Introduction to Kyoto

 こんにちは、皆さん！(Hello, everyone!)

Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog! To start off with, I would like to take some time to introduce myself as well as the city of Kyoto, Japan to you all. If any of you have any questions that you would like to ask, please feel free to leave a comment, and I'll try to answer it as soon as I can!

Me and the Kyoto skyline

    My Background

When I was growing up, I never expected that I would be studying Japanese. I never had a main idea of what I wanted to grow up to be, so it was difficult for me to be interested in school. During high school, I knew that I wanted to go to college, but wasn't sure what I wanted to study. My school's Career Adviser told me that since I was good at math and physics, that I should try studying engineering at our town's local university. However, after graduating from high school and starting on a Civil Engineering major, I had a lot of trouble keeping up with my coursework and understanding what my teachers were talking about in class. In addition, my program was very competitive; our teachers used to tell us that probably only 50% of us would ever graduate with an engineering degree, and it was hard to get help for when I was struggling in classes. After a year of trying and failing to keep myself focused on something that I had never really wanted to do, I proved my teachers right, and became part of the 50% that never got an engineering degree when I left the program.

For a year after that, I didn't go to college. I worked in a restaurant as I tried to decide what direction I wanted my life to go in from then. I knew I didn't want to go back into engineering, but I still had never really considered what direction I wanted my life to go in. Would I go back to college? Would I try to find a job that didn't require a degree? Would I stay working in restaurants? What did I enjoy doing, what would be something that I could look forward to go to every day for the rest of my life? I tried to think about what interested me, and I realized something. When I was in high school, I had studied German for four years, and always enjoyed my classes and the process of learning a new language, where suddenly you can understand someone you wouldn't be able to otherwise. And even though math was my main focus, I had also enjoyed helping edit my friends' essays or reports for class, fixing grammar, word choice, etc. So, was there a job that I could do both of these things at? The answer was translation, or the process of taking written works from one language and rewriting them in another. 

The question then, was what language I should specialize in. I wanted to make sure that I could find work after I finished studying, and since German is a relatively easy language to learn for English speakers, I thought I should try for something more difficult. After thinking about it for a while, I decided on studying Japanese. The language was difficult to learn, which would mean I had a better chance of finding work once I was able to speak it. Japan and America also have a strong cultural connection, with many companies such as Toyota, Nintendo, and Mitsubishi being based in Japan but having a large presence in America. So, I went back to college, but this time at Portland State University, and began my major in Japanese. I've recently finished my third-year studies, and in an effort to get more familiar with the language and culture, started a year-long study abroad program at Doshisha University.

A map of Japan, with Kyoto highlighted in red

     The City of Kyoto

Shijo-doori, a busy street in Kyoto

Kyoto is a large city in Japan. It's so large, in fact, that it is its own prefecture (the Japanese equivalent of a state). With a population of about 1.45 million people, Kyoto is a thriving metropolis, but also has a strong connection to Japan's history and arts. In 764 CE, Kyoto, or Heian-kyo as it was known back then, became the home of the Emperor of Japan, and therefore the capital of the whole country. Emperors continued to live in the city until 1869, when Emperor Meiji moved the court to the now-capital of Japan, Tokyo. During this period of over 1100 years, many temples and shrines were built in the city, many of which still exist today. These places are dedicated to either Buddhism, Shintoism (the native religion of Japan), or a mixture of the two, and draw in many sightseers and tourists to the city. In fact, the dorm I currently live in is right across the street from a place called Nishi-Honganji Temple, which is recognized as one of the national historic landmarks of Japan. It is very common to walk down a normal street and happen to find a small shrine in between shops and houses.

Life in Kyoto is very different from life in Portland. The layout of the city, the way people interact with each other, the modes of transportation, and even the weather all differ greatly from what I was used to in America. Over the next few months, I'll be sharing with you about these differences, as well as some of the similarities. If you ever have any questions or want to know more about some of the different things I will be telling you about, please comment on the post and ask! I'm excited to work with you all and Mr. DuPont going forward!

Until then,

またね！(See you soon!)