Vikingess Voyages: Arashiyama

Showing posts with label Arashiyama. Show all posts

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Weekend Update: Fiesta con Tacos and Kyoto Field Trip!

Anette 7:44:00 PM

Here comes another short update from Kyoto! This weekend has been a rather busy one here, with a couple of events and stuff, so I decided just to make a tiny weekend-post for this time.

First of all, my Spanish-teacher had invited my class to participate in a small birthday-celebration for a student from one of his other classes. It seemed like fun, and of course tacos isn't something I have the chance to eat that often here in Japan, so I didn't really have to think twice before deciding to go. I met up with one of my classmates Saturday morning (frankly, there is only three of us in my class this semester), and we went to participate in the event. Unfortunately we was a bit late, so most of the "hard" work was already done.. The only thing that actually remained was to eat the food and hang out! Here are some of my pictures from the event:

Taco fiesta at Ritsumeikan.. ^^

All hand-made!

...And a birthday cake

The obligatory group picture ;p

..AAAnd a student who for some reason wanted to test out how it would feel to get the rest of the cake smashed in his face..

Well well, it was an interesting event. Haha. Practicing Spanish and eating tacos is not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning^^. And a great break from my studies, as I've been spending most of my spare-time working on my thesis lately.. *Sigh*.. I only have a month left in Kyoto, so I better get most of it done while I'm still here.

School-Trip with a Japanese Middle School

Anyway, on Sunday it was time for more fun, as I had signed up to participate in a field trip with a middle school class from Tokyo! I was actually quite happy to come along for this one, as I didn't have the chance to go last year since I hadn't acquired the working permit when we got the mail. My friends told me they had had so much fun, so I was really looking forward to it.

We met up at their hotel in the morning, and all got assigned to different groups of about 6 students each. The kids were really sweet, and after a round of self-introductions we went off to check out some of Kyoto's famous tourist destinations (which, to be honest, mostly were places I've visited many times before already, but oh well^^).

Our driver was a funny guy who despite lack of English education had picked up sentences such as "this is a pen". So to be honest he was the one who did most of the entertaining on the trip.. But it was a great day where we got to experience a lot of the typical tourist destinations in Kyoto. At least I hope me and the other foreigner in my group, Noam, managed to motivate the kids to study English hard, also when they go back to Tokyo.

So, little bit of a hasty post today, but hey, here comes some nice pictures at least^^!

Tenryuuji (天龍寺)

The bamboo-forest in Arashiyama

A devil statue in Ninna-ji (仁和寺)

The five-towered pagoda in Ninna-ji (仁和寺)

A Buddha-statue in Ninna-ji (仁和寺)

Group picture in front of the Golden Pavilion

Some of the boys and our mini-bus!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Sakura

Spring in Kyoto: Ritsumeikan University Orientation Week and Cherry Blossom Hanami!

Anette 8:34:00 PM

After having backpacked around Asia for about a month during spring break it was time for a new semester in Kyoto!

April is the month when the Japanese school year commence, and to celebrate the new semester Ritsumeikan has an annually opening ceremony where all the freshman participate. In addition some also bring their friends and family members, and then of course it is us exchange students as well.

The opening ceremony was held in the Osaka Dome, which is manly used as a baseball stadium.

At the entrance ceremony

New Ritsumeikan students..!

Most of the ceremony consisted of speeches from Ritsumeikan's many leaders and representatives. I can imagine that it must have been quite boring for those of us who didn't understand Japanese, since nothing of it was in English, of course. But still, I think the best about the ceremony was just to experience sitting in such a great, big hall with the lights and all the people, and that is not depending on your Japanese knowledges anyway, so..
In the second part of the ceremony it was time for some entertainment, and then mainly from some of the many circles (or activity clubs) at school showing of their talents and their clubs.

And this was really the week for circles at school. Spring had come to Kyoto, and along with the new students came a lot of small stands all over campus where the different activity clubs tried to recruit new members.

One of the arenas where the clubs tried to get new members was through performances at a stage that had been put up for the occasion in the middle of the campus.

Alex getting some information about one of the activity groups at school.

The Sakura season was about to start too, and the blooming trees at campus made the Kinugasa campus look really nice.

