Another early morning today, heading towards a temple for some mediation! As a nice change of pace from the packed schedule of the previous day, we began the day with 2 Zazen mediation sessions. A monk taught us the practice of Zazen mediation, which involves sitting upright cross legged and in a focused stance. By counting to 10 repeatedly, we are able to meditate and clear our minds of troubling thoughts. During the first session, my legs fell painfully asleep so I was a bit distracted. However, for the second session I adjusted my seating position and found a way to sit comfortably and actually mediate. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience and a very relaxing way to start the day.
After meditation, we headed back the the Kiyomizu temple area for a tea ceremony. While the other group participated in the ceremony, we explored the area a bit further and got a stunning view of a pagoda-style buddhist temple.
Then, it was our turn for tea! During the ceremony we learned how to make traditional matcha tea and the steps of conducting the ceremony, and we even got to taste the tea and a Japanese sweet. Another relaxing and enlightening activity!
Finally, we ended the day with some delicious food at Nishiki market before resting and then going bowling with some people from KCG. While I definitely wasn’t the best at bowling, I also wasn’t the worst and by the last game I had improved a lot!
We started our day with a morning zazen meditation, which was led by a Buddhist monk. Secondly, we went to Sanjusangendo, a Buddhist temple known for having 1001 Buddhas. After that, we went back to the same area Kiyomizu-dera Temple was in and split into two groups. The first group, which I was in, went around the town on a tour to look at Kyoto’s architecture and went to another two shrines. After that, we participated in a tea ceremony where we were shown what a traditional tea ceremony looks like and then got to make our own tea. The second group did the same things as us but in the opposite order. Afterward, we went to the (whatever the market was called), which is known for its street foods and goods. Although the food looked delicious, the crowded area was overwhelming, so I ended up grabbing food somewhere else. After that, we went bowling with the staff helping with the game jam. I competed with Maddy and Toshi. I got completely owned by the two of them.
As for the super duper truly important parts of the day, I had another boxed breakfast given to us by the hotel. It consisted of toast with ham and lettuce, a chocolate croissant, a mini loaf of bread, two pieces of sausage, fried fish, a fried egg, and pickled shredded carrots.
During the tea ceremony, we had a sweet that was hard on the outside, but once bitten, its true soft and chewy nature became apparent. The yellow stripe in the middle is yuzu, a tangy citrus similar to grapefruit. For the tea, we had matcha that we made from hot water and powder. The sweets only made the matcha taste more bitter, but the bitterness was never overwhelming. These two contrasting tastes paired well together.
For dinner at the market. I have a steak with corn, rice, and fries. The steak was amazing and very cheap in comparison to the steak I’ve had in the United States. It was very juicy and flavorful, which was yummy to have with the mellow side items.
For dinner after bowling, I hit up 7-11 again and got a rice ball with chicken and vegetable filling. Although it was not the most delicious thing I had eaten on this trip, I could see how this item would be popular with office workers who are too tired to cook and happen to have a convenient 7-11 located on their way back home from work. It was cheap, good tasting, and on the healthier side.
Tomorrow is our free day, and we will finally get to meet the KCG students we’ll be working with!!
This day was the most hectic day of my entire life. We visited four distinct places: Kinkaku-ji Shrine, which is known for the golf leaf covering the building and the phoenix situated at the top; Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, which was a beautiful area filled to the brim with bamboo; Kiyomizu-dera Temple, which is a Buddhist temple on top of a hill, making the view breathtaking; and finally, Fushimi-Inari Temple, which is a Shinto shrine known for its thousands of red gates. Every single place we went to was so amazing, but going to all of those places in the span of 12 hours was brutal. Still, I greatly enjoyed that day and am thankful for being able to visit every place we went to that day. After our long day, we went to Kyoto Computer Gakuin to watch Mugin Train in their auditorium.
Now, in terms of food, I started out the day with a boxed breakfast provided by the hotel we were staying at. The box came with a croissant, and muffin, bread with raw fish and onions, pickled beets, an omelet, and some ham. Every piece of this boxed breakfast was delicious. The croissant was buttery and flaky, the muffin was sweet, and the tangy pickled beets paired nicely with the sweet ham.
For lunch, I got pork tonkatsu with rice and eggs. This really hit the spot after walking around so much. Because it was so protein heavy, this meal easily got me through the rest of the day until we watched Mugin Train at KCG.
