Osaka JaLS 2nd week

On Monday, June 8, the start of my second week, I didn't sleep well for some reason and was very tired. I struggled through the class and the private leason, picked up something to eat at a convenience store and went to bed early

Tuesday afternoon there was a school trip to Shintennoji, south of the central Namba area. It is one of Japans oldest temples, dating back to the 500s. It is actually a Buddhist temple, but is looks like  a shrine with the tori gate and the vermillion colour. We went up the central pagoda and walked around the inner courtyard.

After everyone else left, Yushan from my class and I went for ice cream. Afterward he left to go shopping and I stayed at the temple to start on a sketch.

After that I walked to the Namba area and went to schwa2, the craft beer place, and finished the sketch.

On the way home, in the shopping street near the apartment, I found one of those conveyor belt sushi places and had dinner there.

The next couple of days were not too eventful, just doing laundry, buying groceries, etc.

On Friday I went shopping in the department stores near the station for more clothes. I bought a bunch at Uniqlo. On one of the walkways connecting the department stores, it seems there is always some kind of J-pop entertainment going on.

Afterward I stopped at the craft beer place called umbrella RiB, and the guy there told me about a craft beer event that was happening the next day, at a place near the station.

Saturday, June 13, was a school trip to the  Ishikiri shopping street and shrine. It is to the east, about half an hour by train from Osaka station. We walked the kilometer long shopping street full of restaurants.

 It is on a hill, and it was quite hot that day. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that served a kind of stew called oden.

Then we explored the shrine area. In front of the shrine are two stone markers about 20 meters apart. The thing is to walked around the pair of markers 100 times, and then pray at the shrine. I managed about 10 times before we moved on.

We walked back up the hill to the train station and went back into town.

Aterward I went to the craft beer event I had heard about. About half a dozen breweries had stalls in an open area.

I stood at a table and ended up talking to the people there in Japanese. It was really fun.

On Sunday, June 14, I went to Kyoto. I wasn't planning a trip to Kyoto, but one of the teachers at the school had a bunch of tickets to an exhibition at the Ryokoku museum there, and she gave me one. I figured I would make use of that, and spend time in Kyoto.

The exhibition had painted scrolls and wooden statues from the Shinnyodo temple in Kyoto. Some were quite old, dating back to the 9th century.

Next I made my way to Nanzenji temple, since I heard that is a big temple complex but it is off the beaten track, so it doesn't get the crowds of tourists.

What I heard was correct. Its a nice quiet corner of Kyoto near the green surrounding hills. On the way I stopped at Konchi-in temple with its beautiful zen garden.

From there I went to Nanzenji temple.

Surprisingly, and kind of out-of-place, just beyond the temple is a red brick aqueduct that was built in the Meiji era.

After that, I caught the train back to Osaka.