ともだちに会いました。

日十六番：Day 16
(Short post)



The first of a series of university visits, we spent the majority of the day as Obirin University.




Our curriculum consisted of doing a short series of presentations about California and Fresno, as well as Fresno State University (my college) and finally our experiences in Japan.



Upon our arrival, we took an early lunch break. While most of the students ate, my group made corrections to our powerpoint. Once inside, we met with one of our instructor’s former students and then went to one of the classrooms where we would present to university students who had recently returned from English exchange programs.




The classroom was rather full and before we started I asked the girls behind us for a photo.





We started off with a presentation with some general information about Fresno as well as California, giving some general background information, simple history and addressing some of the Japanese influence/presence in the community.



After the other three groups presented their less-than-factually-correct slideshows we had time to interact with the students. We simply talked to the girls behind us, discussing the different exchange programs we liked, exchanged names, did some language comparisons and then showed them how to play the game of Hangman XD








Following well wishes and a couple more parting photos, Sarah, Lina, Jason and I headed for Akihabara to meet my friend Sabrina, a ten-year English teacher in Japan.


Sarah x Lina. I ship it.


After a quick run around an electronic store, we got dinner at a kabob place just outside the store (quick and relatively cheap) before browsing around a number of unnamed stores



We spent the remainder of the evening sitting in a Starbucks just talking, joking and laughing, simply having an overall good time as a group of foreigners able to connect over some far too expensive café drinks.



PS. I apologize for the lack of photos of Tokyo. Since I’ve been here before I am being extremely lack of the photo taking and my camera remains in the purse most of the time. I will attempt to be more dutiful in the last couple of days.

東京、ただいま～！

日十四と十五番：Day 14&15

In the morning, I was very reluctant in getting out of bed because it was soft, the blankets were warm and the room seemed chilly… and then when I finally did leave the room, I got the answer as to why that was…


Snow!



Sarah, Lina, Corina, Jason and I took a nice walk in the morning to a local café (which turned out to be closed) and that was full of snowball fights.







We had another busy day lined up in front of us, starting off with a visit to Fushimi Inari Taisa (my suggestion, hehe)

<(*o*)>









So beautiful.
It’s such an amazing, wondrous feeling walking through all those orange gates…
As if you’re about to emerge on the other side of a Miyazaki movie.





Afterwards, we headed through the little market they had in front of the temple where I purchased a rose quartz stone bracelet that now sits on my wrist alongside my black onyx.



(Not a photo of the bracelet XD)




Afterwards we went to Kiyomizu and while it was wonderful to witness the contrast between summer and winter, I must say (despite summer heat) it is far more beautiful during the summer.








Same view from this summer



Unfortunately, after we returned to the bus stop… the buses were late. And we were forced to wait for almost an hour. I am pretty certain I was a popsicle by the time.

We were planning to stop by Gion for some time just to look around (and perhaps try to see some maiko) but the lateness of the bus forced us to cut the day short.

Instead, we headed straight to Ginkakuji, the Silver Pavilion.








I found that despite the sheer striking appearance of Kinkakuji, the subtleness and simplicity of Ginkaku was far more beautiful to me.

We ended the evening by going around the center of Kyoto and losing Corina ^_^;;;;
But we found her~

Poor thing went to take a "three second picture" and got separated by the crowds of people. Apparantly, she started practicing asking for help after a while:
"すみません。。。まいごです。うたのユースホステルはどこですか。ごめんなさい、がいじんです。"

As for today, we left Kyoto and took the Nozomi bullet train to Shinagawa, followed by a bus to the part of Shinjuku where we’re staying.






We’re staying at the Tokyo International Hostel, my least favorite of the three we’ve been in.
But we do have a pretty fantastic view:



The aforementioned group and myself headed out to central Shinjuku for the evening, mainly because I wanted to pay a visit to Marui One and its Sparkling Sale. Hehehehe >.< Bad idea.
On the subway

The following photos were stolen from Lina because I was too busy being wide-eyed over the displays.

京都で歩きました。

日十三番: Day 13

My feet~　いたいいいいいいい～

A long day of walking. We left before nine and got back around five, but it was a rather fantastic day.

We started by heading out to the Ryoanji rock garden Temple.

Photos along the way from the Youth Hostel:





















Sap collecting tree


The groupies

There were remains of the snow that occurred in Kyoto a few days ago and while part of me genuinely hopes that it snows here, it is already so cold here right now…

And inside






















There was a woman doing calligraphy for the temple:




I am so glad to have more time in Kyoto, it is such a beautiful city.

All the shrines, temples… and it is such contrast to Tokyo, with both capitols being so drastically different. And yet, I find myself in love with both of them.

The next destination was 金閣寺、or the Golden Pavilion.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~
ラブ(*ﾟoﾟ)(ﾟoﾟ*)ラブ












Matcha with flakes of gold in it!


Lunch was had in an unmentionable restaurant, where we paired off people in the group. Not really. Just two. Because our Sensei wanted gossip???



大！

Then we paid a quick visit to Kyoto’s shrine of knowledge.







I’m getting practice in asking people for photos, hoping to get some nice shots while in Harajuku and Shibuya.



Finally, we stopped by Kyoto’s Manga Museum and… well, let us just say that it was the only disappointment of the day.





The special display was from the show Oh! Mickey… which always weirded me out.

It was more of a library and I would have much preferred to see a history of manga and how they do the print pressing and such assorted goodness rather than something being equivalent to a manga café… minus the café.

Tomorrow, we go to　伏見稲荷大社。
Amongst things.

But the orange gatesssss~
I think my camera might overload.