Blogs from Kyoto, Japan, Asia - page 85

Written Thursday Night ----------------------------- Well, it's been a week now. I'm slowly adapting to this place, but I'm unbelievably busy right now. So far I've spent the majority of each day trying to work out the logistics of living here - buying a cell phone, buying an electronic dictionary (now I can read anything, given enough time!), managing the busy routes (still haven't done this one well ... it takes me almost two and a half hours to get home every day. I've gotten my morning commute time down to a little over an hour, though). I'm hemorrhaging money unbelievably fast. The bus fares alone put me back about $10 every day. I have to pay for my lunch food, too. And they don't trust digital monies, so it's not common to be able to use ... read more

Today has been busy so far. We got up and traveled over to Fushimiinari-taisha. A shrine that has some 10,000 small torii in the woods. They seemed to go on forever - we didn't even follow them all. But it was really an incredible sight. Since it was morning, it was quiet and there were few people there. After we took the bus up to Kinkakuji temple (the Golden Pavillion). The temple is an impressive Gold, especially when the sun would hit it. On the way we stopped and had lunch in a little place between temples. I got some teriyaki chicken and it came with a good salad. We then walked over to Ryoan-ji Temple. It has a very famous zen rock garden. It was crowded, but nice. There are 15 rocks placed in such ... read more

We took the bus up to Ginkakuji temple (the Silver Pavillion). It was really pretty - it was up in the hills a bit - very lush and calm. We then walked down the Path of Philosophy to the other temples. The path was charming - very quaint, and there were still some cherry blossoms out. They are so pretty. We philosophized a bit. We passed by Eikando Temple, and stopped in quickly at Nanzenji temple. We went to Konchi-in temple, a much smaller one - so it was less crowded and quiter. There were nice garden's there - one was a rock garden. But part of it was under construction as well. We stopped in a little place to have lunch - we had to point to the plastic food to order. I got pork ... read more

Written on Sunday Since so much is happening in the first few days I'm here, the first posts will be mostly events and logistics - not too much on thoughts and insights. So, day two / three we met our host families. My host mother works for Shiseido, a cosmetics company. When I asked her what she did there, she gesticulated indicatively and spouted a tone of words I didn't understand. My host father works at a pickle plant. Rockin'. Waiting at the center to be picked up was one of the most nerve-wracking events of which I've ever been a part. It's hard to describe what makes it so scary, but all of the ways to mess up, irritate or annoy, fail to understand culturally, etc. begin to run through your head. All the negative ... read more

So we are in Kyoto. Nara was really a nice place. This morning I slept in until 8am again, and then we took a train to the outskirts of Nara to see two temples. The first one, Yakushi-ji was really big inside, but very nice. There was a main hall and two pagodas - an old one and a new one. Afterwards we walked about 10 minutes to the other one, Toshodai-ji. The main hall was under construction, but the area was lush and nice. They had a Buddha there too - but not so big ;) We had lunch at this place that served chicken and pork katsu (breaded). It was delicious. I'm glad we got to eat there. Reiko had told us how much she enjoyed having this when she comes home to Japan. ... read more