The weekend of the 15th had a field trip which was fantastic we meditated for 30 minutes and were given compassion if we were falling asleep or just wanted some. (And what I mean by compassion is that they hit you with a stick to wake you up!) It doesn’t hurt that much but it certainly will wake you up. Haha! That Sunday I then went with Sasha and Bethany to Kyoto again (seriously I love this city, it is like Boston only bigger and has Japanese history instead!) to go see a koto performance done by the school that Sasha takes Koto Lessons with. It was amazing and I have videos of it on face book so go check them out. There was a guy in front of me so sometimes his head gets in the way but it is still pretty cool. After the performance we wondered around the park that the shrine the performance to place in was in. which happened to be where the Kyoto Imperial Palace is but alas it was not open.
We then got lunch and ended up discovering a bus that would take us to Ginkokuji or the Silver Pavilion! It was gorgeous and I want to go back! I have a lot of pictures from there and even go a page of my temple book filled out! As we were leaving though clumsy me twisted her ankle. Pooh! But it is okay just got to stay off it for a bit. I was then able to meet with Andrew Nahmias, one of Dad’s Former students. I swear I am shocked by the connection my parents have sometimes. Haha! We had dinner and then I went home but it was a blast!
This Past weekend was my Weekend Home stay which by the way was a blast! My Family consisted of a Mother, Father, a 5 year old daughter and a 2 year old daughter. The mother is also pregnant with a boy so it will soon be a family of five! When the mother picked me up we went to go pick up the girls from preschool and the five year old ran past her mother and literally jumped into my arms! Talk about a warm welcome! She was sooooooo cute! We then went home and I was able to use a Japanese bath again which if I had the time I would go into a rant of how much I love Japanese baths and houses in general. They have a video intercom that shows them who is at the door! It is amazing! On Saturday I was able to meet the farther and have a traditional Japanese breakfast. The family asked me a lot of questions about Boston and how it differed from Japan and about my family.
After breakfast they took me to Ryouanji in Kyoto, which was again amazing! I have loads of pictures. After that we had lunch in the university that my host parents graduated from. It was really good and cafeteria food here is so much better and cheaper in Japan than in America. Then we went to a craft story and I bought a knitting kit. I cannot read the directions but I don’t care. After that we had dinner at home and went to bed.
The next day was Haruna-chan’s (the 5 year old) 5th Birthday! I made Apple sauce for them since Haruna love apples and we had a big lunch and I gave my family their host present and the coloring book I made for Haruna. They loved all the gifts especially the smelly colored pencils and the book of Photos of Boston from now and from history. After the party we went to a temple that was Otsu’s, the town I was staying, kami shrine. Then the entire family took me home and walked me to my door! It was really sweet and I plan to try and stay in touch with them!
Well that’s all the big things that have happened I have to go back to studying now but I thought I would get this out! There are some samples pictures below but please check out my face book page for all of them!
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