Adventures in Japan

36 hours in Tokyo

2009-06-21T01:44:00.000-07:00

We only had two days to hang out in Tokyo, which is not nearly enough. We had to limit the parts of town we went to to places that were in a pretty centralized location in the middle of the city proper. Also, we didn't take nearly enough pictures, so these will have to do. (This blog usually doesn't display all my pictures and entire post the first time it loads, so you may have to refresh it several times to get it to load everything. So you may have missed some stuff from my previous entries for the same reason. Sorry for using a crappy hosting website.)

After we arrived in Tokyo, we hit up Tokyo Tower, which is 333 feet high, shaped like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and surpassing its height by 13 feet.

The view of the Tower from the street, stepping out of the Metro.

It had several observatory decks and a bunch of crap for tourists to buy. The view was incredible.

The city stretches out in all directions and never ends. The sprawl is unbelievable.

After checking out the view from afar, we decided to go to the totally crazy party district of Shinjuku to see if we could catch a Rockabilly show. If you've ever seen Tokyo in a movie, you've seen these intersections. This is the area that people photograph when trying to describe just how crazy and packed Tokyo is, with good reason. We never did find the club, but we had a lot of fun wandering around the city. Shinjuku is known for its bars and clubs, particularly for the weird sex stuff is has going on in "hostess" clubs, strips bars, and thinly-veiled brothels. Avoiding all of that, we ate some awesome Indian food, checked out a couple cheap bars, saw some crazy J-pop band playing on the street until the cops shut it down, and watched the business men get wild. Japanese business men know how to party. At 5am, everyone was doing the walk of shame to catch the first train home. There were men in suits passed out everywhere along the front of the station, some in their own vomit. Shinjuku was like Bourbon street on PCP. Observe:

Shinjuku is definetly not the place for claustrophobics.

We started off the next morning with a visit to the Meiji Jingu, a large shrine and garden dedicated to the Emporer Meiji. It was an impressive man-made forest, with gates and shrines, and a famous garden of irises.

After the wholesome garden, went to Harajuku, but were unable to find too many people dressed very wild at 10 in the morning. We ate breakfast and decided to go to Akihabara. But before we left, Harajuku, we did find one thing to be of interest:

Condomania. Yes, that says exactly what you think it does and means exactly what you think it means. It was inexplicably located dead center in the shopping district, on an otherwise respectable street.

Next, we went to Akihabara, known to be the electronics and weird anime stuff district of Tokyo. It lived up to its name.

Girls dressed as French maids passing out flyers. They are everywhere in Akihabara.

Pachinko parlors are everywhere in all of Japan, not just Tokyo, but I decided I should finally play some while I was there.

Before returning to Kyoto, we decided to end the day with the Sensoji Temple, a hugely popular place with tourists. It was incredibly crowded.

The shopping arcade leading to the entrance of the temple. It was ridiculous.

Coming back to clean, quiet Kyoto was a treat after wading through the dirty streets of Tokyo for two days straight fighting the crowds. It was completely amazing and overwhelming, everything I thought it would be.

A word on toilet technology, plus other interesting tidbits

2009-06-16T03:43:00.001-07:00

I feel compelled to mention the various exotic public toilets in Japan. There are sometimes Western-style toilets, but often you're stuck with the Japanese squat toilets, which are a disaster if you're wearing pants (as opposed to a skirt) or if you're drunk (I'm terrified of accidentally putting my foot in one.) Observe:

Yup, it's just built right into the floor, like a man's urinal lain on its back.

Some helpful soul offered instructions and words of encouragement in the bathroom in the Umeda station in Osaka.

I must say, I'm not a fan of the squat toilet. The Western-style toilets here totally kick ass, however.

The stalls are huge, with walls and door that go from floor to ceiling for complete privacy. The toilet seats are warmed, and there are an array of toilet accessories, all totally brilliant:

First of all, they usually have an attached bidet. You can control the water pressure and temperature, and there's even a drying feature.

Meet the Sound Princess, my personal favorite. If you're making questionable noises in the potty, you need only wave your hand before the sensor on the right to blast loud running water noises to drown out the sound of your activities. Many Japanese women are so embarrassed of their bathroom procedures that they activate the Princess even when only peeing.

So now you know.

Switching topics slightly, today was the day of fabulous Japanese coffee:

Kireina (beautiful) mocha from the Hamac de Paradis, the inexplicably French-named cafe on campus.

