Kyoto with Yanagi-san

Yesterday, my Japanese teacher Yanagi-san took me to Kyoto to do some sightseeing and to see a Japanese Art performance in Gion. I had a really nice day with her... we did a ton of walking and enjoyed trying to speak each others languages. (Sidenote: The scarf she is wearing was my gift to her for being so wonderful... one of my first successful knitting projects!)
So we arrived in Kyoto and needed to find a bus station to take us to Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle)... by that point she had been speaking English so much that when she went to ask another Japanese person where the bus station was, she started to ask in English and then she said, "Oh! I forgot that I was Japanese!" LOL... she's so cute!
We found the station and went to the castle. It was raining a little bit so I didn't get to take many pictures, but by the time we got outside to the garden it had stopped. She actually took more pictures than I did, if you can believe it! Anyway, we spent a few hours walking around the castle and garden, then we went into town to find a place to eat. We ended up going to the street in Gion where many of the Maiko and Geisha (they call them 'Geiko') live. It is the same street that Casey and I had been on in January when we saw a bunch of them and took pictures last time. This time was no exception! While we were searching for a restaurant, I saw maybe 3 Maiko/Geiko walking around, and managed to get a few pictures. Most of the pictures were difficult because of the traffic on the street and all of the people (mostly foreigners) walking around trying to get a good shot. I guess I was one of them. Anyway, that street always proves to be exciting... I highly recommend seeing it to anyone who might go to Kyoto!
After dinner, Yanagi-san and I went to a theater on the same street in Gion, to see performances in Japanese art. We saw a tea ceremony, koto music, flower arrangement designing, a Noh theater dance, comic theater, a dance by a real Maiko, and a bunraku performance (puppet theater). The bunraku was really neat... it takes 3 men (dressed in black) to move the puppet to make it look life-like- two men move the hands, and one is in charge of the puppet's legs and must squat behind it for the entire performance. They must get pretty tired by the end of a full show! We were only able to see short pieces of each type of art, but I am glad I got to see so many different types at one time. Not bad for ~$27!
Yanagi-san and I had a really nice time chatting yesterday. I enjoyed getting to know her and spend time with her outside of the International Student office. Anytime I said anything in Japanese, she got this cute look on her face like she was proud that I have learned bits and pieces of it... hell, I'm glad too, because frankly, I didn't really have to learn Japanese here. I am just lucky that I did, and I'm really glad to have gotten to know her so well over the last 4 months. Tomorrow is going to be hard to say goodbye to her, but then I guess I knew this time would come eventually... it just always comes too quickly. Sure I'll write about that later...
In a few hours, I am meeting Tomoko and we are going to go to a park so I can take pictures of Haru-chan. The weather should be really nice today so hopefully the pictures will turn out okay! I'll write again later when I get the chance... dang I need to start packing. Woo hoo I'm excited about that! Not so much. :)

-Ashley