After watching the movie, we went to Aeon Mall to grab late-night dinner from the food court. I ended up getting Korean fried chicken which was supper good. It was just the right amount of spicy and filling including the bed of rice it was placed on. It was also nice to help wake me up after watching a two-hour movie late into the night.
Today was our busiest day. Although I appreciate being able to see and experience so much in one day, I am glad all of our other days here are less jam-packed than this one so I can get some rest and relaxation in the near future.
So after our temple day, we had another early morning wake up. I got up at 7 and headed down for breakfast at 730am. I’m started to get used to the time zone which is cool but I kinda liked waking up that early. It was nice to have so much time to relax and see empty places. Also it’s gonna make readjusting to New Jersey so much harder.
Now that I’m done with my tangent, our first activity of the day was a Zazen mediation with a monk. Zazen is a mediation style that has the participant cross their legs, breathe through their nose, have a straight posture, and eyes half closed. We walked into the temple to be greeted by the head monk who would direct us. We took off our shoes and walked into the temple. He told us some history of the temple and zazen, gave is a demonstration, and we started. Two 15 minutes sessions were planned for us.
The first 15 minutes went fine for me, however I lost feeling in my left leg since we were sitting with each foot on our thighs. Also the monk was walking around with this wooden stick ( that I’m currently forgetting the name of) and if you wanted you could bow down and he would hit your shoulders with the stick to refocus you.
The second session was better since I did a regular criss cross Apple sauce pose for my legs but my shoulder did really hurt near the end so I volunteered to get whacked. It actually felt really good on my shoulders. After our meditation we all got some goodies from the temple and left.
Here’s Ritchie meditating. ( Photo creds to Todd)
After mediation we headed back towards the Kiyomizu temple area ( from the day before) and had a tea ceremony! We had to split up into 2 groups since we’re a large group so half did tea first other did some walking and then we switched. I was in the walking group first and we got to see some more temples and cool old architecture. We also saw a Pokémon sewer cover! It was a 40 minute walk. I didn’t expect to be outside that much so I ended up with a little red on my face but it’s ok.
After our walk we had the tea ceremony. It was a fantastic experience where the host showed us the proper way to prepare matcha tea and how to act in the tea room. She was so pretty in her kimono and spoke very good English. After her presentation we got the opportunity to have some tea sweets and make our own matcha tea. I haven’t had matcha tea before but it was really good!
After the tea ceremony we headed to Nishiki market around 12:30. It’s a very famous market with a lot of food vendors. I got some snoopy themed taiyaki and some steak on a stick. This is where we were let free to explore until about 6pm.
In my free time, Kat and I decided to go to the nearby Pokemon Center. It was about 5 minutes away by walking but we had to wait 50 minutes to get into the store. Once we got in I grabbed some cool items and some plushies and waited 45 minutes to check out. It was a cool center because it was Kyoto themed with a traditionally dressed Pikachu and the legendaries from Pokémon Silver and Gold which was based in Kyoto.
After our Pokémon adventure, Kat and I met up with Belle and Chloe to head over to our next required activity, bowling at round One. Round One is a super large entertainment complex filled with arcades, claw machines, gambling, bowling, etc. We bowled 3 games with some of the Japanese students. I was in a group with Belle, Chloe, and one of the KCG students who was from Sri Lanka! Her name was Maruni. I bowled pretty bad the first 2 games. I was starving and hangry. Once I got some fries I was doing really well. We finished bowling, said goodbye to the KCG students, and went downstairs to game.
There was some really cool rhythm game machines that I played on for way too long. They had the classic DDR but they also had games I’ve never seen in the states. It was so cool and I even found a game that reminded me of a game I play on my own computer, Osu! I was pretty good at that one. We played for about an hour and a half then headed home around 10:30pm. We walked back to the subway and went back to the hotel. I went to bed around 12:30 and passed out.
What a cool day of traditional and modern things! I had a blast and am now very very tired and a little sunburned but it’s ok. See ya next time blog!
Today was another jam packed tourism day with our girl Yuko. The itinerary for the day included Zazen meditation in the morning, then we went to a Buddhist temple, then to a tea ceremony/tour of a popular Kyoto street, and then free time for lunch. This might have been my favorite day of the trip so far because the Buddhist temple we went to was just so cool. It was home to 1001 Buddha statues, including a bunch of different deities and one massive statue of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy.
