think we made it 5 steps out of the station when I saw a man grilling oysters on the street. Oysters are one of Ise’s specialties. I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was like ¥400 for three oysters, very cheap! The oysters were huge, plump, juicy, and delicious! I was impressed. After eating them together, we took 5 more steps and found a shop selling Ise’s famous rice cake, akafuku mochi. So of course, we went in, sat down, and shared some of the mochi. It was tasty! It was like reverse mochi because the red bean paste was on the outside instead of the inside of the mochi.

Grilled oysters.

We made an agreement to at least see the outer shrine of Ise Jingu before eating more. I’ll get in to more detail later, but Ise Jingu was unlike any other Shrine I’ve ever been to… which I guess was to be expected because it’s famous for its simplicity. Despite it being Golden Week, it surprisingly didn’t seem that crowded to me.

Part of the outer shrine.

Since my friend is awesome, she looked in to money saving details ahead of time. So thanks to her craftiness, we were able to get all-you-can-ride bus passes for ¥1,000. Since we had to ride the bus three times to get around, it saved us some money. After checking out the outer shrine, we took the bus to the inner shrine, but before going in, we popped in to a little café to get Ise’s famous udon noodles. They are special because they are particularly soft with a more flavorful broth. I really enjoyed them! There’s a main street lined with shops that draws a lot of tourists. We started to walk down it but decided to come back to it later after checking out the temple because the street seemed long and daunting.

At the entrance of the inner shrine, I had my first jumping picture taken haha! That was fun. Now about the temple itself… Unfortunately, I was kind of underwhelmed. Maybe confused is a better term. Ise Jingu didn’t really look like what I thought it would. I had seen pictures, but it seemed a lot different. Perhaps this is partly due to it being newly rebuilt. They rebuild it ever twenty years to keep it fresh, and it had just been redone 3 years ago. The wood was pale yellow, not mossy and brown like I had expected. The thing that was most confusing to me was the layout. The inner shrine and outer shrine basically looked the same to me. Maybe to a more trained eye it’s different, but even though I tried to research some of the history and whatnot before going, I just couldn’t grasp what parts were most important.

My first jumping picture.

I’ll try to explain the best I can, but basically, you walk in to the temple grounds under a gate and over the Uji Bridge (which confused me because there is another really important bridge in Uji called the Uji Bridge). Once you get in and walk a bit, you come to a small building that looks like the other small buildings from the outer shrine. Then you walk more and come to another of what looks to be the same thing, but it’s not. Then you walk more, and come upon what is apparently the most sacred and main building, but it looked exactly like the others. Then you end up back at the entrance you came in. When I got back to the entrance, I was confused, and thought to myself, “Wait, did we miss it? Where was the main building?” We figured out that we had already seen it but didn’t realize it as we were seeing it. This is the image I had in mind, but I never saw this angle.

This apparently was the staircase up to the main building.

Like I said, I felt a little underwhelmed, but I will say that the style and architecture of the buildings was unlike any other shrine I’ve seen, and I thought it was really neat, although simplistic. The roofs looked all fluffy, and there were no nails or screws. Everything is made of interlocking wood kind of like Lincoln Logs (for those of you who know what those are).

Fluffy roofs!!

I’ll tell you a couple more things I liked about the shrine. There was this really clear, sparkling river which apparently is considered to be holy, purifying water. Many people touched the water. My friend and I sat by the river and enjoyed the atmosphere. Also, the trees here were incredible. I’ve never seen such huge, thick trees in my life! They were unbelievably wide. The big trees I think are good luck because many people touched them, and the wood was all shiny from being touched so much. I made sure to hug a few trees lol.

Sacred river.

Fat tree. <3

After exploring the inner shrine, we headed back to the street lined with shops. The buildings were all built in the same traditional style, and it was really pretty! Even Family Mart looked like old Japan! We went in and out of little shops in search of more mochi but didn’t find much. Instead, we found THE BEST fried oysters I’ve ever had in my life!! We took a break to sit down, have a couple oysters and some alcohol. During that time, a little boy came up to us and practiced his English greetings on us. He was so cute!

