The annual MISTI Japan Kyoto trip was this past weekend. It was very exhausting and efficient, but very cheap. Everything is paid for by MISTI! I didn’t have to spend a single penny, except for gifts I bought. This was the schedule:
| Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|
| Onsen | Breakfast |
| Breakfast on the bus | Walk through park with deer! |
| Kinkakuji (Golden Temple) | Todaiji |
| Daitokuji (Daisenen) | Okonomiyaki Lunch |
| Geoffrey Moussas’ House | Train to Kyoto |
| Hachiyoshi (lunch) | Kyogoku shopping |
| Heianjingu | Taxi to Kyoto Eki |
| Kiyomizudera | Shinkansen to Tokyo |
| Hanamikoji | |
| Bus to Hotel (Singing!) | |
| Dinner |
We got to Kyoto by taking a night bus from 10:30pm Friday night to 6:00am Saturday morning. I totally didn’t get any sleep that night. We started off Saturday morning by going to an onsen which is a (really really) hot spring bath. I would’ve taken pictures, but you probably wouldn’t have liked to see all of us completely naked… Then we went on a tour bus for the day on Saturday along with some Japanese graduate students from Nara
the golden temple or Kinkakuji, only coated in gold though 
we toured around a traditional Japanese House which an MIT architect, Geoffrey Moussas, renovated
Heianjingu
the garden inside Heianjingu, quite a contrast to the desert outside…
I thought this was pretty
the steep narrow street full of yummy stuff leading up to Kiyomizudera
a few of us with some Japanese students from Nara in front of Kiyomizudera
Kiyomizuderam, mizu means water in Japanese. In order to drink that water with the long ladles, we had to pay $2 so I didn’t since two years ago, when I went, it was free…
in Nara! with swarming deer
Todaiji, a humongous Buddha! We got a super close-up tour!
And everyone climbed through the hole at the bottom of a column, it’s the same size as the Buddha nostril! All the Japanese people were watching all us gaijin -_-
okonomiyaki! specialty of the kansai area 
it’s a bunch of cabbage and random seafood like squid and shrimp; this one has soba! it’s nicknamed “Japanese Pizza”
on the shopping streets of Kyoto… no, I didn’t buy it
Kyoto train station… if only South Station looked like this
and then we got bentos and took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo Sunday night!
Nice Photos!
By: MOM on July 1, 2009
at 1:34 pm
Japanese pizza looks DELICIOUS
By: David on July 1, 2009
at 5:47 pm
’twas
By: Anonymous on July 2, 2009
at 2:57 am
seriously? $2?? and there’s a line!! my god….the economy is doing to poorly that everything is getting expensive
and that shirt..haha..wow.. nice picture
By: Barbara on July 6, 2009
at 1:11 am