Sorry that I haven’t updated in like three days it has been a very busy. So to catch everyone up on what has happened so far (sound like the intro to a bad T.V. show):
Friday 16th: our activity was to learn Ikebana (Flower arrangement) and our piece are now on display in the lobby. It was so much fun though this is one thing I found out that I am extremely anal about. I can’t tell y’all how many times I moved a flower or leaf a centimeter or so until I thought it looked right. I blame the artist/architect in me. Thanks Dad! Ha-ha no but really it was a blast and I would love to learn more about it.
After Ikebana we located the bakery Vedelle’s which is by the lake and about 5 minutes from campus. It is a bakery run out of this woman’s house and when she runs out of bread they close. So you have to get there early to get anything. But it very good and well priced so I may be stopping there for snacks or lunch during the next week. That day I got a chocolate filled pastry as well as banana bread and a fruit pastry for around 900 yen (9-10 bucks) and it was fabulous. When we sat down to eat by the lake there was a small bat sleeping on one of the posts nearby. It was soooo cute.
At around three Sasha, Lindsay, Caitlin, Sam, Lauren and I went to Karaoke and then at 7pm we split up and Caitlin and I went to go meet up with the group that was hosting the going away party for the Japanese students. As it turns out we arrived there early and waited but we thought that they had already gone inside, so we got a seat and ordered. Not 15 minutes later everyone arrives but there is such a large group that they decided to go somewhere else rather than wait. So we later met up with them at the bar they were going to and hung out until about 10:30 when we decided to leave. Since we rode our bikes there we had to ride them back. Low and behold it is pouring not just cats and dogs but rain the size of elephants. We had no chose but to bike back and get soaked. Which we did and my shoes are still drying from that.
Saturday 17th: On Saturday, Annica came to visit and we went around Hikone looking in Used Kimono stores and thrift stores just for the fun of it. I have decided that I am going to buy a Kimono I just haven’t chosen one yet. I kind of want to be a nerd and wear it to my oral exam for honors just because I can. The woman at the Kimono shop was really sweet and I was able to understand half of what she said and was able to get the gist of it without an explanation.
Sunday (Today) 18th: a group of us went to Kyoto to try and go see the golden pavilion and the silver pavilion. We wondered around for a bit and then split up into two groups once we arrived at Noji castle. Some of use went to the castle while the rest of use took the bus to the Golden Pavilion. It is as magnificent or evens more so then the picture that I have seen in Art History class. Sadly you cannot go into the pavilion but it was still cool to see it. There are a lot of places where you can buy charms for luck, wealth and most importantly success in studying or exams. I thought those were great!
There are also a lot of places there and around the area to buy gifts and such. I got some gifts as well as the Temple book that I wanted to get. That in of itself made for a successful day. For those of you reading that don’t know, a temple book is a book where you pay for it at the first temple you go to and then they sign it and then every temple after that will sign it for free. It’s a sort of temple scrap book.
I will post up pictures of the past three day in separate entries because there are just so many of them, and this entry is already really long so sorry picture will be up tomorrow either before we go to the book off or after.
Oyasumi!
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