Hey all! I just got into Kyoto yesterday after a 11.5 hour flight from SFO. A group of students from SCTI got a taxi to drive us straight from the Kansai airport to the Co-op Inn at the heart of downtown Kyoto, where we're staying for three nights for Orientation before we get sent off to our host families.
This was my first breakfast in Japan from this morning! Yay!
Today we met our SCTI faculty and staff, had an orientation at Doshisha University (our host campus), and saw some of the sights in Kyoto. We took a walk through the Imperial Palace area, and saw that the famous cherry blossoms are in full bloom!
We also explored some of northeastern Kyoto, and these are some of the things we saw!
The Sanmon Enlightenment Gate at Nanzen-ji. We took off our shoes and climbed up super-steep stairs to the top, where we had a fantastic view of Kyoto and all its blossoming cherry trees. So pretty!
Heian-jingu, a bright orange shrine that was modeled after the original Kyoto imperial palace (the original was much bigger).
And a smaller group of us broke off afterwards to do the Philosopher's Walk, which was beautiful!
(by the way, the last three aren't my pictures; my camera ran out of batteries, so I looked them up online)
We had dinner in that area and found our way back to the inn by bus and subway despite not being able to read street signs! I think I'm learning a lot about how to get around without knowing a lot of Japanese. It's really exciting!
5 comments:
Mmm, miso for breakfast?
Spectacular. Have a great time little cousin.
hahahaa i was about to say that your pictures turned out reallly really well too! xD
it sounds like you're having a good time so far, and i'm amazed that you guys were able to find your way back to the inn without help! wowww! =D
I went to all those places when I was in Kyoto. Yeah...to be honest I got totally bored of temples while in Kyoto. The most worthwhile ones definitely are kyomizudera, and kinkakuji.
Make sure not to take the wrong bus, or to take a bus that you have to transfer unless it's really far, you'll end up paying like $2 for 1 block.
Man...I'm Soooooooooo jealous!! haha. But I'm glad that you're over there, and that you got to see the Cherry Blossoms! Its incredibly Natsukashii hearing about your experience in Japan...in fact, its so Natsukashii that its actually painful. =P Anyway, have a great time in Japan Janet, I know you will!
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