So far, I think my tentative schedule is going to be:
- 10/26 last day in Okazaki– go to Osaka.
- 10/26-10/28 Enjoy Osaka, then head to Nara.
- 10/28-10/29 Enjoy Nara, then head to either Hiroshima or Kyoto again, if I feel like more Kyoto.
- 10/29-11/1 Hiroshima or Kyoto
- 11/1-11/3 Kyoto or Hiroshima, or move on to Nagano
- 11/3-11/5 Nagano or Sendai
- 11/6 Sendai or… uh… I dunno.
- 11/8 Arrive in Tokyo.
- 11/14 go home.
I’m thinking something along those lines.
Or not.
It all depends on whether I can find a good spa resort or if my mood changes.
Radio from Home
One nice thing I’ve found: my local sports radio station in Raleigh, N.C., has an Internet streaming feed of their local programming, so I can get a little feel of home when I get overwhelmed by all the Japanese culture.
It’s interesting that even with all of the Japanese that I studied, it’s still really easy to feel culturally overwhelmed here. I think it would almost be easier to understand nothing that to try to puzzle out every sign I see.
Kyoto Plans
I’m leaving Okazaki for my weekend trip to Kyoto around 5 p.m. local time, so I won’t get there until 7 p.m. or so. I’m stopping for dinner at Nagoya Station, because it’s convenient. I would leave earlier, but I have class until about 3:30 p.m., then I have a 20-min walk home, then it will take time to catch the bus to the train station.
It all adds up.
In theory, my hotel in Kyoto has “Internet LAN,” but in practice, well, we’ll see what that really means.
Thursday night I’m planning to hang around Gion a bit and maybe find a restaurant with a nice river view. Gion is the part of Kyoto where you’ll find all the geisha.
And the tourists.
On Friday, I’m planning on shrine-ing out. My hotel is 10 minutes from the Fushimi Inari shrine, so I’ll try to go there first. After that it’s Kiyomizu Temple, the Golden Pavilion, and a bunch more. I found a really cool magazine (in Japanese, of course) that has a great map with pictures on it, so I can pick the more photogenic shrines and temples to visit.
On Saturday, I’ll go to wherever I missed on Friday.
I’m going to try to pace myself, because I learned in Nagoya that if I don’t, I’ll suffer.