#and after the workshop new friend & me went to eat some Takoyaki and then to the korean cafe ✨💖

[laitoslittlemacaron]

Went to a Nerikiri Workshop today (these wagashi sweets made from white bean paste, we formed a peach blossom, a prince & princess!) and girl next to me who speaks perfect japanese was like .."i see you👀" pointing to my phone case-

anyway randomly found another DL stan today lmao had a good talk today xD

[cookinguptales]

Let's look at the positives what cool things did you experience while in Japan?

THANK YOU FOR ASKING ME THIS, ANON, I experienced many cool things in Japan!! So many, in fact, that I’ll be putting them under a cut!

I lived like a block and a half from Ginkakuji, a cool lil temple (lbr, summer house turned temple) with really pretty grounds!

I got to go visit a lot of local temples in autumn, which is when they open up their treasure houses!! I saw so many cool things in temples and museums! I wandered around so many temples and shrines! I accidentally climbed up a baby mountain to see Yoshida Jinja, then realized there was a back entrance that was accessible by bus! (…look things up before you decide to just have an adventure, I guess.)

If you are ever in Kyoto, I highly recommend going to Sanjūsangendō! It’s not in a lot of guides but I really liked it! They have 1000 gold statues of Kannon in there and they’re all different, plus smaller statues of a bunch of other deities! And a real big one!

My university was right near a big temple, and our program head got us in for a tour in the cool spots!! haha

I got to go to Nara and see all the cute deer!!! And their huge Buddha statue at Todaiji which is one of the only times in my life that I’ve just like STOPPED, frozen, and stared at something. It’s so big!!!! Plus I got to see another treasure exhibition. :|b

I went to Tokyo! And actually…ran into some problems there that were not Japan’s fault, haha. But I did get to go to Tokyo Disneyland and I really enjoyed it! I did not get to go to Meiji Jingu bc – of reasons!!! But I’m still mad about it!!! I did go to a shrine dedicated to tech, though, which I thought was super interesting. I got a charm to put on my phone to protect it from harm, lol.

I ate a lot of really good food! I splurged and went to a high-end sushi place in Tokyo and I tried all sorts of new foods and I grew way too addicted to takoyaki and curry! (I miss curry bread so damn much, wah.)

I took a class on Kyoto artisans, so I got to see some really cool parts of Kyoto through my professors’ contacts, haha. I got to go to a yuzen dyeing studio and see them prepare fabric for high-end kimono (and we got to dye some things ourselves), I got to meet a super famous potter when we went to Shigaraki pottery village for their festival, he helped me learn how to use a wheel (ha), I met an indigo dyer with art in all these museums, I got to go to a kettle workshop and learn all about traditional smelting methods, I got to go to a traditional bow maker (as in archery) and they showed us how they made them, which was SUPER interesting… like I just got to see a lot of really, really cool places!

I went to the manga museum with my language class! We watched a kamishibai performance with all the tiny children, hahaha.

I made a lot of friends and we…mostly ate together, I won’t lie to you. I had fun making takoyaki with friends and going out for parfaits and getting okonomiyaki and even just hanging out in the dining hall after sign languge club. It was a lot of fun!

I went to Toei Kyoto’s film park, which was fun and educational! XD It’s where they film a lot of period dramas in Japan, so we got to play around on a lot of sets.

I visited a Buddhist monastery and looked at their zen rock gardens and had an abbreviated tea ceremony (did this several times, actually – Japanese people love taking foreigners to abbreviated tea ceremonies, lol) and practiced my meditation! Thankfully I already had some meditation training so the scary monk with the big-ass stick did not use it on me like he did some of my classmates haha.

I visited with a really, REALLY nice family in Okayama and I loved them. I got to go to their tiny adorable children’s elementary level sports day and we had a birthday party for two of their children and they took me to a local cultural festival at the mother’s workplace, which involved traditional music and yet another abbreviated tea ceremony. XD

I met a lot of really nice neighbors! I was like. The only white person in the neighborhood. So they got to know me quickly, haha. My favorite experience was when I walked into an onigiri shop and he was like I’VE SEEN YOU EATING IN THE PARK and it’s like yeah haha I live in the neighborhood and I couldn’t figure out what to order bc like…I could read the menu but I just didn’t know what a lot of the fish and stuff were. So he actually pulled out all the fillings and showed them to me to help me choose. He was so nice!! And there was a nice guy who ran the neighborhood ramen joint, too, and he always wanted to chat with me at the bus stop in the mornings and it was like oh no sir no god I don’t have nearly enough caffeine in my body for this. AND TINY ADORABLE CHILDREN who’d yell HELLO!!! to the best of their ability when they’d drive past me on their bikes. It was a nice neighborhood.

Other stuff I can’t think of right now!!

Basically, I had a lot of really cool experiences in Japan and I had a lot of fun! I learned

so

 much. I petted

so

 many cats. (I even went to a cat cafe once and held a bunch of kittens while eating curry karaage, it was great.) And I met a lot of cool people. My study there didn’t end very well (I had to leave early due to an injury) but I had a great time.