Osaka City (Dotonbori), the Kyoto trip, the opening ceremony, and the start of classes

Posted byhubblebopPosted inUncategorized

I am sorry that I haven’t posted much in the last few days. My school started Monday and everything has been very busy both before and after that. I at least want to give pictures and captions for now though ^_^ so here we go!

Osaka City (Dotonbori)

In the first few days some friends and I went into Osaka city a couple times, which was fun. It ended up draining both wallets and energy pretty fast, though, since, while it is pretty, it is also very busy. Dotonbori is the shopping and food hub of the city. I have to say I enjoyed the city, but I don’t really feel like I would like to go back to that one much 😅 we were all too exhausted after the last time, since we were trying to enjoy some days out shopping before having classes.

A Japanese casino, apparently popular in Osaka city. My friend Celine and I went in thinking it was an arcade, but I understood pretty fast that we were wrong and left 😂
The face of Osaka city, especially Dotonbori, the moving Crab sign of the restaurant Kani Doraku. I got lunch from there, grilled crab, but it was overpriced. Still, I can say I went and just won’t go again. It was tasty.
The entrance to Dotonbori street at night~ (this was the second time going, since some of the group wanted to go at night to see the lights. Very Vegas-like).
The running-man sign of Dotonbori. I’m not sure why he is a landmark, but all of the local Japanese students said we had to see him :3
We got sushi for dinner. Celine (the person across from me in the bottom second pic) is not too keen on fish lol. I tried some raw fish. Not a huge fan, but I can say I did it. Ill stick with egg and cooked sushi. Moe is our closest local student friend, she is the student in the white shirt in the first photo making the peace sign. She studied abroad in New Mexico, USA, and is fluent in English. She is helps us survive ordering food since we can’t always read everything🤣 thing is, those two pics are only of half of our usual crew. The other half didn’t want sushi so they went to another restaurant and met with us in an hour 👀😆

Kyoto trip 8/29

The Kyoto “trip” was organized by some of the local students, mostly the resident assistants of the dorms. I put quotes because it wasn’t really guided much, we were given freedom and mostly had to get there on our own. However, we did have groups, but mine got split up halfway through so myself, Shelby, and Celine (two of the friends I see most) were left to explore on our own as we have been the entire time anyway, which was fine. The rest of our group felt so sorry later, but we had a good time and explained that it was fine. I think the general consensus of my friends and I is that Kyoto is our favorite place that we’ve visited so far. It is less busy, and has more visible history (shrines, temples etc). It is also a bit more artsy than the gambling and shopping scene at Osaka city. Kyoto is also about 39 mins from the school, versus the hour it takes to get to dotonbori.

This is a pic of me at the first place that our group visited, Yasaka Jinja shrine (八坂神社). This picture is taken at the shrine’s “Vermilion Gate”. One of my group-mates, Armando, was nice enough to take the pic for me. The girls in the back are all wearing yukata, I believe. That’s the summertime Kimono.
the first purification attempt at the shrine

You’re not supposed to drink the water, just touch it to your mouth. I messed it up, but it was my first try so I’ll know never to do that again >_>’

I rang a bell at the shrine (correctly, I think, as I watched how locals did it first)!
Some more pics of another part of Yasaka Jinja
Our group went to a ramen shop for lunch. Really tasty and authentic (popular with locals in Kyoto) only issue is the options were pork ramen, or extra pork ramen 🤣😭 I gave the meat away and ate the noodles.
The whole group (still before we separated) went to a small family shrine for a bit. Not a lot there, but they had colorful… sacks(?)-I was unable to ask what they were at the tome but it was pretty- tied up all around. I’m guessing they’re out there by visitors. Good background for pictures 👍🏼 of course my water bottle sticks out but oh well ╰(*´︶`*)╯
Next we got ice cream. The shop sold only matcha (green tea flavored) ice cream. It was actually really good. I forgot to take a picture before I stared eating 😂 I now have a love for matcha ice cream and have eaten like 4 since I got here.
So next was this temple, Kiyomizudera (清水寺), it’s a UNESCO world heritage site, and it’s very big. It’s also really pretty. My friends and I split off from the group there (accidentally) and just decided to journey on our own. It was soooo pretty all around, but soooo hot outside. This heatwave in the Kansai region is killer.
entering the temple(poor sound quality warning, my phone is on its last legs…)
You can’t take pictures inside the temple, so these are starting outside again, but on the other side 🙂
A massive graveyard (we believe of the people who worked at the temple over the many many many years, but that is our guess as we saw no one whom we could ask)
After leaving the temple we stopped at a small shop and bought taiyaki. they’re piping hot fish-shaped bread snacks filled with sweet red beans (azuki). They were tasty.
Celine and I also each bought a personalized charm with our names written in kanji from the same shop (Shelby convinced us to get them) that gave us the taiyaki (the co-owner is an artist). It was touristy, but also actually hand-carved and detailed. The man also gave us the translation for what our Kanji names would mean.
A cool road on our way out of Kyoto, to the train station to go back to the school.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on Friday 8/30, and was not super long winded like a lot of the meetings before it were, but it was interesting. There was the formal stuff of speeches from board members and consulates, but there was also an interesting finale. First a choir from the school sang the school’s song to all of us incoming foreign students and then there was a surprise martial arts performance from the martial arts club. Myself and some of the others were cringing every time a student was tossed 😶 they all laughed at the end though, so it was fun for them but a bit scary for those of us who aren’t used to seeing people being rag dolled regularly 🤣

The choir
These are only a couple of the matches😶

The matches/fights were cool. At first I thought they were staged, but then I was hearing the thuds when they hit the ground sometimes, and I realized I was wrong 😗 super cool, I haven’t seen that up close. All of the opening ceremony videos were from Armando, as he takes better quality videos and pictures 😂 I’ve only seen him a couple times but he became the group documenter when he’s around.

School/ Start of classes

So I don’t have pictures for this, except for my meals before and after classes that I’ve had to start making for myself :] but it’s been nice. Busy, but nice. The ceramics class is intense. It is a 3 hour block class on Tuesdays, and the professor had us learning to wedge (kind of like kneading) clay the whole time. My upper body strength should be crazy when I get back 😅😭 there’s also a requirement to spend another 3 hour block of self-practice on Thursdays (starting next week) in the ceramics room. I like all of my classes, though. The others are my japaneee language class- the professor is super sweet- and two literature classes called “East Asian Literature and Culture in Translation” and “Kodai to Gendai”. The literature and ceramics are the ones that are gonna be the most time consuming and take most time from my free time, but I can handle it 💪🏼

My school lunch yesterday ^,^ PB and J with apple, some chips, and a couple little cookies
My dinner last night. I made udon noodles with some ponzu sauce that I watered down as a soup base 🤣 I added a couple imitation crab sticks and a fried egg on top. The side is a discount cooked spinach salad

That’s all for now folks!~ but I hope this was enough of an update for now and that everyone can see it. Love you all ^,^

Published by hubblebop

I am making this blog for family and some friends, so that I can more easily update them on my life for the months I’m in Osaka. Thanks and love you guys!

8 thoughts on “Osaka City (Dotonbori), the Kyoto trip, the opening ceremony, and the start of classes”

  3. So many interesting this to do & see and you are just getting started. Really like your name charm! Peace & heart really describe you. Elegant? Maybe not yet but you are young so that may come with time & more exposure to the Japanese culture.
    Continue to enjoy your adventures!
    Love you tons!! 😘🥰😘🥰

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