Opening Ceremony Day

Today was rather uneventful so I keep this one short. We had opening Ceremony today which was mostly the president, Australian Consulate, and uh... an insurance business alum-guy giving speeches telling us to do our best dattebayo, and to talk to the locals rather than just to each other, as foreign students. Which, right now is kinda hard since locals still don't come for another two weeks. :^( But isn't that bad when you're got friends who are local! :^D

After the ceremony we went to a luncheon thing, it was cool cause y'know- free food. I got some sunburn from sitting in the sun. Good times joking around, and all that. After lunch I went to the ceramics orientation meeting, where at I actually got ceramics put on my schedule, because I hadn't gotten the section I wanted. We also got to pick out some raggedy old clothes to wear while we participate in class, and found out our homework is actually just 3 additional hours spent in the studio during the week at some point.

I fiddled around some with other classes after the orientation as well. I added Women in the Economy, and plan to drop Deaf World Japan, and Can We Enforce Human Rights? Not because they don't sound interesting, but the courses they're being replaced with (Ceramics & Women in the Economy) fit better with my schedule goals. First day to drop is tomorrow though, so they're gonna sit on my schedule for another few hours.

After doing that I paid my 10,000 yen ceramics fee, hung out for a little bit longer with Micah, Sam, and Htet, and then went home. :) Dinner was noodles, and soup, and rice, with the same tea to drink. It was delicious as always.


And now you guys are caught up, and my first day of classes are tomorrow, I'm gonna catch some Z's, and tell you all about my Kanji & Ceramics classes tomorrow.

-Zzzzz

Ky-OH-to Tour!

So today was a really long day. I woke up at 8 and had the same breakfast or ham, eggs, and toast as yesterday. Then around 9:10 we left for the city municipal office to register my address on my residence card. After that Okaa-san drove me to school so I could go on the Kyoto tour. I got there a little late, but didn't miss it, so that was good. I sat with Anna, meaning she was in my group.

The first thing we did was get a train pass into Kyoto, which was interesting. You just like, inserted money into the thingy and it was like "which amount do you want," so we selected 330yen I think. If I remember correctly... Once on the train it was quite a few stops, probably something around 16 or so. After the train, we transferred to taking busses. At first it wasn't that bad, the bus didn't really seem that full or anything, and I had been on a bus in Hirakata already. After a few bus stops however, the bus actually became packed full of people, to an extent that was a little bit much.


 
When we finally came to a stop it was a little bus stop hub with vending machines and some businesses nearby. It was here that I bought some Berry Flavored Match.












After this we made our way to Kinkaku-Ji (Rokuon-Ji), which translated means Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Deer Garden Temple). It was a really pretty temple out on the water.

After all was said and done we were feeling kinda peko-peko, so we went to find some grub. What did we find? Okonomiyaki! It's a grilled pancake-like food filled with ingredients that you specifically like. I got mine with bacon. It's made with yam, cabbage, and egg, and other stuff. We mixed up our bowls and poured them onto a grill right in front of us, and added sauce, and green stuff, and flaky stuff, and Japanese Mayo!  It was super good!

So after eating we hopped on the bus again for quite a long time. It was tons of fun in sardine simulator 2016. We began to head for Kiyomizu-dera (Temple), but I do have quite a few photos of downtown Kyoto, which I'll just dump here before I move on to it. 

Alright now on our way to Kiyomizu we passed a lot of streets with shops on them and one of them was Studio Ghibli themed, so that was cool!

 

 

Alright, here we are, Kiyomizu!

 

While we were there we did wash our hands ceremoniously, and did lots of looking around. But alas, all fun trips must come to an end, so we made our way down from this ginormous mountain shrine land place that we climbed. It was getting to be around 6:00 and I knew I needed to get home to dinner with my family. There were a couple more sights as I came home that I took photos of.

All in all I'd say it was a successful day, a long one, but a very successful one. I didn't really mention it because I don't have a picture of it, but I bought some ramune flavored yatsuhashi to share with my family when I got home, and I think they really appreciated that. :)

I'd like to thank my tour buddies for being there with me to experience Kyoto, especially An-NYA~, who is pictured in pink a couple times here. But also Darius, Manuel, and Luis, and the 4 Japanese guys whose names I can't remember. ;A; Jimpei and Kota... and... Kyosuke... and... explodes. I forget your name, but I remember your spirit!

-The Sass Master

P.S. BONUS HIGH SCHOOLER SELFIES!

 

And one for the end~