Main shopping street.

Awesome Family Mart!

All the Ise foods: udon, grilled oysters, fried oysters, and
akafuku-mochi.

Once we had our fill of exploring the street (which was pretty crowded), we took the bus to Meoto Iwa. Oh, before that, I was sure to buy some souvenirs for my boyfriend and his family. It’s custom.

We went on Children's Day.

We saw a real tanuki!

...and stray cats. :)

Meoto Iwa, or “the wedded rocks” or “married couple rocks” as they’re called, are two rocks in the ocean that are connected by a one ton rope. These rocks are considered sacred and celebrate marriage. Couples come here to pray for a good marriage or relationship. The big rock represents the male and the smaller one, female. At this shrine, there are also a lot of frog statues. Frog in Japanese is “kaeru” which also means “to go home.” The frogs represent safe travel home. This place was very pretty and my favorite part of Ise. The water was really rough, and waves would crash up on to the walking path and smash against the rocks. It was really exciting. The rocks were beautiful. Be sure to go during high tide.

Meoto Iwa.

Frogs.

My only complaint is that the area this shrine is in is a bit out of the way in a dilapidated area. There was a really small and depressing aquarium that we didn’t go in, but there was an outside exhibit in front with two large seals in it. The exhibit was filthy and tiny for these massive seals. They looked depressed. One was just lying there motionless, and the other was trying to climb out over the wall, screaming. It really hurt to watch and unfortunately left a scar on my image of Ise.

Overall, I’m glad I went to Ise, though. I hadn’t taken any sort of trip in a long long time, and it felt great. I also really enjoyed my friend’s company. There are some places I want to travel to alone, but Ise wasn’t one of them. It was nice to go with my friend. I hope this gives you an idea of what to expect at Ise! I suggest researching before you go to get the best experience.

What you all have been waiting for…White Day!

Sorry I left you guys hanging with my Valentine’s Day post…Will my boyfriend remember White Day this year? What will he do? Should I remind him?

Thanks to your guys’ advice, I decided not to be the conniving girlfriend and reminded him about White Day two days before lol! I said, “Do you remember that White Day is in two days?” to which he replied with a shocked noise, “Ah!” He totally forgot this year as well…men… BUT he promised to do something nice for me this year since it would be two years worth of White Days, and he did not disappoint! Although the celebration didn’t take place until a few weeks after actual White Day, he surprised me by taking me to a nice restaurant. He reserved a private room! It was there that he handed me a bouquet of 14 pink roses, baby’s breath, and daisies. I was so excited because he had never bought me flowers before! So sweet and romantic!

After dinner, he took me to the bar where we had our first real date. It’s super nice, and it had been quite a while since we had been there together. It was the perfect setting. We went back to our town around 11pm, and stopped by the bar we met at to end the night.

Actually, it didn’t end there, he stayed the night, and when we woke up the next day, we went to a café nearby that we’ve been wanting to go to for several months. It was such a pleasant, relaxing morning, and a perfect White Day celebration. J

Sakura Date

Hanami season has come and gone. This year I was able to go to three different hanami parties! They were all super fun! Good food, good drinks, good company, and good atmosphere.

I don’t think I wrote about my hanami date with my boyfriend last year, so I’ll write about it this year! Last year we went to the Japan Mint Bureau at night to see the illuminated sakura, so this year we thought we’d go on a day date.

Although I have been there before during hanami season, I think one of the most beautiful places to see sakura is The Path of Philosophy in Kyoto. I wanted to take Shinya there. So, on a perfect Wednesday during my spring break, we went. He’s usually off on Wednesdays, so it worked out. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! Not too hot, not too cold, and the sky was clear as could be!

We arrived at Keage station and from there, made our way to the path. Since this area is pretty rural, it felt super refreshing. It was quiet, and we could hear the birds chirping and the water trickle in the canal. The sun was shining, there was a cool breeze, and the air smelled and felt fresh. I felt so light-spirited.

