On Thursday, after having Japanese class for a super-short time (only an hour!), I was off with group #1 to take a tour of a restored machiya. A machiya (lit. city house, or city shop, depending on the kanji used) is the traditional kind of home built in Japanese cities 100 years ago. These structures are thin and very long, because taxes used to ( Read more... )

On Wednesday, after my long trek to school with lots of sleeping on the train along the way, I began my day with a class about Japanese calligraphy, which is called shodo.


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Tuesday began with two Japanese classes, and then lunch in the school's cafeteria. It was actually very delicious and decently priced, as compared to a number of other options on campus ( Read more... )

On Monday I returned to school ( Read more... )

On Sunday there wasn't a lot that happened.

I packed up my things on Sunday morning because I'd be switching host families that afternoon.
I made a neato background for Eriko with some of our pictures:

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After leaving Kiyomizu we took the bus to the Nishi-hon-gan-ji ( Read more... )

On my second Satudray in Japan, I went to Kyoto with Eriko. We walked down to the neighborhood Hankyu line station, the Oji Koen station (Oji Park, which is the a big zoo in Kobe and is near to her house). I had not ridden the Hankyu line before, only the Hanshin line to and from school. We hopped on the train and rode for an hour and a half to get ( Read more... )

On Wednesday there wasn't much to photograph ( Read more... )

One hot afternoon I came home and was offered an adzuki bean popsicle. I, of course, had to get a photo of myself enjoying this tasty treat for beanpop! So beanpop, here's to your namesake!


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Tuesdays was our trip to Himeji Castle. Because I lived on the way to the castle (in Himeji), I met the group at a station two stations away from where I get on and off the train at home. I met them there because that is where their express train stopped at. After meeting up, we also met Erin there (the blonde who makes all of the silly faces in ( Read more... )