Tag: Shrines

a day in gardens

yesterday was a real ball. we saw some stuff and i took pictures. ain’t that neat.

first place we went was the imperial palace gardens, which were a bit manicured for my taste but they were far-reaching and there was an attention to detail that was worth appreciating. i think my favorite part was a waterfall i found at the end of a crude stone path, just tucked away enough to feel private in a crowded space. in the middle of a shallow pond was a solid black cube that overflowed with water at the top, framed by a trickling stream that came from a small rocky hill. it was strange to find a modern looking structure in the middle of this more classical garden, it looked like a save point in a video game.

[took a lot of pictures for a change here. although i don’t think fountain is done justice. oh well. it is just a block.]

second place was the meiji shrine, which i swore i had been to before, because i had! the shrine was quite large, the gates were as tall as the trees and the complex was vast and spacious. it was sunny, but a the shade from the trees provided a cool temperature. when i went with my parents 11 years ago it was a light rain, midday, and there was a wedding taking place on the complex. as i was walking i remembered how at peace i felt the first time and how i wished something so ancient existed near my home. i thought about the destruction of north american old growth forests, and how the world was robbed of bigger trees. i thought about how i am old enough to have 11 year old memories, and what had changed between that time and now.

every time i talk about the destruction of america’s old growth forest i feel like i’m making it up due to the extent of the damage and the lack of public knowledge on the matter. like, we just cut 90% of the oldest trees on a continent and no one gets taught about it in schools! most people have no idea how big a tree can get because we chopped down all of the biggest ones and they used to be EVERYWHERE. that sounds SO MADE UP because if it was real EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW AND BE AS MAD AS I AM ABOUT IT. anyway. being surrounded by Big Tree is such a valuable and rare experience in this world and i hope that some day i might be lucky enough to see them more regularly. probably not though. due to the fact that they’re all gone. haha.

[i could hear crows calling deep into the forest and when they came close enough to see they were huge. as big as my arm.]

i’m not sure what happened after this honestly. i know we went home and i must have eaten somewhere, it probably wasn’t that interesting anyway. while i had fun today and i loved the places we went, my head wasn’t in the best place. it’s probably best for the both of us to move on i think :2

Shibuya, Harajuku, and Fabian’s birthday celebration!!!

May 31st: Woke up this morning around 9 and went to do my laundry. Belle and I headed out around 9:45 and walked to the coin laundry about 6 minutes away. We used this machine that had a machine that washed AND dried. That was cool. Sadly we had to do some extra drying time since our clothes were still damp after the first cycle. Overall that took about an hour in total. We headed back to our hotel and had maybe 20 minutes until the class had to meet.

Our plan for the day was to go see the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and Meiji Jingu in Harajuku. We hopped on the train and went two stops to Tokyo. The station is like grand central in NYC with a lot of art and architecture. Apparently it was designed by a French guy so it looked very European.

From there we walked to the Imperial Palace. Apparently the imperial family was there at the time so it was very busy. We weren’t able to see the Palace but we did see the gardens. They were pretty and had some history to them. There was a koi pond which was my favorite. Here’s some photos as all we did was walk and see.


Afterwards we went back to the station and took the train to Harajuku to see Meiji Jingu ( that’s a shrine btw). We got an hour for lunch so I ran over to the Sailor Moon store to get some merch. This is where I got told the rules of Tex free and I have now found out I’m gonna have to pay tax when I come home! Little frustrated by that since no one told us but whatever.

I did also get food with a third of the class. It took forever to come to us but I got a very yummy omelet.



After some food we met up with the rest of the class for the shrine. It was a beautiful walk with a lot of pretty trees and architecture. Once again here are some photos:


After the shrine we were let free. A lot of us wanted to go to Shibuya for the Nintendo Store, Pokémon store, and Shibuya crossing. This was a really popular area but half of us decided to walk to the mall. On our way we saw the Olympic stadium! That was cool. The Pokémon center in Shibuya had the mewtwo statue!!!! I didn’t get anything from the Pokémon center but I did get stuff from Nintendo.

