Kyoto, Spiders and Grunts

So last Friday and Saturday was the school trip to Kyoto. I believe the qualifier "school trip" is very important here. Since it was a school trip it was very rushed and regimented, with little free time, and a good chunk of time spent on the bus being talked at in keigo the polite language of Japan. There are many levels of keigo, with everyone of them being most incomprehensible to me. So! To business! *toasts* ha, just kidding. Seriously though.

Friday we left the school bright and early, on the bus by 8:25 and gone by 8:35. It took us about two hours to get to Kyoto, with our first stop being Kiyomizudera.

That's me somewhere around it, with it in the background. Anyway, this temple is noteworthy because it was constructed completely in the Japanese style, i.e. no nails. That's right, the whole temple is constructed with joints.

Also this temple is famous for water flowing from a certain waterfall which is supposed to grant health to those who drink it. Yes, I drank it. Sure, I feel more healthy. I bought a souvenier cup from which to drink it.

So we broke into small groups and wandered around for a while with the condition to meet at another temple by a certain time. During this time we could have bought souveniers, but that was made clear only in Japanese, and seeing as how I'm not that good, I didn't understand, and so bought no souveniers. Damn. Other oppurtunities will arise though!

I'm going to compare this trip to an EF trip in Western Europe with the word "cathedral" being replaced with the words "temple" or "jinja(shrine)." You can only look at some many in a day before becoming jaded. That was this trip. It was pretty and all, and yes, I did buy souveniers, but I'd rather just show and tell in person than on here. Mainly because I'm lazy. Anyway...onward!

So another temple, this one boasting the largest temple gate in Japan. It was very pretty and we caught the end of a service in the main hall.

After this temple was the ryokan or traditional Japanese inn. We had dinner, sang some karaoke, and hit the public bath for a good end to the day.

Saturday dawned somewhat cloudy, much like Friday, but soon turned towards sun. Our first stop of the day was Kinkakuji, the Golden Temple, called so because of a layer of gold leaf which covers most of its surface.

Ta-da!

This was followed by another temple on the outskirts of Kyoto. Pretty, lots of pictures taken, blah blah blah.

Jaded? A little.

Another shrine? Yes. Souveniers, pictures, etc.

Back on the bus to Chubu. End of trip. I'll tell you guys more later.

On a different note, I've been thinking about things. Spiders. Spiders are everywhere. Not just small spiders, but large green spiders that look incredible deadly, but probably aren't. Seriously though, I now understand why there are so many spiders in the Zelda games. They have extremely large, tough webs. It's scary.

On another, different note, I enjoy that an acceptable response to a question is a grunt. A grunt. Or some other, different noise. I will miss it when I go back home. The conversations with Dad will go like this:

"Jon, did you take out the trash?"
"Nnn." (In Japan, this is an affirmative)

"Was that a yes or a no?"

And so on.

All for now. Miss you all.