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| From Japan: Day 006 |
Ok... I know I said tomorrow... as in... um... Wednesday... right...
Anyway, not much to say about today. My bags arrived in the morning and I spent pretty much most of the day unpacking everything and figuring out where to put stuff. I then spent a good amount of time figuring out where exactly I was located (hadn't really spent any time looking at maps until today). Found a website that translates google maps addresses to English to find places easier. I'm HERE. I also spent a little time taking some pictures of my new home. I live upstairs while my host parents live downstairs. I took a coupe of pictures of the room to the left of the room across from mine which is kinda a storage room (my large suitcases are stored there right now) and also has a display of the gifts they have received from other students they have hosted. My host mom took a couple pictures of me outside. She feeds me a LOT of food... good food... mmm... food... I'll probably mention this again: the food here is amazing, so many different things to eat... especially the breads... cream filled bread, jam filled bread, sweet breads... Ok enough about food. I was able to figure out where I was supposed to go to get to Doshisha tomorrow, but I decided to go to bed early so I could get up early to make sure I got to school on time.
Monday:
Sorry, no pictures today. I decided I didn't want to waste time carrying around my camera on the first day of classes since I knew I would have plenty of time to take pictures later (made a few mental notes of places to take pictures though...), plus it's supposed to rain. I got up at about 6:15am and was ready by 7:15. My host mom made me breakfast (mmm... bread...) and I left at 8 (my host mom wanted to walk me to the station but I told her I knew how to get there). Didn't really run into any problems getting to school. It takes me about 10-15min to walk to the train, about a 10min train ride (which can be literally crammed with people) from Katsura station to Karasuma station, I then just walk upstairs and down some stairs right next to where I get off and then I take the Subway there for another 10min from Shijo station to Imadegawa station where I just go upstairs, walk down the street less than a block, and I'm at Doshisha. It did take me a little bit to figure out which platform/direction to take, but I still got to Doshisha with plenty of time before my class (I thought it started at 9am, but it actually starts at 10:45am on Mondays). My class on Mondays is just Japanese. It's tougher though. We will have a quiz every day as well as listening homework, a journal (in Japanese), and workbook homework. We had a quick meeting at 12:15 and then had lunch (mmm... did I mention that they have peach juice and ice cream in vending machines next to the dining area?). I then spent some time talking with people and getting a little work done in the small Stanford center library we all "study" in. I then had to leave at 3:00 to go with a couple of people led by a couple Japanese student volunteers to get our alien registration filled out (something we are required to have done). They take us in small groups that are divided up by where we live and the closest registration office for the group. That took about two hours and then we went home (we'll have to return again in a couple of weeks to pick it up). I was back home before 6 so I could eat together with my host parents at 6. I then spent the rest of the night working on homework. Bah... more rain tomorrow...
Tuesday:
More rain today... nothing exciting to talk about. I had both Japanese (at 9am) and my other class, "Scenes in and Around the Capital" (at 3pm), today. More work to do. The "Scenes" class is kinda boring... just spend time writing down as much as I can of what the professor says. Plus the class is pretty large (almost everyone is taking it). We have to draw a map of Japan for Thursday. Also, my computer decided that it didn't want to turn on if I took it to school, so I decided that I'm just going to leave it at home (don't exactly want to carry it anyway).
Wednesday:
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| From Japan: Day 009 |
This little shrine is just down the street, I pass by it every day. You can find these EVERYWHERE in Kyoto. No rain today so I took some pictures (plus I have no classes on Wednesdays... hehe...). In keeping with my schedule I still got up at 6:15, ate breakfast at 7:15, and left at 8... even though I didn't need to. I took some pictures of the buildings/homes I pass every day. As you can tell, I also cross the railway tracks. Some interesting things: there is a parking area that uses some kind of contraption to allow cars to be parked on three levels, one right over the other... I still have no idea how it works... (I took a picture of it). I also took a couple of pictures of the small library we all hang out in, a pond with fish in it right outside the building in Doshisha right across from the building our classes our in, as well as a neat subway train that sometimes shows up when going home (each car alternates colors/locations, I only had time to take the picture of the one, I'll try to get the other later), and a housing map close to where I live.
Thursday:
No pictures again today... more rain... both classes today, Japanese at 9am, Scenes at 1:15pm. Doesn't help that my umbrella leaks...
Friday:
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| From Japan: Day 011 |
LOTS of pictures today (almost 350), hooray for trips! I still had Japanese in the morning, but after that it was our first trip. Unfortunately part of the trip got canceled (we were supposed to take a raft/boat trip down a river, but the rain we have had caused the water level to be too high to travel down), so we only got to do the first part (the river ride will be rescheduled). I want to write a lot about today, but I just don't have the time (I'll let the pictures do most of the talking). We took a "Sagano Romantic Train" that followed a river with lots of great views. We then got off and took a regular train to Arashiyama (somewhere to the southwest? of Kyoto). We then walked down the the river and took some pictures at the bridge there. After that we split up and I went with about 6 other people and walked through the bamboo forest (not actually through it itself, but along a paved road). Did a lot of walking and went to a temple on top of a hill. Then tried to get to another one (unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there). Did more walking, found a little park, walked down to the river, then decided to find a place to eat nearby for dinner. Other groups went to eat at a tabehodai/nomihodai (all you can eat/all you can drink alcohol for $30 per person for 1.5hr). We decided to have okonomiyaki (mmm...). Saw a random black cat at the train station (didn't seem to care about us). Went back to Kyoto to try to find the people who went to the tabehodai/nomihodai and were apparently now bowling... took us a while but we eventually met up with them (after some of our group left). The bowling place was in a 7? story building where each floor had some entertainment thing (claw machines/picture booths/etc., electronic horse racing/bingo/etc., video games, and the top 3-4 floors were all bowling lanes. We didn't stay long since it was already kinda late.
Saturday:
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| From Japan: Day 012 |
I just had to take a picture of this one. I pass by a KFC (not this one) every day at the train station going to/from school and I wanted to take a picture of Colonel Sanders (all KFCs here have one), but this one was definitely special. Saturday I slept in until 9, had breakfast at 10, and decided to take a walk around Shijo and the main shopping area in Kyoto. There are SOOOOOOOOO many shops here, it's crazy. I spent about 4 hours just walking around the whole area. I started on the outside (found the entertainment place we went to last night), went around the whole area (it's pretty big), then just walked down streets inside. Got some interesting pictures of some of the shops, found a movie theater, as well as some amusing shirts. I also found it interesting that you will find random shrines in between shops (imagine walking through a mall and there is a shrine squeezed between the stores). I'll probably do this again sometime and take more pictures, which can be hard to do when it's busy (think walking through a mall during the holiday rush...).
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1 comment:
hee hee yay! i love your blog ;) probly not as much as mom does but its super cool :) miss you bub!
~sis
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