Kansai highlights

I greatly enjoyed my travels to Kyoto and Nara, and the highlight of that trip was my lodging. My host mother’s mother is an English teacher in Kyoto and she taught all four children of a high priest at a Buddhist temple. This connection put me in the most fortuitous position as I was invited not only to visit their private temple but to actually live there! I expected that once I got there I would sort of keep my distance so as to not bother them, but they insisted that I join them for every meal and two of the sons actually toured me around Kyoto which was an absolute blast.

The ever-popular deer that roam free in Nara:

Kyoto is brimming with temples, so here’s a sampling of what I visited:

 Some photos of the temple:

 

On my final night in the temple, I watched the global sensation “Frozen” for the first time and in Japanese. I had heard the Japanese translation of the song “Let it go” innumerable times around Japan – it’s just as popular if not more than in the states.

I was curious about the English translation of the Japanese adaptation of this song, and to my surprise it’s actually more direct than the English version. Here’s the chorus:

I’ll show you how I truly am

I’ll become my true self

I’m not afraid of anything

Let the wind blow

I’m not the least bit cold

I’ve been researching Shakespeare while in Japan which made me very aware of translation.

The downside of the trip was that I couldn’t visit Hiroshima. Luckily, the temple family invited me to stay with them another night, which was probably the best opportunity since I likely won’t have that chance again. And I have to leave something to do the next time I’m in Japan which I hope/suspect will be soon!