日本 day3 | leaving Kyoto (京都), on to Kobe (神戸市)
December 29
Leaving Kyoto (京都) was a little bit of a disappointment; I felt like I had just begun to unlock that city. I still think I got just a peek. As Face and I left, we saw quite a few signs that were telling us not to leave (resulting in what we are going to forever call "the platter").
En route to Kobe (神戸市) (where we would have lunch with Face's host parents), I wanted to stop and get them a gift. You can't believe how hard finding a good California bottle of wine can be in Japan. (Their wine is not that good, btw.)
Later in the night, I met more of Face's friends. We went out for some 'Japanese pancakes'. I can't even describe the food that I ate. Finally, I ended up teaching some American gestures to new friends (the American "Hey!" followed by the -snap-, -snap- was a favorite when getting someone's attention).
Nice, slow transition day into Kobe (神戸市).
Also: I ran across the first liquor & beer vending machine.
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日本 day2 | bike-a-thon: temple of the Golden Pavilion & the mountainside of 10,000 gates
December 28 Borrowing some bikes, the four of us (Aaron, Chad, Malia & myself) biked Kyoto from top to bottom. On our agenda began with an unsuccessful stop at Nijō Castle (二条城) due to New Year's preparations. We proceeded to Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺)/ "the temple of the Golden Pavilion" in northern Kyoto (京都) where there was a photo festival and then scurried (as best we could) to get completely across the city (about 11km straight from where we were at the time, not counting lost meanering) in order to get up to the mountains and to Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) before sundown. There, we saw over 10,000 torii (or gates) donated by local businesses to Inari, god of prosperity. They wound up the mountain to some awesome overlooks of Kyoto and her night lights at sunset.
The last-minute sprint up the mountain that Face and I made resulted in us becoming tremendously off-trail on the way back down the mountain. Yeah, we got lost, but that was in one of the most impressive neighborhoods I had seen in the mountains of Japan. I found comfort in that loss, like I have many times before in the neighborhoods of other countries.
Many photos were taken, and by the end of the day, everyone earned a trip to onsen later in the week to relax.
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日本 day1 | Getting to and diving into Kyoto
December 25 & 26: Traveling to Japan on Christmas day had its interesting moments:
- My brother wrote me a going away note with a drawing of Godzilla attacking Japan.
- There was the fact that I wore a Santa hat the entire day.
- In my mind, I said goodbye to America while I was stuck between some genuine white trash in line at the San Francisco Airport Burger King.
- I sat next to a guy on the flight over the Pacific who kept ordering milk whent he beverage cart came by... while I was watching Inglorious Basterds. (If you don't know what I would have been afraid of, check out the movie.)
- The Santa hat did not garner much attention, but I managed to talk my way into emergency row seats (major cha-ching! for us tall folk).
- There is a real lack of garbage cans or containers in Japan. I ripped some plastic wrapping off of the backpack I had checked, and as I stood at the baggage claim spinning around in a scan for a trashcan, an airline agent came springing to take it from me so she could dispose of the wrapping.
- I learned that each city in Japan has its own etiquette standards regarding which side of the escalator you stand on.
December 27: Kyomizu-dera was the first outing in Kyoto. Face and I visited the site in the morning and had company the next day when his friends from his Japanese program, Chad & Malia, came in to adventure with us.
I saw prayer postcards for the new year; bad fortunes on trees that were to be returned to the wind; drank some purifying water (which I was jokingly told would bring me easy childbirth); and I walked between two rocks blindly (in order to guarantee I would find my true love). The sunsets were all just grand while I was in Japan, and we were fortunate to see a full moon eventually as well.
I adore Kyoto, and this is probably one of my top cities to have been to. This is where I felt a pulse of Japan, aside from the urban sprawl, etc.
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America’s birthday booms
I grabbed a few shots from the Independence Day fireworks last week. Thanks to RAW edits and some Noise Ninja, I got some colorful shots.
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recent endeavors
1:1 laptops
+ project-based learning
+ student empowerment
+ authentic engagement
+ community outreach
= New Tech Network
don’t be a hater
This blog and accompanying online resources by Adam Babcock are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
- How can we get a pink noise system @DNTHS - From Cubicles, Cry for Quiet Pierces Office Buzz @newtechnetwork http://t.co/dar5H3i2
- RT @Infographics4u: Infographic on Infographics: What is an Infographic? http://t.co/tVuqhgCA
- Proud moment morning: my sister is recipient of a very notable scholarship. Gotta be happy with the opportunities @FremdVikings provided too
do you Diigo my bookmarks?
- Infographic: The Facebook IPO - Here's what all the buzz is about - Infographics Archive
- Using Twitter to Talk About Teaching - Do Your Job Better - The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Alice.org
- TED-Ed | Lessons Worth Sharing
- MinecraftEdu
- Teaching with Digital Games in the Classroom
- Storyboard: ‘Next’ - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com
- Infographic: What is an Infographic? - Infographics Archive