The temple we learned Zazen at
The first thing on the list was the Zazen meditation early in the morning. We bussed over to a temple and were taught how to perform Zazen by the monk who is in charge of that specific temple. Zazen is a form of meditation in which one sits up straight, puts their left foot on their right thigh, their right foot on their left thigh, closes their eyes half way, looks at the ground one meter ahead of them, and breaths in and out whilst counting to 10. It was very difficult to get my legs into the position of the meditation, but I was able to do it for the most part until it got too painful. Overall I really enjoyed the experience since it was very relaxing. I also picked up a fortune for 200 yen that Toshi sensei read for me. It was a good fortune :).
Pond outside of the Sanjūsangen-dō Buddhist Temple
Next was the Buddhist temple Sanjūsangen-dō. This place was insane. The courtyard outside of the room for viewing the Buddha statues was gorgeous and the statues were sooo cool. Most of the statues were smallish 1000 armed statues of Kannon, but there was a statue of most, if not all, other Buddhist deities. It looked like a literal army it was so cool. I don’t remember all of the deities but they had one for the God of Thunder and one for the God of Wind. The deity statues were insanely detailed and really impressive works of art. However, the most impressive thing in the room was the massive statue of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy. Kannon is said to have 11 heads for better seeing the suffering of mankind, and 1000 hands to help all of those in need. This statue was so unbelievably cool, but I don’t have pictures of it because they weren’t allowed.
Tea I made at the tea ceremony
The last thing on the list for the day was a tea ceremony. We went back to the same street that led up to the Buddha temple from yesterday, but this time we took a different route to the tea ceremony place. It was a really cool experience to learn the traditional art of Japanese tea ceremonies. Apparently there are a bunch of schools you can go to in Japan to specifically learn the tea ceremony. Our instructor was a woman who has been practicing the ceremony for 5 years, and she said she was still very new. For this ceremony we made matcha tea. The ceremony consisted of cleaning your tools, pooring the water, putting in the matcha, and then whisking the tea until it is done. It was really cool to watch the instructor commence the ceremony so elegantly. After the instructor made a cup of tea it was our turn to whisk our own tea. It was really good tea and the experience was super fun. There was a way to whisk the tea as well. We had to whisk only forward and backward, not left and right. If there were bubbles we were meant to slowly move the whisking motion to the left or right to break the bubbles, but the motion had to still be forward.
We had to split up our group into a group of 8 and a group of 12, since we were such a large group. While the other group was doing the ceremony Yuko gave us a tour of the street, which was cool. We saw a shrine with a bunch of these rolled up monkeys placed along a wall. The monkeys are meant to represent the human desires, and rolling them up is a way to symbolically remove those desires from your body and mind. Overall it was a really fun day, but it was long. After the tea ceremony we went back to Kyoto station and split up to eat dinner, then we just went back to the hotel and chilled.
We started the day at the brink of dawn: 7:30 AM. We made our way to a nearby temple where we met a monk who taught us how to do Zazen Meditation. Though my posture was hideous and my body was in pain, the numbing effect of it really helped clear my mind. After two sessions, we went to a Tea Ceremony, splitting into two groups. The ceremony was really beautiful and the 40 minutes it supposedly was went by like five.
After the tea ceremony, we went to Nishiki Market, where I had some of the best steak I’ve ever had in my life. The market itself reminded me a lot of Vietnamese Night Markets with many vendors selling mobility-friendly food.
My meal at Nishiki Market
Afterwards, we had some free time before the true staple of Kyoto culture: bowling. Brody and I went back to the hotel where we decided to rest for a little bit before 6 PM.
At 6 PM, we made our way to Round One, an arcade, karaoke, and bowling place. I met a KCG student named Quan who came from Vietnam seven years ago. After a couple games of bowling, I got to know him better and he was extremely friendly, helping me and some others understand the subway system to get back to the hotel.
After a quick trip to FamilyMart for a cup-and-noodles dinner, Brody and I went back to the hotel where we had a quick meeting. Soon after, we clocked out, preparing for a big day at Hiroshima.
Today was a nice blend of traditional Japanese cultural experiences in the morning and free exploration in the afternoon. We visited two temples in the morning, and participated in two special activities to immerse ourselves in the culture more thoroughly.
The first place we visited was the Shōrin-ji temple, a sub-temple where meditation known as zazen is performed and taught by a single monk. We got the chance to do this meditation for two fifteen minute intervals, though it personally wasn’t very relaxing. We had to keep our backs straight the entire time, fold our feet into a criss cross position and breathe as you count to ten over and over again. If you began to find it difficult to focus or get sleepy, you can bow over and have the monk smack your back with a wooden stick to refocus you. While the whole experience was a bit more exhausting than relaxing for me, it was really cool to get a glimpse into the deeper workings of Japanese religion. I couldn’t imagine doing zazen for six to eight hours a day like the monks do.
