What I thought would be an extremely boring actually turned out to be quite fun. I woke early, like 4am early for some odd reason. I was very angry at my body and forced myself back to sleep till 6ish. Why did my body decided to wake up a 4am? Beats me, but I am angry for its very bad life choices.

For breakfast I had, the delicious thick Japanese bread, with swiss cheese (that I found in the market) and a sunny side up egg. I might have burnt the toast a little bit too much but it still tasted like god placed his hand on it.

Much of my day consisted of classes. It began at 9:10am and during class time I found out that this class I was put in covers grammar I have already seen. Franz also saw this problem (and he is 10x better than me in Japanese), so we requested a class change. Hopefully it happens soon because we are already a lesson behind. Since this is a 5 week course, we will be seeing a lesson a day which covers 3-4 new Japanese grammar points. If I do get accepted into the more advanced class this means I am going to be behind (oh no).

In this 3 hour Japanese class we were giving two 10 minute breaks where we were allowed to leave the class to stretch, drink water and use the restroom. I wish this were done in the American school system because does breaks really do help.

For lunch, I had the same thing as yesterday and I once again forgot to take a picture of it! (sorry). My bento was white sticky rice and ground beef. I also shared milk tea with Franz and melon bread with Chess. Lunch time flew on by as I made conversation with a student Haruka, she was super sweet and plays violin in the school orchestra. The only reason I struck conversation with her is because I was secretly praying that she would play viola and that way I can talk viola talk with someone.

The FIU class began exactly at 1pm and it turned to be a lot more fun than I thought. Though Komura-sensei does not do the whole short break thing so there were times were I zoned out. In this Japan Culture and Language Study we study exactly what the name states. It was great review to the Japanese basics such as their tenses and short forms. We do not have this class everyday (thank god). We only have this class 8 times in the 5 week period. The next time I have class with Komura-will be two tuesdays from now.

After class was over Komura-sensei took us to Nishiki Market near Sanjou dori. There I tried so many different snacks that it got to the point that I was not sure what I was eating. Thankfully, it was mostly fishy foods (and I LOVE fish).

I had Sakura Mochi, which is a sweet rice treat with sakura flavour…it also had a pickled leaf that was utterly gross, so I threw it away and just ate the mochi itself. I also tried tofu doughnuts, and they were a mixed between Krispy Kreme and beignets. KK’s flour but beignet style. I also had squid or octopus on a stick that was wrapped in some sort of fish. Honestly I do not know, it was delicious and that was all that matter to me.

I also ate origini (rice ball) for the first time. I have heard horror stories about bean paste so I had one that contained minced chicken and miso flavouring and it was tasty. It is not something I would eat everyday like some people seem to do, but it is something worth snacking on. I also bought sweet that I had no idea what it was, it was a cute little peach and I wanted it in my mouth and in my stomach.

Towards the end of the marker there was small shrine, and here Komura-sensei taught us the proper way to show our respect to the gods. I do not know if I have mentioned it before, but I love how shrines and temples are all over Kyoto but they are all subtle. None of these shrines or temples ever scream “LOOK AT ME” they just blend in the background and become part of the scenery that there are moments that I forget that they are even there. They don’t demand to be seen just acknowledge and that is beautiful.

Riley, Michelle, and I roamed around the shopping district for a while longer (getting slightly lost in my opinion) before heading back to the accommodations. On our way back home we ran into a bookstore where I found Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but there were one too many versions so I need to do research first on which edition is the best one.

For dinner, I had traditional Japanese ramen for the first in the little hole in the wall shop. It was delicious, but between ramen and udon I prefer udon (as of now).

Tomorrow hopefully I get placed in the more advanced class! Also, the excursion for tomorrow is traditional pottery making!!