Wow...I don't know where to start with this incredible weekend! On Friday, I left the comfort of Nagoya and my NUSIP group to visit a contact in Kyoto, Glen Kaufman. Glen-san was actually one of Nancy's professors. He has been living in Kyoto and working as the Director of Japan Study Abroad for The University of Georgia. He has been a tremendous help as I prepared to visit Kyoto and left me with lots of advice for other visits, including a map of some of the must-do's in Tokyo.After class on Friday I went straight to the train station to board my first shinkansen! 35 rapid minutes later, I was in Kyoto. I knew that I was arriving earlier than Glen-san could leave the gallery, but waiting patiently to meet him...for 3 hours! Oops...not having a cell phone is rough! I was not positive what time we'd be able to meet, but around 9:00 I realized that we must have missed each other. I was able to grab a taxi to the Ryokan I was staying at (Rakucho Ryokan). When I arrived, a message from Glen-san was waiting...we certainly had just not been able to find each other...which is easy to do in one of the largest train stations in the world! I spent the night on a futon in a tatami-filled room (very traditional). There was a computer with Internet available so I was able to contact Glen as we decided on an 8:30 meeting time for the morning. I woke up early and explored the area of the Ryokan. What a great location! I was right by the river where there were tons of people up early for morning walks, runs and fishing. I grabbed a pastry from a local bakery and enjoyed the morning.
Glen arrived and we navigated the bus system to a local Starbucks, where we met my first "guide". Seiki Iwasaki was wonderful! Seiki is a recent graduate of a Kyoto art school who specialized in painting (his portfolio was beautiful!) We spent the early morning exploring Iwashimizu shrine and then visited the Weaving god at Imamiya-jinja shrine (which is about 1000 years old...like everything else in Japan...OLD). I hope that my visit to this shrine will bring good luck to my weaving career. Seiki and I were certainly rushed trying to do many things in little time, but managed to grab a roasted sweet which can ONLY be found in this
location (although I have forgotten the name) and was a delicious, buttery treat. We then met Glen-san for fresh onigiri and headed to the Kawashima Textile School. This was a real treat and my primary reason for returning to Kyoto. I got to tour the facilities and saw some class projects in progress on the looms and in the studios. Unfortunately it was a little dead on a weekend, but this was a great opportunity for me to see what kinda of work students are creating in Japan and Glen-san was very informative.
The school was created by Kawashima Textile and hosts full-time students, one-day workshops, and everything in between. The school is located right next to the Kawashima Facility. Here I also got to view the showroom,
which allowed me to get close and personal with very innovative fabric solutions. I was so glad to familiarize myself with the company and realized that Kawashima is certain a company I need to research more for job potential!
After our tour, Glen parted so that he could prepare for his fiber art opening show at Gallery Gallery. Seiki and I then went to Kurama-dera, a temple with beautiful big trees around 700 years old! During these visits Seiki was a wonderful help in sharing Japanese culture and tradition (and he was very fun to spend the day with). We tired quickly
though and headed back to
the Ryokan so that I could change for a nigh
t of Kyoto art and culture! Saturday evening was by far the highlight of my trip! We enjoyed a little shopping and coffee and then headed downtown amidst nightlife of locals, tourists, and artists! We viewed several small galleries which were directly off the main streets, but would not be found without the help of a local. I felt like First Friday and I felt at home! We then made it to Glen's show just in time for the live dance performance.
Glen's show was entitled: "Kaunakes: The Ghosts of Mesopotamia" and was an exciting fiber art installation of garments created from plastic bags and hung eerily in the gallery space.
Imatenko performed live, dressed and painted completely in white, which composed beautifully with Glen's orangey-red hanging "garments". After the reception we joined Glen's people, the Gallery Gallery founder, the director, Imatenko, and friends, for an unending Chinese dinner. We filled the tiny restaurant with lively conversation, laughter, broken English and disconnected Japanese. I couldn't imagine a more exciting end to such a cultural day!
Sunday was a little bit of a rougher start in the morning as we began our day again at 8:30 by dropping my luggage off at the train station and meeting my next "guide": Kazuaki Tsujii. Kazu is a student at Doshisha University studying political policy, but just spent the semester in the UK....where he will be returning for the next year. (I'm glad I caught him while in Japan!). We started by visiting Nara, which involved almost an hour-long train ride and gave us plenty of time to talk and share cultural stories. Nara was beautiful! It was Japan's first permanent capital established in 710. The area is filled with Buddhist temples...and deer! These are the
tame deer which you can feed and pet, although after a half day there, I was even wishing they'd just get out of the way (jk). One of the main attractions we visited was the largest Buddha statue in Todaiji Temple. Around the back there was a hole through one of the primary support beams that children were crawling through. Kazu said that this represented Buddha's nostril (fun!). We then met a friend from Doshisha for lunch and returned to Kyoto.
In Kyoto we walked through some of the shopping areas and then through the main market, where you could find all sorts of Japanese fish, meats, and treats. We returned to the train station, which was its own tourist attraction, and viewed the Sky Walk. Exhausted after a very long and exciting weekend, I departed from my second set of wonderful guides and new friends and returned to Nagoya.
After just 1 short weekend away, Nagoya felt like home and I was glad to be back.
Thanks to EVERYONE who made this the most exciting, and possibly best weekend yet in Japan!
Wow...I don't know where to start with this incredible weekend! On Friday, I left the comfort of Nagoya and my NUSIP group to visit a contact in Kyoto, Glen Kaufman. Glen-san was actually one of Nancy's professors. He has been living in Kyoto and working as the Director of Japan Study Abroad for The University of Georgia. He has been a tremendous help as I prepared to visit Kyoto and left me with lots of advice for other visits, including a map of some of the must-do's in Tokyo.After class on Friday I went straight to the train station to board my first shinkansen! 35 rapid minutes later, I was in Kyoto. I knew that I was arriving earlier than Glen-san could leave the gallery, but waiting patiently to meet him...for 3 hours! Oops...not having a cell phone is rough! I was not positive what time we'd be able to meet, but around 9:00 I realized that we must have missed each other. I was able to grab a taxi to the Ryokan I was staying at (Rakucho Ryokan). When I arrived, a message from Glen-san was waiting...we certainly had just not been able to find each other...which is easy to do in one of the largest train stations in the world! I spent the night on a futon in a tatami-filled room (very traditional). There was a computer with Internet available so I was able to contact Glen as we decided on an 8:30 meeting time for the morning. I woke up early and explored the area of the Ryokan. What a great location! I was right by the river where there were tons of people up early for morning walks, runs and fishing. I grabbed a pastry from a local bakery and enjoyed the morning. 
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