The different activity clubs got the chance to show off their technics and skills.

Some cosplay - girls hanging around

At the end of the first week it was time for a Ritsumeikan welcome dinner, and after that for some Hanami! Hanami is a really popular event around springtime in Japan when the Sakura is in bloom. Hanami is written with the kanji (chinese sign) for flower, 花, and the sign for to see/look at, 見, and as you might have guessed it literary means to look at flowers.

Some friends gathered for Hanami at the shrine Hira no jinja (平野神社) not that far from school.

The cherry blossoms (Sakura) lighted up in the evening.

Other SKP students gathered for hanami.

And in the upcoming days there were more chances for viewing the beautiful flowers coming up.
In the weekend me and my boyfriend Yuma went back to the Hira no Jinja shrine to take a look at the sakura again, and in addition to the flowers we got some nice entertainment as well.

Sakura-parade!

In the parade we could see people dressed up in clothing representing different areas and time periods in Japan.

Yuma and I (I'm wearing high heels for once, so I look sooo tall haha..)

People sitting under the tree to drink with friends and watch the flowers.

Sakura again. And not to mention the crowds..!!

The cherry blossoms only lasts for a short period, so it is important to get to see as much as possible while it is still there. To get some more pictures of the flowers I went out with my camera again, and this time it was me and Ericka who went to Arashiyama in the western part of Kyoto to do some exercise and to take some pictures at the same time.

桜

Sunset and sakura

And some sakura close up!

Arashiyama

Cherry blossoms and ducks

There's just something really Japanese with this type of scenery, and it is so pretty as well:)

Unfortunately I guess it won't be too long till the flowers are gone, since they only lasts for a couple of weeks. Better enjoy it while one can;) See you guys later!

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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Kyoto

Christmas Calendar: December 15th

Anette 2:58:00 PM

This is the so-called "Randen" that runs between Kita no hakubaichou (北野白梅町) and Arashiyama (嵐山).

As you can see it is still not too cold here in Kyoto. But the last couple of days the temperature has dropped drastically, so I guess the last flowers won´t be there for that much longer..

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Money

Autumn view of Arashiyama & Iwatayama Monkey Park (嵐山モンキーパーク)

Anette 4:44:00 PM

Here comes another little update from Kyoto..!

Not much to say about the past week, the days are disappearing before I even notice it. Mostly I´ve spent my days in the library studying, and besides this I´m just going to the usual club meetings or hanging out with friends.

Yesterday was different than usual though: normally I´ve got my ceramics classes on Saturdays, but this time we had the day of, which meant I could do some sightseeing instead. This time me and Yuma went to Arashiyama, which is the name of a district in the western part of Kyoto, close to the mountains (besides being the name of one of the mountains there as well).

It is known among others for the beautiful sceneries, and it was not a surprise that a lot of other tourists had decided to spend their Saturday there as well.

Arashiyama. As you can see some of the trees had already lost their leaves, but the scenery is still very pretty.

After crossing the Togetsukyo brigde we decided to check out the monkey park at the top of Iwatayama. Luckily it didn´t seem like that many tourists went to the monkey park though, since most of Arashiyama was packed with people it was nice to avoid the crowds for a while.

A sign we saw in the monkey park. Nice Engrish, huh? ;)

Iwatayama has still got quite some red leaved trees left.

Kyoto seen from the top of Iwatayama, where the monkey park is situated.

Arriving at the summit of Iwatayama we had the chance to take a look at the view of Kyoto. The weather was great, and it was relaxing to spend the time there looking at the monkeys playing around.

Those who wanted to feed the monkeys had to enter a fenced enclosure, where they could fed the monkeys from the inside.

Another picture of the lake at Arashiyama taken from Togetsukyo bridge.

When going by the Randen-train leaving from Arashiyama station, one has the opportunity to check out the many different souvenir shops in the street right outside the station. Since it´s still kouyou-season it is certainly crowded though..!

After our visit to the monkey park we walked around the area for a while checking out some of the temples, the souvenir shops and so on. Seems there is a lot of different things to see there, so I guess this is one of the places I might want to visit again during my year in Japan.