2015-03-09, Friends New and Old

2015-03-08, Friends New and Old
My first week of work was extremely tiring.  This school has a set curriculum to follow and with the younger students, or 'undergraders' (everyone below 1st grade) as they're called, there is a minute to minute guide of songs, games and book work.  For the 'graders' and adults there is a little more flexibility in that you can make up your own supplementary material and focus on weak points.  In the end it will make life easier especially since all classes at the same level will have the same lesson during the same week, but it's a little difficult figuring out the system at first.   The teacher I'm taking over from is really putting in a lot of effort to teach me the lay of the land.  Normally new teachers observe for a while then do some practice teaching, then take over a lesson here and there.  That can go on for 2 - 3 months.  But Kelly has to go back to the US on March 22 for a family matter so I will only have 3 weeks to learn everything.  Seeing how much less confused I was on Friday than on Monday, I think it will be ok, if a little stressful.
On Friday I finally made time to stop by the local community center which is almost on my way to work.  The schedule might change with the new school year (April), but it seems that they have a Japanese class on Saturdays, a couple of koto (a Japanese stringed instrument) classes, and some exercise classes.  One of the exercise classes was in session and I was invited in.   The participants are probably from 60 - 80, it's hard to tell, and were all very welcoming.  I arrived in the middle of class which was tea time and so ate senbei (rice crackers), drank tea, and answered a lot of questions.  The last part of class was Tai Chi, I don't know what the first part was but I will go back on Friday for the whole class.  No one there is interested in learning English so it will be a good way for me to practice Japanese.
Friday night after work Kelly, Emily and I went to the conveyor belt sushi place in town.  It is a little out of the way and luckily I was able to borrow Stacy's bike (she doesn't like fish) or it would have been too far.  A huge coincidence, Emily used to work at English Square in Tokushima!  Both Tokushima and Hikone are such small, out of the way towns that it's particularly odd.  We had a nice time, the sushi was good (but not quite as good as my favorite - Sushi Rou), and it was a nice evening.
Between all the new information, working a regular schedule - and an afternoon/night time schedule at that - after doing nothing for so long, getting more exercise than usual and furnishing my apartment on foot or bike I was really exhausted last week.  So I wasn't looking forward to rising early Saturday morning to catch a bus to the train station to go to Kyoto.
I made myself get out of bed, although I don't know why I just didn't take the 9am bus instead of the 8am... found it took less than 15 minutes to get to the station, hopped on a surprisingly crowded train and headed to Kyoto to meet Noriko Uoi.  Her husband was going to a opera in a nearby town so she was dropped off in Kyoto and we went to look for flowering plum trees.  I purposely got to Kyoto early so I could pick up train schedules, maps and information about upcoming events.  Then I checked out an electronic store, UniQlo (clothing), a couple of Y100 stores, and some different food and gift stores.
It was supposed to have been cloudy, not rainy, but the forecast was wrong and I was glad I wore my winter coat.  We went to Kitano Shrine, which I thought was the one I'd been to with Reiko - with all the weeping plums.  It wasn't, and although it was pretty, and the admission included a sweet senbei and slightly salty plum/kombu (seaweed) tea, it wasn't nearly as awe inspiring as the other temple.  Next year, or next weekend...
We looked for a place for lunch but everywhere was either too crowded or noodles (I wasn't in the mood) and so we moved on.  We had gotten 1 day bus passes, and although very crowded it was nice not to have to walk everywhere (and it was warm inside the buses with all those people!).  Our next stop was Nijo-jo, a UNESCO  World Heritage Site, which was originally built in 1603 as the official residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu.  It is not built like a typical Japanese castle but more like a palace.  One or two stories, parts looking more like a Buddhist Temple than a castle.  The rooms were huge, walls and ceilings decorated by famous artists, little gardens here and there and a large garden around the moat.  Very interesting.
Next stop was a Japanese style tea shop/cafe.  Finally - I was starving and losing energy quickly.  We ended up in a little tatami tea room where we think one can arrange to have a real tea ceremony.  The rest of the cafe were little tables in a common room.  Noriko had a matcha (green tea) roll cake while I opted for zenzai, a sweet azuki bean 'soup' with mochi (rice cakes).  This version had matcha poured on top.  It was warming, filling and delicious.  Feeling better and since we were in the neighborhood we went to an organic make-up shop that Noriko frequents where we were both presented with little gifts because of an upcoming 'campaign' (sale/special).  Across the street was an old fashioned sweet shop.  It turned out that this was where Noriko bought all of those beautiful sweets she used to bring to tea ceremony class.  She purchased a beautiful bar of yokan (like a sweet bean gelatin) that was two colors and had little flower blossoms (sweets) scattered here and there.  While it was being wrapped we were served a chestnut sweet and tea.
Time to head back to the station where we were able to take the same train, Noriko just 2 stops to a city called Otsu to meet her husband and I continued home, standing most of the way.  The bus schedule is even more limited here than it was in Tokushima so I had about a 1/2 hour wait for the last bus of the day (6:30pm).  I wanted to get some bus schedules for the whole area but it turns out the bus office was on the other side of the tracks.  It would have taken a while to get there and may not have been open, so I opted to run into the grocery store and pick up something for dinner.  There was a bakery there as well so I got mentaiko (fish overies??) on a baguette and an onion and bacon pastry.  For dinner I picked up a bento, the rest of which I will have today.
Got home, filled the tub, ate dinner while I waited and had a nice, long, relaxing soak before looking through all the papers I brought home.  So all in all, not the most fun I've had in Kyoto, but it was nice to spend the day with Noriko.