Let's Get Oriented

Orientation.

On the first day we took the subway to Doshisha, didn't completely lose our way, and sat down for orientation. We got the basics (doshisha id card, student discount), learned about some random things, and then ate lunch. Lunch here at the cafeteria is 1. Delicious, 2. Ridiculously cheap. Like 200-400 yen (2-4) dollars. Seeing as they give us 8 dollars a day, that's some money I'm going to save. =)

Anyway, we got out of orientation early, so we went to the hotel and then wandered around Kyoto. We went to Kamogawa (a river) that has pretty cherry blossoms, then walked all the way to the shrine at Gion. Sadly we didn't see any Geisha in the Gion district, but we did see a bunch of couples hanging out at the shrine. Apparently shrine and temples are a hot date spot since they're so pretty, and just thinking about the American equivalent (hey, wanna check out that cathedral sweety?) is bizarre.

We ate dinner at a sushi place, and decided to begin our night by purchasing Chu-hi and Beer at the conbini and drinking in our rooms. Well, 7 of us crammed into one room, which was quite a feat considering the rooms are barely big enough for 2. After getting tipsy (jet lag helps) we decided to wander to the river again at night. People probably looked at us and were like "Oh those crazy gaijin..." but we had a good time. Since we started so early the night ended around 10, and soon we were off to another day of orientation.

The beginning of the second day involved another subway trip to Doshisha, and in the morning we met the other Japanese students that would be auditing our classes. We ate lunch with them, struggled to speak in Japanese, and then returned after lunch for an epic walking trip. We took the subway to the hills, and one of our professors led us on a trip to Nanzenji and Heian Jingu. Nanzenji is this GORGEOUS Zen Buddhist temple, with wall scrolls from like, the 1500s or something nicely preserved. You can walk around, and Katrin-san and I took the liberty of writing a wish down on a piece wood for all the SCTI students. This piece of wood is burned at ceremony along with all the other wishes, and it's supposed to bring good luck. After Nanzenji, we traveled to Heian Jingu, another gorgeous place. This is a Shinto shrine, and we had another good luck type of ceremony performed for us. The priest used a ridiculous amount of Keigo, so of course like 2 people in the whole group could understand him, but it was still very interesting nonetheless.

Finally we had a welcome dinner with the Japanese auditors and volunteers, which involved mingling for 2 hours, eating good food, and trying to remember every Japanese phrase you ever learned. I managed okay, but I couldn't help wondering how the first year students were surviving. I met a bunch of cool Japanese students, learned some Hiroshima-ben, and taught slang to two girls. When one of them managed to string the slang together to tell me "You're freaking cool!" it was seriously one of the best moments of my evening.

We're now on the last morning of orientation, and we'll be meeting our host families in about 5-6 hours. I'm pretty sure most of us are scared shitless and are all looking up last minute keigo. Anyway, enjoy the pics, and as usual, see you on the flipside!

(This giant food market street)

(Pretty cherry blossoms)

(The typical "me amongst the cherry blossoms" pic)

(Kamo River)

(Entrance to the shrine at Gion)

(My 6 drinking companions at the river at night)

(Random temple entrance)

(Woman getting married in Traditional Clothes at Nanzenji)

(Garden at Nanzenji)

(Garden at Nanzenji)

(Garden at Nanzenji)

(Prayer tablet that Katrin and I wrote)

(The giant entrance gate to Heian Jingu)

(Heian Jingu)

(Small River that we found on the way walking back)