The Starbucks special Japanese Coffee Jelly Frappuccino. That's coffee jelly in the bottom; it was totally awesome.

After all the coffee goodness, we went to Toji Temple in southern Kyoto. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Some group shots and Hiroshima

2009-06-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'll start with the fun stuff before traumatizing you. Here are some silly pictures from events I've already discussed, but only recently stole from other people's FaceBook pages:

Small group shot outside the fantastic gates of Nijo-jo (Kyoto's Nijo Castle with squeaky ninja floor). This is our band shot; notice our general nonchalance. (Except for our Japanese tour guide on the far right, who had no clue what we were doing.)

Here's an enthusiastic group in front of the Kinkakuji, my second time visiting. I did a presentation on it in class today that was rather lame. :(

This would be Sakurai, me, Taylor, and Julie's nose down by the river.

Sakurai really likes giving the thumbs-up.

Now on to the depressing bit.

Yesterday we went to Hiroshima. I don't really know what compelled me to go to the site of the biggest atrocity ever committed in history to represent my country, which was responsible, but I felt I needed to go and feel like shit all day for being American. We went to the peace park, where they have the eternal flame, which will burn until complete nuclear disarmament is achieved; the A-Bomb Dome, a structure almost exactly at the epicenter of the explosion- part of which miraculously survived and has since been reinforced to keep it in the state of disrepair into which it fell seconds after the blast; the WWII museum, which was absolutely horrifying; and a graveyard where entire families who perished on that day in 1945 were buried. The magnitude of the devastation was so immense, I can't believe anyone actually survived. Nearly every single building in Hiroshima was completely leveled, save fragments of a few of the larger buildings like today's Genbaku Domu (Atomic Bomb Dome; originally called Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition, designed by Czech architect Jan Letzel, it was one of the few Western-style buildings in the entire city.)

Dome Before:

After:

Today:

In the peace park:

I didn't take any pictures of things like the survivor artwork (which was incredibly graphic) or the pictures of people's injuries from the explosion because I would rather like to erase those images from my consciousness. The museum contained some really disturbing displays, like real singed hair, pieces of deformed fingernails, and sheets of melted-off skin, in addition to clothes dressed on lifesize mannequins and other personal items of children who were killed or injured from the bomb. There were photos of people with the most excruciating burns I've ever seen, with keloids, with their skin literally melting right off their bodies. As graphic as it was, of course, it would be impossible to truthfully discuss the event without elaborating on the toll it took on people's lives. There were videos and audio samples of survivors' testimonials, and we spoke with a man outside the museum whose mother survived the bomb-- with him in utero. I was completely traumatized after walking through the museum, as were my friends. None of us could really speak about it for hours. We're never really taught anything approximating the true details in school, we're only told that our government did what they had to do. I can't think of anything that would justify committing an act so incredibly evil, subjecting people to a veritable apocalypse, a hellish, nightmarish ordeal to mar the rest of their fucked up lives, should they survive long enough to be fortunate enough for PTSD.

To really put the devastation into perspective, the museum contained this to-scale model of Hiroshima before and after the bomb:

There was literally nothing left.

I think I had to drink after seeing all that.

Now that I've made you feel adequately shamed, repulsed, and horrified, I promise to follow this up with a rather lighthearted post.

You will never guess what I did last night

2009-06-14T07:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went on a walking tour around Kyoto. We saw the Kinkakuji (which I've already posted pictures of), Nijo Castle, and some other stuff, the names of which I can't recall.

The gates to Nijo Castle. You're looking at something that cost millions of yen to construct hundreds of years ago due to the amount of gold leaf and intricacy of the carvings. The inside of the castle was incredible, and it had specially designed wood floors that squeak like a bird so the guards would hear any ninjas trying to sneak in. No joke.

The densely packed street we walked up. It was uphill all the way, and way hotter than I'd ever imagined Japan could be. I bought some stuff at some of the stores.

The entrance to the "love rock" area. You're supposed to go up there and walk to a rock with your eyes closed. If you can reach the rock, assuming you won't walk over to the steps and plummet to your death, you're guaranteed love.

Creepy dragon at the well.

Some stuff. (Kiyomizu-deru [pure water temple])

Afterward, we may have had the best night anyone's ever had in Japan, ever. Taylor's language partner Hiro reserved a room for us in a bar on Kiyamachi dori. We decided it was about time to bring beer bong to the college students of Japan. It was not easy finding disposable plastic cups in this country of deathly serious recyclers, but it happened. We had to use a bouncy ball, but it was less catastrophic than I'd anticipated-- we only spilled two beers.

