It has been almost two weeks since I have written... That's hard to believe. After my last post, I was finally able to get in touch with a friend of mine that was staying in Osaka and we arranged for him to come out to Kyoto (only a 30 minute train ride away, for future reference!) and I would show him and his friend Demario around. Being a tour guide is much easier said than done, I found. I have something akin to the disease that causes most New Yorkers to never visit the Statue of Liberty, most of the uber-touristy places in Kyoto I have never been, I guess because I often think: "eh, it will always be there".
Ultimately I decided to take them down to Arashiyama, the beautiful foothill area that we I-Housers often venture to for picnics and other frolicking. (I place that I love more than words can describe.)
We wandering about there for quite a while, taking in the scenery and exploring into some areas I hadn't been yet, including a sickeningly cute store that sold every variety of music box imaginable (even a Hello Kitty one!) Afterwards the guys were in to the idea of eating some more food, so I took them to Kappazushi, quite possibly the most amazing 回転寿司 (conveyor belt sushi) place in existence. 105円 a plate at night, 90円 at lunch! Oh so, so, so delicious.
Haha, but I digress. Afterwards we walked around the shopping area of downtown, and then, since we had missed the final bus, decided to take about a 40 minute walk to a "nearby" train station, so we could both depart to home.
Viet and Mario. :) It was quite a fun evening, and oddly relaxing. Just a bit of a different feel than spending time with SKP students. Plus it was entertaining playing interpretor (especially when it came to helping the guys chat with Japanese girls, haha.) People would often attempt to speak to Viet (who is Vietnamese, from the MS coast), assuming he was Japanese, only to immediately turn to me when they discovered that I was the most competent in the language among the three of us (which isn't saying much, considering my language skills, ha).After that evening it was, unfortunately, time to return to focusing on school. I had a presentation in my Public Health course (an English lecture class about healthcare systems all over the world) on the Philippines. It went quite well, although I think my group gave about 20 minutes for what was described as a "10 to 12 minute" presentation. :P Oh well. After that, it was almost time for my birthday!
Quite a lot got packed into the 48 hour period surrounding the 21st anniversary of my actual birth. I received, without exaggeration, roughly 40 e-mails from friends of Mom's congratulating me, and providing me with a (somewhat overwhelming) influx of advice for my new adult lease on life, for which I am, of course, very thankful! :D Memorably enough, around the exact time the clocked rolled over to midnight of May 29th, my Italian neighbor Filippo emerged from his room and attacked Junko and I with a water gun, sparking a brief but hard fought water war among third floor residents. A pretty good way to ring in adulthood, I'd say.
The day of my birthday I was also awarded with a character test. :P I spent most of the morning studying for it, but since I only had one class that day, afterwards I felt quite free! I went with my friends Sara C, Sara E, and Spence downtown to shop for a costume night that was going on on Friday evening. We tried on crazy wigs in the basement of a department store before it was time to meet our parfait destiny!
So, without further ado, the moment you've been waiting for...
信じられへん！ Even now! It was so huge. Look at it in relation to the size of the people in the background! It's absurd. In any case, as you can see it was loaded down with fruit, cookie, cake, cream, and of course loads of different flavors of ice cream. :D The chocolate bar (yes, that is a whole chocolate bar) says "kelly, happy birthday!" in Japanese.
Here I am about to take the first bite!
Here's everybody! We ended up with just about the perfect amount. And okay, names, going in a circle from left to right: Dana, Steve, Junko, Kyukyu (sorry if that's horribly mispelled!), Sara E, Spence, Sara C, 私, Charles, and Ian. We were able to finish completely in a little under 45 minutes, because we 外人力が多い. Charles who is like 6' bajillion" helped out at the last leg when most of us were in a diabetic coma, haha. Overall it was quite a fun time, and afterwards we wandered and shopped some more.
This group (featured here in an infamous Japanese "purikura" or essentially ridiculous photobooths) splintered off and went on a sugar fueled adventure, playing UFO catcher until we were all fairly burdened with prizes and frustration. But, oh man, I was quite excited. I somehow managed to win Pichu, Pikachu, AND Raichu from one machine.
Here's Dana and I showing off some of our prizes (and wearing our $4 wigs, haha). In any case, thoroughly fueled by sugar we stayed out fairly late, and biked home super fast! Whoo. The next evening we had quite a fun time going out dressed up (and received a 1000円 or about $10 discount at the club for doing so). Afterwards I was a bit weekended out. On Saturday I had my "field trip", essentially part of the culture course where we were allowed to select the trip that most interested us. I chose 座禅 or Zen Buddhist meditation. We went to this beautiful temple at the foot of the mountains, with gardens and everything...
We spent about thirty minutes sitting in the meditation position, a sort of "indian style" position, straight spine, hands folded left over right in your lap. It's a bit difficult, and about halfway through the Zen master comes out and "encourages" you, as it were, to sit up straight with a straight piece of wood. I was fortunate enough not to need any "encouragement", hehe. In any case, I feel that's all that's occurred of merit as of late. This week, as stated, has been busy academically, and next week I have two tests. :(
Tonight I relaxed a bit though and watched "The Spanish Apartment" with I-House mates. It's a very good movie, about a French guy who goes on exchange in Barcelona and shares an apartment with lots of people of different nationalities. It's very much a movie about studying abroad and the experiences one has. As it came to an end and so did his time in Barcelona, on the night before his flight back home he walked down a familiar street from a cafe he often visited back to his apartment for the last time. The idea of seeing these familiar places for the last time is alarming. I know my time here isn't long, and that my time left is equally brief. I know that truly, even if I return, it will never be quite the same as it was. My friends will be gone, and others will replace them. Different bonds, different dynamics, different foreigners walking down to the conbini every other day or bicycling to campus. What a strange and short time in my life. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
Tonight I relaxed a bit though and watched "The Spanish Apartment" with I-House mates. It's a very good movie, about a French guy who goes on exchange in Barcelona and shares an apartment with lots of people of different nationalities. It's very much a movie about studying abroad and the experiences one has. As it came to an end and so did his time in Barcelona, on the night before his flight back home he walked down a familiar street from a cafe he often visited back to his apartment for the last time. The idea of seeing these familiar places for the last time is alarming. I know my time here isn't long, and that my time left is equally brief. I know that truly, even if I return, it will never be quite the same as it was. My friends will be gone, and others will replace them. Different bonds, different dynamics, different foreigners walking down to the conbini every other day or bicycling to campus. What a strange and short time in my life. I don't think I'll ever forget it.
1 comment:
Where all the updates be?
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