Coming to Japan has always been a dream of mine, and when the opportunity came around I didn't hesitate to jump on it. Luckily, my friend Beth was just as excited with the opportunity as I was so knowing that I had one of my best friends coming with made me even more excited. It was 6 long months of waiting from when we put in our applications to when we finally got to pack, jump on a plane and cross the ocean to Japan. When the day finally came the stress and anxiety of the previous six month wait just melted away and excitement set in. When we finally got here we were exhausted and all we could think about was crawling into bed and sleeping until next morning. Unfortunately, crawling into bed meant crawling onto a piece of plywood with a lawn chair pad as a mattress. Oh well, when in Rome right?
When we woke up the next morning our first day in Japan was spent with a tour of IBU Campus, introductions and to familiarize ourselves with the students, and the area that which we were going to living for the next 3 weeks. It was overwhelming trying to understand the IBU students and teachers, and trying to take in the differences here from back home. It took some adjusting to get used to the different culture but once I started getting the flow of things I could sit back and soak it all in.
On day two we spent the day on campus. We had our very first class in Japanese, to say that learning the language is overwhelming is an understatement. We started out with basic words and sentences, but it felt like it was going in one ear and out the other. I have never tried to learn another language so trying to retain this information felt like the most challenging thing I have ever done. As soon as I left the class everything I had just learned just instantly went away. After class we had lunch with the IBU students and started to get to know each of them individually. Learning their story and where they come from has been my favorite part of the trip. Once we got out of school for the day we jumped on a bus and went to explore our nearest train stop, Fujidera before heading back to our dorm for the night.
Wednesday we spent another day on campus, attending Japanese and working on our projects. Afterward we were supposed to go to Osaka Castle but due to unforeseen circumstances we had to postpone our trip until Friday and we got the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. Along with a couple of my friends we I headed to Namba and spent the night walking around the town, exploring little shops and stopping by a Maid Cafe for a snack and some entertainment. The train and bus rides back from Namba was a long and tiring ride with my first real experience with Japans subway systems. Once I got back to the dorms I crashed from my long day. When Thursday rolled around It was a pretty calm day. We spent most of the day on campus working on projects and attending some classes. Afterward a few of the IBU students took us to one of their favorite sushi restaurants and then we headed back to our dorms for a quiet night in.
Friday turned out to be a very exciting day, we spent the morning on campus and then headed out to the Osaka Castle and Osaka Museum. The Castle was so amazing, it had a mote and the most beautiful grounds and gardens. We spent a lot of time just wandering around the grounds exploring the different nooks and ponds and areas. The Castle itself was a little disappointing, it looks amazing and it:s such a beautiful building, but once you walk inside it was like walking into an office building. It was completely modernized and I was really looking forward to some old architecture. Overall, it was a fantastic day.
The Osaka Castle started our long weekend of adventure and walking and rain! Saturday we woke up early and started to make our way to Nara. Once we got there our first stop was a deer park where there are just hundreds of wild deer hanging out, walking around like its nothing. They will walk straight up to any person and stick their noses in your purse to see if you have anything to eat. Its such a strange experience to walk down the road and have deer just standing in your way. I ended up buying some deer food and immediately i was swarmed, tons of deer just surrounding me and nipping at me to get whatever was in my hand. I panicked a little and gave them everything i had so they would get away! It was a really cool experience. After the deer park we kept on walking into this gorgeous little area filled with lamps and shrines and a temple. It was quite a beautiful walk through the woods and once we got there I was amazed by the architecture of the temples. It was my first visit to an temple like that and I couldn't have been more excited. Afterward we walked a little but more and got to another temple, but this wasn't like the last. Once inside we were standing in front of the worlds largest buddha statue, it was so breathe taking and intriguing. It was definitely my favorite part of the day.
Sunday was our first free day, but we still gathered as a group and headed out to Namba for a festival of art, music, fashion and dance. It was a lot of fun to see traditional dancing and music as well as a glimpse of Japans fashion industry. Walking through the festival with everything that was going on and all of the people crowding the streets was a very fun Japan experience. Getting to know the culture in such a different way was interesting. After the festival we headed back to our dorm and I crashed immediately!
Monday and Tuesday were spent exploring Kyoto. It was a long 2 hour ride to our first destination, Yasaka temple. It took a lot of walking and a lot of stair climbing but once we reached the temple it was beautiful. It over looked the city and was tucked back in the lush mountains. We spent most of the day in this area which was also surrounded by many different shops and restaurants for us to explore. It was such a hot day out and by the end of the adventure we were so exhausted and ready to get back to our dorms and rest up for day two in Kyoto. Our second day in Kyoto was a little different it was cold and rainy and instead of the entire group going, only about half of us went. We did kind of our own exploring and ended up at a bamboo forest. It was probably the neatest thing i've seen on this trip. It was just trails and trails through a thick forest of bamboo and pretty much nothing else. It was so exciting to see. Afterwards we made our way to the Fushini Inari Shrine where it was what seemed like miles of the orange gates leading up into the mountain side. It created tunnels leading to different shrines and was so intriguing and captivating. Kyoto is probably my favorite area that we got the pleasure of visiting in Japan.
The next two were calm and much needed. We spent most of the time with our campus routine, spending a few hours on homework and then off to classes. Except on Wednesday we were taken to the Shitenojji Temple where we got the pleasure of experiencing a tea ceremony. It was very interesting to see the Japanese culture and experience it first hand. The ceremony was held in a little cottage of sorts in the most beautiful garden. I could have easily spent the entire day in that garden just sitting and relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day in Japan.
