So I've been slacking.

Well, not really, but I am behind in terms of my blog.

It's now Monday at 3 pm and I haven't written since Friday, so I apologize.

Saturday Jeff, Trudy, Carisa and I met up with D Choi to go on a "leisurely walk" around Kurama, a small town about half an hour north of our part of Kyoto. It was really beautiful there, much less crowded and I have already posted pictures.

The area was just a small town, a much different and refreshing atmosphere compared to cities like Kyoto and Osaka that we've already experienced. There was a beautiful little river called the Kuramagawa (Kurama River...unique, I know) with hand made and potentially dangerous, but picturesque little bridges. Of course, we had to cross them and walk around by the river before we made our way up to the shrines and temples of Kuramadera.

There was also a house that is 100 years old that we wanted to see, but it was not open, so we only got to see the exterior, which is unfortunate.

We started at the Niomon gate and then proceeded through the worship hall, called the Haiden, of a temple called Yuki Jinja. This temple was unique in that it's worshipping platform was seperated from the shrines themselves.

We continued to climb higher and higher, seeing little shrines and temples along the path. I don't even want to try to guess how many stairs we climbed before we finally reached the Honden, or main hall, of Kuramadera. After a short break, we quickly found out that there were still a good number of stairs to be conquered. Of course, we're never ones to be defeated by inanimate objects, so we continued to hike.

Finally, 235 meters above the Niomon where we started, we reached the peak and took a break before heading back down to Kibune. My legs were shaking and sore by the time we were done, but it was beautiful and worth the climb. Of course, then there was the 20 minute walk to the train station.

The rest of my day was consumed by work as Jeff and I tried to hash out our design without too many conflicts. We are about done designing but we still have the presentation work to do.

Sunday was a work day as well, so there's not much to discuss there expect the fact that we're all a little upset by the amount of work being assigned. I don't think most of us would have paid $6000 to sit in a hotel lounge and do work. Hopefully it will get to be more manageable.

This morning I had Japanese class and then a brief meeting with D Choi. Now we are going as a class to see the cherry blossoms and relax a little, so I will post lots of pictures later.