Check out some pics of the night's highlights:

And let the drinking commence. This place was awesome-- it was only 3000 yen (about thirty five bucks) per person to rent this room for two hours. During your time slot, they bring you more food than you can even begin to comprehend, and unlimited beer. There are actually a lot of restaurants and other places that do this, but this particular place had private rooms for large parties.

Look at all that crazy food. I didn't think they were ever going to stop bringing more in.

Observing round one.

Reppin' UNO.

Taylor Potter gettin' down.

Me preparing to shoot, and probably also saying something stupid.

Saki looking totally horrified by the raucous Americans.

At some point, we crashed another room's party when we realized we weren't even the loudest group in the building. Seriously, the American college students playing beer pong were not louder than these guys.

Afterward, we went down to the Kamogawa where all the college students and gaijin hang out.

There was a band playing, and people drinking everywhere. At some point we all jumped in the river.

It was then that Taylor and I decided to go on an epic no-hotel Tokyo trip next weekend. I will keep you posted.

Here's some more stuff

2009-06-12T01:20:00.001-07:00

Some more cool stuff that we did this week:

These are two of the bartenders at the coolest bar in the world, Dot Three, which is conveniently located almost directly across the street from our dorm. They like Americans, and they even speak a little bit of English.

This is a shot from the seemingly endless pedestrian mall on Teramachi St.

Only a small taste of the infinite and bizarre things sold at said market.

They make pickles out of every kind of food you can imagine, and some you can't.

Us with two of our "tour guides" for the night- Eriko and Yuria. They're students at the university we're studying at.

Ichio- the best ramen in Kyoto. Located next door to the best bar in Kyoto, which is located pretty much next door to us. We win.

Renae and I found "dirty Kyoto," the nonresidential, bustling, slightly sketchy area around Gion. It feels like home.

This is a picture from the Sanjusangen-do, or Temple of 1001 Buddhas. There really are that many, and I had to steal this image from a random online source because they don't allow photos. This place was nuts, and full of statues of gods from ancient Japanese mythology.

Tonight, a few of us are going to a mystery bar (because we have no idea yet where it is) to meet some of our Japanese friends from school. Tomorrow, we tour shrines and temples around Kyoto and show Japanese college students how to play beer pong. I'm trying to decide whether or not to go to Hiroshima on Sunday because it costs $250 for the two hour train ride. This weekend should produce some pretty awesome pictures.

Some of the things I've been up to

2009-06-11T02:21:00.000-07:00

Now I'm just going to post some random pictures and talk about them because I'm beginning to lose any grasp of the English language I once possessed. My English is getting worse, while my Japanese is not getting much better. For your viewing pleasure:

We went to a conveyor belt sushi place, known as keitan-zushi here in Nippon.

This guy would be a familiar friend to anyone eats a lot of Asian food in the states- meet the maneki neko, or welcoming cat, that usually hangs out in the window of restaurants, beckoning you to enter. There was an entire store full of these on Teramachi.

The two preceeding pictures are of the amazing Kinkakuji, or Golden Temple. It was burned to the ground by a sociopathic monk and rebuilt in the early fifties. We're currently reading The Temple of the Golden Pavillion by Yukio Mishima, a fictionalized account of this event. It's an incredible novel, by the way, as is pretty much any of his work.

Some of us jumped the gun and went to see the temple before the rest of the group. I have to do a presentation on it as part of my honors option, so I wanted to see it in advance. We're going back as a large group this Saturday. Some of my favorite people on this trip, left to right: Owen, me, Ms. McKee, Jacqui, Judy, and Renae. An extremely enthusiatic elderly Japanese man took this picture for us when he saw Owen trying to take it.

I stumbled upon the only vegetarian restaurant in Kyoto while being pissed off waiting for Taylor to finish shopping. It looks like every other vegetarian restaurant I have ever been to ever, regardless of location.

Living up to our well-deserved Amerika-jin reputation of being loud, drunk, and obnoxious, we went out clubbing last weekend. I'm sure I'll have more pictures of the debauchery to post once everyone uploads their pics.

This is matcha (green tea) ice cream. They have the craziest sweets here, including and not limited to puffed rice, mochi, jellies, and various sweet bean creations.

More to follow.

