we woke up so early today i can’t even THINK. anyway today started out with breakfast at the hotel, and then a bus ride to a zen meditation temple was how we began our morning. a monk guided us through the session where we had two fifteen minute meditation sessions.

i’ve meditated in the past, and honestly it’s not really for me. i feel like my mind is constantly moving, and it’s always too active to just calm down. i always find myself getting bored and can’t really push through that to achieve that zen state. but this time was actually pretty awesome. i felt myself getting into the zone, and really focusing on my breathing and the soft sounds of nature. when i noticed that my mind started to wander i asked the monk to whack me with his meditating stick (i totally forget what it’s called ?) twice in between my shoulder blades. this allowed me to feel more alert, but specifically in regards to meditating. it was awesome.

after that we headed to a temple (but not before accidentally forgetting skyler, whoops) that had 1,001 golden statues. they were all so intricately detailed and it’s said that one even looks like you. i managed to pick up a souvenir for my brother, and then me and jas headed out to the gardens to walk through them and take some photos. yuko still had us on a tight leash and quickly pulled us to the next area on our agenda.

we headed to a similar place near kiyomizu dera temple and walked the streets visiting less popular shrines, while the other half of the class participated in a tea ceremony. at this point i was starting to get a little cranky because i was pretty tired. but i pushed through because, honestly, how many times am i going to be in japan??? when it was our groups turn for the tea ceremony i wasn’t all too thrilled, because i’m not that big of a tea person either… i’m really 0/2 on these huh. the ceremony was lovely though, and we learned about wa kei sei jaku which means peace & harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility, which are the lessons to be learned from making the matcha tea.

following that we had plenty of free time to traverse the nishiki market. i got some beef skewers and they were so. good. ugh. i was hanging out mostly with belle, megan, and katherine and it was really fun! at one point sj got a wagyu beef skewer because he wanted to try it, but was willing to give the rest up to everyone else. unfortunately before anyone could have any katherine dropped it on the ground. it was super funny, but i tried not to laugh since i could tell she felt really bad about it. no harm no foul, but still pretty hilarious.

after that was bowling at round one, and i absolutely demolished during the first game. i played the best bowling game of my LIFE. with no bumpers either!!! unfortunately my winning streak ended abruptly and i never recovered. also me, belle, and megan were all pretty tired, and as lovely as waruni was, we really wanted to just go back to the hotel and sleep. belle won the second game, and in a surprise comeback waruni managed to steal the win from megan in the third and final game. all in all it was a solid day, but i look forward to what tomorrow has in store.