Day 2 Wed 26 Sept

Awoke to the sounds of very happy and excited students, getting ready for their first day of exploring the beautiful old city of Kyoto.

Navigating the bus system in Kyoto requires just a little bit of courage, putting a team of 17 Gaijins (foreigners) onto an already crowded bus asks for us to bow and apologise in Japanese a lot!
Visiting the breathing taking Golden Pavillion (literally covered in gold leaf) Kinkakuji in the north-west side of Kyoto gave everyone a moment to enjoy the work of many skilled artisans.

We travelled onto the Wolrd Heritage listed NIJO JO (Nijo Castle- but more a Summer Palace) for the TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE, built when they were at the top of their power. It is famous for the Nightingale Floor, a floor to stop assasains from creeping in!
The students saw beautiful artwork painted on the ceilings and sliding doors that hid the armed guards and samurai put there to protect the castle lord. Door carvings dating back over 400 years.
It was here that the last Shogun TOKUGAWA YOSHINOBU restored power to the true Emperor in 1867.
The students then enjoyed a stroll around the beautiful gardens and admired the giant KOI (carp) in the moats.

After lunch which is always an adventure because I get the students to choose their own Obento (Boxed Lunch) and that in its self can be challenging and often leads to a mystery surprise in one’s mouth! We sat beside a little creek, rested and enjoyed the sunshine.

Catching the bus to Kinkakuji, today we had our seniors do the navigation, Monique, Ash and Dylan did a great job working out the buses, we managed to take some beautiful photos of the golden pavilion in the afternoon sun!

Dinner tonight was at an interesting Pasta Resturant, three serving sizes Small, Medium or Large and all the small price! Past students loved this place and so did your children, once agian though you do need to be careful working out what the ingredients are, what looks like finly grated parmansan cheese turns out to be salty and slightly spicey Fish eggs! But as you can see by Dylan’s need for ice cream the chili he had was a little bit hot!

As I type this they have all done their washing, prepared their things for tomorrow and are all settled into bed asleep (well that’s what I’m hoping, I’m doing a bed check soon as this is sent and will be looking forward to my own bed!)
Miss Roche, Miss White and I have really enjoyed our day with the students, they are working so well together and already learning extra patience ( it took about two hours to process our rail passes) and more so how to share a laugh and make each other smile!
Fond regards
Learna Shimizu

For photos of day 2 check out the gallery.