Weekend fun times

2009-06-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Friday night was karaoke night number two. I knew it was off to a great start when Renae tried to order whiskey and 7up, and we ended up with seven whiskeys. Enjoy the following random karaoke pictures:

These are before we really started getting down, whereas the following are representative of the night as a whole:

I think we were singing that Limp Bizkit song "Nookie" in this one. lol

The next day was pretty low-impact in comparison.

Some of our language partners came with us to Nara, and some acted as tour guides.

We went to Nara yesterday. In case you haven't heard, they have a thing for deer there.

Said Nara deer.

These deer are so used to people that they aren't afraid of anything. I saw them eat a French man's pamphlet right out of his hand. They sell deer cookies at the park for you to feed them, but the deer get quite aggressive. Well, as aggressive as deer can get.

Taylor was quickly mugged by deer.

There were also some amazing temples and shrines. And lanterns everywhere, mostly made of stone.

This is a famous pagoda, the name of which I forgot.

This is the biggest Buddha in the world, and also the largest bronze statue in the world. It stands something like 49 meters high.

After we left Nara, a group of us went to a club in downtown Kyoto that was pretty crazy. We met some Japanese students from Doshisha there at about midnight (we took the last subway to Shijo). It was totally nuts, even for a Saturday night. It trumped most of the clubs I've been to, even in New Orleans. We listened to some DJs spin some horrible remixes of some terrible songs and met a bunch of students from all over the world, many studying at the same college we go to. The guys we were with were instantly flooded by Japanese girls hitting on them, but us white girls got hit on by other Westerners. lol Japanese men do not seem to find gaijin women attractive at all, while Japanese girls love American guys. It's kind of cool and also semi-disconcerting to be so invisible all the time- Judy said she feels like the elephant man, and we can all relate. Though we'd been scared into thinking that the takushii (taxi, lol) would be outrageously expensive, the cab home was cheap, about five bucks each when split a couple ways.

On a different note, I wanted to mention rice balls, particularly my intense newfound love for them.

My typical school snack. This rice ball is umeboshi, pickled plum flavor. It's fabulous.

Renae makes some poor beverage decisions, this being one of them. It was among the other cartons, blending in rather innocuously, but this is one tea to be avoided, for sure. It's made from barley and tastes like ass. The picture on the package is pretty funny- Renae was like "Oops, I think I just bought some breast milk," but I'm pretty sure it's trying to communicate that it has no caffeine and is okay for breastfeeding moms to drink.

I think the plan for tomorrow is to do some light shopping and find some decent sushi, the latter sounding pretty easy in theory, being in Japan and all, but sushi is really just not that common here. We're staying in a pretty traditional, straight-laced town, and sushi is something that is mostly enjoyed in the big cities by tourists and younger people. Hand rolls are more common, which is when the rice and fillings are wrapped in nori in a cone shape, much easier to do at home and crappy hole in the wall restaurants than the tightly rolled maki-zushi that Americans are used to seeing at Japanese restaurants.

Stay tuned! Sayonara.

It's been a few days

2009-06-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

I've been way busier than I expected to be. I'm working hard and partying hard, and when I get home, I'm asleep almost before I hit the bed. Since I last updated, we've gone to Osaka, and done much more partying. Osaka is much bigger city than Kyoto, filled with shops and restaurants. It's known as the "kitchen of Japan," famous for its food, and, being a port city, Osaka is also known for being a major center of commerce. Kyoto is much more quiet, traditional, and residential, retaining much of its history because it was spared from bombing during WWII. Osaka, however, was firebombed and rebuilt, and turned into a crowded, bustling city. There is a castle in Osaka, the palace of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the mid-1500's, which now overlooks the entire, industrial city.

Osaka castle, which contains a museum.

Afterwards, we grabbed some food in the downtown area of Osaka. We went to a place to get okonomi yashi- pancake-like fritters made with egg and veggies and usually topped with meat of some kind. It was pretty gross.

This is us pretending to be sad about how not-good the oko was after Mary-san built it up all day. Paul ruined the effect with his general glee.

It looked way gross while it was cooking, a weird, blobular mess we cooked ourselves on a grill in the middle of the table.

After we were allowed to split from the group, we went to downtown Osaka, rode the world's largest ferris wheel:

...partied with some pirates:

...got rained on a bunch:

...found the only water fountain in Japan:

...and discovered where the fun lives:

Also, I wanted to point out that while in New Orleans we think our water meter covers got it goin' on, Osaka totally has us way beat:

In all, we had a fulfilling Osaka experience. I'd like to spend more time there, as it's way cooler (in terms of entertainment) than Kyoto, and the far is less than $4 for the hour train ride. Also, I should mention that it'ss famous for being the place where the concept of ninjas originated.

