Reflections from Japan: Weekend Trips

So on the weekends I have been going on trips. The Friday, the 3rd, a hoard of Kansai Gaidai Students went to Kyoto in small groups with Japanese students. Ayna, my language partner and her friend Momoko took Katie, Daniel, and I. We walked around and went to see Kiyomizudera. We did a lot of walking.

Momoko, Katie, and Daniel

Me, Katie, and Momoko

Kiyomizudera

View towards the city from Kiyomizudera

After seeing the temple we went to find somewhere to eat, and after a lot of walking we ate at Sizeria a Japanese Italian place that is very decently priced.

This last weekend Katie, Daniel, and I decided to go to the Hirakata Station and explore. I wanted to see the department stores, and eat Okonomiyaki. Katie and Daniel wanted to see a book store. We found the Department store , and Katie saw socks and shoes which she loves, but we went to the bottom floor where they had a grocery store and some small restaurants. Katie and I wanted to get Okonomiyaki so we tried to ask where the Okanomiyaki store was. The answer was very polite and quite impossible to decipher. We walked in the direction that we thought was right and asked again. The second lady was much more clear in her directions and we found the restaurant. We had a lot of fun and the Okanomiyaki was amazing. Definitely better than mine.

After eating we went to the bookstore where there was a phenomenal amount of manga, and it was a relatively small bookstore. I think that they sold used books as well. Katie got a couple of manga. I think I need to work on my Japanese more before I buy anything.

We went back to the Department store and as Daniel was still hungry we went to a bakery. I got this layered thing that was wonderful.

We went all the way to the top (7 floors) and looked in all the floors. There was a game room on the top floor, and they had vending machines. I got a phone charm for my cell phone that was a sword guard. I like it a lot. there was a curved escalator down to the basement that was cool.