Kyoto in September-Day 1

I made a video blog post!!!! Yay, so here I thought I would fill in some extra info on the places we visited!

First right after we arrived and checked into our hotel we walked to Nanzen-ji temple to start the walk on the Path of Philosophy. Along the path were many little resturaunts and tea shops, of which we stopped at one to get some maccha.

Nanzen-ji Temple

On the Path of Philosophy

Maccha at a tea shop on the Path of Philosophy!

Then we continued the walk, which was absolutely beautiful, it was along a small river and was a narrow old stone path, and at the end we reached the main street to Ginkaku-ji, or the Silver Temple. The temple is not actually silver because the shogun that had it built died before they were able to cover it with silver leaf, so they just left it without. So while this temple may not be as stunning as Kinkaku-ji(golden temple) the gardens definitely make up for it- they are amazingly beautiful.

Ginkaku-ji

Ginkaku-ji

Ginkaku-ji

Then in the evening we walked around Gion- the old Geisha district, and all the traditional buildings were very beautiful, and there were many people wearing Kimonos that looked beautiful among the historical buildings. Then we had a bit of a hard time finding a restaurant to eat at because it was still a bit early so not many were open yet, but we were really hungry, so we ended up finding this okonomiyaki shop that was open and had some leak okonomiyaki and I got a glass of some plum wine which was delicious!

Gion

Couple in Kimono's in Gion

Okonomiyaki and Plum Wine!

After eating we then went to the main modern shopping area of Kyoto that was really busy(well everywhere was crowded, but here especially).  Stopped at Baskin Robbins for Courtney, then returned to our hotel thus ending our first day....... so to be continued!

Along the river at night in Kyoto

P.S. Here is a pick of the sweets I got from the adorable old lady on the train, they are like block jellies that you just slice and eat, one is just plain, than there is red bean, and green tea flavored!

It's Typhooning Outside

So... sometimes life is just not very exciting... especially on a day where you were originally planning on going to an awesome beach, but instead are stuck in your apartment due to a big typhoon. So, I thought I would take this time to write about some of the smaller more everyday things about life in Tsu.

For awhile due to the extremely hot and humid weather everyday consisted of the apartment, then work. When we were at work, we pretty much would stay in our office the whole day for the air conditioning, only venturing out when in need of food. We have started to become regulars at some food places around, my number one favorite place to get lunch is called Coco Kitchen, which is a small bento(lunch box) shop a few buildings down from school. It is run by this adorable woman, and one other woman helper, and when you walk inside it pretty much looks like you just stepped into her home kitchen, and she dishes up a bento for you, everyday there is only one bento, and her bento's are a lot healthier than the average bento, with many vegetable dishes a part of them, and so far everyone I have had has been absolutely delicious, even when I don't actually know what it is I am eating.

Another place we have become regulars at is Karakata, which is an Indian/Napali curry resturant near work. This one is more of an OBC teacher legacy because the teachers before us also would go every Wednesday night, and so we have carried on the tradition. For all of us Wednesday is the day with the most classes, so after making it through all them sitting down to a bowl of curry and a big piece of naan is the best! And because OBC teachers in the past have always been such regulars, and now we are too, all the workers know us very well and always wait for us to arrive at 9 pm every Wednesday.

Then of course, roller sushi, we don't necessarily go every week, but pretty close... it is just so cheap and delicious!! We have only tried two different restaurants, but we keep going back to Sushiro.... because of its EBI AVOCADO! (shrimp avocado) Its seriously super delicious... and we know its California sushi, and not very Japanese, but we just can't help being American, cause it is our favorite hands down! We went to Kappa Sushi and they also had an ebi avocado... but it just wasn't the same... so now we are starting to be regulars at Sushiro, however there are many roller sushi resturants around, so we will probably branch out more soon... but for now... Sushiro with there awesome ebi avacado it is!

Other than those resturants we haven't been to any others more than once really.... so next is grocery stores... we have one near work(Maruyasu) that we pretty much go to everyday except days I go to Coco's for lunch... and its always fun just browsing their salads and lunch options, and I usually get something different everytime... and don't always know what it is necessarily... so its always a mini adventure, but also at Maruyasu, they sell the good brand of soy milk that has an apricot flavor... that is the BEST! I could seriously just drink that for the rest of my life and be pretty content(except not really cause I love maccha!... and coffee...)  

