Updates 3: She Jogs, She Practices

April 17 (written by Kailey)

I've been jogging around the temple grounds of the Imperial Palace every morning.  Its right by Doshisha, so a 5 min walk from our house.  Its really beautiful and filled with cherry blossoms.  I've been seeing a few weddings happening in there too.  I imagine its a popular spot for taking photos under the cherry trees.

Lots of trees and trails in there.  Its my favorite place to go.

I jog the perimeter in the trees. The trees surround palaces (plural!) and the massive open graveled areas surrounding them

Cherry Blossoms inside the Imperial Palace area that I jog through every morning

The place I'm practicing at now is good, its just expensive.  One cool thing is that I'm getting to know the staff that work there.  They have a studio with 3 grand piano practice rooms, and then a music store to sell instruments.  I'm practicing there everyday from 10 to 12. They have about a hundred students that take lessons out of that studio, so I asked about accompanying.  The one guy who works there said he didn't know about that, but he plays violin himself.  So, he photocopied some music for me and then today we played for half an hour in the store after my practice session.

The place I practice at is across the street to the right in this photo, called Americaya

The owner of the store is the violinist's father and he loves to see me in there.  The owner has given me gifts 3 days in a row!  First was some pictures of Kyoto, and then some cookies and a bottled drink, and
today was a couple of mini chocolate bars! 

Anyways, we're working on putting together some shelving to store our clothes on right now.  We're using twist ties to fasten together some wire racks that we bought at a dollar store.

That’s all for now!

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Updates 2: April 16th Check-in<<<Previously                   Continue reading>>>Updates 4: Travel to Hiroshima and the "Golden Week" Holiday