5 April 2009

I slept in until 11am this morning, and it felt so good! Yesterday involved a lot more walking than I have done in a really long time, so a good night’s rest was expected. I didn’t have anything definite planned for today, so my roommate and I started the afternoon by going grocery shopping. I was really only planning to buy bread for the week and a roll for breakfast, but we got lost and ended up finding a different grocery store. It was really reasonable, and I ended up buying 1000 yen worth of groceries. This was the first time I have gotten fruit since arriving in Japan as well, so that was exciting. I got five bananas for 100 yen and six tangerines for 198 yen. Good deal huh?!? I also bought a small carton of low fat milk for 158 yen and a small two pack of tofu for 88 yen. Finally, I purchased four different types of sembei for 100 yen each. Now my roommate and I have plenty of snacks in our room so we don’t have to eat out for every meal. I ended up buying a small loaf of bread at the convenience store on my way back as well for 231 yen.
After our massive grocery excursion, we met up with Norio to visit a temple located close to our hotel. It was called the Kiyomizu Temple, and it also had the Temple of the Waterfall on its premise. Kiyomizu Temple is one of the most well-known Buddhist temples in Kyoto, and it was packed with people. Since it was the weekend, it was really hard to even walk around since there were so many people out on the streets. We had to pay 300 yen to get into the temple grounds, and once inside, we realized that the famous temple was actually open for viewing. It cost an additional 100 yen, but according to Norio, it is only opened every 24 or 33 years for visitors to view, depending on the religious calendar, so it was a first time for all of us. We were so lucky to be visiting during such a special time.
We saw the Temple of the Waterfall next, and we had to wait in line for about 30 minutes to catch the water in the waterfall. It was a mere stone platform up a set of stairs, and three waterfalls fell from above into a pond below. Visitors used the cups on sticks to catch water from the waterfall and proceeded to drink it for longevity and health. While watching from the long line, I thought it seemed very unsanitary to be drinking from the same cups. Once I got to the top of the temple however, the cups were being cleaned with an ultraviolet light system. It almost made me laugh since the high tech gadget looked very out of place in the temple, but I’m glad the Japanese continued to be as clean as possible. Trudy and I followed the traditional routine, and it was a neat experience.
Next, we revisited the Cherry Blossom Festival in Maruyama Park. It was much busier than when Trudy and I had visited it last time, and it was nice to see the festival during the day for a change. It was Norio’s first time seeing it, so he took lots of pictures. We all ate takoyaki, and it was just as good as the first time I had tried it. On the way back to our hotel, we walked through the Gion Geisha District again. We unfortunately didn’t see a geisha this time, but the cherry blossoms were so beautiful! This area was just as crowded as the rest of the city, but we were still able to get some great photos.
The rest of my evening was spent in the hotel hanging out with Trudy. We tidied up our room a bit, and I uploaded photos while she scrapbooked. I think we are both still exhausted from our extensive traveling and hiking yesterday, but it was well worth it nonetheless. For dinner, we just went down to the convenient store next door, and I bought a daikon seaweed salad for 199 yen and one nigiri for 105 yen. Since we can’t read the kanji labels on the nigiri, it is a surprise every time we pick one. Neither of us ended up knowing what was inside of our’s, even after we bit into them. I think mine was some sort of seaweed tsukemono, but I’m not 100% sure; it was very tasty, and I would get it again, especially since it was the cheapest one there!
The remainder of the night was spent doing Japanese homework. It took a bit longer since we began the katakana section of the book. None of us know katakana, so it is making everything much harder to complete. I wish we had more time to spend memorizing hiragana and katakana, but it always seems more beneficial in the long run to spend our free time exploring the city and the culture. I have been in Japan for eleven days now, and I don’t think I will ever run out of things to see and do before I move to the next city. As for now, I will go to bed early since tomorrow starts yet another week of new opportunities, adventures, and class.