Another Day in Kyoto

We have grown quite fond of frequent visits to Kyoto. This is Kiyomizu, a temple dedicated to mountain water, and possibly one of the most famous sites in Japan. The Temple sits on top of a very elaborate stilt structure that has so far withstood every earthquake Japan has had in the last thirteen hundred years or so. Our Canadian friends were eager to see the place, so we skipped waiting on a group to travel with and ventured out on our own.

The walk up to Kiyomizu takes one through some of the oldest remaining areas of Kyoto such as Gion (the setting for Memoirs of a Geisha). During the Spring this area is almost impossible to walk through because of the mass number of tourists that flock to this temple in particular to enjoy the flowering of the cherry trees. We will surely be one of those crazy tourists when the flowers come out.

After taking in the sights at Kiyomizu we plunged ourselves into the most modern part of Kyoto, down town Shijo. This is the area that features Kyoto's most posh and famous stores in restaurants. After searching for a decently priced place for almost an hour our Canadian French/English/Japanese speaking friend befriended a stranger passing on his bike and talked the guy into showing us a cheap restaurant. The guy ended up buying all of our friends drinks and helped us pick our meals...which turned out not so cheap. The company was good though so we have no complaints.


Kyoto is a great city! There are temples and shrines everywhere and at the same time it's a booming metropolis. We are really lucky to be so near to the heart of the city.

Kinkakuji

After learning how to use the railways to Kyoto we decided to head to Kinkakuji on a day trip. A suite-mate of ours joined the trip, and we all made a day of bus rides and temples. First, we went to Kyoto station which is a massive structure in downtown Kyoto. Charles, our Canadian friend, informed us that there was an information desk in the station that carried English maps. We made it there, and the attendant gave us everything we needed to explore the entire city. With three 500 yen bus cards we set out to see the Golden Pavilion. The trip took about half an hour on bus 205.

Kinkakuji is a temple in the middle of Kyoto that is actually covered in gold leaf. We were lucky enough to get there right as the sun was setting, because it made the whole temple sparkle. The 400 yen entrance fee was completely worth the site. Also, by a stroke of luck we met up with a Japanese girl who was giving tours to foreigners as part of a volunteer program. She knew more about the temple than the guide books, and we all had a great time learning from her.

After we finished walking he grounds around Kinkakuji was headed off the Shogun Palace, Nijo Castle, in central Kyoto. It was about 30 minutes from Kinkakuji by bus 12, and the route passed many small shops and restaurants. Nijo Castle, or Nijojo, was the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The palace is absolutely massive. We were lucky enough to catch the last tour through the grounds at 4 p.m. We weren't allow to take photographs inside, and it is a shame because every wall was a painted masterpiece. After getting through the building we walked around the grounds until the place closed at five.


We decided to call it a day with the ancient stuff and catch dinner at a Curry joint before heading downtown to hit up Namco Wonder Tower!

Namco Wonder Tower is a game center in Shijo. It's a six story building containing games like Mario Cart, Lan games, and Pachinko. All I cared about however was getting to a Picture Club, or Puricura! Taking pictures in the booth is so fun, and we all got into it. The results were some totally cute pictures to remind us of our wonderful day!

A completely random clip for you

It's Chuck Norris...in JAPANESE! Although, it is mostly just us laughing...........

Okonomiyaki!

A famous food in the Kansai area is Okonomiyaki, which is what an American would call a "cabbage pancake." It is really quite delicious and we decided to delight in some during our second trip to Hirakata station. David had never tried anything like it before, and we were both excited to watch it cook in front of us. Sada had the Yakisoba, which is a yummy fried noodle dish with of course...cabbage.

Our waitress was kind enough to practice her English with us, and we had a delicious cabbage filled meal. We highly recommend this cabbage-treat!

The beginning....

Hello everyone!

Thanks to our friends and family that saw us off at the airport, it really meant a lot to both of us that anyone cared enough to get to St. Louis at 7 a.m. just to see us go. ^_^; Also, thanks to our friends that couldn't make it, we know you tried!

Our plane trip was less than pleasant, because Northwest decided to switch our flights without much notice and we both ended up pretty sick from a half mile run down the middle of Detroit Airport. After 8 hours of flying we were traveled out. The most eventful things about the trip were the X-Files episodes we watched halfway through the flight.


The adventure has begun and we are already enjoying our stay in Hirakata city! Our first days did not go exactly as planned as we landed in the land of the rising sun without any of our luggage. Thanks to a mistake made my Northwestern, we were forced to look quite greasy in our first pictures in Japan! That's right, our first night in Japan we had a spaghetti dinner! That's a dollar store spaghetti dinner you are looking at and it really hit the spot after 15 hours of plane food.

Thankfully, after only two days our luggage came back to us and we could start off our first week at Kansai Gaidai clean and fully clothed. Kansai Gaidai is really amazing. The campus is pristine and only two years old. The Japanese students like to point at us and take random pictures.

During the first week of campus life we learned how to get to campus from the dorms, what we could cook with only a kettle and a microwave, how to ride a bike...japan style, and how to go to the closest train station.

We are posting all of our pictures on Photobucket here and in this blog. We have already experienced much more than we can write tonight, but we will try to update this regularly!