To be honest, we were a little early to see the sakura in full bloom. Some trees were fully bloomed, but others weren’t. I thought it was beautiful nonetheless. The plus side of it being early was that there weren’t many people. Last time I went during hanami season, it was so busy I could hardly walk!

Full bloom.

We made our way up the path stopping by a couple temples. We also took breaks to sit and take in the atmosphere, eat some street food, and watch the stray cats. The finale was Ginkakuji aka The Silver Pavilion, which is a famous temple in Kyoto and contrary to the name, not silver at all lol.

Stray cats.

Potatornado!

Ginkakuji.

After spending a couple hours exploring the path and temples, we went to an izakaya for dinner and ended the night with a couple drinks and Yu Yu Hakusho at home. It was such a wonderful day!

Double Stephanies!!

Since moving to Japan, I’ve had five different people come visit me from America. My first four visitors all came within my first year and a half of living in Japan. It wasn’t until recently the fifth person came to visit towards the end of my four year. If you do the math, you’ll realize that it had been well over two years since I had a visitor! The amount of things, places, and people I know in Japan have increased exponentially…not to mention my Japanese ability! I was soooo excited to finally have a visitor again who I could really show my Japanese life to even better than before.

The person who came to visit me is my high school friend and neighbor, also named Stephanie! She had always wanted to come visit me in Japan, but since she was in flight school, she couldn’t spare the time or money. A couple years later, she is now a pilot, and thanks to that, she could fly over to visit me almost for free (she still had to pay for her connecting flights from Seoul to Osaka and from Osaka to Tokyo on the way home). The timing finally worked out!

Double Stephanies!

Actually, it was a very short trip because she couldn’t get all the time she wanted off of work, but still, it was a great mini trip! So let me tell you what we did!!

She got here on March 22^nd at night. I met her at Kansai International Airport, and we rode the train back to my town together. I learned something new, actually. Before, I always told whoever visited me to prepare their Japanese money in advance. Credit cards are hardly used in this country, so you must have cash. Of course, it is still a good idea to prepare your cash in advance to give yourself peace of mind, but I found out through Stephanie that for a smaller fee than what you’d usually pay at a bank, you can withdraw yen from 7 & I Holdings ATM’s with your American credit card. It might be the cheapest way to convert your money, and there is one of those ATM’s in the airport. I’m not sure I it works for 24-7, though, so be careful.

Once we got to my town, we stopped at a Family Mart (convenience store) to get whatever snacks and drinks Stephanie wanted in the house while she was here. Living in Japan for as long as I have, I have become quite used to everything here. I am no longer surprised my most daily things. Of course, when I first got here, I would spend a half hour in the convenience stores looking at all the different things for sale. It was so interesting! Watching Stephanie look at all the different foods and asking me what things were really made me feel nostalgic about when I first came here. In fact, one of the most fun parts about Stephanie visiting me was seeing her reaction to everything and remembering how I once felt that way.

It was pretty late when we got back to my place, so after chatting and snacking a little bit, we went to bed. Actually I had to work till about 11am the next day. It was my last day of work before Spring break started. I figured after Stephanie long trip here, she’d need time to recover and sleep in anyway.

When I got back from work, Stephanie was in a dead sleep haha! I eventually woke her up, and we went downtown to Shinsaibashi/Namba. First we got lunch at an okonomiyaki place. Stephanie can’t eat fish, so I think the fishy flavor of the okonomiyaki was a little too much, but she loved the yakisoba! We made sure to get pictures with the Glico Man, one of Osaka’s famous landmarks. There was a little shrine nearby, so I thought I’d she enjoy seeing that too before we started shopping.

Glico Man selfie.

Yakisoba.

Splashing water on the shrine.

We went in several stores, played in game centers, and did purikura before heading to a cat café. It was actually my first time to go to a cat café in Osaka, so I was pretty excited! There were lots of cute kitties. :3 Before heading to dinner, I made sure to show Stephanie the Glico Man lit up at night and also gave her a brief love hotel tour haha! Something she pointed out was that it’s amazing how the Japanese make use of every available space. One small building will have like 20 different stores or an unmarked staircase down to a basement can lead to a nice restaurant. Very true!

