Living in Kyoto -my Journey-
I kept going back and forth but it's finally here! The first post of the column about my trip to Japan of 2 years ago (god, it's been so long already). So let's start part one:
When my dear friend proposed we'd go to Japan it was late November, I was frankly puzzled, but excited. Normally I don't like making plans I'm not going to abide to, so I took my time and after a while decided I was really going to do it. So I made a plan.
When I did, I really did go for it. First of all were the questions: what, where, when, how?.
What did I want to do in Japan?
I wanted to explore and to see everything I possibly could. Our budget was tight so we decided that staying with a host-family would be helpful, since we would have had two meals secured without paying a lot for it. Speaking of that, I couldn't speak a word except 'hello' and 'thank you', so we looked for schools to attend in the meantime.
Summer was the only option available, so there wasn't much choice. Since we wanted to take our time going around as many places as possible, and the school-course we selected was for a month, we decided to stay a month and a week. Mid-July to mid-August.
Where?
Initally I wanted to make Tokyo my first and longer stop, but it was seriously too expensive so, along with my friend, decided to move on to Kyoto. After that, we planned to go to Tokyo and Osaka for a few days.
How?
Obliviously by plane. Kyoto doesn't have an international airport, but Osaka does. I had to take another flight of an hour to get to a bigger city that had Osaka as a destination but that was just an hour trip. The flight for Osaka had a stop at Dubai for 3 hours, in the middle of the night, so after 12 hours we finally stopped and rested a bit just to leave for another 6 hours before arriving to Osaka. Then, from the airport, we took a bus to Kyoto. And that's how we arrived.
But I'm getting too ahead.. First thing first was to convince my parents. I'm not gonna lie, it was difficult. They're pretty stubborn people and they were really worried about the Fukushima-incident that occurred some time before. Even though I'm an adult and can make my own decision I still had to give them some credit. In the mist of that, I kept searching for schools, hotels, b&b, host families and all of that online, with my friend, afraid I wouldn't make it in time otherwise (and thank god I did).
To be continued..
0 comments