Let's Go to Kyoto! Day 4: Temples, Nijo Castle, and a Wild Monkey Adventure

Hey so guess what? School started yesterday for me! Finally! It's so nice to get back into a classroom after two months away. I was afraid I'd forget everything, but I've been doing okay so far, so I suppose that's good. Today was my first core class, and that went really well I think! I still haven't figured out my special topics in Japanese courses yet, but this week is auditing week so I'll probably have it hammered out by next Wednesday or so. So that's exciting!

Let's Go to Kyoto! Day 3: Torii Gates and Badly-Behaved Deer

Sorry to keep everyone waiting! I had quite the busy week last week, with placement testing and some orientation stuff, on top of my first homework assignment of the semester (which I'm still working on). Classes start again on Tuesday, and I'll be in the 7th level of language classes this semester, which is exciting but I'm anticipating having a LOT of homework. That's okay though; I suppose it just means I'm learning that much more!

We slept in a bit on Day 3, since we had been quite tired from all the walking. Our agenda for the day included stopping by a BUNCH of notable landmarks (some of which were UNESCO sites, of course) in both Kyoto and Nara, and because we had slept in, we expected our day to be a bit longer than the previous days.

Let's Go to Kyoto! Day 2: World Heritage Sites and Bus Adventures

Sorry for the delay; I have my placement test on Tuesday, so I've been busy studying all weekend! I'm taking a bit of a break now, so I've decided to go ahead and update everyone on the second day of the Kyoto trip!

On Thursday, we woke up early because we had planned out a busy day for ourselves. We had plans to visit many places, including 3 UNESCO World Heritage sites, and we also needed to figure out Kyoto's bus system, since the subway system is, compared to Tokyo's, incredibly lacking. We were lucky enough to stumble upon two one-day tourist passes for the bus, thanks to some people who were checking out of our hotel, for free (they usually cost ￥500, or around $6.00), which was awesome because our plans for the day involved quite a lot of bus riding!

Let's Go to Kyoto! Day 1: Bullet Trains, Temples, and a Capsule Ryokan

Well I'm back. I've been back for a few days, but I've needed the time to recover and sort through nearly 600(!!) photos and study for placement tests (next Tuesday ahhhhhhh) and also attempt to enroll for next semester (still haven't managed to accomplish that one; we'll get there), but I'm finally back on my feet (I think).