May 5, 2012
We're nearing the end of golden week here in Japan. Its a
whole week
long holiday here so Ben didn't have classes this week. Our friend Aaron from ACF was here in Japan this week actually, and he stayed
with us for 5 days. His masters program at uvic sponsored him to do a conference in China last week. He's studying mechanical engineering and researching bio fuel. Anyways, we toured around with him for the last few days and saw some pretty cool sights in Kyoto, including the famous golden temple. Ben and I actually hadn't seen many tourist
attractions in Kyoto yet so it was really cool to have the excuse to
go and see them since Aaron was here. One of the staff members of the piano studio where I practice way playing a concert of Jazz piano with his wife on flute today and we saw that this afternoon. Had a good
time, and Aaron is leaving tomorrow on a train to Tokyo to do some more sight seeing.
Ben won't have another break from school till the end of July now. The weather is really starting to get warmer here, but the hot days are alternated with rainy ones, so its alright.
I'm doing some volunteer piano teaching at Doshisha women's college. I'm teaching 2 or 3 students on monday for half hour lessons. In the room where I give the lessons, I'll get to use the piano for an hour before and after teaching every monday, so at least that'll be 2 hours of practice I won't have to pay for for now.
Oh, we went to Hiroshima the week before golden week. Ben and I went with 3 other friends from Doshisha. We took an 8 hour bus ride late at night from Kyoto station. We "slept" on the bus and arrived in
Hiroshima the next morning.
It was quite the experience. They have a building which used to be an industrial promotion building for the city, and they left it as it was after the bombing. Now they call it the A-bomb dome, it is located almost directly underneath where the bomb exploded 600m in the air above. They have a memorial museum there which tells the whole story. It was unreal and very sad to see that part of it. The museum was filled with tourists from all different countries and they had translations into about 10 other languages.
Ben won't have another break from school till the end of July now. The weather is really starting to get warmer here, but the hot days are alternated with rainy ones, so its alright.
I'm doing some volunteer piano teaching at Doshisha women's college. I'm teaching 2 or 3 students on monday for half hour lessons. In the room where I give the lessons, I'll get to use the piano for an hour before and after teaching every monday, so at least that'll be 2 hours of practice I won't have to pay for for now.
Oh, we went to Hiroshima the week before golden week. Ben and I went with 3 other friends from Doshisha. We took an 8 hour bus ride late at night from Kyoto station. We "slept" on the bus and arrived in
Hiroshima the next morning.
It was quite the experience. They have a building which used to be an industrial promotion building for the city, and they left it as it was after the bombing. Now they call it the A-bomb dome, it is located almost directly underneath where the bomb exploded 600m in the air above. They have a memorial museum there which tells the whole story. It was unreal and very sad to see that part of it. The museum was filled with tourists from all different countries and they had translations into about 10 other languages.
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| The A Bomb Dome from across the river |
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| The A Bomb Dome(center) and surrounding area after the bomb exploded. |
 |
| Map of Japan with Hiroshima and Nagasaki specified |
 |
| Ticket to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum - Picture on the ticket is the Museum |
Near Hiroshima, we also took a bus and then a ferry to this island on the ocean which is very green and beautiful and famous for touring. It has a shinto shrine in the water, and tons of very tame deer that
walk around with the tourists. At first we thought they were cute, but we realized that they are actually pests because they sometimes don't leave you alone. One deer grabbed Ben's tour guide map right out of his hand when we were posing for a photo! That was quite funny. At the end of the day we took the same late night bus back to Kyoto, so we never had to pay for accommodation. It worked out pretty well and we had a good time with our friends.
Ben is working on getting some photos posted of these last couple of weeks.
edit: see Hiroshima Photo Post here
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Updates 3:Jogging and Kailey's new practice place<<<Previously Continue reading>>>Updates 5:"You want me to learn how?!"
Updates 3:Jogging and Kailey's new practice place<<<Previously Continue reading>>>Updates 5:"You want me to learn how?!"
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