On January 3rd, in the middle of a snow/ice storm, I flew out of Chicago and began my journey towards Nagoya. I had a 12 and a half hour flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo and then a connecting flight to Nagoya. The first flight was long. Very long. And when the CAs turn off the cabin lights and expect you to go to sleep, even though you know sleeping on a plane is next to impossible, it seems even longer. Needless to say, I was more than relieved when we finally arrived at the airport and I was free to say my mental "goodbyes" to the group of people I just spent the last 12 hours enclosed in a flying metal tube with and move on to immigration and customs. After the first flight, the second one - a mere 1 1/2 hours - seemed to be over in a blink of an eye. From there I met with the director of students and one other student and we made our way to the hotel in Nagoya that we would spend the night at. The room, like most other things in Japan, was small compared to western standards but nice and clean. The room also came with a complimentary cup of green tea which I enjoyed the following morning while watching the sun rise from my room on the 10th floor.
The next day, after a quick tour of the Nagoya Station, we got on a bus and headed for Inuyama where we were to stay at the Meitetsu Inuyama Hotel. This hotel has both Japanese style (和室) and Western style (洋室) rooms. We stayed in a Japanese style room that had tatami (畳) mat floors and futons.
Everyday we had orientation sessions to help us prepare for the semester and Japanese language classes to help us prepare for the language placement exam. And although we did spend quite a bit of time studying and learning, our staff made sure that we had plenty of time to explore Inuyama and visit many of the famous sights.
The first sight that we visited as a group was Inuyama Castle (犬山城). Inuyama Castle is one of Japan's National Treasures and is one of only 12 remaining original castles in Japan that was built before the Edo Period. The castle was completed by Oda Nobuyasu in 1537 and has been privately owned by the Naruse family until 2004 when ownership was transferred to a civic foundation in Inuyama.
Everyday we had orientation sessions to help us prepare for the semester and Japanese language classes to help us prepare for the language placement exam. And although we did spend quite a bit of time studying and learning, our staff made sure that we had plenty of time to explore Inuyama and visit many of the famous sights.
The first sight that we visited as a group was Inuyama Castle (犬山城). Inuyama Castle is one of Japan's National Treasures and is one of only 12 remaining original castles in Japan that was built before the Edo Period. The castle was completed by Oda Nobuyasu in 1537 and has been privately owned by the Naruse family until 2004 when ownership was transferred to a civic foundation in Inuyama.
Afterwards, we went to the house of a nearby local and watched her perform calligraphy. She asked each of us many questions (in Japanese of course) and picked a kanji (Chinese character) that matched our personalities best and wrote it for us. My kanji was 夢 (yume) meaning dream.
The next day we had quite a bit of free time and after a failed attempt to visit the Japan Monkey Park (it was closed for the day) a couple of friends and I decided to stop by the Narita-san Temple (成田山) down the road. Narita-san's full name is Daihonzannaritasannagoyabetsuin Daishoji and is a branch temple of the Narita-san Temple in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, near the Narita International Airport in Tokyo. Sometimes the unplanned trips are the best ones. I'm definitely glad that we stopped by and were able to see such a beautiful place and enjoy the view from the top.
After heading back down the stairs and walking back to the hotel, we stopped in the Urakuen Garden and Jo-an Tea Ceremony Room found within the grounds of our hotel. But that will be for the next post!
Once again, thanks for taking the time to read this post! I hope you enjoyed reading it and looking at the pictures. Please look forward to the next post, I promise the pictures will be great!
Once again, thanks for taking the time to read this post! I hope you enjoyed reading it and looking at the pictures. Please look forward to the next post, I promise the pictures will be great!