Week 3: Traditional Architecture in Kyoto

For the third week of our global seminar, we moved away from Tokyo, and took a five day trip to Kyoto to learn about the traditional architectural styles of Japanese Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples! Being able to see multiple parts of the country was one of the main appeals of this global seminar, and our trip to Kyoto was something everybody in the class was looking forward to. 

We arrived on Wednesday by taking the bullet train, where we enjoyed bento lunch boxes during our ride through the countryside. Upon arrival, we jumped straight into activities, visiting multiple temples and a museum dedicated to modern art and design. Both temples were stunning, and the serenity of the structures was a very welcome change of pace compared to the dense, urban environment of Tokyo that I’d been getting used to. The first night we arrived, we also got to participate in the Gion festival, which was a fun event filled with lights, street food, and carnival games! It was a great way to get introduced to Kyoto.

Just about every day of our trip was filled to the brim with excursions and site visits, which was tiring, but a lot of fun! Over the course of the week, we visited one to two temples and shrines per day, alongside several museums and excursions to different cities around Kyoto. One stand-out museum in particular was the Manga Museum, where we learned about the history and process of the manga industry in Japan! They had a massive library as well, where we could feel free to browse and read anything that looked interesting within the museum’s collections. 

The highlight of the Kyoto trip, though, was our day trip to Nara, a neighboring city. Nara is famous for its large population of deer, which have become almost domesticated, and are incredibly friendly towards people. Walking through Nara park, countless deer would walk up to you, and bow their heads. I’ve never been able to pet and interact with wild animals so casually - it was a totally surreal experience! A few people from our class bought snacks to feed the deer, but they quickly realized they bit off more than they could chew when the deer started overwhelming them wanting more food. I’ll absolutely never forget it, and it was a great way to cap off our trip to Kyoto!

We returned to Tokyo by bullet train the next day, and were all exhausted from how busy the last 5 days had been. But we were also happy to be back in our hotel, and to dive into the second half of our global seminar!