Category Archives: kyoto-2018

Day Eight: Presentations

Our eighth day was the culmination of weeks’ worth of research and exploration, and boy, was I nervous — we had met with two out of the three artisans we were tasked with interviewing the day before and consequently had … Continue reading

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Kyoto Day 10: The Kōan, Tōfuku-ji, Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kusama

Today, we woke up drowsy (I won’t go into it) and headed back to Taikō-an to meet the Zen priest Kei-san for our second session of zazen and to discuss the kōan he gave us at our first meeting. After … Continue reading

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AHH NOO ONE MORE DAY??!?!

Today was our second to last day! I’m starting to get pretty sad. My only consolation is that I’m trying to study abroad in Tokyo for Senior Fall, but it all depends on if my program is approved. Lets keep … Continue reading

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Kyoto Day 9: Presentation Day!

Yesterday morning (Kyoto Day 9: Presentation Day), I woke up pretty late and went on a run on my favorite route up north on the Kamo River. After grabbing a quick konbini (convenience store) onigiri (rice ball) lunch with Sohum, … Continue reading

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Final Presentations

I woke up at 6:15 AM today, because I had not gone on a morning walk in Kyoto yet. I had a presentation today to prepare for, but I really wanted to do it. I searched up online on places … Continue reading

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Friday The 19th

Today was the second to last day of our program. It was a bittersweet day, as while I was excited to finally be finished with the presentation, it meant saying goodbye to all the wonderful people we’ve met along the … Continue reading

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Coming full circle

On our final day of the formal program (we have one full day left that’s completely free), we went full circle, visiting Kei-san to give him the answers to our koan and to do zazen again. Everything was so familiar, … Continue reading

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Day 9 – Last Zazen and Fushimi Inari

I’m currently struggling to stay awake, even though as I’m starting this post it’s only almost 9 PM.  Going to bed late last night and hiking a mountain this afternoon have made me exhausted.  I was able to wake up … Continue reading

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Backlog: final presentations

Tensions were running high yesterday as we gathered at Terminal Kyoto at 1:55PM. We had about 3-4 hours of practice with Mitsue-san, our translator, before the actual presentation. For some reason, I kept calling it a performance; I still don’t … Continue reading

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In Which We Answer a Koan and Hike a Mountain

Hello all! Today was a wonderful day — I may go so far as to say that it was my favorite of the trip so far. I woke up this morning at 7:30 — still very sleepy from being awake … Continue reading

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