3.31.2009

Ise...20 years...Ise...20 years...Ise...

I split a stick of tiny octupus with zach in the market between shrines. mmmmm. delicious.
This morning, Zach and I enjoyed some pbjs in the hotel room with a little orange juice. Then we met downstairs at 745 and left for Ise. It took a couple subways to Kyoto station then a couple JRs to Ise. All in all, about 2.5 hours of trains plus some waiting time in between. Ise was very beautiful. Lots of cherry blossoms spread around and in more of a bloom now than Kyoto. I think it's a bit warmer in Ise. First we went to the smaller shrine, then took a bus to the main site. Ise shrine is rebuilt every 20 years on sites right next to each other. There are many ceremonies and festivals during the rebuilding and every piece is made just as the last. Once the rebuilding is complete, they dismantle the old shrine and send the pieces off to other shrines to be appreciated in more places. They build a small hut covering the center column of the main building which is only a few feet tall. The cool thing is that Ise is the most sacred shinto shrine ever. That is also the drawback. Of about 5 separations between the outside world and the main shrine, we could enter the first. You can't see past the second. You can see building tops beyond the fences, but that is it. Everything was very beautiful and serene. It was still cool to go there despite not being able to see the actual shrine. Between the two shrines we had lunch. It was udon for me. I also had a couple small fresh plain donuts. They were still warm and were very very delicious for my fat face. On the way back, we had to be in the smoking car on teh JR. It didn't bother me much but my clothes have a nice smoky aroma. After a few hours of busses and trains to get back to Kyoto station, a few of us went to the food area under the station and had dinner. I had soba noodles in broth and tempura over rice. It was also delicious. Once dinner was over we took the subway back to the hotel and I find myself recapping on the day and loading my pictures onto the computer. I am pretty excited to have finished my book on the trains. I will be wanting to start the third book soon, although I did read the teaser chapter at the end of the second. I think I will read more of the book that mom got me. I started that on the plane over. It seems very interesting. I am going to wrap up this blog entry and add a few photos. I think I will install picasa and just crank all my photos from the trip onto it because loading them into the blog one or two at a time is crappy.

3.30.2009

Mr. Miyagi

Ok. His name isn't Mr. Miyagi. It's Watanabe Sensei. He is a lot like Mr. Miyagi though. Class seems like it will be very beneficial. I am trying to learn the hiragana and katakana. There are a lot of symbols though. hahaha. We are going to learn a lot of conversational japanese despite the character memorization. The language school is at the teacher's house. He rebuilt the interior of the top floor of the townhouse next to his. The building is about 100 years old and the bottom floor next to him is a tatami mat shop. You can choose the edge banding and fill materials and they will make the number of mats you order. The entire house is tatami mats. It is pretty cool to see the inside of the building. After class, Zach and I got some udon and headed back to the hotel to take care of some last minute stuff before class this afternoon. Pictures of udon may follow later.

3.29.2009

Shopping and Mos

So. John and I both needed a jacket because we didn't pack like we should have. We spent about 2 hours walking around the shopping area not far from the hotel checking stuff out. About 50 stores later we each found a jacket and headed back. I got a sweet cream colored job with some zippers and general badassness to it. I later went out with Zach in search of more good vending machine photos for our homework assignment. During this adventure I found a sweatshirt that was on sale and says: better ways of laying out the room Measurement Object. I figured that was just retarded enough of a translation to english that it kind of made sense for an architect so I bought it. It's super soft and comfy. I bet Farren will want to steal it when I get home. After the vending machines, Zach and I hit Mos Burger. I had a mos cheeseburger and fries with a coke. After that I had a mos fishburger. Besides the jar of mayonnaise, the fish was pretty good. Zach posted a mos blog which can be found by linking to Zach's blog at the bottom of mine. His is more multimediafull. Also, I have included a picture of the crepe I had earlier with fried egg, fried rice, lettuce, and ketchup.

Shion In




Today, before meeting Don at 4 to go to Osaka, Zach and I went to Chion In temple. It supposedly houses Japans largest bell, which requires 17 monks to ring. We didn't see the bell. Apparently it is actually not in the temple compound but in the hills nearby. We did see multiple shrines and buddhas and some pretty trees. So, the Chion-In temple is enormous. see photos. We saw a lot of people dressed up in kimonos and taking pictures by the cherry blossoms. I took a picture of this little girl all kimonoed out. She was very cute. I also put up pictures of me eating takoyaki. mmmm. They were pretty good. More blog to come later.

3.27.2009

Scot Eats Octopus Balls

After meeting with Don, we walked up to the school where we will have class. I know I can find that again. Then we walked to the language school where we will have japanese class three days a week. I will have class at 9 am. There is no way I can find that again without a map. We went to the Imperial Palace to sign up for tours of the detached palaces. We didn't go in there. We just signed up for the other tours and left. There were some beautiful trees though. From there we headed through some shopping arcades and some food stands. I had some takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and some other treats. After we walked around a little more we had some fantastic ramen. It was roasted pork ramen and it was just what I needed. Two words to follow: loft, uniqlo. Enough said. I am still in search of a cheap jacket. It is much colder here right now than I expected. The thin layers I packed are probably not enough if I'm going out drinking at night and such.

I also took some pictures of our room and the view from our room. It's super nice and super expensive.

Higashiyama Sanjo


I got to Kansai at about 8 at night. I had to go through customs and get my bag and everything. I went through with a guy from the Netherlands and they didn't ask me a single question. haha. When I got to the Kyoto subway station I took the Karasuma line a couple stops to transfer to the Tozai line. When I ran down to the platform I got there just in time to see my train pulling away. I had to wait about 30 minutes for the next one wince it was like 11 at night. I got to the hotel at about midnight after I got barked at by some random drunk Japanese guys. That was random. The hotel is way too nice. No wonder our budget was so high for lodgings. When I got to the hotel they had to call up to my room and Zach was crashed out. I just went up and went to sleep.

We got up at about 730 and showered and got going around 830 with Matt and Trent. We walked around a while and got some random food stuffs from stands. I had a potato croquette and a squid on a stick. I also had a Niku Man from 7.11. I'm down for some really good food. The squid was fresh grilled in front of me. Right before squid we were asked to take pictures with some Japanese scoolgirls. Pictures of the squid and schoolgirls to follow.

3.15.2009

Not yet

I'm not in Japan yet. I will be on the 25th.