Sanjusangendo

This last weekend we went to Kyoto, one of the densest cultural places in the world. I took tons of pictures and I'll split it into several different posts. First of all I found Nintendo.

The first stop for the day was Sanjusandendo. It's a Buddhist hall that houses over a thousand statues. It was incredible! Unfortunately pictures weren't allowed inside the hall. Here's a link to a website that has some cool photos of the inside: http://www.taleofgenji.org/sanjusangendo.html

Like I said, incredible. Here we are, the white people of Japan all gathered in one place. My roommate, James, is the other boy and Sarah, the girl right next to me, is the other intern in Sakai. The other four are interns in Kobe: Jesse, Alyssa, Alyssa, and Eimi. (sorry for any misspellings)

The rest are other pictures of the outside of the hall.

Within the grounds there was a small shrine. Inari is a type of food that foxes (and my sister) like to eat.

Hi! Meet my pet snack.

Teamwork

It turns out the faucet on top of the toilet was designed for washing your hands. It's brilliant! One day some Japanese person was like, "we need to fill your tank and you need to wash your hands. Let's work together on this one." It's indicative of the Japanese group mindset.

Shopping

Last Saturday we went shopping at a big mall. Here's a few shots from the ride there.

The first thing we did was eat lunch at an udon noodle place (udon noodles are really thick noodles served with a bunch of broth). It was incredible!

The restaurants at the mall displayed 3D plastic menus outside of the entrance. It was awesome to see all the delicious-looking fake food!

One of the coolest things I saw there was miniature Legos! These could fit in the palm of my hand!

Cool Japanese movie posters! Pirates, Thor, Harry Potter, Transformers, and Cars. Of course they had regular Japanese movies too (regular, in this case, means Power Rangers, which have not decreased in popularity during the last 20 years).

Of course I checked out the music store. I was pleased to some good American music there.

As well as some good Engrish and cool album art.

We also went to the book store. This one must be titled "How to Train Your Dolphin" or something.

These ones remind me of the Japanese kids' books we had when I was growing up.

Here're some shots from Faindeingu Nimo. I never realized that the story was so sad until I saw all those frowning fish.

Oh, and they had Harii Pattaa there too.

This was a sweet cover. His flaming eyeballs must signify enlightenment or something.

And, of course, Towairaito. Along the side you can see dokidoki which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a beating heart.

Oh, and this poster reminded me that even though high school can be hard, never give up!