One Crazy Weekend After Another!

Holy moly! Has it been a crazy couple of weeks! I haven't had a chance to post for a while...but, at least I have a lot to talk about now!

Alright...starting with the trip to Kyoto I was talking about last time I posted...
It took us about an hour and a half by train to get there, which would have been great, with lovely sight seeing out the window, except we had to stand the whole way, which was no fun. Once we got there, we walked over a really lovely bridge with cranes in the river below and weeping willows and cherry trees on the banks. Then we took the subway one stop to an art museum to see an exhibit about lacquer work. After oohing and aahing, we had some lunch at this cute little restaurant by the station that, oddly enough, was playing American '50s music. Everyone was very nice and gave us their "osususme" (recommendations). The food was absolutely delicious, too. Afterwards, we went to see an ikebana (traditional Japanese flower arranging) presentation from an ikebana master and his students. It was really beautiful. All the different arrangements were so pretty and varied - they even had an exhibition of sushi made from flowers!

The next day I went to the first judo match of my friend, Calvin, from UIUC. He actually won his first fight! It was really cool! I had no idea that the matches were structured like that. I promise to upload pictures from this and all the other things I've done right after I get through finals!

That week, we had a lesson in ikebana in one of my classes from another ikebana master who happened to be friends with my professor. He gave us all a bunch of different kinds of flowers and a lecture on the basics of ikebana and how to arrange the flowers. He was incredibly knowledgeable and very nice. I've got a picture of the finished product to show you when I have time to upload!

The next weekend, we had another class field trip, this time to the area right off the Sea of Japan, Kanazawa. I'm pretty positive that it's my favorite place in Japan (of the one's I've visited), except where I live of course :). We took a six hour bus ride to get there, but it was punctuated by some really gorgeous stops. We first stopped at a famous Zen Buddhist temple called Eiheiji, which means Eternal Peace, and got to see all the wonderfully beautiful fall scenery. With the trees and the beautiful weather, it was absolutely lovely. I can't wait until you can see the pictures! Our next stop was Tojinbo, which is a special area on the coast of the Sea of Japan where these amazing cliffs have been carved out by the waves. It's one of three places in the whole world where you can see this geologic phenomenon. We were a little late getting there, but we could not have had better timing. We ended up getting to go on a boat ride on the beautiful, clear Sea of Japan to see these cliffs, just as the sun was setting on a perfect fall day. It was....awesome (in the original sense of the word). Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, my camera died just when we got on the boat :( Aside from that, it was perfect.
We stayed at a nice little hotel that night and headed to "One of Japan's Top Three Most Famous Gardens" the next day. Kenroku-en (the Garden) was gorgeous too! It was raining, but it was really pretty to see all the fall leaves and waterfalls and trees through the drops. There were even some winter cherry trees in bloom. It was very calming.
We were also supposed to go to this Ninja Temple, but, sadly, we didn't have time. So we went to lunch at a nice bakery and then headed home on the bus.

I actually have lots more to tell you - about my trip to Tokyo and my finals that are about to start, but, because of the latter, I think I will have to cut this short! I will soon update more!

I love you all and miss you very much.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Christy