Purikura #1.

Purikura #2.

Cat cafe.

Cat cafe.

Cat cafe.

Cat cafe.

Doutonbori at night.

Due to jetlag, Stephanie’s appetite was pretty messed up, so she wouldn’t get very hungry in the evening, and at about 6 or 7pm, she’d crash of exhaustion. So we made dinner a quick event. There’s a standing sushi place in Kyobashi that has become my favorite sushi place because it’s high quality, fresh, delicious and very cheap! They bring the sushi out to you as soon as you order it, so we were able to get in, have a few pieces, and get out quickly, so we could go home and sleep. Stephanie said it was the best sushi she’s ever had in her life! Like I said, she doesn’t eat fish, but she loves shrimp and some other shellfish, so she could eat that. I also introduced her to chu-hi (like alcoholic flavored soda) that night which she enjoyed.­ ­

Best sushi everrrrr.

The next day, we slept in, hit up the dollar store in my town so she could by some more souvenirs, and grabbed a snack of takoyaki and taiyaki before we headed in to town to eat lunch. Again, the takoyaki was a little iffy for her, but the taiyaki ended up being her favorite food in Japan which took me by surprise haha! For those who don’t know, taikyaki is like a pancake shaped like a fish that’s filled with usually bean paste or custard. Stephanie loved the custard ones. For lunch, I took her to my favorite place to eat in all of Japan. Kushikatsu Doteyaki in Kyobashi.  I have a whole post about this place. Not exactly the healthiest lunch, but we both enjoyed our delicious lunch of kushikatsu and deep fried gyoza (potstickers).

Kushikatsu.

Our next stop after lunch was Osaka Castle. There was some huge concert going on at Osaka-jo Hall, so it was really hard to get around the crowds, but eventually we got to the castle, took a few pictures, and then headed to a game center again to take more purikura and play games haha! We also bought sweaters in a store. She got one with a panda on it that says, “pandaaaaa” in Japanese, and I got one with sushi on it that say, “osushi” in English. So cute!

Osaka Castle.

In the evening, I had an English conversation class to teach, so after resting at home for a couple hours, we headed to the class. I made her participate in the lesson, and I think she had a good time. I know my students were excited to have her there. After the lesson, I took her to kaitenzushi (rotating conveyor belt sushi) since I knew she’d get a kick out of it, and believe me, she did! Even though she wasn’t that hungry, she was having so much fun ordering the food and having it come out on a little train, that she actually ate a good amount.

Here comes the train!

She was starting to hit the jetlag wall after dinner, but I wanted her to meet my boyfriend once, so we met him at my favorite bar nearby for one drink. It was short, but I’m so happy I could introduce him! I figured I give her some peaceful resting time alone. So I walked her home, and went back to the bar for one more drink (ok two) with my bf before calling it a night.

Her last full day, we made a trip to Kyoto. Stephanie’s favorite animal is monkeys, so I wanted to make sure she could see wild monkeys! I took her to Arashiyama. We got a lunch of tendon (tempura on rice) and noodles before climbing the mountain up to the monkeys! She was so excited to see them! We went into the hut to feed them, and even though it was like my fifth time to feed the monkeys, I had something happen to me that’s never happened before! There was an old grouchy monkey that Stephanie was feeding apples to. I went to feed it a peanut which I guess didn’t want because it got pissed and grabbed and pulled on my finger, knocked the peanut out of my hand, and screamed at me. LOL! We got a slow motion video of it. It was…interesting, to say the least.

Tendon and udon.

Bitch monkey.

Pretty monkey.

Our feet were tired after the climb, and we still had a lot of walking left to do. I wanted to take her to the bamboo forest in Arashiyama next, but on our way we saw the rickshaws, and even though it was expensive, Stephanie decided it’d be worth the price since our feet were hurting, so I got to ride a rickshaw for the very first time, and it was so much fun! It took us right through the forest! That was probably my favorite part of the trip!

