Crazy Busy!!

I apologize for the break in blogging: we have had the busiest week yet and my blogging fell to the wayside. Here is a taste of what we've been up to. I apologize for the lack of detail, but so much has happened! I will add details about certain parts in further blogs. Please let me know if you'd like to hear more about any particular event.
Mon Nov 30: Moving day! By taxi we moved from our little temporary apartment to an international house much closer to Kyoto University. All in all the move was very smooth and we are happy in our new place. (More details to come about that.)

Tues Dec 1: I ran around trying to get us settled (i.e. I had to figure out where to buy towels, groceries, etc.). In the afternoon, I met Kino-san (Mr. Kino), my new (and first!) English language student. It turns out that he wants me to help edit his grammar for science journal articles, and we'll meet weekly starting mid-Dec. From there, I joined Jim to visit Kiyomizudera temple. This magnificent temple is open at night for a short time and lit up to show the beauty of lights on the fall colors.

Wed Dec 2: Japanese class day from 8:45a-2:30p. From 3-5p I began my babysitting job for Claudia, a darling 18 month old of an American couple we've met here. Directly after, I met Jim and Satoko and Maiko (from Jim's lab) for a trip to the Noh theatre. It turns out Noh is a very ancient form of Japanese theatre with language that is so archaic even native Japanese speakers have a difficult time understanding it. The costumes were beautiful, but Noh is, well, quite slow, so after sitting for 2.5 hours I was relieved when it ended. (Not to mention I had been running around non-stop all day and hadn't had dinner yet, so I was sleepy and hungry: not a great combination for watching a slow art form. I admit I was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one struggling to stay awake in the theatre as heads bobbed all around me...) ;)

Thurs Dec 3: I met with a man who runs a small school that has students who need a native English speaking teacher for private English lessons. I think he was surprised when I turned down the opportunity to tutor on Saturday afternoons (since it would take me several hours to travel and would therefore eat up all my Saturdays) but I did agree to teach a student one weekday afternoon per week. In the afternoon I babysat for Claudia again. Immediately afterwards, I met Jim and some of his lab-mates to take a bus to our welcome party. Jim's lab organized this party for us and the whole lab (except his main professor) turned out. It was quite an event! More on this to follow...

Fri Dec 4: In the afternoon, I met Emi, a recent graduate of Doshisha Women's College in Kyoto who spent last year studying at my alma mater, Sweet Briar College. We met at a cute French/Western cafe and had cheesecake (yum!) and afterwards walked around Doshisha. Mai, another Doshisha student who also spent last year at Sweet Briar, and Jim joined us later for dinner and drinks at an izakaya (Japanese pub). I was introduced to Emi and Mai through my former undergrad advisor and friend, Sue Piepho, and I am very grateful for the introduction since Emi and Mai are lovely girls who speak beautiful English. (They are both English literature majors training to be teachers.)

Sat Dec 5: In the morning we met Andy and Rheanna, friends of friends from the US, who are traveling through Japan for two weeks. We joined them for a whirlwind and action-packed day of sight-seeing around Kyoto. They were the first people we've been around who know less Japanese than we do, so suddenly we became the experts, though it was a case of the blind leading the blind. (Or, as Rheanna suggested, the cataracts leading the blind...) :) A rainy morning cleared to a lovely day and we walked along the philosophers path (a gorgeous and quaint area), saw the Silver temple, ate a five course tofu special lunch (which fortunately the restaurant allowed us to split between couples to save money), saw Nanzen-ji temple, saw Kiyomizudera temple again, ate at our new-found favorite inexpensive sushi place and finally visited our first sento (public bath house). Since the sento water is really hot, it was the perfect end to soak our very sore feet (we—slightly regretfully—had walked everywhere instead of taking buses or trains...)

Sun Dec 6: We woke up just in time to head to Jim's lab for a BBQ with some other students. Apparently some students throughout his lab building organize a BBQ every few months. They had small charcoal tubs with grates on the top on which they cooked sweet potatoes, eggplant, peppers, chicken, fish, pork, mussels, mushrooms, etc. It was great to chat with those that speak English (I think they are more free around us after the big party) but eventually a cold wind caused us to head for home. (It hasn't been too cold outside, but for some reason Sunday was frigid.) Later that afternoon, we went to Jeff and Mery's house (which is amazingly just around the corner from our new place) for a Secret Santa name drawing. (A group of us exchanged names and will have a little gift exchange/Christmas party on Christmas day.)

Mon Dec 7: Jim had to work, but I met up with Andy and Rheanna again for more sight-seeing. (There is no end of sights to see in Kyoto. We are so lucky to live here!) We saw part of the Fushimi-Inari-taisha, a 4 kilometer series of torii (big traditional arches), had noodles (udon and soba) for lunch, visited Nishiki market downtown, and met up with Jim for dinner. Dinner was a bit of a misadventure since we went to the little restaurant next to our place and thanks to no English or paper menu, we had some confusion with ordering...ah well. It comes with the territory, I guess.

Today is Tuesday and I can finally catch up with laundry, errands and blogging before babysitting for Claudia tonight.
Tomorrow (Wed) we will leave language class early to travel to Kobe, a city about 90 minutes by train south, to have dinner with Jim's cousin who is in Japan on a business trip. So, the adventures are to be continued...