It's been a busy week in the Big K. A group of students and faculty from our home college visited town this week, and we spent a little time with our friends (including K, who visited from Nagoya). We also visited the Heian Shrine to see the iris in the famous stroll garden there, and had our first taste of summer weather (hot and humid, though not nearly as hot as it will be).
We returned this week to Shisendo, the villa/temple famous for its azalea garden (we toured in April, thinking, wrongly, that the azaleas would be blooming. We had better luck this time.).With our faculty friends, we went to Kurama (the mountain town north on our little Eizan train) to visit the temple and enjoy an onsen--a hot springs public bath. Ah....
A reverse culture shock moment: for better or worse, we are fast giving up any Luddite leanings we might have had, and I'm already regretting giving up my Japanese cell phone in August. Today, J and I decided to ride the train downtown while S was at work. I called to let him know we were in Gion, and we arranged to communicate when he was able to meet later. J and I made our way to the Yasaka Shrine and Maruyama Park, and S eventually sent a text message stating "bus." I replied "tree." From this, I knew he was about 15 minutes away, and he knew that the baby and I were likely to be near Maruyama's famous weeping cherry when he arrived. It's like having Kyoto-sized walkie talkies. Also, one of our Vermont friends flipped a switch on our neglected television, making the 9 p.m. NHK news bilingual. Now it's easier to keep up with the baseball scores and keep tabs on North Korea.
Here are some pictures from the week: Heian Shrine and Shisendo.
Notice the fish trying to eat the baby in the picture above.
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