Rickshaw!

So much fun!

Bamboo forest.

The final stop was Kiyomuzu Temple (after getting more taiyaki haha). Stephanie had two requests when she came to Japan. 1) She wanted to eat sushi and 2) She wanted to see a temple. I figured Kiyomizu Temple would be a good one to show her. After enduring the Kyoto busses on the way there, we made it up to the Temple. It was super cold that day! We were both exhausted, but I think Stephanie was impressed by the temple. After appreciating it, taking pictures, and stopping by some souvenir shops, we made the long journey home. This time we skipped the bus back to Kyoto Station and took a taxi. I felt rich haha! We were too exhausted to get dinner that night, so I just ate some mac & cheese that Stephanie had brought me, and she went straight to bed.

Kiyomizu Temple.

The next day, the 26^th, we got up, went to the dollar store one last time, and stopped by the convenience store to get snacks for the train ride to the airport. Stephanie’s favorite convenience store items ended up being these little maple pancake things and bubble tea. It was sad for me when she left, but I was so happy she came and visited me.

In my sadness, I decided to do some day drinking in Kyobashi to lift my spirits while I waited for my boyfriend to get off of work. Lol! I started drinking about 1pm, and it definitely took my mind off the sadness of Stephanie leaving. I thought my boyfriend would get off around 3 or 4 at the latest, but he ended up working really late until 6, so needless to say, I got blasted haha…thanks to the old man at the standing bar who kept paying for my drinks. :P

Since Stephanie can come to Japan for cheap, I hope that she gets another chance to visit some time! I still have many other places I want to show her!  It warmed my heart when she told me that this was the best trip she’s ever taken. She’s even been to Europe and stuff! Her reason was that Japan is so different from America whereas the European countries she went to weren’t. It really felt like a different world. Also, she appreciated Japan’s cleanliness. I’m so happy I had the chance to show her my second home. Come again any time, Stephanie!

My First Cosplay

Last Sunday was the annual cosplay (costume play) festival in Nipponbashi. Perhaps some of you read my post about going for the first time last year and how awesome and exciting it was! After going last year, I decided I wanted to actually participate by dressing up this year instead of just going to look. So, I started preparing my costume slowly throughout the year.

Festival Advertisement.

My favorite anime is Death Note, and although I find Misa Amane to be a bit annoying as a character, I really love her look which is like cute-gothic. I figured it would look cool and be rather easy to pull off. I’m not at all knowledgeable enough or equipped to make my own costume from scratch, so I figured that gothic clothing could be easily bought.

Me is Misa Amane form.

Actually, I got my main items on Amazon: the Death Note notebook (¥1,040), the dress & socks (¥6,350), the wig (¥1,980), and the chocker (¥899). I included the fees and shipping in all the prices listed. The dress was originally ¥5,500, but it was shipped all the way from China. The gloves were from Daiso (¥200). Some of the accessories I bought at the mall (～¥2,000), but some I already had. My tights and boots were also things I already had. So all in all, I’d say I spent around ¥12,500 or $111. Not bad considering I bought these items over the course of a year! I know some people must have spent hundreds of dollars on their costumes. I plan on wearing my costume again this Halloween to get my use and money out of it.

Full costume.

So let me tell you about the day! I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to prepare. I did everything from trimming my eyebrows, to shaving, to painting my nails, etc. I met my boyfriend at 11:30 to head downtown. I stopped at my local bar on the way to the station, though, to show my friends who were there. They are all middle-aged and don’t go downtown, so for them it was exciting to see me all dressed up, and they took a picture with me haha!

I was pretty embarrassed to ride the train dressed like an anime character, but I’m used to getting stared at for being white anyway, so I just accepted it. We got downtown around 12:30, and the weather was perfect! I ran into my friend right away which was fortunate because there were so many people! We got to take a picture together and then went our separate ways.

