My First Kyoto Trip!

Hey Everyone!

Today, after an uneventful morning of safety lectures and finalizing paper work, I got my student ID and list of classes. I got all the classes I wanted! Yay!

I signed up for the Kyoto tour. They paired groups of International students and Japanese students and sent us out the gate of KGU. We were completely reliant on the Japanese students in knowing where to go. In our group, it was Briana, Alex, I, Malaika from Uganda, and two Japanese students: Yukiko and Ayano. We walked an hour in the hot sun to Gotenyama station (talking and sweating all the way) and from there took a two trains to Shijo to see Nijo Castle. It was awesome!

After that, we took a bus to see Kyomizu Temple. To get there we had to follow a winding road up the side of a mountain through a quaint shopping district. Although it was very hot, it was a lot of fun.
We stopped at this cute little place for ice cream. They had some pretty interesting flavors.

I got "White Peach"

Then while we were eating our ice cream, these guys from Nagoya University approached us. They were doing some sort of quirky project, getting foreigners to take a picture with one of them "making a heart." They already had an American, but no one from Uganda...

This is Yuki-san (left) and Aya-san (right) ^.^

Finally we reached Kyomizu Temple!

We washed our hands in holy water. Would hate to break tradition.

Afterwards we walked back down to the bus and went to the train station where we took one straight to Hirakatashi. We then found GAME DINO, an arcade in the station and did Purikura!

You basically stand in the photo booth in front of a green screen and goof around while the machine takes pictures.
Afterwards you go to the other side of the booth and play with the photos, adding writing and "special effects. Here is two of our photos. It was so much fun!

Then Aya-san and Yuki-san helped us find the right bus to take us to katahoko, the nearest bus stop to Seminar Houses. We said our goodbyes and headed back. Only after we got off the bus, did we realize that we hadn't eaten and the nearest grocery store was a 15 min walk behind us. We went anyway and picked up lunch from TOP WORLD, which is a grocery store chain here. Go figure...

This is my dinner. It's rice and some sort of gravy... Looks like one potato is in there too... Woo. Well, I'm tired, I need a shower, and it's been a long day. I'm going to sign off.