So we were a bit on a time crunch cause we had reservations at the Monster Hunter cafe for Fabian’s 21st!! On our way to the train station we ran into Shibuya crossing! It was really cool to see such a populated place that we also so popular.


We made it back to Akihabara for the cafe just in time! We all got some themed food from the Monster Hunter series and had some drinks. It was very yummy. I got some strip steak with potatoes, a drink with cotton candy, and dango for dessert! For fabian’s 21st we made him pose with a big thing of beer the size of his face. It was funny.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, watched half of the new dnd movie, and went to bed.

See you later for the next days adventure soon!!


Invading the Emporors Abode (He was not there)

Bridge going to front gate of imperial castle

Today we went to the imperial castle, but we weren’t able to actually go in because it was too busy. We got to wander the premesis and look at all the pretty architecture and gardens, which was lowkey better. This place was absolutely insane. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been. There were gardens and fields and old buildings and new buildings and shrines and so much more, all sitting in a giant moat. The highlight for me was the koi pond/flower field. It was soooo pretty and looked especially cool with the giant buildings in the background. My favorite part of the scenery was seeing the dicotomy of the natural, old stuff with the industrial, new stuff in the background. It made it feel like some gateway to another world.

Picture I thought was cool, showing what I mean by the dichotomy

After the imperial castle we trained over to Harajuku to see a Shinto temple. Before that it was lunchtime and we had about an hour to find somewhere to eat and do whatever. We walked around this cool side street with a bunch of little hole-in-the-wall places but ended up eating in a food court because it was easier and had options (*cough* *cough* esther *cough*). I got a yummy corn dog and then a strawberry & banana smoothie at a different place when we were walking back, it was sooo good. We met up with the gang and then walked across the street to the Shinto temple and massive wooden Torii gate.

Big torii gate

The Meiji shrine was really cool but it was getting hot so we called the day and all split up to do our own thing. Since we were like 2 stops from Shibuya it was time for round 2. Me and Vincent went back to this record store that had a bunch of ghibli stuff. I got 2 cds as gifts and he got 3 ghibli vinyls. Then we tried to go to this big music store but it was like impossible to get in even though it said it wasn’t closed, so we assumed the workers were just doing inventory or something. We found a different music store but it was really small. Then we went into a different record store that had a lot more western music and modern music than the first, but nothing I was dying for. After shopping we met up with Maddy and Esther to get dinner, which took far longer than it should have cuz we were being stupid and undecisive. After dinner we trained back to Akihabara and crashed.

Fushimi Inari Free Day

Before going to Kyoto, I knew that I wanted to go to Fushimi Inari before without the crowds. Inspired from a video from the YouTube channel Tokyo Lens, I decided to go at night. I set my alarm for 3:15 in the morning and silently made my way out of the hotel. The walk to Fushimi Inari took about 20 minutes plus 10 minutes of me getting lost wandering around a random neighborhood. The area at night was eerily silent but really pretty. The entire time I saw one maybe two people. With the solitude and silence combined with the iconic torii gates, for a little while, it felt like I was in a whole different world.

I reached the top of Mt. Inari around the same time the sun came up, however, there is no view from the top. The only good view is from approximately halfway. I highly recommend this to anyone willing to get up early as it was for sure worth going. I was worried that it would be a little dark, however, there was often too many lampposts for many of the photos at night to turn out well. The only thing that was a little scary were the wild monkeys roaming around at night.

4 am approx.
6 am approx.

I also saw some wildlife.

Other highlights

This is the link to a google photos album of my journey: https://photos.app.goo.gl/skTohPGDtuGQYGSFA

After getting back around 7 and having breakfast at 8, I went back for a nap before going shopping.

Kat and I became fishmongers at Don Quixote

After, we went over to KCG and toured their facilities. They were pretty nice and had some elements that I wish RIT had such as the private rooms and easily accessible power outlets.

lastly, we started the pizza party with the KCG students to kick off the game jam. They were all very fun to be around, except the guy who made me eat three spoonfuls of wasabi…

Sota was in my group

Up next is the game jam. Stay tuned….