After that, my boyfriend and I walked among the crowds looking at all the different cosplayers. I got pictures of and with some of my favorites. It was really exciting for me when I found other Death Note characters, especially, Ryuk, a god of death from Death Note because he looked so awesome! When I asked to take a picture with him, many other people got excited to see us standing together and started taking our picture.

Me and Ryuk!

Me with L, another Death Note character.

Last year I got super excited when I saw Inuyasha, the main character of my childhood favorite anime, but this time I got even more excited to see my favorite Inuyasha character and junior high school crush, Sesshomaru!

Sesshomaru!!!!!

There were a couple Inuyashas this year, too.

It was a really fun experience to do cosplay. It does take a lot of work and planning, so it’s not something I want to do every year, but I DO definitely want to do it again sometime. Going to see the festival and actually participating in it is a different experience. It feels really cool to take on a different persona and be someone else for a day. 

Attack on Titan.

Spirited Away.

Pokemon.

Zelda.

K-pop Club Night… on a Tuesday.

Here’s a pro tip to all the dudes looking to pick up chicks at a club: Go to K-pop night. Lol. A club in Minami called Onzieme (it’s on the top floor of the OPA building), is closing down soon. Actually it may already be closed. I’m not sure. In any case, I only had been there a couple times, but since it is/was closing, I decided to attend one of their last big events, K-pop night. My friend who also enjoys K-pop invited me. I have never been to a K-pop club event before, so I was pretty excited.

The event took place on a Tuesday…not exactly convenient, but whatever. YOLO right? ^^; Luckily it worked out that I had no class the next day, so I just took work off anyway. So basically it was like a weekend night for me. You would think that dance clubs are dead on Tuesdays…WRONG! Actually I have been to clubs on a Tuesday before, and they have been dead, but this time was different. Why? Because it was K-pop night!

K-pop is super popular in Japan and is gaining popularity around the world. Before going to the club (the event started at 8pm), my friend and I got burritos and drinks. We didn’t want to get there too early. I think we ended up getting there around 9:30 or 10:00. I don’t remember exactly…it was after margaritas and long islands. BUT HOLY CRAP, it was PACKED when we got there! Like 1 am on a Saturday night! All the lockers where in use, so we had to hold our bags. As I said, K-pop is popular which contributed to the amount of people that were there. There’s that and also the fact that Onzieme is/was closing. Lastly women could enter completely free, and college students were on spring vacation. I believe these are the reasons it was so busy.

Freakin' delicious frozen margaritas!

Yayyy burrito!

The part that was the most shocking though, something I’ve never seen, was that it was about 80% women!! I’ve never seen so many women in a club before! That’s why I said that if you are a dude looking to pick up a girl at a club, they are all at K-pop night haha! It was a refreshing change! I didn’t feel nervous or uncomfortable like I usually do at clubs. I wasn’t afraid anyone was gona touch me. Instead, I just had an awesome time dancing with my friend, stopping to get a drink every now and then.

Yay for K-pop girl night!

The first half of the time we were there, they played a bunch of songs we didn’t know. My friend and I are pretty main stream when it comes to K-pop and like artists like Big Bang and CL. However, they played one song I thought was really cool, and now I can’t stop listening to. It’s called “Trespass,” by Monsta X.

Another cool thing about the event was the dancers. There were a few people there who knew all the dance moves to all the songs playing and would get up on stage and perform the whole dance! I wish I could dance like that. It was impressive.

Dancers Dancing to PSY.

The second half of the time they played a lot of songs we knew which really got us pumped up! It was so fun to just have girl time. I’ve been a hard club-goer since coming to Japan, but in the past several months or so, I feel like I’m starting to wind down. I used to just blow it off when guys grabbed me in clubs or hit on me, but now, it has really started to upset me. Also, since the time my wallet was stolen at a club, I have been more on edge when I go. So ya, it was nice to just have a fun, care-free time. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for another K-pop event!

Rockin' out to "Bang Bang Bang" by Big Bang.

Acupuncture?

So I’m not the most spiritual person out there, and I don’t like to believe in things that don’t have hard evidence or science behind it, so when my doctor suggested I try acupuncture, I blew him off at first.

