So after weaving our group haphazardly through the streets of Kyoto, Horvat, the director expected all of us to be able to magically navigate our way to the station and to school. I have the sense of direction of a chair. So I decided to leave with a group of other people. Due to the sheer enormity of our group, we got kind of a late start, and ended up getting to school 10 minutes late. Oh no! Japanese culture is very big on punctuality and I did feel bad that we were late, but the group was also late yesterday, when Horvat led us to school, so his apparent anger with us was a little hypocritical. It would have been more appropriate if the Japanese staff showed their anger, but they're Japanese and that's just not what we do. Our group was met with the ire of Horvat and we began our orientation.
One of the orientations, was the academic orientation. A group of Japanese students are actually going to be auditing the class, so they joined us for that particular segment. Afterwards, there was lunch to be had and many of the SCTI (American) students got into groups with the Japanese students to mingle and eat. Kenny and I started wandering, not sure where to go, until we tagged along with a group of students. There were 10 total including us and we headed off to a ramen shop. The ramen shop was a hole in the wall kind of place. A hole in the wall that was unable to accommodate 10 bodies that wanted to sit together. So the group headed back to the school cafeteria.
Not wanting to burden the group with an extra two people Kenny and I split split and wandered around. We walked through the school and found a temple around the back side of the block. There was a big entrance gate and a layout of buildings landscaped with cherry blossom trees. It was all very pretty.
I have the capacitiy to appreciate beauty for only so long when I haven't eaten lunch, so we were faced with one of man's primal questions: where to eat. We could go back to the ramen shop or the cafeteria. Wanting to try something new it was off to the ramen shop for us. We went at the right time, because two people happened to exit as we walked in and during our meal of ramen and fried rice set, there was a huge line of people behind us.
This is what real ramen looks like.
When we got back to campus it was time for the walking tour. We went to Nanzen-ji and Heian jingu. Nanzen-ji is this old Buddhist temple complete with zen rock gardens and other contemplative scenery and of course, lots of sakura. Sometimes being here seems kind of surreal and every once in a while I have a oh-my goodness I'm in Japan moment. I had another one of those over there. On our way out, Kenny and I stopped to watch those bamboo water filler upper and dropper things. His first comment when he saw that was, "Autistic people would love that. Did you know Matt, he was in my room freshman year, yeah, he would love that." It was a lot funnier in the moment, I suppose.
Then we walked over to Heian jingu, a shinto shrine. There, we participated in a blessing ceremony, where there was a lot of standing and sitting and bowing. Kind of like mass. And it ended with a sip of sake. All they needed to do was give us some senbei and it would have basically been communion, shinto style. Apparently Heian jingu has a gorgeous garden, but we were shepherded back (along the way there was the biggest tori ever, it was HUGE) to the train station to head back to the hotel.
Once at the hotel I put my stuff down and a bunch of us met up to go grab some dinner. We wandered around the shops and restaurants near the hotel and were going to settle on eating at a sushi restaurant, but like the ramen shop, there was no way eight of us were going to fit reasonably within an already packed sushi restaurant. Learning from that afternoon Kenny and I trudged on in search of food. Logistically, it's easier to do cooler things and find more amazing places if a smaller group strays from the pack. Walking further, we found a bread store and I had to go in. I love bread. It's one of my great loves behind ice cream and unagi. We tried to sit down at a table there, but the store clerk ushered us out saying that we had to order something off the menu in addition to buying something at the bakery. So Kenny and I once again had to brave the cold.
At orientation we were told that it is rude to walk while you eat, so Kenny and I wandered til we found a bench and sat down. After consuming my delicious pan it was more walking for us. We trudged on ahead and passed a river lined with cherry blossoms, but the cold was really getting to us, so we stepped into the nearest shop, which happened to be a store full of manga. We browsed around and tried to see how much we could actually read. Not much. But we stayed there until we warmed up, which was a while. Overcome with huger we stopped at a shop that had the promise of seared ahi in the posters for dinner. When we stepped inside we were not greeted with the typical irashiamase. Instead there was a vending machine looming in front us. We were supposed to order from the vending machine. I know, complete insanity. We keyed in our orders and received a ticket and sat at a table, where the waitress took our stubs and we were soon served with our first vending machine meal. It was delicious.
After that it was more wandering. We tried to find a bar, but there was no where that was under 800 yen for a beer and I'm pake. Too pricey for me. But in our (unfruitful) search for a bar we stumbled across a road lined with shops and cherry blossoms overhanging with a stream running through. Pretty. Pretty. Walking down that street we knew it wouldn't get any better so we started heading back. Yeah, we got a little lost. But thankfully Kenny brought a map and we managed to get back to the hotel after some aimless wandering. Then off to the ofuro and bed for me.
Day 3
This is the day we met our host families. Everyone was pretty nervous in the morning, and by pretty nervous I mean everyone was really nervous and trying to play it off. I managed to get to school on time, however another group was late so we were treated to another lecture. If we keep this up I'm pretty sure we'll grow immune to the effect of these lectures. Orientation kind of flew by because no one was really interested in what they were saying. I mean who would be interested in hearing about when meeting the people that they'd live with for the next two months. Not I said the cat. Following orientation, they had a gaggle of college girls take groups of us around the three campuses to show us the location of the computer clusters and library. But lunch was good. Another vending machine meal. I'm getting pretty pro at this whole food from the vending machine bit.
Following the tour we were herded into the room where we would meet our host families. It was pretty weird. There were two sides of the room with seats that faced each other. The students sat on one side and the host families sat on the other. It was the most unnecessary show down ever and just added to everyone's nerves. So I finally got to meet my host mother. She was a cute Japanese lady with a fancy blue hat. We sat and chatted for a while and ended up joining with another pair, David and his host mother. Together we walked over to the old imperial palace and walked around the grounds. The sakura were in bloom and it was a gorgeous day so there lots of people sitting under the sakura trees eating and taking pictures. So David and I did the tourist thing and did a walk around taking pictures.
From there my host mother were homeward bound and took the 1 hour train to their house. My host mother walked me from the train station to the house and I got to see more cherry blossoms and another shrine. My room is on the second floor of the house, which meant me lugging up my suitcase up a staircase that was barely wide enough to fit my suitcase. My room is nice and cozy. By cozy I mean a bit on the small size, but it's mine all mine so I'm happy. I unpacked and came down stairs and hung out with my host mother for a bit and took their little doggy Sheru for a walk. Then we took a trip to a real Japanese supermarket none of this Shirokiya Uwajimaya imitation. Everything is in miniature, except the price.
While my host mother made dinner (don't worry mom, I asked if she needed help) I watched Japanese TV. I knew the day would come when the screen would know longer have subtitles for my comprehension pleasure, so I watched catching words and phrases. They talk fast. Fast. Fast. I settled on a show that featured youtube videos and taped Japanese people's reaction. It was great. What added to the effect is that it was dubbed in Japanese, and I had already seen a few of them. Like the WOW kid freakout. Yeah, don't worry they edited out the part where he tried to stick the remote up his butt.
Dinner was some pasta business with clams. Yum. I was pretty tired afterwards, but my host father had yet to return home and I had yet to bestow my awesome omiyage on my host family. So I waited. He finally came home and I gave it to them just before my shower. They have never been to Hawaii. Point, Anya.
I had not been on the computer since morning and I was feeling physical pain from the withdrawals of internet usage so I asked if could hop on their computer for a bit. I had to wait for my host father to finish eating dinner, but afterwards my hunger for the web was sated and I could sleep easily. Well, not so easily, it was pretty chilly and I left my onesie at home. Minus point, Anya.
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