Tomorrow some of us are going to try to rent some bikes, but we'll need to convince a bi-lingual Japanese person to come with us, otherwise we'll never accomplish such a feat. I plan to go shopping and go over to the Gion district, which were the geishas live.

Sayonara,
Christine

Partying

2009-05-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Let me begin by saying that last night I drank way too much. We went to a bar called Lucifer's (or Beelze-pub, as I like to call it) that had no Japanese beer for some reason, so we were forced to order $8 Coronas. There was a group of rowdy business men in the tiny place. This bar was just way too expensive, so we went to the grocery store for reinforcements of the alcoholic persuasion.

Much drinking ensued.

By the way, there are American fast food joints everywhere, but they all vary in slight, yet important ways. The Pizza Hut we stopped at offered really weird toppings like mayo, a variety of seafood, and, most notably, bacon in the crust:

Observe Harry Potter (aka Taylor) modeling the bacon crust pizza slice. Interestingly, all the Japanese girls at school love this boy because he looks like Harry Potter. They get really excited about it.

This extra-strong fellow is mostly responsible for this morning's massive hangover. The caption reads "This hard and clear taste gives you the great feeling."

Here I am experiencing the great feeling.

This evening we went to a welcome ceremony at Doshisha. We were served really great food and got to dress up. Afterwards, we decided to hit up the karaoke bar about three blocks from the dorm. We are definintely going back. I only took a couple crappy pictures tonight, but everyone else took a million more which I will be uploading soon.

They put you into small rooms for privacy. The Japanese are very private, and there are sometimes bamboo shades at the more traditional restaraunts/bars to hide yourself behind. When we told the Japanese girls with us that when you sing karaoke in America, you're singing in front of a large bar full of people, they freaked out and said they would be waaaaaay too embarrassed to ever do that.

One of our language partners from school who was nice enough to agree to accompany us to the karaoke bar. Without them, we would have had absolutely no idea what was going on or how to navigate the situation. They were awesome, and even called ahead to make a reservation for our large group.

The karaoke place is really cheap. Since we went on a Friday night, it was more expensive than usual, but it was under $8 each for two hours, plus they give you an infinite amount of free sodas and alcoholic drinks from a limited menu. I asked her to surprise me, and ended up with some kind of melon soda and shochu liquor (similar to sake, usually served watered down or in mixed drinks) cocktail, which was pretty good.

We're definitely going to be going back all the time.

2009-05-28T03:38:00.000-07:00

The first day of classes went really well. I'm taking an English class (Japanese literature in translation) and a philsophy class (shame and honor.) I have about two hours between them, which is perfect for eating lunch and meeting with my language partner Sachi. The language partner thing is a great idea- we are paired off with Japanese students we meet with several times a week for lunch. They get to practice their English on us and we get to ask them how to say important things in Japanese, figure out the bus routes, and find cool stuff like the thrift stores we went to today. There is so much to do in Kyoto, and we did some light exploring today.

The campus is beautiful and very lush with foliage.

The buildings are quite large and impressive.

Everyone rides bikes here. The campus is completely lined with them.

The inside of an ornate pavillion we ducked under when it started to drizzle.

There is a large garden with shrines right outside the campus.

This was a particularly impressive shrine.

And another.

One inside campus. There's also a chapel (Doshisha is actually a Catholic university, built right next to Buddhist shrines and temples) which I did not take a picture of, but plan to. I want to go to a service-- it's got to be quite interesting to experience a Japanese Catholic service.

My lunch at the noodle shop. The udon noodles are served over ice cubes, and it comes with sides like green onions, seaweed, and a shoyu sauce to dip the noodles for flavor. There were strips of scrambled egg on top and fried rice on the side. All of the restaraunts have pictures of the food, which makes it incredibly convenient to order things when you don't speak the language. Paying can be challenging, especially when the check is written out in katakana.

When we got back home, we went to the Kyoto Coop near the Shugakukan to buy groceries. I bought fruit, yogurt, and bread for breakfast, and was quite pleased with myself when I figured out which carton was soymilk. I couldn't distinguish the regular milk from the multitudes of other interesting carton-ed beverages, but the beans on the package hinted at the contents.

Of course I also bought beer. Instead of a six pack, I figured buying a selection would be more exciting. I've never tried the Strong Seven (seven percent alcohol) or the Yebisu, but the rest of these brands (Sapporo, Kirin, and Asahi) can be found in the states.

