Today I went on an all-day excursion around Kyoto with Theo. He’d somehow gotten lost earlier trying to find Nijo-jo, so I told him I’d go with him to make sure he saw it. It was OK in the morning, but of course got hotter and sweatier as the day wore on.

First stop was the Kyoto Imperial Palace grounds. The place is huge! Unfortunately, you can’t actually get in to see the palaces themselves without a pre-book reservation which we didn’t have. As gigantic as the place was, we only managed to walk through about 1/3 of it. I need to come back and visit again.

Next up was Nijo-jo castle—an absolutely spectacular palace. When I came here in ’06, it was pouring rain, so it was a bit different seeing everything in sunlight. The place was every bit as spectacular as I remember it being. It’s famous for the incredible gold-painted interiors (that you can’t photograph) and for the “Nightingale Floors” which make a pleasing chirping sound now, but are there to warn of sneaky Ninja attacks.

Afterwards, we were off to Arashiyama to see the famous bridge over the river and visit the Monkey park. After a tasty lunch in an AIR CONDITIONED restaurant (I had Somen cold noodles), we first visited the famous Zen buddhist temple of Zenryou-ji to see the amazing gardens and bamboo forest there. The heat and humidity were stifling, but it was worth it—I’d sure love to see the garden in the Autumn when all the leaves change color.

The final act of the trip was a jaunt to the Monkey Park. “Jaunt” is probably not a particularly accurate word, since you’ve got to hike up a friggin’ mountain to get there (which you really can’t see until after you’ve paid your ¥500 to get in). I just about died on the way up, but persevered. It ended up being worth it for three reasons: First, you could get up really close to the wild monkeys and get your photos taken with them; second, there was the most spectacular view of the city of Kyoto I’ve ever seen; and third, I got to imitate a Monkey with a little 5-year old boy (which he and I will probably remember for quite a while).

We split up in the afternoon, and I went back to relax, work on some studying and rest up after the ordeal. There’s just some much to see here, and the more you see, the more you realize there still is left to see—which can be really frustrating…

[NOTE: I was actually really busy and yes, I’ll admit it LAZY, and didn’t get this entry and the next few done until I was packing to go on Friday July 18. I slipped up a lot more than I did last time, but I think I got everything in.]

[NOTE 2: I was ready to upload everything on Saturday during my downtime, but they’d already turned off our internet access at KSU. From here through my whole Hokkaido trip wasn’t uploaded until I got to my Tokyo apartment—ain’t technology great?]

More class in the morning, the final written test in the afternoon. I think I did okay, but maybe not as well as the second test. In the end it doesn’t matter too much since I’m not taking this for credit anyway…

So here’s my big admission: I’ve actually spent the last couple of hours working on catching up in my Journal here. As you’ve read, this has been a rather hectic and busy week and I just didn’t have time to blog. I think I captured the essence of everything that happened, but the sad part is we cram so much into a week, that I know I’m leaving things out. The most important memories, however, are the ones from Hiroshima and I think I wrote what I wanted to.

After the test, we all gathered with the Conversation Partners and made hand-rolled sushi. It was fun and tasty too—but then I was too full for dinner! I ate something anyway, then put the last finishing touches on my speech. Kishi sensei helped me look over it, made some last corrections and it’s now printed out and all set. YAY! All that’s left is practice and delivery next Wednesday. It’s about this time that you sit and think “gee, this program is almost finished already”. Hard to believe. I’ve got 10 days of vacation after that, but there’s just so much I still want to do.

I’m going to go out and do some Kyoto sightseeing tomorrow with Theo since he and I seem to be on the same wavelength on how to do sightseeing. We’ve planned to visit the Imperial Palace grounds, Nijo-jo castle and then out to Arashiyama. That’ll probably be enough for one day, then I may go to Osaka again on Sunday.

Time’s just winding down so quickly…

More classwork and more to learn. I shouldn’t be too confused since I’ve allegedly learned all this stuff before, but it’s amazing how much I have forgotten. The particularly thorny concept of Passive Sentences was the topic today. Just another reminder of how I definitely could spend the rest of my life studying Japanese before I begin to understand it…

The last hour of class was working on our speeches, but since I had everything on my computer back at the I-house, I was excused to leave early and go home. I managed to get my speech pretty much finished and after dinner Ikushima Sensei helped me make corrections and gave me ideas. I don’t know what I would do without her help.