The Wikipedia definition says, “Acupuncture is a form of alternate medicine and a key component of traditional Chinese medicine involving thin needles inserted into the body at acupuncture points.” The Chinese believe that acupuncture balances the flow of life energy in the body… It is said to have several benefits such as improving blood flow and relieving pain and stress. Western scientists seem to scoff at it.

In America, acupuncture is seen as like a spa treatment that rich and famous people do. However, in Japan, it is a common medical procedure that people think nothing special of, like taking an aspirin when you have a headache.

I’ve been going to a clinic once a week for several months now (Japanese healthcare makes it dirt cheap) for my chronic back and shoulder pain. I’ve had pain since high school or earlier. Now that I can finally afford it, I thought I might as well take advantage of the services here! My weekly routine involves electrical stimulation (which I’m very familiar with due to my experience working as a physical therapy technician for a little bit in America) and a massage from a licensed therapist. These are things I understand and trust. Not only has it helped with my back pain but with stress relief as well. I look forward to my massage (which lasts about 10 or 15 minutes) each week.

However, these things don’t completely relieve the pain. A week of strain on my back from work, exercise, and such, often brings be back to where I started. Not always, but often. There are good weeks and bad weeks. My treatments seem to just give me temporary relief. I didn’t think that acupuncture would help, but when I started to have trouble sleeping from anxiety and stress, my coworker and doctor suggested that I try acupuncture. My doctor had been saying from the start that I should try it for my back, but when my coworker recently said he thought it’d help relieve my stress so I can sleep, I figured, “What the heck, it’s worth a try, and it’s cheap enough.”

So this is what the treatment consisted of. First, the woman doctor made me take off my over shirt (I had a tank top on) so she had access to my back. First she felt around with her hand for the strained muscles. It’s amazing how she pinpointed them with her fingers. She would push on a small spot and say, “Wow, you’re really stiff here.” Damn, I could feel it when she pressed. After sanitizing my skin with alcohol wipes, she started to put in the needles on different spots on my neck and upper back. It didn’t hurt too much. It was actually more like an ache that a stabbing feeling. I wouldn’t consider the experience to be pleasant, though. It’s not like it felt good, and I didn’t feel particularly relaxed, but then again, maybe it’ll take me a few times to get used to and embrace the experience.

Acupuncture.

Another thing that often accompanies acupuncture is “moxibustion,” which is another Chinese technique where the doctor burns moxa (aka a dried herb called mugwort) on you. It smells kind of like incense, and the little cones of it that they put on you (in my case my lower back), get pretty hot…almost uncomfortably hot. From what I read briefly, it’s a type of heat therapy. It Japanese, moxibustion is “お灸 (okyuu).” The process of having both acupuncture and moxibustion done together is “鍼灸 (shinkyuu).”

Acupuncture and Moxibustion.

After the process, which took maybe about 20 minutes, I stood up and felt really dizzy and lightheaded which surprised me. I thought perhaps it was because I had my forehead resting on a somewhat stiff foam pillow which cut off circulation to my head or something… but when I asked if it was normal to feel this way, the doctor said yes. She also said I may experiences some hot flashes from increased blood flow, but that never happened.

So the real test was when I tried to sleep (mind you it had been a few days since I had a good night’s sleep). When I got into bed I fell asleep instantly. When I woke up the next morning, I was shocked. My back also felt great; however it usually does anyway after just the massage and electrical stimulation. Me being the skeptic I am, I attributed the good night sleep to just being exhausted from not sleeping much.

Now, I am writing this post more than two weeks after getting acupuncture done, and I am happy to say that I have slept very peacefully every single night since! Was it the acupuncture? Is it a placebo effect? I have no idea. My back is hurting a bit now, but I have to say that it felt great for an entire week and a half after the acupuncture, which is longer than usual. I’m still skeptical of it all but admittedly intrigued. If I start having trouble sleeping again or my back gets really bad, I plan on trying acupuncture again. If it works a second time, then perhaps I’ll become a believer. Until then, maybe give it a try!