Someone just knocked on my door to go party in the common area. Another update to follow soon.

Day 2

2009-05-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

Early today we checked out the campus, but I was too tired and spaced out to take many pictures of that. I was just trying to absorb everything. I will be going to the campus every weekday for the next month, so I will have plenty of opportunities to capture the beautiful campus and the nearby Kyoto Botanical Garden and shrines. After the orientation and tours, we headed to the Kyoto shopping district- Shinjo Kawaramachi. After the somewhat official group tour, we broke off into smaller groups to pursue our own interests. My group decided, of course, that we needed to hit a bar- we asked a young blonde guy Izakaya wa doku desu ka? and found an awesome place with traditional seating on the floor and bamboo curtains for semi-privacy. The waiter was super cool and very patient and even highly amused by our broken Japanese. Kirin o kudasai!

Aforementioned Kirin.

We found an awesome record store on top of a t-shirt shop with punk, oi, psychobilly, and Japanese punk and metal.

Some flyers from the shop.

In case you were considering fornicating in the shopping area. Maybe missionary position is allowed?

Disrepectful samurai. This was in front of an actual shrine in the middle of the shopping area. There were monks inside praying and chanting, and a wishing well were you toss in coins, ring the bell three times, and meditate.

The Japanese I'm learning is already beginning to stick; I'm learning to think in Japanese and am becoming more and more able to question and communicate just by being constantly immersed. Fewer people understand English than I expected (with the exception of students), but navigating is much easier than I'd anticipated, even with next to nothing written in English (though the buses are notoriously confusing, even for Japanese people visiting from other parts of the country.)

I am so tired I can feel the bags under my eyes weighing down my face, and I need to prepare for my first day of class in the morning.

Sayonara.

Christine

Some early morning ramblings

2009-05-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

One interesting tidbit that I forgot to mention is that on the plane ride to Korea, the flight attendants served green tea and octopus for breakfast. That was pretty much the point at which it really hit me that I was in Asia.

So the dorm we're staying in is super nice and very traditional. Dr. Krenn (the program director and a native of Japan and graduate from this university) said that this building is very old school and you won't encounter many living accomodations like it anymore. There's a closet for our shoes at the entrance, slippers to wear around the building, the steepest, narrowest stairs in the world leading up to the girls' second floor dorms, and a nice kitchen with lots of tea kettles. The showers and bathrooms are very Japanese- the toilet seats are even heated! I don't really like the warm toilet seats, as it makes it feel all icky and recently-used, but I can appreciate how it would be nice in the winter when it's freezing and there are no heaters.

Today, we have an orientation to explore the campus (which has actually been closed due to the swine flu scare [or chocon du flu as Mark calls it], so we'll have it all to ourselves at first.) We're also going to walk around the city a bit. We found a karoake bar about a block away from the dorm, which I plan to hit up in the very near future, and as often as possible. The area we're staying in is a very nice, seemingly wealthy residential section, and we're very close to the bustling downtown shopping, with a fancy Whole Foods-esque grocery store and konbini (convenience store) very close nearby, and a post office with an international ATM. Everything is walking or biking distance.

I'll probably be updating later tonight with pictures from the orientation and city tour. Classes start tomorrow. I'm going for an early morning walk (I'm awake uncharacteristically early at 5AM because I'm still jet-lagged and time-confused.)

Konnichiwa.
Christine

I've arrived.

2009-05-26T00:24:00.000-07:00

After a seriously epic journey, I've finally arrived in Kyoto, Japan to my dorm room at about 4PM (2AM May 25th in New Orleans). We took a plane from New Orleans to Los Angeles, then to Soeul, Korea, then to Osaka, Japan. From Osaka we took a train to downtown Kyoto, then a bus to the Shugakukan (the name of the dorm for Doshisha University). It took over 48 hours total, but we all made it in one piece. Here are some pictures of the journey here:

The airport in Korea is the nicest one I've ever seen. It looks like a museum.

This is me looking triumphant after finally arriving in Kyoto and getting through customs.

The train station in Kyoto is amazing, and....

...it has a freaking Cafe du Monde in it! No joke.

Here are some pictures I took on the train ride from the station to the bus depot:

Finally, here are some pictures of my dorm room:

And one of the amazing view from my dorm room window:

We have a reservation at a neighborhood restaurant in about half an hour, and I'll probably be back on to do a proper update with actual information tonight when I get back, but I just wanted to upload some pictures first to get the blog ball rolling.