All I’ve got left now is a little more in my conclusion paragraph and then lots and lots of practice (oh, and make PowerPoint slides…)

We had classes in the morning and the afternoon was scheduled for a visit to the Judo dojo for a bit of sparring. I knew this was coming, but my knees—and for the past week my back—were just never going to cooperate. Since I also had a speech to write, I asked Paul to be excused.

In a way, I’m sorry because as it turns out nearly half of the other IJP students decided to just blow it off and not show up. This was a problem since it turns out the Judo club was coming in special during their vacation for this and they were a bit upset and disappointed with us. I was the only one who asked to be excused ahead of time so I have a clear conscience, but it still makes me feel bad. For those of you reading this who might attend this program in the future, remember this and realize that you’re putting other people out by not participating.

So the big thing for me today (after going to town to get money at the Citibank and buying a book) was to dream up a new speech topic and get it written. I’ve essentially decided on “What new interests have you developed because you studied a foreign language”. I think it’s rather interesting topic, since I’ve changed so much and developed new interests since beginning to study Japanese. Ikushima Sensei helped me put together my interview which I did at the I-house tonight during the Tanabata party! I then managed to get the bulk of it written and can turn it in tomorrow. I think it’ll be pretty good.

The big event today was the trip to the Sumire Kindergarten. I remembered it with some trepidation from two years ago when I was so nervous and really, really didn’t want to go. I was deathly afraid that I was somehow going to scar a whole generation of Japanese children for life!

But this time, it was actually a lot of fun. Once again, we had to occupy three groups of kids (2-3, 4 and 5 year olds) with activities. The youngest got the Itsy-Bitsy Spider song in Japanese, the 4-year olds got Old MacDonald Had a Farm in both English and Japanese (which is really fun since Japanese and English animals both speak a different language!), and the 5-year olds (my group) once again got Simon Says in both Japanese and English. It amazes me that at the age of 5, these kids already know quite a bit of English, like various body parts (hand, foot, leg, arm, mouth, nose, etc.) and can actually understand. I sure wish they started language teaching at this age back home. Arvli Ward and I did the game in English and it was great fun.

Then it was lunchtime with the kids! I look back to 2006 and the abject terror I felt at being thrown in with a bunch of kids who could talk rings around me, but this time I knew what to expect and actually had a blast. There’s nothing quite like sitting down at a very tiny table on a very tiny chair, surrounded by 5-year olds every one of which is simultaneously asking you “How do you say <insert word> in English”, “What’s your favorite color” and “Do you like onigiri (rice balls)”! This time I could at least understand what they were saying and answer them. I’m going to remember this year’s excursion more fondly than last time!

After that—believe it or not—there was another activity: Shodo, or Japanese calligraphy. I seem to have lost what little talent I developed two years ago and couldn’t come up with anything as exciting as Kabuki like in ’06. It really is a beautiful art form and I wish I could even sort of do it justice. But then, it was still lots of fun.

And then the bad thing happened: I couldn’t get my speech finished. I was luckily granted a reprieve for another day, so that should help.

TOO BUSY!

After such a whirlwind weekend, it was somewhat relaxing to be back at school. However, it’s a very busy week ahead with a speech to write and the Kindergarten trip tomorrow. I did get my test back and scored 82% which I was delighted about. It’s certainly better than my second test two years ago so maybe I’m actually starting to get it.

In the evening I sat down to write my speech and realized that my initial topic was just not going to work. I’m throwing it out and starting over from scratch—which is a bit problematic since it’s due tomorrow!

But it’s just such a hectic week! どうしよう！

After the extreme emotions of yesterday, it was already time for us to make our way home. After an absolutely gorgeous—and delicious—breakfast at our hotel, it was off to catch the Shinkansen to Himeji to visit the castle.

It was incredibly hot and humid!

Once again, we didn’t have a lot of time for the tour and our guide basically set a break-neck pace through all the major sites, up the hill, through the buildings and up 6 stories to the top. It was crazy, but worth it for the view and the history. Our guide was really great and spoke perfect English. If we only had more time…

Again, there wasn’t enough time to actually sit down and have a proper meal, but I bought a delicious Eki-ben boxed lunch at the station and ate on the train home. I stopped in at Bic Camera at Kyoto Station on the way home and bought a long sought-after Kanji dictionary for my Nintendo DS. By the time I finally got back to the dorms, I was exhausted but happy with all the wonderful experiences of our school trip. Hopefully they’ll continue the Hiroshima experience at least, but maybe with a less-aggressive schedule.