The Last Week of Classes

For this post, I wanted to share some of the highlights from my final week of classes at Doshisha! It was a busy week of last minute studying for tests, finishing essays, and doing all sorts of fun and random activities with friends as last hurrahs before everyone starts to leave.

Friday evening, me and the boys went on another all night Osaka adventure, as Ethan was leaving the next week, and it was his last weekend in Kyoto. Myself, Alex, Yan, Ethan, and Garret all took the Keihan line from Demachinayagi station to Osaka Umeda. While we waited for our friend Preston to catch up (he always leaves later than the rest of us) we found a spicy ramen shop to eat at. We did some bar hopping, one of which you had to enter through a door that was made to look like a vending machine! In between the bars, we made a truly dangerous Redbull Vodka mix that we all split drinking from straws at the same time.

I undoubtedly drank too much that night, because I was having fun until we got to the club, where there it was my sole mission to survive until we could take the trains home. Thankfully, I was able to find a seat near the back of the performance room where I was able to rest and avoid the speakers blasting American and Japanese pop songs. We continued our normal going out tradition by grabbing McDonald's at around 4:00 AM before getting on the train to take us back home. I slept most of the way, and stumbled into bed at around 8:00 AM.

My weekend partying wasn't over after that however. I woke up Saturday at about 2:00 still feeling quite awful, so I drank a ton of water, made a sandwich, and went back to sleep until 5:00 PM. I showered, got dressed, and then bussed over to Jeffery's place, who was hosting a salsa dance and sake tasting party! Jeffery is one of the guys I met at the salsa dance bar in Shijo, who is a super friendly guy, and has given me private dance lessons quite a few times since I've met him. Jeffery's friend (who unfortunately I forgot his name) was in charge of explaining and facilitating the sake tasting. I was quite impressed and surprised by the wide variety of flavor profiles that the drink can have, especially when sake only has four ingredients: rice, yeast, water, and koji (a bacteria that assists the fermentation process).

I had a great time sipping on the different sake's, and talking with everyone there, most of them Doshisha students that had all been invited to the salsa bar through some connection. I had made late plans to go on a night bike ride with some friends from Doshisha starting at midnight, so despite the invitation from my friends there to go clubbing (and this would be for the second day in a row) I had to decline. I zipped home, changed into shorts, and met my Fuui and his French friend near Doshisha, where from we headed to the river after grabbing some snacks from a combini and enjoyed chatting until about 2:00 in the morning, when rain started dumping on us, so we all decided to split and head home.

I slept in big that next day, and headed out after making myself breakfast to meet Yifan and Oosan at the Kyoto zoo, which Yifan had discovered students were allowed to visit for free during the months of July and August due to a city promotional agenda. The day was quite hot and very muggy, so I didn't have the best time at the zoo walking around and sweating for about 4 hours, but we did find some pretty cute animals. There wasn't anything too different there compared to American zoos, but I was amused by the fact they had some rather mundane animals there, such as goats, pigs, and even deer.

After the zoo, we walked over to Heian shrine, which I realized was actually quite close to Jeffery's place. Near the shrine, there is a massive Tori gate, which spans over the street. The temple had a shockingly large plaza area, and a really cool area where you could hang up a piece of paper with your wishes written on it to a wind chime. Around the courtyard, there was a huge garden area with a walking path. Had we arrived not just 30 minutes before the temple had to close, we would have walked the path as the entrance fee was quite cheap and the path seemed as it would take at least two hours to enjoy at a leisurely pace.

That evening, I went to dinner to an izakaya with Alex and Yan. Nothing special, so I didn't take any pictures. For dessert, I went to Mister Donut, where I found these funny minion donuts, a recent collaboration with the new Despicable Me movie. We also checked out this really cool jazz bar, which had some very fancy drinks and a crazy cool atmosphere.

Starting Monday, one of the biggest festivals in Japan takes place in downtown Kyoto: Gion Matsuri. Giant parade floats are assembled Monday and Tuesday, with a procession happening during the day on Wednesday. Tuesday night I went to check out some of the floats and food stalls with my friends Bedirah and Jusso from the dorm. I was astounded by the amount of people on the streets. The streets with food stalls were particularly crowded and the foot traffic moved at a snails pace. I got some yakisoba and a fun shaved orange shaved ice to eat as we walked around the floats. They were brilliantly decorated and featured very elaborate lanterns. Groups of adults and children sat within these floats, playing some type of instrument that sounded similar to a flute, accompanied by drums and bells struck in different rhythmic patterns.

Despite the blistering heat the next day, I decided to go with Alex and Preston to see the parade at around 11:00 AM. They were going as part of their Japanese culture class, and the sensei's were quite confused when I showed up in the classroom, so I had to explain that I was just tagging along as a friend. They seemed quite happy that I was interested in coming along, and explained a few parts of the parade to me as it went by. These floats were impressively pulled by men, and also rotated 90 degrees at intersections during portions of the processions, which could take up to 20 minutes per float.

That evening, to celebrate the semester ending and some dorm friends that would be leaving soon, we went to Torikizoku and all ate a crazy amount of chicken skewers. Following that event, I was invited to the river to light some fireworks by Kai from my band club, so I walked over with Shijin and Chase and enjoyed ending my evening with Hinataboko members.

The last event of the week was going to all-you-can-eat Japanese barbeque to celebrate Ethan and Anthony leaving. The place was expensive, but the cuts of meat were extremely delicious, and I wouldn't be surprised if I ate at least three times what I payed for in terms of the value of the meat I consumed. Our meal ended with a refreshing mango ice cream float, which concludes the end of my week! Only three more until I'm headed back to America, and I plan to make the most of them.