To be continued…

Hiroshima

Today we traveled from Kyoto to Hiroshima. I was looking forward to visiting Hiroshima because of everything I have learned about it, and was not at all disappointed. The scenery was beautiful with moving memorials and stunning gardens. We saw the Hiroshima dome which was a building left standing after the bombing. The dome was located on the side of a river near the blast center, and it was so surreal to stand in the very place of such a huge historical event.

The above picture matches almost perfectly one of the pictures from right after the bombings, and it brought tears to my eyes seeing such a place in real life.

After walking around the memorial garden and the dome we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum where I was able to learn a lot about the events of the atomic bombing, the health impact, and the rebuilding of the city. What was most moving were the survivor stories and witness testimonies. In the Peace Memorial Park, we passed a man who told us he was the son of one of the oldest survivors of the bombings, and was passing along information about his testimony and peace advocation.

After visiting the memorial sites, we also traveled to a shinto shrine in Hiroshima where we walked around briefly and saw some cute koi fish. It was a relaxing way to decompress after the powerful yet emotional morning.

Finally, to end the day, we enjoyed a traditional Hiroshima dish called okonomiyaki for dinner. The okonomiyaki was delicious and the restaurant staff were very kind and welcoming. Afterward we took the bullet train back to Kyoto and crashed for the night in preparation for our free time the following day.

Day 3

We woke up super early today and meditated with a monk at his shrine. Something that surprised me was that if you get distracted or your back begins to hurt, you bring your hands together, bow to the monk, and he hit you with a rod. My back did begin to hurt – I also thought, “When’s the next time I can get hit by a monk?”, so I gave this method a try – it shockingly helped. While it was hard to focus occasionally, it was a cool experience.

Afterwards we visited one of my favorite shrines, the one with all of the statues in it. I couldn’t take pictures due to it being a sacred site, but nevertheless I loved the visual and the story behind it; where the emperor wanted to show his strength and security so he created this temple.

We also got to walk around a small marketplace with incredible views – at the base of the shrine where the people jumped off and survived – and got to have make tea at a tea ceremony. I piqued my interest how strong the tea was. Apparently it’s made with either less water or more tea and is very caffeinated.

Afterwards, Megan and I went to the Pokémon center where they had Pikachu wearing a kimono greeting the customers and where I spent a surprisingly small amount of money. Later that night we met up at Round1 for bowling and I got two strikes.

Day 2

The entire group spent the day sightseeing numerous temples – both Shinto and Buddhist. While I don’t remember the exact names of all of them, I remember them all clearly. We first went to the Golden shrine right on the lake, that had part of the cremated remains of the Buddha on the third floor.

After getting on the bus and traveling to our next destination, we found ourselves in a bamboo forest and a marketplace for lunch. Before moving on to a temple on top of a mountain – where a group of people apparently jumped off of and survived. It was here where I started collecting stamps from the various temples and shrines so I could make a collage when I got back home.

We finally visited my personal favortie – a temple with thousands of gates – known as the Fox Shrine; where Sten had to photobomb me as payback from something earlier in the day. We spent the night at KCG, watching ‘Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train’. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, which was surprising because I’m not the biggest fan on anime. I really liked the creepy villain, the story, and the conflict for the main character that fights demons, where his sister is a demon.

Meditation + Tea ceremony + Temples ?

05/24/2023

Starting off strong with a yummy breakfast. I don’t ever eat breakfast in my daily schedule so having it built into our schedules during this trip was really nice and something that I appreciate lots!

Today we set out bright and early for a traditional zazen meditation session with a cool monk at a beautiful temple. I’m not exactly a religious person, but man do I love temples.

The architecture of traditional japanese temples is always so gorgeous, the lush greenery & gentle sounds of nature just instantly put me at ease. I felt so comfortable there.

