Saturday, July 30, 2016

Fall 2016 Classes are ready for you to register. All GTS classes will open.

Fall 2016 classes have been waiting for students to register.  As of the end of July, all 5 GTS classes have enough students to open and continue to wait to be filled for next 3 weeks.

Japanese 1101
Monday/Wednesday  10am-12noon 
Tuesday/Thursday     10am-12noon   AND 12noon-2pm

Japanese 1102
Monday/Wednesday    5-7pm

Japanese 2201
Monday/Wednesday   1-3pm

There still will be night Japanese 1101 class on Tues/Thurs night.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The final excursion to Shimogamo Shrine.

Today's afternoon excursion is the last one of the Summer Program 2016.  Students played in the river with barefoot with local kids and were headed to Shimogamo Shrine to make a prayer for their own zodiac deity.

Everyone had a final exam today and practiced the final project which will be performed tomorrow at the farewell party.

Now everyone began final shopping and preparing for the return trip to the US.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Gion Festival Parade and the Martial Arts!

While raining a bit, Gion Festival Parade began and smoothly carried out.  The rain stopped and the weather was actually perfect to watch the famous TSUJIMAWASHI (Turning without wheel) at every corner.

Late afternoon after the parade, we went to Shugakuin where GTS elementary school friend operates the Martial Arts Dojo, Kenbukai and everyone learned Tai Chi and other self defense methods!

Friday, July 15, 2016

GTS Time Slip to Kamigamo Shrine

Study Abroad Program 2016 is nearing the end.  Many students have been exhausted so their temper began worsening.  So it was a good idea to visit Kamigamo Shrine area where GTS spent his elementary school years.  There are many new buildings but still some have been exactly the same as before.

Students had some taste of GTS time of some 40 years ago.  We went to a couple of parks where we met many school kids and had fun with.

Indeed, everyone grew up but they all of sudden becomes kids when they saw see-saw, swing, slide, and jungle gym, etc.

It was a good time.  At least GTS was happy to have some time slip!

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Buddhist Script Writing at Daikakuji Temple

Very nice but hot and humid weather returns to Kyoto and produced much sweat while we were walking to Daikakuji Temple from Randen Arashiyama Station for about 30 minutes.

At the Daikakuji Temple as usual, we did Shakyo, or Buddhist Scripture Writing at Godai-do.

Though everyone just tracing what was on the paper, s/he was quietly concentrating on doing it.  During the morning class at KIA, students experienced traditional Brush writing so this was quite practical use of what they learned.

The weather is cooperating with us and hope to visit Kamigamo Shrine tomorrow without rain.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Nishijin Textile and Japanese Exorcism

Slight rain continued today.  Some began preparing overnight trip to Tokyo (Fri-Sat).  Kyoto's humidity is getting higher and higher so everyone began getting tired as well.

Afternoon trip was to Seimei Shrine which is famous for Japanese exorcism. The famous exorcist during the Heian period 11th century was Abe no Seimei.  He is enshrined here.

After Seimei Shrine we visited Nishijin Textile center where you can enjoy Kimono Fashion Show. 

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Very quick visit to NARA Park and the Giant Buddha!

It was very humid and raining a little today.  As soon as the class ended we jumped on the bus to get to the city subway station to quickly reach Kyoto Station for Kintetsu train ride.

about 50 minutes train ride took us to Nara where we walk to the Giant Buddha Hall in Todai-ji temple accompanied by many deer around.

Some were quickly climbing up the February Hall corridor to overlook the entire Nara city from the above.

Monday, July 11, 2016

Nijo Castle under extreme heat and humidity.

Monday began with heat and steam!  Kyoto's real hot and humid weather has arrived with traditional event of building the Gion Festival Huge Float for marching coming up this weekend.

Everyone went to Nijo Castle in the afternoon to see its main building and the garden.  The weather itself is nice though hot and humid so it must be the good experience.

We will be heading to Nara tomorrow and play with deer next to the Giant Buddha!

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Hiroshima Peace Study overnight trip completed!

On Saturday under the rain we left Kyoto for Hiroshima by bus.  On the way in highway, we stopped at Hyogo Prefecture (Tatsuno) and Kodani for lunch.

We checked in Aster Plaza, which is located 10 minutes walk from Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
We went arounf important spots of the park by walking (Central Monument, Thousand folded crane, Korean Victim's Mound, Aioi T Bridge (Bomb target), A-bomb Dome, Hypocenter, etc), then began listening to the Survivor's talk by Ms. Keiko Ogura who was 8 years old when the A-Bomb blasted 1.5 miles away from her house.

After her talk we went back to Aster Plaza where we met students from Hiroshima Jogakuin University.  These local students took our students to the central city in Hiroshima for dinner and some entertainment.

On Sunday, we visited Miyajima Island which is famous for floating shrine and Torii gate in high tide time.  It was very quick trip to the island by ferry boat but the mission was completed.

On the way back home, everyone got exhausted but safely got back home in the traffic jam.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Arashiyama Mountain Top Scenic area to Tenryuji Temple.

Another hot and humid day today, yet we went to Arashiyama by train and walk along Oi-River to get to the park where Zhou Enlai's memorial park is located.

From the mountain top area, we walked through bamboo trail to get to Tenryu-ji Temple garden.

You can see the Kyoto city from the top of its garden mountain!

Today is the Milky Way Festival (Tanabata) day so some go to the festival with Japanese Summer Cotton Kimono (Yukata).

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

The Phoneix Pavilion under the excessive heat!

Though the tough steamy weather continues, we went to the Phoenix Pavilion which is famous for 10 yen coin design.

Afternoon direct sun shine was hitting us hard but we survived!  Fast Uji river stream made us feel a bit cooler but....

We will visit the western side again tomorrow!

The Silver Pavilion instead of Nijo Castle!

Originally we planned to go to Nijo Castle but it changed the closed day schedule so we altered the plan to visit the Silver Pavilion.

From the mountain in the Silver Pavilion, we could see the city from the eastern side!  We did see the same city from the monkey park that was the western side.

Heat continued.

Monday, July 4, 2016

July 4th with Heat and Heat

Kyoto is now having its traditional hot and humid days and today was no exception.  We could get away from the heat in the department store.

Instead of walking around during the steamy daytime, we went to Gion Corner to enjoy some traditional performance (Tea, Flower, Gagaku, Kyogen, Kyomai, Koto).

Though it last only 60 minutes, everyone can taste a bit of Japanese traditional culture during the heat!

Friday, July 1, 2016

Kyoto's steamy heat arrived in the Monkey Park

Traditional real humid and hot summer weather arrived in Kyoto.  There was Sushi making activity at school this morning at school and everyone enjoyed making sushi roles and eating what they made!

We took Randen train from Hakubaicho to Arashiyama which was packed with tourists.  We went through those crowd and get to the foot of Mt. Iwata which has a Monkey Park on its top!

Steamy Kyoto summer began on this first day of July and we will have continuously this hot days from now on!