Today started of very early in
the morning, and by early I mean 7 am. It was earlier than I wanted to get up.
The reason behind it was because it was a travel day. Where are we travelling
you may ask, to the city of Kyoto. Getting there was no walk in the park
through. It took about three hours of riding on a train to get there. This was
not a normal train that we were riding. It was the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line,
which is the third fastest train in a world.
After taking enough pictures from the
train window, I decided to get reacquainted with an old friend named sleep.
After waking up and discovering that I am still on the train I realized just
how long of an island Japan is. I use to think that since it scales small in
comparison with other counties that travelling across it would be not as hard.
I was so wrong. I felt like I was on the train for an eternity. For us to be
travelling that fast for that long and still not have made it yet, changed my
views of the size of this once "thought to be small" island.
Upon arrival to Kyoto, the first
thing we did was walk to a Shogun Castle known as Nijo Castle (Nijo-jo). It is
this huge castle built back in 1603 and served as the first home for the
Tokugawa Shogun. This place was huge with three buildings and many gardens
inside. We were allowed access inside the shogun's living quarters. The design
was nothing less than beautiful. Totally expected for a shogun. The most
interesting thing was that the floors of the place were to produce a noise
similar to a bird chirping. They are called the "Nighting Gale"
floor.
The next stop on trip was to the
new Hostel, or the place that we will be spending that night in. It was an okay
little place. It reminded me of being back in class with the community’s
showers and everything. A few of us from the group went on a hike after moving
in. At first I was hesitate to go, but in the end I am happy I went. The hike lead
us up a huge hill and past a giant graveyard to approach this shine/ temple
area. The temple overlooked the city of Kyoto with somewhat of a protective
type of feel. The area was so tranquil that it actually caused me to fall
asleep while I was sitting down. That also might be because I was tired from
the whole day of travel. We left just moments before closing time. So far, it’s
a good day in Kyoto.
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