Last Wednesday, I went to my very first school festival. In
Japan, schools have annual festivals at which classes and clubs put together
booths. Sometimes they sell food or trinkets; other times they have games, or
some sort of activity (haunted houses and themed cafes are popular).
One of the friends I met at Butterfly, Saya, invited me to stop by her club's booth, and so I went over with a few members of KCJS. Her booth was selling hot wine and tea, perfect for the cold weather that has rolled on into Kyoto.
I was surprised by how many people showed up - the sports field where the booths were set up looked like Disneyland on Christmas. I wandered around, seeing what sorts of things were available. Lots of oden, yakitori, and hot dogs, and just as many "bars". It was almost like walking through New York - these kids were not afraid to push their goods. I had a number of students pitch their club's booth, sometimes in Japanese, sometimes in English. I met up with Haruhi for a bit; her and her friends were busy preparing to open up their booth the next day. After a bit, I decided to head home and come back another day, since only a small portion of the activities were open (it was only the first day).
The following day, one of my classes had a field trip to a miso shop. I have a feeling most of the other students weren't interested, but as a food lover I was pumped to be there. Plus, it beats having a lecture any day. The shop owner explained the difference between white and red miso, and the different types of each. In Japanese cuisine, even within a specific category of foodstuff, there is a myriad of variety.
In addition to learning how miso is made and sampling some of their wares (white miso is good! I really am a Kyoto native after all), we got to see some of their innovative products. For example, the have these cracker shaped discs on sale by the front of the store. I had thought they were some sort of miso flavored sweets, but it turns out, it's a type of instant miso soup. The miso and the contents of the soup are wrapped in a gluten shell, so you just drop it into a bowl of hot water and Presto! Soup.
That day, after Kyudo, I took a bus to Kiyomizu-dera. During the fall, they have a "light-up" at night, where they shine lights from under the trees. Since the foliage was more or less at its peak, the effect was a beautiful array of reds, oranges, and yellows. I waited around a bit, and finally was able to meet up with Chen and The Giggles. We wandered through the temple, taking in the beautiful leaves and trying our hardest to ignore the multitude of couples surrounding us on every side.
Unfortunately, the shrine inside of Kiyomizu, dedicated to enmusubi, was closed, to our disappointment. On the way home, we stopped at a big yatsuhashi shop, where we ate samples until we were full, and potentially at risk for diabetes. Those things are so good that it's hard to stop eating! Especially since there are so many flavors <3
Thursday night marked the beginning of our second fall break. Check back soon to hear about my wild vacation!
One of the friends I met at Butterfly, Saya, invited me to stop by her club's booth, and so I went over with a few members of KCJS. Her booth was selling hot wine and tea, perfect for the cold weather that has rolled on into Kyoto.
I was surprised by how many people showed up - the sports field where the booths were set up looked like Disneyland on Christmas. I wandered around, seeing what sorts of things were available. Lots of oden, yakitori, and hot dogs, and just as many "bars". It was almost like walking through New York - these kids were not afraid to push their goods. I had a number of students pitch their club's booth, sometimes in Japanese, sometimes in English. I met up with Haruhi for a bit; her and her friends were busy preparing to open up their booth the next day. After a bit, I decided to head home and come back another day, since only a small portion of the activities were open (it was only the first day).
The following day, one of my classes had a field trip to a miso shop. I have a feeling most of the other students weren't interested, but as a food lover I was pumped to be there. Plus, it beats having a lecture any day. The shop owner explained the difference between white and red miso, and the different types of each. In Japanese cuisine, even within a specific category of foodstuff, there is a myriad of variety.
In addition to learning how miso is made and sampling some of their wares (white miso is good! I really am a Kyoto native after all), we got to see some of their innovative products. For example, the have these cracker shaped discs on sale by the front of the store. I had thought they were some sort of miso flavored sweets, but it turns out, it's a type of instant miso soup. The miso and the contents of the soup are wrapped in a gluten shell, so you just drop it into a bowl of hot water and Presto! Soup.
That day, after Kyudo, I took a bus to Kiyomizu-dera. During the fall, they have a "light-up" at night, where they shine lights from under the trees. Since the foliage was more or less at its peak, the effect was a beautiful array of reds, oranges, and yellows. I waited around a bit, and finally was able to meet up with Chen and The Giggles. We wandered through the temple, taking in the beautiful leaves and trying our hardest to ignore the multitude of couples surrounding us on every side.
Unfortunately, the shrine inside of Kiyomizu, dedicated to enmusubi, was closed, to our disappointment. On the way home, we stopped at a big yatsuhashi shop, where we ate samples until we were full, and potentially at risk for diabetes. Those things are so good that it's hard to stop eating! Especially since there are so many flavors <3
Thursday night marked the beginning of our second fall break. Check back soon to hear about my wild vacation!
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