Day 6

Today started with a wonderful shower and ‘western’ breakfast. At 8:45 we went to the Chukyo University. Amanda, Oliver, Janan, Temi, Jason, and I toured the school with 2 students who then took us to a Shinto shrine. The shrine was built 1900 years ago and it is the second largest in Japan. It was really beautiful inside. We also were really lucky because there was a wedding going on that we were allowed to watch. It was a Shinto wedding with some western mixed in. It was really interesting and the couple came over after the ceremony and thanked us for coming and took pictures with us. One thing that was really interesting was that the priests bless the wedding car procession, oh and there were priestesses in the ceremony as well. After that we went to a small museum that was on the shrine grounds. It was small and all in Japanese but the 2 Japanese students we were with seemed happy that we were interested, so it wasn’t too bad. From the museum we headed back to the school for lunch. It was ok but still school food, but it was better then the grotto. The dish I had was my favorite Katsudon and I can’t wait to try and make it on my own. After lunch we went to their computer lab and two girls showed Amanda and I how to fold paper cranes. Here is a website where you can learn to fold your own paper cranes http://www.sadako.com/fold/folding.html . We then got to go to a discussion class. The class was international studies and it was taught in Japanese, but we were split into 4 different groups and someone in each group translated for us. First we ranked four pictures from around the world in terms of wealth. After that we were given 10 post-its are we had to each write down the top 10 things we feel are part of a quality life. Then in our groups we had to arrange them on butcher paper. What was so cool to see is that even though we are from totally different cultures and locations we all had very similar ideas about human needs and rights. After all this we presented out papers as a class. I am really glad that we got to participate it was a very cool experience. After class we made our way to the subway and Amanda and I went back to the hotel and rested for a little. We met up with Aye, the girl from the university, at 8. She took us to a great dinner at an interesting restaurant where a little river ran through it. Our group all sat in a little room and it was like sitting on the floor except for under the table the floor dropped so your legs were not really sitting crossed. The food was really good except for the mushroom rice but that is because I don’t like mushrooms. At the end of the meal Aye paid for all six of us. She was so sweet about it. I think that Nagaya has been my favorite place so far. Well it is late, until tomorrow.