Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Kyoto Day Two
Day two in Kyoto started with my visit to Kyoto International School (KIS). I took a tour of the school and had a chance to sit in on classrooms, just as I had done at YIS. The difference between KIS and YIS is that KIS is a much smaller school. They are in a temporary location while their school gets renovated, but that sure hasn't stopped all of the inquiry going in their classes. I took so many pictures of student work and observed several classes, however my biggest take away was a class working on their summative for their final Unit of Inquiry. During my time in the class, the students were creating their rubric. The teacher asked specific questions to help guide them in the right direction, however the students were the true creators of their rubric. This really gave me the 'wow' factor because I am used to creating the rubrics for my students. I realized after being in this classroom that my expectations of student work doesn't have to be sacrificed just because the students created the rubric. I am definitely implementing this strategy in classroom next year. The teachers were fantastic and once again, I'm so thankful for their flexibility in letting me be a part of their classroom. One of the best conversations I had at KIS is with their Head of School, Ms. Conlin. She is amazing! Our discussions were detailed, personable, and overall just wonderful! She had some really great advice for me moving forward and I know her knowledge will go a long way in my classroom. Here are some pictures from my visit at KIS:
Goals and self-reflections
Incorporating math within the IB curriculum, which we all know is a big challenge!
Self-reflections...love these! And notice they are written in Japanese, which is the school's foreign language of choice.
IB Attitudes
Student work
Grade 4 Unit of Inquiry
The sweetest Kindergarten class! Their teacher, Ms. Christina, is amazing! She opened up her classroom to me and I loved speaking with her. The kids loved the stickers and pencils. I love that I was able to give them a piece of ROE!
Grade 4 class and their teacher was wonderful as well! She is also from the United States and it was great speaking with her. She was actually doing running records at the time I came in to observe. It's funny to me that I, myself, was doing running records just a couple of weeks ago. 
Me with Head of School, Ms. Conlin. She was such a wonderful host!
After my visit, I decided to complete the rest of my trip in Kyoto, as outlined in my proposal. But before I could do so, I needed to eat! I settled on an Italian restaurant in the Takashimaya department store, which was recommended by the nicest Japanese woman at the bank when I went in to exchange currency. She was so nice that she actually left the bank and walked me to the store! The courtesy the Japanese people extend just amazes me.
Ah, spaghetti with ricotta cheese. It was just what I needed for a full day of exploring.
This is a picture of a snack I bought from one of the little shops in Kyoto. It's a jelly type snack and this one happens to be blueberry. It is so good! So good in fact, that I had to go back and buy another pack because I finished the first one. I'm not sure what it's called, but I loved it.
After lunch, I got in a taxi and headed to Kinkaku-ji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavillion. Notice how the taxi driver is wearing gloves. The taxi drivers, policemen, train/transit enforcers, and other workers all wear white gloves. I really don't know why. I assume it's tradition/culture, but now I'm wondering if there's more to it than that.
My taxi driver ended up being a mini tour guide and pointed at sights/landmarks along the way. I reached Kinkaku-ji not knowing what to expect, but one thing was apparent - it was so peaceful and calm.
After a little bit of a walk, I reached the ticket office and purchased my ticket.
My ticket.
I started walking and then, there it was...the Golden Pavillion. Wow! It is even more beautiful in person! And just in case you are wondering, it is made of gold!
Here's a closer look...just beautiful!
After walking around the grounds, I decided to leave and catch another taxi for Fushimi-Inari Shrine.
I got to Fushimi-Inari and I immediately noticed the orange Torii at the front from the guidebooks I had read.
I proceeded along the path and after some time, I reached the famous Torii Gates. There's actually thousands of them and they go up a mountain. The entire hike takes around 3 hours! How far did I go? Well, I only lasted a mere 20 minutes before turning back to head to my next destination.
Luckily, the train station was directly across the street from the entrance of Fushimi-Inari, so I decided to head over to Nara. While I waited for the train, I decided to try this drink from a vending machine:
I can't say I loved it. It wasn't terrible, but it's not something I would choose to drink again. Anyway, back to Nara. I had read about Nara and how the park is occupied by deers. Nara is also home to a famous temple, Todaiji, which houses Daibutsuden (the big Buddha). The train ride to Nara took about 45 minutes and then I had to take a short bus ride to park. Once I got off the bus, I immediately saw all the deer! There's a legend about why the deer stay in the park and I even read that if you feed them, they will bow down to you.
I bought a small pack of deer food, which were flat, circular crackers and walked up to a sweet deer laying down. As soon as she saw that I had crackers, she started bowing down to me! It was adorable. I was scared to feed it at first, but after the first cracker, I realized that they really are so calm. They will even let you pet them!
After navigating my way through the park full of deer, I reached Todaiji Temple. The picture below will not even come close to showing how massive the temple is. It is enormous! I couldn't get over the size of the doors. It is so hard to imagine how this was built centuries ago.
I made my way up the steps of the temple and inside was Daibatsuden, the big Buddha. It all made sense as to why the temple needed to be great in size...Daibatsuden was huge too. The picture is hard to see and I actually had to ask two different strangers to take it of me. It is very dark in the temple and this was the best shot on my phone I could get.
After viewing Daibatsuden and walking the grounds a bit, I decided that I really needed to head back to Kyoto. I was getting very tired and hungry. I boarded the train back to Kyoto and unfortunately, there wasn't an express option on the way back. This being said, it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get back to Kyoto. I was so very ready to get off that train!
Once I got back to Kyoto, I took a short taxi ride a restaurant that I remembered reading about from one of the forums I visited. Kyoto is known for their ramen soups, however there is a specific place that sets itself from others: Kyoto Gogyo.
Gogyo is known for their "burnt miso ramen." I ordered some fried gyoza (dumplings) and decided to try the burnt miso ramen. When I tell you that this was one of the best meals I've ever had, it is true. The burnt miso ramen is unlike anything I've ever tasted and it was amazing. Just absolutely amazing.
It was a fantastic day of exploring, but boy I was absolutely EXHAUSTED! I headed back to my hotel to call it a night. Because I was so exhausted, I couldn't muster up the strength to blog and therefore am a bit behind. No worries, however...the next post will be from Hiroshima!
-Mrs. de Leon :)
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