¥400 bus (I paid too much, actual was ¥220)
¥1297 lunch for me and Stephanie
-¥550 she paid me back
¥220 bus
¥200 chibidensha
~¥9300 books
-----------------------
¥11,070 total
Every day has its little adventures, I guess. Thus far the public transportation system hasn't failed to provide its share of adventures. This time the screwup was on the bus. Today I tried bus #50, which my okaasan had written in my notebook as being OK to ride to school. It went the right way for about 3 stops, then turned right on Sanbon-dori. Luckily I was paying attention and got off right away. However, as I left I popped a ¥500 coin into the slot. I waited about 2 seconds for change before I realized that you're supposed to put exact change in there. I asked the bus driver for change and he started to dispense ¥10 coins one at a time, slowly, by pressing some sort of button on his side of the machine. He had dispensed about 10 coins when I felt really bad for holding up the train, took the money with a "sumimasen", and left. It would have been a good opportunity to use a phrase I just learned, "fuzakenna", which means "you're f'ing kidding me." I paid something like ¥400 to go a couple blocks. Even taxis aren't that expensive. Not only that, I had to walk like 8 blocks to school. I had left about 15 minutes to spare in addition to the 30 minutes I alloted for the commute, but even walking briskly I just barely made it. I didn't really mind the walking though - it's good exercise and taiken (personal experience). I checked the bus routes later and #50 actually runs to Kyoto station, so my okaasan had made a mistake.
Today was a walking tour of the Heien Shrine, the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts, and the Nanzenji temple. The Heien Shrine was orange and green (somebody said it looked like Taco Bell colors) and had this immense courtyard. I went in the very middle and tried to take a digital assist panorama shot. I'll stitch it together later. I know it's underexposed but it's better underexposed than overexposed, as I can still bring out the details later. It was pretty good looking, the shrine, but nothing really extraordinary. I guess I've had a lot of sight-seeing lately so just seeing a big shrine doesn't do much for me. It also awoke the cynic in me to see the various structures where they'd hang little papers with wishes. It was as if the sole purpose of the shrine was to fulfill their wishes like some genie.
The Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts was pretty cool. The exhibits were very informative, with step by step descriptions of how the artisans accomplished stone-cutting, or fan-making, or laquerwork, or sake production. Otherwise, it was just another museum.
We grabbed lunch in a nearby convenience store. Everybody tried out different things. I bought this bento with fish and rice. Mickey D just bought a big fish. Patrick had some onigiri (rice balls), Michael had this sandwich with noodles inside (weird huh?), and Stephanie got soba noodles with this nasty-looking paste. When she put it in her sauce it looked like poop, so we made fun of her.
After lunch we had to do little group presentations on different eras in Japan's history from a brook we were supposed to read. I didn't finish the book, so right before my group went up, I looked up some stuff about tea ceremonies to say. I would say most people didn't read the book and the presentations were very informal in nature. Some people did seem to know what they were talking about, however, and I managed to record some of Nick's spiel since it was quite good.
The rest of the day was sort of uneventful. I had my first lecture for Contemporary Japanese Relations, taught by Professor MacDougall, and I didn't fall asleep. There were some Japanese students in the class that I got to meet, which was cool. They were eager to practice English, so I spoke to them in English. It's so sad... their English is so much better than my Japanese... One of the students I asked said he understood about 60% of the lecture. That's much more than I could do for a lecture given in Japanese, I'm sure. After dinner, which was tempura (they mix the vegetables in batter and fry it on the spot!), I played the piano. The dog really loved it and started to howl(?) or bark(?) or sing, I'm not quite sure which. It was really cute though. Okaasan and Otoosan liked it too, even with all the mistakes.
 |
| Kyoto Day 5 |
3 comments:
The effect of under esposure and over exposure on the picture is the same. You lose the dynamic range of the color as well as the light intensity of the scene. I suggest you always try to get optimized exposure for every scene.
On your way to and from school, were your rides crowded? I kept thinking that you will "hang" between two big guys.
I downloaded the pic of bright red temple. It sure looks pretty. They had done a good maintainance job.
What song did you played? I sure miss the music at home.
hmm good point about the dynamic range. what I meant to say was that I didn't want it overexposed for sure. the rides to and from school aren't terribly crowded at all. then again, my commute is at about 9 am and on the way back is about 6:30 pm so perhaps it's not rush hour. also, the train is a very small and old one, more like a tram, and the line is also very short (the distance between the first and last stops). I play lots of different songs... they like the melodies of life and beethoven moonlight sonata the best, and so does the dog :P. the dog is the cutest thing in the world, he tries to sing along and then runs up to the piano bench and nudges me while I'm playing. tomorrow there's a party at home with otoosan's cousins coming over and okaasan wants me to play piano. I don't think it'll be good because I'll be nervous, but I'm going to try anyways...
Yes, dog is a very good companion. Your experience in Japan with this cute dog may influence your future decision on raising a pet. Seeing you keep getting disoriented on your ride that reminds me - like father like son :-)
Wish you have a great party and I am sure you will. Take one sip of Sake for me. I had one small bottle of sake in Fukada on 4/21/07. It tasts smooth and easy to swallow. Only afterward, the alcohol gets me.
Post a Comment