Group photo in a classroom
Group photo in a classroom
Driveway in front of I-House
The International House(I-House) was where me and the rest of the students in the program stayed during our month in Kyoto. Other foreign students who were currently studying at KSU also live there. In addition to our rooms, the I-House has an upstairs and downstairs lobby with TVs, a computer room with Internet, a tatami room for quiet study, and a free-to-use kitchen.
Parking lot in front of the I-House: Cars sure are smaller in Japan than the US ~_^ (must come from the lack of space in Japan.) Anyway, the big tan-colored building behind the cars is the I-House. My room was on the far left side on the second floor. The other building to the left of the I-House is the boys' dorm. We were served breakfast and dinner at the cafeteria there everyday.
Sort the trash!: In pretty much every building in Japan, trash is sorted between burnable trash, plastic bottles, and glass/aluminum bottles. We had to do the same with our trash in the I-House, but it's actually a pretty effective means of keeping the country trash-free.
Cafeteria: Here's the boys' dorm cafeteria where we had our breakfasts and dinners. It was a bit awkward for me and the three other girls in the program to eat in the boys' dorm everyday at first, but we got used to it. The food was pretty good too(I fell in love with the ice cream vending machine in the back there =P)
Breakfast: And here's a typical breakfast we were served there. As much as I love fish, rice, and miso soup, I really had my fill of them in Japan ^^,,,
My I-House room!
Here are some photos of the room I stayed in at the I-House. Luckily I already knew my roommate, Leslie, pretty well because we had both been studying Japanese at the same college together for two years. But she had to leave a week early, so then I had this beautiful room all to myself ^^ If only I could find myself an apartment room as nice as this!
Kitchen: Here's the kitchen area of the room, complete with table, microwave, sink, small stove and oven, and refrigerator.
Bedroom: Here's the bedroom area, with sliding doors, closet, drawers, and desk.
Bathroom: And here's the bathroom, with a movable shower head.
Laundry: And lastly, here's the laundry and sink area. Yes, we had our own washer and dryer right outside the bathroom. Is it any wonder I didn't want to leave this room? XD
Front view of KSU campus
Here are photos of the KSU campus where we had our classes. It's about a 10 minute walk from the I-House. KSU has an absolutely gorgeous campus...very clean, and since it's on a mountain, the scenery is beautiful!
Campus front: Another shot of the front of the campus
City View: Nice view at the entrance to the campus
Gym and Bus Pool: You can take an escalator up to the campus. If you do, here's the view you see. The gray building across the way is the KSU gym. On the other side of the street is the KSU bus pool, where many of the students commute. There's also a parking lot there for students with motor bikes(bicycles and motor bikes are just as common as cars in Japan.)
Campus: There's really a lot of things to do on the KSU campus besides go to class - there's a book store, a 99cent-type store(the 100 yen store), one of the busiest convenient stores, a library that also has video rooms, and many places to eat(can you see the McDonald's back there? ^^)
Pond: There I am, in front of the beautiful pond on the campus ^_^
5th floor view: Here's what you see outside the window of a classroom on the 5th floor - you can almost see the entire city and mountains.
Stairs view: Here's a window you go past as you head down the stairs...as you can see, KSU is literally right next to the mountain forests.
Outside Scenery: More nature right outside the classroom!
One last campus shot: Students going to school amid the lush mountain background...I'll really miss KSU ^^a
There we are in class! ^^
We went to class every weekday from 9am to 4pm. We had two excellent teachers, and during lunch time and the last hour or so before class was over, we spent time with our conversation partners - KSU Japanese students who volunteered in this program to help us with our Japanese, and many of them also came with us on our day trips and activities. Although most of our time was spent studying, we also did many other fun activites on campus as well...
Shodo: One day we were invited to try some "shodo"(Japanese calligraphy) by the school's shodo club. I wasn't all that good at it, but I did manage to write the kanji character for "yume"(as in the name this site ^^) fairly well. In this photo, we're writing the kanji for "neko"(cat.)
Shorinjikenpo: Another day we were invited by the shorinjikenpo(a type of martial art) club to watch a demonstration and try our hand at it. Unfortunately I was wearing a dress that day, but it was still kinda fun =P
Tea Ceremony: And here we are in the tatami room again for a "chado"(Japanese tea ceremony.) Although the tea was a bit bitter(and it's hard for me to sit in seiza position for very long), it was still pretty interesting.
Making Onigiri: Here we are making "onigiri"(Japanese rice ball.)
Speeches: And finally, the last week of class, we each had to give a five minute speech in Japanese. We got to pick our topic though, and we could use PowerPoint to make a slide show to go with it. Yup, I'm sure you guessed my topic - "Japanese Anime" ^_^ There I am, giving my speech, with anime pictures going by on my slide show. This photo happens to have the Pokemon picture I used, but I also used pictures from many different anime, and I mainly discussed the differences between Japanese and American animation. I was a bit nervous and forgot some of my lines, but I'm proud to say that I was the only person in the group who didn't look at any paper while I was giving the speech ^^
The welcome party!
We had a few parties at the I-House, all of which had good food, fun people, and plenty of opportunites to practice our Japanese with the students ^_^
Welcome party group shot: A group photo of everyone at the welcome party - us eight international students being welcomed, a bunch of our Japanese conversation partners, and a few other foreign students living at the I-House.
Food: Food at the welcome party...it was good =P
Tanabata Tree: The Tanabata festival is a Japanese holiday held on July 7th in which your wishes supposedly come true if you write them on "tanzaku" oblong colored paper and tie them to the branches of a bamboo tree. We had a little Tanabata party that night and here's one of the trees with everyone's wishes tied to it(mine included!)
Tanabata yukatas: Here are some girls in yukata(summer kimonos) in front of the other Tanabata tree
Farewell Party: And here's the farewell party that we had on the last week of the program. It was a lot like the welcome party except instead of being excited I was, well, kinda sad(though I don't look that way in this photo, LOL.)
One last group shot!: One final group shot at the farewell party. ::sniff:: I still miss everyone and all the fun we had ~.~
