I absolutely love Japan. It has so many quirks you can't help but love it. I'm starting to settle into the swing of things here in Japan. Life definitely moves at a faster pace here than it does in Arkansas.
A couple days ago all of us foreign students went on a school trip to Asakusa. It was a really good time. We went to the Tokyo Edo Museum first
then we went to Sensoji temple
and finally we went to a Washi shop.
Washi is traditional Japanese paper. It is made by first beating certain trees' bark into a pulp. The beaten pulp is then put into frigid water. This is where my picture comes in! The wooden thing in the picture is like a box with a swinging bracket to hold a mat of bamboo and silk in place. Then the box is used to scoop up some water and and then you create a wave action with the pulpy water. After swishing 30 times you repeat and the process is finished. Then you pull out the bamboo mat, set it with the wet paper face down and remove the mat. It sounds really boring and long but it was actually really cool and it was surprisingly fast! It was an extremely eventful day haha We all had a really good time.
A few days before that I was able to meet the person that introduced me to Japan. 12 years ago my family hosted an exchange student from Japan. I was 9 at the time! Her coming to stay at our house obviously influenced me.So after 12 years I was able to meet her again! Needless to say it was an awesome experience. She took me around one of her favorite towns, showed me some really cool temples and Daibutsu the great Buddha. It was my favorite day in Japan so far. It's really hard to write a blog about my experiences because there is so many to choose from. If you are on a fence post about studying abroad just go for it, you won't regret it. I promise!
Isaac Morgan