During the first block of meditation (15 min), my right leg fell asleep about 5 minutes before the block was over, and I contemplated letting it fall asleep and not moving until the session was over but then I got insanely paranoid that I would permanently injure a nerve or something if I didn’t adjust my position, so I had to let go of my (self-perceived) perfect meditation posture.

I used to meditate often when I suffered from insomnia & heavier loads of stress, but I haven’t had the time lately and the session today helped spark my desire and motivation to meditate at home again. It was genuinely so peaceful and lovely….

The monk recommended us to experience the Whacking(tm) at least once, usually reserved for those who have trouble maintaining focus during sessions. I was hesitant at first since I thought I was doing well maintaining focus and keeping my mind clear, but upon the others’ recommendations, I asked for a whack during the second meditation block and I did not enjoy it as much as it was advertised.

When you’d like to request a whack, you’re meant to place your hands together in a praying motion, bow, and wait for the monk to then use his stick to whack both sides of your back (left and right), twice on each side. I was also informed by Toshi-san that other temples may do this unprompted if they catch the meditator asleep, so it was nice that this temple lets you request it!

After meditation, we headed to one of the locations we were at the previous day to witness and experience a traditional japanese tea ceremony (not full length). The hostess was kind and understanding, and taught us about just some of the nuances behind tea ceremony etiquette. When drinking from the bowl, you want the most decorative part of the bowl to face you, the person who will be holding the bowl, and you turn the bowl twice clockwise before drinking, so that your lips are not placed directly on the beauty of the bowl.

While I enjoy matcha, I am not great with bitter foods or drinks. But I offered myself to be the volunteer to drink the hostess’ dose of matcha due to my interest in the ceremony! Yes the matcha was bitter. I drank all of it out of respect and then proceeded to drink the dose of tea that I made myself shortly after. As someone who is extremely poor at downing any amount of liquid more than a cup (and as someone who is bad with bitter tastes), I think I had a real brave moment today.

We then headed to the Nishiki Market to grab some food, before I popped back to our hotel to rest for an hour or so. We were scheduled to go to Round1 for bowling at 6pm, so I headed back outside about 40 minutes prior to the meeting time.

Bowling happened. I believe some KCG students played with some of our students, but I had a very full team with Emma, Todd, Shannon and Kat. I forgot how awful I am with bowling, but they had a special vocaloid drinks menu so that was my coping mechanism for the night.

We headed out and arrived home at around 10pm, our feet feeling like lead from the past 2 days.

Forgotten and Left Behind

Note: There are less photos today due to many locations restricting photography (I also left my phone at the hotel lmao)

The day began with a meditation at a temple led by a monk. 2 – 15 minute meditation sessions were held. I enjoyed the first 5 minutes before my legs started hurting. This was overall a pleasant experience to start the morning, however, I could have done without the second session.

After that, everyone else got up and left me behind. How embarrassing…for them. Freed from the clutches of the group I had my newfound freedom at last. No one could stop me from finding a new bus… and then I ran into Steve. Returning back to the bus was my only option.

The next stop was a temple where over 1,000 golden statues were held. It is said that you will be able to see yourself in at least one of them. I definitely saw myself in the small Mushu like dragon.

Next, we returned to the old streets of Tokyo where we walked around to see various smaller shrines and gardens. We circled back to participate in a tea ceremony where we made matcha green tea and learned the proper etiquette in a ceremony.

The group then made our way to Nishiki market where we had lunch. It was very crowded so some of us had lunch at Wendys. I got pesto pasta with shrimp and avocado along with both sets of Tokyo Revengers combo meals. On our way back to rest at the hotel, I also got the legendary Lawson’s socks which are rumored to me the most comfortable sock money can buy.

After a much needed rest, we went bowling at round 1 where I ordered special vocaloid themed drinks and dominated the competition.

There were also various arcade games. I gravitated toward the rhythm games where had we not had to get up early, would have stayed there all night.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow we go to Hiroshima.

To be continued…

Food in Day 2: Shrine/Temple Tour

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.