Kyoto, Japan: First Observations
The first destination of this dialogue is Kyoto, Japan. From Boston to Tokyo, it was long 13 hour flight; however, with the service of Japan Airlines, inflight meals, and movie selection, it was bearable. From Tokyo, there was another hour flight to Osaka, and from Osaka, an hour bus ride to the final destination: Kyoto. It was a long journey to get to the destination, but getting to experience the culture from the start of the flight was exciting.
The first morning in Kyoto was as humid as Boston summers. A couple of other students and I made our way to a convenience store to pick up breakfast before the morning class. It was a quick 5 minute walk to the nearest convenience store. The neatly organized convenience store has all your necessities, from quick meals to makeup to stationary—it nearly has everything. Afterwards, we embarked on a 15 minute walk from the hotel to Doshisha University campus. Through these quick walks, I was able to establish my first impressions of Kyoto. Kyoto is a living historical city overlaid by modern society. Mixed in with modern architectural buildings were also traditional styled architecture.
In Japan, people drive on the left-hand side, which also means that going up on escalators are on the left, and even the direction of walking (in which some of the other students and I forgot about this, and was disrupting the flow of people on their walking commute, since we were walking on the right). Japan also has some very intriguing Kit Kat flavors. What I mean by that is so far, I’ve come across sake (Japanese rice wine) flavored Kit Kats and Hokkaido Melon flavored ones.
There wasn’t much of a program orientation as there were some pre-departure orientation sessions that occurred in Boston. With that the first lecture at Doshisha University was about the history of Kyoto. I was surprised to learn that many of the temples, shrines, Zen gardens, statues, etc. that were built back several hundreds of years ago some even thousands of years ago, still stand today. Of course, renovations and maintenance are required to keep these still standing today, but it is impeccable that many of these complex structures are so well kept. I also learned that there are no water fountains on the university campus, in which I was surprised, since I didn’t want to have to keep buying water. It is said that tap water from the sink is safe, but not highly recommended.
Conversation sessions with university students were held in Japanese. As I got to meet several of them, it was surprising to hear that many of the students live alone, unlike in Boston, it is very common to have multiple roommates. It is very interesting to continually learn about cultural differences as I get to compare them to my own culture.
