Note to Self: Learn to Slurp

Yesterday we took a trip into Kyoto with help from some university students. I was in a group with four guys and a girl as our guides (Gaidai students). It was a day of thick humidity and hours of walking, but it turned out to be really fun. We took the train in and went to the east side of the city. There are lots of small stores, as well as big department stores along the main streets. Kyoto is so different from the area around here---I love it! There is so much more green, and just about everything is aesthetically pleasing. We went to Kiyomizu Temple, which is HUGE, and walked up its many steps to the top. You can see most of the city from the top!

For dinner our new Japanese friends took us to a nice restaurant where we had soba noodles. For those of you not familiar with Japanese food etiquette, slurping is something one should indeed do, to show that you like the meal. It is definately hard to slurp when you've been told countless times that doing so is rude! Plus, for me, being out of practice didn't help. We ended up having a slurping contest, which was quite amusing. Obviously, all the gaijin (foreigners) lost.

I will meet my host family in the afternoon tomorrow and move in with them. They live in a city about an hour away from here, in Kadoma. I'll have about an hour commute by train to get to school each day. I am really excited to meet them. I'll have two younger brothers, ages 5 and 2. The parents are in their 30s and they both list tennis as their hobby. I think it's a good match for me. Woohoo!

If you'd like to send me mail, my address will be:

18-18 Asahi-chou
Kodama-shi
Osaka, 571-0061
JAPAN

I wish I could post pictures, but, unfortunately, my camera batteries died before the trip. But I'll post some from others who were on the trip---almost everyone had a camera. As for my camera, the batteries are currently charging, and I plan to take many photos on our trip to Osaka today!

Happy Saturday,
Monica