In Kyoto we stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. Here we were served lovely Japanese food in our room every morning and every evening. Kyoto was a fantastic site to see - although we went through it in typical Japanese-style speed. Our schedule was extremely tight! I now understand why Japanese tourists take so many pictures. I think it helps them remember where they were, what they saw and in a way spend more time at the sightseeing spots. For example, Francesco and I were rushed from a temple - where we spent 20 minutes because we actually looked at all the beautiful statues and read about them - so that we could sit in the bus and wait for 10 minutes... before being driven to a street where we spent four four! hours shopping! I could have screamed.
Roommates in KyotoStill, it was amazing to actually be in Kyoto and see so many temples and old historical buildings in the middle of a modern Japanese city. I even went to Gion, the most well-known geisha district in Japan, for about 10 minutes. Yeah! I did manage to see to geishas, though. I even ran after them and snapped two pictures! Go me. We also saw the Rokuon-ji (kinkaku-ji) temple. That was incredible! There was no sunshine that day, but it didn't matter. Wow!
The golden pavillion
Geishas in Gion!In Kobe we went to a beautiful flower garden. Francesco and I got seperated from the group when we litterally took the time to smell the flowers. This lead to some panic on our teachers side, because we ended up ten minutes late... In the mean time, Francesco and I had met with some girls from an all-girl high school in Osaka, took pictures with them and walked down to the rope way station (we were transported up there by rope way) where our names got called over the PA system.
With school girls from Osaka
Universial Studios - duh.Oh, and the teacher (whom I just refer to as Onibaba, demon woman,) caught my friends and me staying up in our room watching Spider Man 3 when we should have been sleeping. We all hurried under our covers, and I hid my mp3 player and lens stuff under the covers with me. When she came in I made gave her my best "sleepy voice" act, looking at her with small, "oh-so-sleepy" eyes. Great success! ...Although trouble arose when she drew away my covers and I rolled around trying to shove my hidden things under my pillow... ahem. I'm almost certain she saw or heard something, but she didn't say anything except for the toothpaste I didn't manage to save. We apologized (OK, one of my roommates did) and got a retort along the lines of "that's just words!" before she marched out. This was followed by silent snickering when she'd gone and whispers of "onibaba~!". I was just dissapointed we weren't made to sit in seiza as the rumors had it we would be... That would have been an even better story to tell! XD
Otoosan's reply when I told him this story?
"Well that's what school trips are supposed to be like, isn't it?"
...I love my host family!
Location: Japan
Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Snow Patrol - You Could Be Happy
Watching: Gunslinger Girl (anime) OK, so I just finished watching it...
3 comments:
Why does it seem like the Japanese school kids get to do a lot more exciting stuff than we do.. :(
...That's because you're not there for the endless cooking and cake baking lessons where the teacher keeps talking and you end up doing next to nothing because there's four people on your group and only one dough to make. ;)
Still, we do have a lot of interesting classes. We have a special schedule that allows us to try several different ones while the Japanese students have to choose, but it's still a very different selection from what I have in Norway. Although I like the subjects I take in Norway too. ^^ (There I have art, for one.) I'd say both countries have their strengths. ;)
You've got great legs! Just look at them in the picture with all the schoolgirls from Osaka, and tell me if I'm wrong.
nuss
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