Mama Always Said Life is Like a Bento Box

You never know what you get 'til you look inside!

Yesterday was Kyoto, the former capitol of Japan. The city is full of ancient shrines and temples. It is also where the geisha district is, and that was my proirity for the day. I ended up going to Kyoto with four other people, some of them pretty close friends by now, others who I barely knew before yesterday. We started out in the morning with a planned route to see as much as possible, but some of us decided to linger a little longer in a few places, so the group broke up. Those of us who decided to linger ended up having the most amazing experience I have had so far.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I got a little lost in Kyoto. I know, hard to believe, but true. We wandered down a little street looking for a bus to take us to the next shrine, and we happened upon a little resturant. Since it was lunch time, and there were pictures of sushi in the window, we stopped to look.

The owner of the resturant, a tiny, old woman, came out and welcomed us. We tried to communicate, and I was able to tell her that we were American, and to comment on the weather (E otenke desu ne? or something like that) and to order us some sushi. Luckily, my language skills make up for my lack of direction skills!

We sat down in this tiny resturant, only 4 tables, and the lady brought out some origami dolls she had made and gave us each one. Then she showed us a newspaper samuri had she had made. She sat down by us and brought out her origami and kirigami supplies and started folding and cutting paper. She madea grasshopper, and dress and some other things and gave them to us. Then she showed us how to make the samuri hat (guess what we will do when I get back, students??) All of this with no language! The lunch was amazing, fresh sushi! But the experience was more than I can tell you! What a sweet, simple, lady she was, and so kind to us!