Sayounara Japan, Hello San Francisco

Today, I experienced the day May 19 two times. The first time was in Japan, where I traveled to the 21st floor of the Sakai city hall...

  

Then, thanks to a 12 hour layover in California, I was able to spend the day sightseeing in San Francisco. 

Thank you for reading!!!
-Carson

Freakishly-tall Foriegner and Five Female Friends go to Kyoto

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto with my new friends (from left) Chihiro, Miharu, Ayaka, and Naoko. The fifth girl, Asami, was taking the picture.

 Kyoto is the former capital city of Japan. To-kyo, meaning east-capital, is the current capital. Kyto is like the Rome of Japan. Our first stop was the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, or Kinkaku-ji. The current building is a recreation, following the destruction of the original in a 1950s arson.

 

Fun fact: Before there was Golden Corral, there was this...

  

Near the Pavilion is this tea room...

 Since this is a very popular tourist site, there were plenty of shopping opportunities...

 The girl on the far right wore extremely high heels all day so that she could look tall like me!

 Next, we rode by bus to the Nijō Castle. Why is the name in Bold? Because I pasted it from Wikipedia, of course. Here we see the only guy in Japan with sneakers.

 This pond was part of the expansive gardens that surrounded the castle. The castle was built in 1626 by the order of Tokugawa Shogunate. The floors inside are very famous for squeeking when walked upon. This noise would alert the residents of intruders. And here, all along, I thought my grandma invented the squeeky floor.

 Since the castle was not built during a time of war, the walls that surround it are not very tall.

 I thought for sure that the tree in this next picture was giving me the finger!

 For lunch, we had Udon soup, where we sat at these small tables clearly designed to make dates awkward for Americans.

 The Japanese girls love Disney...

 By pulling on these ropes and meditating, it is said to help with "matchmaking." We all know I could benefit from some serious time here.

 We saw several traditional Japanese Geisha, or Maiko. 

 Walking up the mountain, the beautiful streets were lined with shops offering free samples.

 We stopped for Green Tea Ice Cream parfaits, only about an hour after lunch. These girls love food as much as I do!

 At the top of the mountain, we reached the Kiyomizu-dera. This temple was constructed in the mid-1600s and features an amazing view of the city below.

 This guy was easily 40 feet tall and made me feel less self-conscious of my own height.

 Here you can wait in a 45-minute line to drink the water from the temple. We were anxious to get to dinner, so we just settled for some Disani.

 Photos from dinner...

 Thank you to my new friends for a wonderful day!!

Recital

 Yesterday was my recital at Mukogawa Women's University. The first photo is a look at the hall. I know what you're thinking, I was expecting a larger crowd, too. Actually, there were about 250 people in attendance.

The next photo shows Godzilla at the piano:

Here is a photo of me, Professor Miyashita (coordinator of the exchange program), and Dr. Masuko (at whose home I stayed). Dr. Masuko also translated for me when I spoke about the different pieces on the program.

 After the recital, there was a reception with the Dean of the College of Music. Then, we went out for sushi, which was paid for by the dean. This particular restaurant utilized a new trend in Japanese sushi, known as "sushi on the beltway." Basically, there is a conveyer belt that passes by all of the tables, and on the belt are all the different types of sushi. If you see something you like, you just grab it off the belt. That was no problem for me, as you see in the next photo.

 This method of serving food is such a good idea from a business perspective. I wish they would adapt it to restaurants in the USA, such as tapas bars.

Tomorrow, I will have photos from my daytrip to Kyoto.

-Carson