Kyoto Time, And A Pilgrimage (Or Two)

Exploring Fujiidera

Saturday had arrived. Finally, the day had come to visit Kiyomizudera! I woke up early, and headed down to the station. We were meeting at 10, but I got excited, and showed up at 9. I had about an hour to walk around, so I ventured into uncharted territory, north of the train tracks.

There wasn't really anything in particular to see, well you know, except Japan. I snapped a few pictures of the city, because in Japan, even a leisurely stroll about town is bizarre and interesting.

Screwing Around, and More Karaoke!

A Lazy Week

It had been a busy weekend, and I was more than ready to take it easy.

The view from my bed.

Monday came and went without much fuss. Tuesday I took a trip to the mall at Abenobashi. On the way to the Fujiidera station, I took a small detour. There was an interesting looking bell-shaped block on my map I wanted to check out.

The Land of Haruhi Suzumiya

My First Pilgrimage

Before coming to Japan, one of my main objectives was to carry out some anime 聖地巡礼, or "pilgrimages," for those of you who can't read moon-runes. Today, my goal was to go to the "holy land" of  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

My day began with some laundry. I rinsed my socks separately, since my shoes had turned them green the day before.

The color balance in this image is fine.

I headed down the street fairly early. My destination was pretty far away, and I didn't want to risk being stuck there in the dark. I walked about half a mile down the street to the bus stop on the main road, and noticed a small shrine next to it while I was waiting for the bus.

This kind of thing was really common, but that
didn't stop me from taking pictures of it.

Osaka Castle

A Ride to the City

It was Saturday. Time to go to Osaka Castle!

We met up at Fujiidera station at 10:00, just like before. I got there early, and it was very hot and humid, so I made my way over to the air-conditioned 7-Eleven to get myself something other than my water bottle to drink. I got myself some ice cream, and I chose this tea to drink, because it had K-On! merchandise affixed to it. Yes, drink companies. That's all it takes.

Collect them all!

It even had a little stick for me to pick them up with. How cute.

It wasn't long before the group showed up. After following a moderately-confusing network of trains and subways, we arrived outside the Osaka Museum of History. It's a really tall, cool-looking building.

Calligraphy

Shodo

I really like Japanese calligraphy.  I took a class once and it was really fun. That's why I was excited to do it again in Japan.

The teacher was a really cool guy. We all crowded around him and watched him draw the character 永, which means eternity. 

They gave us some how to papers and set us loose.

"Normal" Days

The next couple days weren't very eventful. Tuesday was pretty cool, but nothing much happened.

I noticed that a rash had developed on the back of my shin. It was gone in a couple of days, so I think it was just because I was wearing pants and running around the city the day before. I normally wear shorts, so I don't think my legs were used to that kind of thing. I have omitted the picture. Be grateful.

We started an interesting project with a couple members of the music club. I was asked if I wanted to sing some songs with Japanese students and I was like, "okay." It turns out it's a lot more complicated than that. Luckily I can play guitar, because they wanted us to play instruments, too. They also asked us to pick out some songs. I was put into the English song group with Rick and Christian. We decided on "Good Riddance" by Green Day, and "Tribute" by Tenacious D. They said they would check the songs and get back to us. We will be performing on the 4th of July.

Super Spicy Curry

That night, we went to a Indian-style curry restaurant. We waited in i-talk a while for everybody to show up.

Tennoji and Nipponbashi

Tennoji "Temple"

I'm gonna start this article by explaining Tennoji. Shitennoji is the name of the school I'm going to. It's probably related to the not-so-near Tennoji. Tennoji is the name of a temple. The "ji" means temple, so it would be redundant to call it "Tennoji Temple." There is also a station several large blocks away from Tennoji called Tennoji Station.

Now that we've got that out of the way...

The Trip to Tennoji

After school on Monday, it was time for a field trip. We took a bus down to Fujiidera station. I decided to bring my duffel bag, because I was sick of walking home with shopping bags cutting into my hands.

Non sequitur galore.

In Japan, 7-Eleven are very common, and you can do pretty much anything there. they have some of the only ATMs that take foreign cards, so they have been vital to my trip. You can actually buy substantial, reasonably-priced food there, too. Let's have a round of applause for 7-Eleven.

We all hopped aboard the train to Osaka-Abenobashi, the station right next to Tennoji Station, and started walking towards Tennoji.