The second temple we visited was the Rengeo-in temple, home to a national treasure of Japan. Within the main building of the temple are a thousand statues of Buddha (and a few other statues of various Buddhist gods). We were not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the temple, but there was a beautiful garden and some gates that we were allowed to take photos of.
The other cultural experience that we had today was the opportunity to take a class about tea ceremonies, and participate in one of our own. Formal tea ceremonies can last as long as four hours, but ours was only 40 minutes – a very nice woman gave some background information and a demonstration and then we were allowed to mix our own tea.
I personally have never had matcha before today and the matcha tea that we made was a bit too bitter for my tastes. On the other hand, the small jelly candies called “wagashi” that we ate before making the tea were positively delicious!
As we waited for the other half of the class to participate in their own tea ceremony, we had the chance to explore some more of the area around the Kiyomizu-dera shrine that I mentioned yesterday. We were able to find some really nice photo ops, visit a shrine that featured some colorful decorations to celebrate the monkey deities, and my first (and possibly only) Pokemon manhole cover in Japan. There are many of them spread throughout the country, but we only have the chance to see 2 or maybe 3 at most with where we are visiting.
To finish our time with the tour guide that we’ve spent the last two days with (shout out to Yuko for being fantastic in every way), we were dropped off outside the Nishiki market, a very popular food market in Kyoto. While most of the food featured in the market is fish-related, I found an incredible beef skewer stand that I then convinced nearly half the class to buy rib skewers from (and nobody complained). We would pass by this market again later at night as we were heading back to the hotel, and seeing it deserted after being packed into the small street like sardines just hours before was a weird feeling.
A mostly deserted Nishiki Market, strongly contrasting its usual crowded appearance.
After a failed attempt at getting into the Pokemon Center Kyoto, we headed back to the hotel to recharge before a night of bowling with some KCG students at Round1 Stadium. While I wasn’t initially excited to go bowling (especially when I found out that Japan doesn’t have bumpers as an option— like what’s up with that??) I ended up doing a LOT better than expected and even won a game! We then stayed there a bit too late playing various rhythm games in the arcade section of the building, and didn’t make it back to the hotel until nearly 11 o’clock. Since we have to be up and at ‘em at 7 am tomorrow to jump on a train to Hiroshima, I’ll definitely be spending my commute catching some extra Z’s.
Day 3 was an action packed day filled with sightseeing some of the most famous sites in Kyoto. After a quick boxed breakfast at 7, everyone was on the bus fully oriented with our guide by 8:30. Our first stop was Kinkakuji. I knew that it was going to be crowded, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and I got a few good pictures. The ticket was also an item to keep in your doorway to bring good fortune.
There were also places where you threw money into a small hole. If your coin made it into the hole, it would bring you good luck, which I did. Will I be extra lucky in my future?
Next, we went to the Tenryuji temple and bamboo forest. The forest was really pretty, but a little crowded.
The nearby river
Afterwards, we had lunch at a small karaage shop. I also got shaved ice for desert.
More strawberry than a strawberry
After lunch, we went to the Kiyomizudera temple and the historic area leading up to it. This was the iconic Kyoto that I had been looking for.
Last on the tour was my favorite place, Fushimi Inari shrine. I will definitely be coming here on my free day.
We quickly proceeded to an anime screening of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train.
We ended the day with dinner at the food court where I bought Indian food where the naan was not Japanese size.
We woke up early and had a very nice breakfast-box. We were introduced to our tour guide who taught us some basic Japanese and gave us the rundown of our visits during the day. Afterwards, we hopped on the bus and began our trip around Kyoto.
Our first location was the Kinkaku-ji Shrine, known for its Golden Pavilion. It was absolutely gorgeous and learning the history behind it’s petty construction was super interesting to hear. We also learned about the waterfall of carp-to-dragon evolution and I was able to sink two coins into the spiritual pots.
The Golden Pavilion
After a quick roundtrip around the shrine, we hopped on the bus and speed towards the Arashiyama Area, where we would see the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. I’ve always loved the bamboo look and aesthetic, and to see a whole park covered in it was surely a sight to see.
