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 that are open early in the morning, and I found out Kiyomizu-dera was open at 6:00 AM. I excitingly loaded the map to Kiyomizu-dera and set out. It was really interesting seeing all the stores preparing for the day. I do, however, question the cleanliness of some meat stores. The walk was a bit long at ~2 miles. However, it was nice to be able to enjoy the views of Kyoto without the streets filled with people. I was able to arrive at Kiyomizu-dera without getting lost. (GPS is really handy) I was disappointed when I arrived, as the main temple was under renovation. I went into the temple anyways, as I heard the views are very nice from it. The view definitely did not disappoint; the best view of the city of Kyoto that I’ve seen so far. The sub temples were also very nice. I was not able to explore the whole temple, as I had to head back to the hostel to work on the presentation.
I heard Gion has pretty nice desserts, so I decided to take a detour to there. I should have looked up the opening times of the stores before heading there. The stores that I wanted to go to all open at 10 or 11 AM. I disappointingly walked back to the hostel and chomped down some pastries from a bakery I saw along the way.
The presentation was at 6 PM, but we had to practice on it first. As a result, we had to get to Terminal Kyoto by 2 PM. Kagaya-sensei said our presentation was fine, so we walked around the area until we had to return for the presentation. I messed up a bit during the presentation, but it went well overall. I sat on a table with Leah and two of Sachiko-san’s friends. It was nice being able to practice my Japanese. It was also interesting to hear about people from Japan’s opinions of American customs and recent events.
We went to karaoke after the presentation. I had wanted to check out a karaoke place in Kyoto, as they are much more developed when compared to Hawaii. I was surprised by their nomihodai (all you can drink) option, as drinks in karaoke places in Hawaii are very expensive. The trip to Kyoto is ending, and I feel sad to leave it. We have two more days left, and I definitely want to make most I can out of it.
