Thursday, Sep. 7th:
Today
marks the midpoint of our journey studying abroad in Japan; it is also the beginning
of a four-day weekend, as the morning’s plans for our class to go to Nijo
Castle together were optional. Of course, due to the optional event (and
because many people had a late night to celebrate Julie’s birthday~ hope you
had a wonderful birthday, Julie!) I was the only student that accompanied the
teachers to Nijo castle. Henceforth, I will be writing about these past couple
days from my perspective on my own trips with various groups of people.
At Nijo
castle, I really had the premium experience, in that I was able to go up into
one of the defense walls and see through the wall out into the courtyard and
the street. Upon entering the castle itself, I learned that Nijo castle was
actually built for shoguns in the Tokugawa regime, contrary to what I
originally thought (that it was built for the emperor). After walking through
the enormous castle and seeing the rooms that the shogun used for everyday life
and for meeting ministers from the emperor’s castle, I gained deeper insight
into how shoguns ruled/what the life of a shogun was like. It was really cool
to be able to see a side of a shogun’s personal life after only reading about
what shoguns did.
As I was returning from the castle, it started raining
really intensely, so by the time I made it back to Piece Hostel Sanjo, I was
entirely drenched even though I had an umbrella.
After meeting up with Laura and Alison, we headed
over to Kiyomizudera (清水寺) and instantly experienced what might be known as “traditional
Japan”, with people dressed in yukata (traditional Japanese dress~ see picture)
and narrow streets with small shops lining the sides. It’s interesting to note,
though, that I actually saw more foreigners (I thought they were foreigners
since they weren’t speaking Japanese) dressed in traditional Japanese wear than
actual Japanese people. This says quite a lot about Japan’s image overseas.
Friday, September 8th :
Laura,
Alison, and I woke up bright and early in the morning to catch our series of
trains and shinkansen back to Hiroshima since we wanted to visit Itsukushima
shrine again during high tide. After many close calls (we stuck very precisely
to our schedule, shown below), we made it, and really got to experience the “floating
shrine” for what it’s known for.
We hit
up the cable car ride up to Mt.Misen next, and ended up practically running up
and down the hike to the mountain summit in 45 minutes, round-trip. In addition
to breathtaking scenery, we also saw the place where apparently Buddhism in
Japan first originated.
Needless to say, we were
extremely tired on the train back, where we stopped in Osaka to wander around
and grab dinner. It’s been extremely exciting getting to explore all the different
parts of Japan, and getting to learn about the unique qualities of each city we
go to!
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