Kyoto- First Day

Famous Rock Garden: Ryoan-Ji
Kinkaku-Ji Temple- Golden Pavillion
Ginkakuji- Silver Pavilion
Ando Museum and Times 1&2 Building!!!!
Felt like celebrity- interviewed and photographed by thousands of school children- this was AMAZING!!! See pics (there will be many of the children as I catch up on my entries)...
Dinner- Shabu Shabu (to this day my favorite meal o far!!!- every time the school children ask me my favorite meal I tell them Shabu Shabu and they burst into laughter...I'm not sure why)
Had my, what has become, daily does of Matcha (green tea) ice cream
Went to Mjui store and went completely crazy- Dad please send me money- I spent all I had on Muji suplies ;)
Bought a Hilarious Graphic Tee for Eric

has anyone ever heard of a hotel that does not have wireless internet??

Yeah- so been away for a while... Hope you all haven't completely lost interest! The hotel we were staying at in Kyoto did not have good internet access so I was not able to download photos. But I took good notes off all the day trips we went on and have at least 1200 photos to sort through and edit and then upload for your viewing pleasure ;)
We are in Yokohama now- a city about 20 minutes outside of Tokyo. I arrived about 10 minutes ago and am exhausted (as usual). I am working on uploading a bunch of photos and hope to get at least a few images up by the end of the night- there is SOOOOOOO much I have to share with you all. Looking forward to getting more comments!
Love,
Becky

Additional Photos from Official First Day

First Official Day Statement

This place just keeps getting better. We started the day eating udon noodles which we paid for by purchasing a ticket from a vending machine and then going inside and giving the ticket to the chef in this tiny little sit down place. We ended up walking around the entire day at Ueno park and seeing the Old Buddhist Shrine in Asakusa (Sinso-ji). There was a Geisha there which was amazing (see photos), I ate some chicken in a cup, which was DELICIOUS, and I tried a piece of octupus! I cleansed my self with incense smoke before entering the temple where one could pay 100 yen for there fortune- which of course I did- I shook a can untila stick fell out, matched the symbol with the one on a series of drawers and pulled ut my fortune which was awesome. I tied the fortune to a wall and went on my way!

After this we tried to go to the zoo, however once we got there we learned that Ling Ling had recently died and there were no more giant pandas there so we decided to skip the zoo and walk to the park cafe for a beer.

I bought some things at a family mart- turns out they sell Muji products there which I LOVE!
I took 157 pictures today (of course I will not be posting them all here)...enjoy

(I'm sorry this is such a boring recap of the day- I think the photos will do a better job- I am still recovering from jetlag, however I did get a good night of sleep last night- but we all woke up at 5 in the morning and started our day at about 6 and I am ready for a nap- it is currently about 6pm here in Tokyo and 4am in Chicago :( )

First Official Day

Arrival In Tokyo

This place is unreal- surreal. I am so glad to be here- but hell, I m exhausted and I don't think I can even begin to describe the wonder and aw I felt getting to our hostel today. So, to save the few drops of delirious energy I have left I will simply post some pictures to share.

Four Day Until Departure

I am testing this out because I have never "blogged" in my life and I want to see how this works. I will be leaving for Japan on Thursday May22nd at around 10am and will hopefully be out cold sleeping thanks to the prescription of Lunesta I plan on getting tomorrow.

I think I am just about ready- I know what I need to bring, but I can't figure ut what suticase I shoudl bring- a small one?? A medium one? I am not bringing a big one, that's for sure- we will be traveling all over the place and large suitcases would only be a pain in the ass on small commuter trains (so we are told).

I have a vague idea of what I want to do for our studio project- a mapping assignment which I am excited about- should be a great way to get to know and think about Japan. Right now I think I want to do something that revolves around the idea of my feet (the connection being that we will be doing a lot of walking and the issues that revolve around Japanese culture and feet. I might try to make a plaster cast of my foot for each day that we are there- this mold will become a canvas for me to catalouge (or map) the experiences of the day- hopefully I will come up with a better concept as far what exactly I will be putting on the plaster feet- this is the part I am still developing.

I am reading Shinto the Way home right now- one of the required readings for the trip. So far it i really interesting- I am learning so much and am really excited about learning more and seeing so many great things in person.

Erc just told me that blogging is supposed to be a quick though so I guess I will just stop here!