Field Trips (or Sightseeing Part II)

I gotta say, KCJS did a great job of picking fun and interesting field trips. For the class on Japanese economics, I strongly suspect the professor didn't care much about the relevance or educational value when he planned the trips - we went to the Suntory whiskey and beer factories, a textile manufacturing center, a factory for yatsuhashi (八つ橋）, which is a famous Kyoto sweet that we got to try making ourselves, and the Shimadzu headquarters (manufacturers of lab/science equipment. The Shimadzu trip was the most relevant and educational, and not coincidentally, the most boring. Sadly, I somehow utterly failed at taking pictures at any of these trips...

For the pre-modern literature class, I got to see many of the traditional Japanese performing arts - Noh, bunraku, kyogen, and kabuki - plus some of the sites featured in the literature we had read in class. I really wish I had taken pictures of some of the performances. Honestly, it was hard to stay awake for most of these, because none of us could understand a word of what was going on, and these arts tend to have a reeeaaaally slooooooow pace. But the design and artistry of the stage, the props, and the costumes (and in bunraku's case, the puppets!) were absolutely beautiful. I can't say I would go to a performance again on my own, but I'm glad I had the experience of going at least once. Plus, the program pays for everything - the tickets (which were normally $50-$90), the entrance fees, and transportation.

I actually enjoyed the other, non-performance field trips more, because they were shorter and gave me a reason to go to places that I probably would have been to lazy to visit on my own. One example is Byodo-in, or the Phoenix Hall, which is located in Uji, about 30 minutes from Kyoto by train. ...I forgot what its exact connection to literature was, but it's on the 10-yen coin.

A shot from Uji Bridge

Another place we visited was Jakko-in, the temple known for being the place where a character of the Heike-Monogatari fled to and spent the rest of her life praying. This temple was in Kyoto, but in a pretty remote part of the city. Unfortunately, it was difficult to enjoy because it rained the whole time, and most of us were to busy worrying about catching pneumonia to really take in the scenery. And that's the one downside to field trips - sometimes, it can be pretty hard to roll out of bed and get to the trip, especially if it's far and the weather's bad. The weather did match the mood of the story though, I guess...

Pretty and interesting, but not the best field trip weather

Jakko-in