Lastly, the grocery store right by our apartment, Price Cut, which we go to every day pretty much... and it's pretty awesome. We usually always go after work at night, so we recognize all the night workers, and we have a favorite cashier, we always try to be in his line, and the main reason why he is our favorite is because it is protocol for cashiers in Japan to say the price of each item they scan out loud, and when he does he always laughs to himself the whole time... and we kinda think its because he assumes we just don't know what he is saying but he says it anyways and finds it funny... so he is always smiling and laughing... and therefore our favorite, but the other night employees are also awesome too! Its just a great place for food... and late night ice cream runs!(seriously ice cream here is awesome!)

So, that is all I have for our daily life at the moment, if you are wondering how we have been spending our day stuck inside, we have a huge bag of yarn in our apartment from past teachers that I have used to teach Courtney how to knit with, and now we are both working on our own knitting project... we watched a movie.... and now probably back to more knitting...

Our knitting projects!

(I don't have pictures of all the restaurants now but I'll take some this week and update this post!)

Edit: added photos of coco kitchen and karakatta!

First Tsu Adventures!

This weekend was so exciting!

So first on Saturday we went to an art gallery where one of Courtney's students had a painting on display. It was really cute! It was just a small little gallery on the third floor of a building about a block from our school. Shortly after we walked in the ladies running the gallery brought us out some tea to drink as we looked at the paintings... and it was just so adorable... I am sure that a group of three foreigners were the last thing they were expecting to walk into their gallery, but it was a really nice gallery, with all oil paintings(mostly impressionist styled) on display for this week.

After we decided to bike to a temple that Courtney remembered seeing on the map that was very close to the gallery we were at, so we went, and first thing we saw was a man walking his cat!!!! Probably one of the best things I have ever seen in my life....

Then we entered the temple, and it was so beautiful inside!

The main gate

Shitennoji Temple

While we were walking around taking pictures, a man who we assume is a monk at the temple told us in Japanese that it was okay if we went inside, so we did and the inside was stunning! We walked around a bit inside, then didn't know what else to do, so we walked out of the temple, but just as we did the monk came back with a tray that had two cups of tea, and he looked surprised that we were already leaving, and again in Japanese asked if we wanted to stay and have some tea.... we said okay and went back inside and he laid out little mats for us to sit on and set the tea in front of us, then he brought out some little Japanese sweets for us to have and sat down and started a short simple conversation in Japanese! He just asked where we were from, what we were doing in Mie, how we came there, then he got up and left.

Where we sat and had tea and the Japanese sweet with the monks

Shortly after another monk came out, he was much older and we assume was the head monk of the temple. He knew some English and explained a little about the temple to us, how one of the Buddha statues inside was a Doctor Buddha, and how the statues on each side of the room were of Buddha's apostles. He spoke really slowly and was a bit hard to understand, and he also took many long pauses so many moments we all sat in silence, and just admired the inside of the temple. He then got up and left and the younger monk came back and spoke some more with us(again only in Japanese-he did not know any English) asking where we were staying, and he thought it was amazing how well we could understand him... but if anything our conversation pointed out how bad my Japanese is... but it was exciting that we were able to get meaning across and have a conversation, even if it was really basic and short! We than left and said thank you and he invited us to visit again, and to try Zazen with them sometime.

The garden on the way to the Shrine

Then today we decided to go to a Shrine that we saw labeled on the map, being right by our apartment across from Price Cut(the grocery store that is next to our place). On the short bike there we passed some rice fields and gardens that farmers were working in, then we saw the Tori gate to the shrine, which was very small but so beautiful!

Kantachi Shrine

We walked in and it was very small, and right next to it was a house, that we guess the family who run the shrine might live in since it is almost directly in the shrine, but we are not sure, but it was really beautiful!!!

We then walked around the back of the shrine (there was a little road and pathway that had stone walls on the side) and found a big open area in the forest, and found it was the top of the cliff opposite price cut!

Price Cut! (we go there pretty much everyday)

Looking out over Tsu

Then we left the Shrine, and on our way back passing the farmers they shouted "Hello!" to us so we said "Hello!" back, then they asked, "げんき？(genki?)" which directly translated means "Healthy?" but it is the Japanese equivalent to "How are you?" and Courtney replied, "Genki desu!" Which is like saying "Good!" and they laughed, probably surprised that we understood, and we continued to bike, this weekend was probably the most Japanese I had to use since I got here! Since almost everyday I am at work where I can only speak English! So this weekend was really fun! I can't wait to find more of these awesome little temple and shrines in our area!