Kameoka temples and garden building

Today we were taking a special tour of Kameoka shrines and temples so I met Kikuchi-san at city hall to catch the bus to the guest house. The students were all leaving for their homestays tonight so they had to bring all their luggage. I had to translate their thank yous...but my Japanese was not cooperating for some reason. I suddenly couldn't get the words to come out. It was actually kind of funny. Thankfully Fujiwara-san is someone I work with a lot so it didn't bother me much.

We stopped at the Center before going to the different temples. Ijiri-san was doing the translating today, which was a nice change. But I was extremely impressed with him. i never hear him speak English, but his English is REALLY good. He seems quite shy about it, but he has no reason. He has such a great vocabulary and his grammar is impeccable. I felt pretty sill standing next to him. He told me that he was embarrassed to translate in front of me, but he has no reason.

We went to one of the older temples with 3 large Buddha statues and Ijiri-san explained the difference between the different types of Buddhas. And then the students got a chance to try zen meditation. I had tried it in Tokyo nearly 3 years ago now. It is kind of interesting to just sit and try to clear your mind...some pretty weird things can happen. It was funny to watch the students try to sit still for about 20 minutes staring at the ground.

Next we went to Nishimoto-san's home. She lives in the countryside and has her own rice fields and a very Eco-friendly home. She uses solar energy and water energy. She also talked to us about how rice planting works and how they reorganized the fields recently to make them more organized.

After having a little lunch party there we went back to the Center so the students could work on building their part of the OSU Study Abroad Garden in the front yard. Each year the student groups add something new to the garden so it grows each year. This year they made a bamboo fence and put in some new stepping stones.

I had to translate a couple of letters before Monday in order to go with the students on the Hozu River ride so I didn't help out with the garden but worked on the letters and my newsletter instead. When they finished and the host families arrived I translated for the welcoming party. I learned throughout the week that if I took notes, even on simple things, I was able to structure my English more formally. When I translate without notes I use more casual speech and to me it doesn't convey the proper meaning so writing notes helps me organize my thoughts. So I did that this time and it worked out a lot better.


The students all went home then and I took the train back to Kameoka. I finally have a day off tomorrow so I plan on doing nothing.

We have the Sayonara Party on Monday so I'm going to ask for Tuesday off. Going to work the day after a huge party is never fun...

around Kameoka temples and shrines
Nishimoto's house
build garden
home stay