A path in the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
After the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, we went to go get some lunch in the Arashiyama Area. Maddy, Brody, Esther, and I found a nice little hole-in-the-wall place where I had some amazing beef udon and a cola. Afterwards, we found the rest of the group at the local train station and got some ice cream. However, our tight schedule had little room for leisure, so we hopped onto the bus and continued our journey around Kyoto.
Our third place was Kiyomizu-dera Temple, a Zen Buddhist Temple. Personally, this was my favorite location of the day. The views were incredible, the architecture was unique, and the overall aesthetic was tranquil. Though it was extremely busy, I loved being on top of the stage, looking above almost all of Kyoto.
A view from the front of the Kiyomizu-dera TempleThe view from further onto the stage of the Kiyomizu-dera Temple
I forgot to mention that the walk up towards the temple was also super cute and quaint. We walked through what was essentially a Japanese Diagon Alley, with plenty of food and apparel flanking the small street. After our visit to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, I found a honey drink place where I got a delicious mango-honey float.
Our last location was the Fushimi-Inari Temple, a Shinto temple with 10,000 torii gates! We did a small prayer before walking up a little bit of the path around the mountain. Unfortunately, we didn’t have 2 hours to spare, nor the energy to climb, and we had to cut our trip short, but mot without some amazing sights.
Me standing beneath the torii gates
We also went to a small shrine, where we made a wish and picked up a rock (a crude explanation for what was actually happening), the rock symbolized the weight of our wishes. My rock was easier to lift than expected, which hopefully means my wish will be easier to achieve.
After our abridged visit to Fushimi-Inari Temple, we went to KCG’s school and watched Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Mugen Train, which would make it my fourth viewing of the movie. Afterwards, we were let loose to get dinner, where most of us went to the AEON Mall food court.
Our trip through Kyoto was quick, but still awesome. I could’ve easily spent a whole day in each area. I am excited to continue experiencing Japanese culture, especially through our meditation and tea ceremony in the morning!
Today was exhausting, but full of cultural knowledge and a lot of great photo ops. We visited one shrine, two temples, and the famous bamboo forest. This blog will be lots of pictures, both because I don’t have much to talk about and because I’m falling asleep as I write this!
The first place we visited was the Kinkaku-ji temple, most well known for the golden temple that lay at the middle of its grounds. This temple was covered in gold leaf to make a statement about how wealthy the shogun was when he retired, but is not completely preserved in time as it has burned down twice since it’s construction. The most recent was in the 1950s, which is pretty close to us when you consider that this temple has been around since the late 14th century.
Next, we visited the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, which was absolutely gorgeous. Being able to walk through something that I’ve seen so many videos of online was a really weird feeling. We did walk through a small portion of a nearby temple, but the bamboo forest was certainly the highlight. We were also able to get lunch in the surrounding shopping market, where we got some nice large chicken nuggets (listen, last night was a lot for me, i needed some comfort today) and a strawberry and vanilla ice cream cone. I was also able to snag a chocolate bun and some canned maple bread from the Miffy-themed bakery near the food court where we ate.
After that we visited one of the coolest parts of Tokyo in my opinion, which is the Kiyomizu-dera temple and the surrounding shopping district. The path leading up to the temple has preserved a traditional aesthetic, and even more modern stores like Starbucks still feel ancient compared to other things we’ve seen so far.
We are planning on returning here for our free day so that we can visit when it’s a bit less crowded, but the views from the temple are very pretty and we were able to get a group photo here that I’m sure will be in everyone’s post for today. I love the red and gold aesthetic of all of the shrines in Japan, and this one certainly did not disappoint while also having its own flair.
Finally, we visited the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is the only Shinto shrine that we visited and also a very popular tourist spot. The sheer number of gates that we walked through is really cool – each gate was donated to the shrine by someone for anywhere from 300,000 yen ($2,000) to well over a million yen for a large one. There is a two hour hiking trail that I’m sure would be very fun, but after all of the walking we’ve done since getting here I don’t think my body would survive it.
Once we were done with the bus tour, we were dropped off at KCG’s main building for an anime movie showing. We watched Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train (long name, I know – those are pretty common for animated Japanese movies) and I honestly really enjoyed it. The animation style and quality of the movie is fantastic, and this might have convinced me to finally watch the anime.
To finish the day, we got food at a local mall’s food court. I got some pork dumplings, while Jessica, Chloe and Skylar got the biggest naan we’ve ever seen. We have to be up super early tomorrow for a meditation and tea ceremony, so expect some more traditional cultural vibes tomorrow!
