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Published: October 22nd 2006
Kiyomizu
Some of the group in front of one of the possible new Seven Wonders of the WorldOhisashiburidesune. It’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing so this entry is just going to be the highlights and info regarding the past week. Well, we’ve been going to class every day. Marcia and I have the greatest commute in the world. Every day we have only to walk to the subway (takes like 7 minutes for me, 2 for her), go one stop on the subway and walk the single block to the Kyoto International Community House. At the other end of the spectrum are Christian and Reeves. They live most of the way out of our prefecture. It takes the two of them a little more than an hour and a half to get to school everyday.
School has been great. This is one of the few times in my life that I’ve actually looked forward to going to class although we did have our awful sub again. It’s not that she’s mean or anything she just doesn’t make class anywhere near as interesting as the regular teachers do. Monday was a surprisingly normal day. Even though we were at our homestays we ended up back at the Kyoto International School of Language, and hung out
Kiyomizu Pagoda
A nice view of the most prominent pagoda in the temple complex at the Pense and traded stories about our first day with out homestay families. After that we had our first official tea ceremony as a group. It was my second time because my homestay mom teaches it and wished to subject me to that experience the day before. It was Tuesday that things picked up this week.
Tuesday, after class, (our first day at the Kyoto International Community House) we headed to Gion for a quick lunch (and I mean quick, I ate in seven minutes, for those of you keeping track that’s a record time) and then went to Yasaka Shrine for a cultural presentation by Jasmine on shrines and then headed up to Kiyomizudera (temple). This is a massive temple set into the eastern hills of Kyoto and is one of the Nominees for the new Seven Wonders of the World (www.new7wonders.com).
Wednesday was a chill day reserved for research for our individual paper topics. We got the chance to research on the internet and to use the library at the Community House. We rounded out the day hanging out at Starbucks and talking with a Japanese speaking bird (check out the video if you don’t
Cooper Attack
Coop getting picked on, literally believe me).
Thursday was a fun day, especially for the girls. We all got to have a henshin or transformation, the guys into samurai and the girls into Maiko (the most elegant geisha). We spent hours there waiting for the girls to get their makeup on and waiting our turn but it was ok because we got to watch the movie iRobot in English in the lobby while we waited.
Friday, because we didn’t have class, we traveled to an elementary school and spent the day with a group of fifth and sixth graders. We started off with introductions our group introducing ourselves in Japanese while the kids introduced themselves in English, very cute. From there we moved on to a question and answer period which centered around food and baseball, two things to which both groups could relate, although they’re not such cards fans. All of a sudden our interesting, broken conversation was interrupted by the fire alarm and we were part of a Japanese fire drill. The attentiveness of the kids astounds me. If American college students much less school children, had to sit and listen to the fire department talk about fire safety for a
Kiyomizu Porch
Dave, Court, and Coop posing with the Kyoto hills behind them. third of the time that this fireman talked there is absolutely no way that they would be able to sit as still as the kids at this school. After the fire drill ended the best part of the day began, recess. We had a blast playing soccer, kickball, Frisbee, riding unicycles, and Reeves even picked up a ten-year-old girlfriend. Recess was followed by my third tea ceremony of the week where I, along with a couple others, actually got the chance to make the tea. Throughout the rest of the day we had game time with the kids involving stilts, tops, and balancing games, followed by lunch (if you think regular Japanese food is hard to eat you should try school lunch), another bout of recess and finally pottery class.
Saturday most of us had a fun, exciting day with out families but those of us that didn’t, me, Heather, Lindsey, Abbe, and her homestay sister, went to the Toji (temple) and nearby flea market and I finally got to see the pagoda that I’ve wanted to see the entire time we’ve been in Kyoto. That night I learned that not only is it the tallest pagoda in Japan
My Pal and I
Cool statue, I liked the pose but the top of the spire is at the same altitude as the subway stop at which I get off everyday for school just because it’s in the hills.
Today is Sunday and I have plans to see a parade and go to a fire festival tonight. It should be fun but from what I’ve heard it’s going to be packed to the gills. Linda and Dan have said that Tokyo will be about ten times as crowded as downtown Kyoto and they expect tonight to be more crowded than Tokyo. Like I said, should be fun.
I should be able to post more updates this week knowing that I have access to free wireless until Friday, so, should anything exciting happen, I’ll try to post up here. Hope things are going well back home and I’d love to hear from you.
sayōnara
さようなら
erikku san
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mom and dad
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where?
You mention a movie on your blog......what movie?????????????? :) xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo love hearing from you. xoxoxoxoxoxoxo