No, really, I like walking...

First off: today, it was hot. I mean, hot. I wore a sweater. I am a moron.

I woke up this morning at 5:00, even though they told us our bodies would naturally wake us up at 3:30 or so. My body was being non-compliant again, as per usual, so I got to sleep in. I worked on the webpage some. Loading pictures there is taking a while, and is frustrating, so I am going to have to ask you to be patient with that. There must be an easier way to do it, but I haven't figured it out yet. Same with the videos...I'll get to it, but that may have to wait until I get to Sanyo-Onoda and have free internet.

I decided to try the Japanese breakfast this morning, and have decided that American breakfasts may not pass through my lists while I am here. It was fantastic. Now, not by any means would I call this a usual breakfast. Here is what I had:

1. Rice
2. Miso soup
3. Stir fried wild mushrooms
4. Pickled vegetables
5. Steamed dumpling
6. A meat/protein plate containing salmon, egg, meatball, some slimy stuff I didn't eat but did try (nasty)
7. Green tea



It truly was remarkable. We then had a short seminar (one hour) that served as a brief orientation to the program and also answered some lingering questions. We then boarded our busses and went sightseeing.

Our first stop was the House of Representatives of Japan's Parliament. Very neat building, but we mainly walked through it without much description. We climbed a LOT of stairs. A LOT. Back to the busses and off to Akasaka, where Japan's oldest Buddhist temple is located. We ate a tempura lunch, which was pretty tasty as well (it seems that all of the food has been great so far...a few oddities every now and then, but good overall). We had:

1. Tempura of shrimp, whitefish, green pepper, and a vegetable omelet tempura
2. Rice (of course)
3. Pickled plums (words can't describe how good this was)
4. A tangerine-like fruit
5. Miso soup
6. Green tea
7. Salad with tomato and cucumbers, but oddly no dressing



We were then set free for some shopping in the area surrounding the temple. It was crazy packed! This temple was originally built around 600 years ago when an image of the goddess Kannon appeared in that area. This image is normally kept under wraps to protect it, but this year (or this day - not sure which) it can be seen by the public. I didn't take a picture of it because people were there worshipping and I think that it is a little disrespectful to take pictures of them as they are praying. I had my fortune read, and it was bad, so I followed protocol and tied it on a rack near the fortunes and got another one, which was an average fortune. I bought some souvenirs, ate sweet potato ice cream (tastes like pumpkin), got mad at a vending machine when no matter what I did, it would not give me a Coke (a Japanese guy sitting nearby found this hilarious and he kept laughing...I finally gave up and bought a water), and took lots of pictures. We headed back to the hotel, and had to immediately change into professional attire for a presentation on kyogen theater. I took a video, so will hopefully be able to get that uploaded soon. It was a little bizarre, but after you got used to the voices, it was fine (not the ones in my head, the actors' voices). I then strolled around the garden at the hotel, and came up here to blog a little. We have our welcome reception in about an hour, so I need to get ready for that now! It has been a fun day so far, but I am BEAT!


With the sweet potato ice cream!


Shaking the can for my fortune


You get a little stick that has a number on it, then you find the corresponding number on a drawer, open it, and pull out your fortune. Mine was the worst, a Bad Fortune!


To get rid of the bad luck, you tie it to a wire and go back for another! I got a Regular Fortune the second time!

I'll get more pictures posted as soon as I can!