Kampai Kyoto

The last two days in Kyoto were spent enjoying the beautiful scenery and learning more about Japan's rich cultural history. We visited several palaces and temples, including the "old" imperial palace, which was beautiful and fascinating. We were lucky enough to just make the tour, and I'm glad we did. There was a significant amount of history and traditions to be learned. One of the most interesting things for me was that there were several different gates by which you could enter the palace. One was just for the empress, one was for more common people, another for visiting heads of state, and yet another for the emperor himself. As you can imagine, there were many gates!

For lunch one day we visited a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Prepared sushi goes slowly by your table, and you can take what you would like to eat. They charge by the plate, and almost the entire process is automated. This sparked an interesting discussion as to if this eating style could ever work in the United States. We concluded that it would be unlikely because people would have concerns about sanitation, and be more likely to try and not pay for sushi that they ate.

While in Kyoto, we also went to a traditional tea ceremony, where we made tea for each other. This was challenging because making this tea is a multi-step process, which included whisking a powder until it became frothy using a wooden whisk. Some of us were better than others at making the tea. I tried to think if there was any type of ceremony as intricate as the tea ceremony in the United States, but nothing came to my mind. Visiting a country with literally thousands of years of history is fascinating for me, because, as we know, the United States is not very old at all. Due to the age of the U.S. we have a distinct lack of traditions and traditional ceremonies. Experiencing the rich culture of another country is an amazing experience. As my time in Japan wrapped up, I found myself marveling at the strong unity of the Japanese people and the uniqueness of their culture and traditions.