14 April 2009

I woke up to the sound of rain today, so I was unenthused about the thought of our day trip to Shugakuin Villa in the wet weather. Nonetheless, my group of four had an appointment to tour the Imperial Villa at 1:30pm, so we were meeting Don at 10am to tour the area around the Villa beforehand. First, we visited Manshuin Monzeki. It was a very peaceful teahouse and shrine with a beautiful Zen garden. We ended up running into another group from our class, since they had the 9am appointment at Shugakuin Imperial Villa. Next, we visited Shisen-do, and this was a short walk away from Manshuin Monzeki. This was a hybrid between Buddhist and Zen architecture and landscape. Similar to what we saw at Manshuin Monzeki, there was a beautiful and peaceful Zen garden. The rain made outdoor photographing very difficult, but the indoor space was equally enjoyable. It was very calming to sit on the veranda of the building, beneath the roof overhang, and listen to the rain falling in the garden. In order to make sure we arrived at Shugakuin Imperial Villa early, we left Shisen-do at noon. We picked up lunch at a to-go bento box place, and it was an amazing deal. My bento box had cabbage salad, potato salad, tsukemono, rice, and tempura for only 480 yen!
We arrived at Shugakuin Imperial Villa 15 minutes early as planned and once again received the really stylish audio headsets to hear the tour in English. It was raining fairly decently, and walking down the narrow paths with a bunch of other people with umbrellas made things very complicated. There were three villas within the overall Shugakuin Imperial Villa, and they were each very nice. They were separated from each other however, so the walk in between the Villas was less pleasant since it was normal farmland and whatnot. By the end of the tour, my feet and jeans were completely soaking wet.
The last stop on our day trip was a visit to the Kyoto University of Art and Design. It was a long walk to the university, but we saved the cost of catching the bus; most of the sites we now visit are not easily accessible from the subway or train since they tend to be more rural sites. It was a long rainy walk, but we were going to see a building done by Kengo Kuma. The building was the art and design building in the heart of the campus, and the exterior was quite monumental in scale. It was built on a very steep site, and we had to walk up a straight flight of stairs to reach each level. It additionally had a green roof which I really liked. The interior, on the other hand, was less than appealing. The interior of each floor was painted a different shade of pastel, and it looked and felt absolutely flat and stark. It was such a disappointment when contrasted with the façade. To get back to Kyoto Station to get back to our weekly mansion, we opted to take the bus since it would cut the cost of transportation by at least 75% compared to the subway. The bus was extremely crowded, and we rode it for 45 minutes. It only cost us 270 yen though, so it was definitely worth it.
Today was also Trudy’s birthday, so we five of us went out to dinner at a Korean grill. Basically, we each ordered a meat dish, it came out raw on a plate, and we each got to cook it ourselves on a gas grill at our table. Jeff and I are both adventurous with food, so we decided we would each order a dish and share in order to try more things. We decided upon one safe dish and one new dish: beef brisket and beef windpipe. They both turned out to be very delicious! The windpipe had a very hard and rubbery texture, but the sauce that it was sautéed in really made the difference in taste. Next time, I am already planning on trying beef intestines, since I already know from my trip to Taiwan that I like pork intestines. I still haven’t had the opportunity to each raw horse either, so I will have to do that before I leave Kyoto as well.
The rest of my night was spent working on my architecture studio project with Trudy and doing laundry. It is really convenient to have the washing machine in our own rooms, and my laundry dried within an hour and a half in the shower with the clothes drying setting on. We have another project presentation due tomorrow, so we were able to get that done by 1am. I just hope it will stop raining so we don’t have to walk to language class and then studio in the rain tomorrow.