I woke at 6:30 feeling curiously alert and well rested. Light had returned to the world, though the sun was still a few minutes from cresting the mountains to the east of the city: the view from my balcony above Teranouchi street.
I showered and dressed, bought a hot can of coffee from the vending machine in the dorm lobby, and stepped outside to get a better look at my home for the next year. The morning was bright, clear, and crisp, though the sky threatened to haze up as the day wore on. A trickle of middle-aged women, likely tea instructors, walked elegantly up the sidewalks in small groups, wearing kimono in muted colors.
I ironed a pair of slacks and a dress shirt, got dressed, and felt fat. My waistline isn’t what it was when I bought these pants, and it wasn’t then what it was the first time I came to Japan. I suspect, though, that the lifestyle here will begin to shrink me in short order.
Szymon led Sean and I up the block to the Urasenke Center, where Nishimura-sensei brought us tea and Hamana-sensei introduced us to Arita-sensei, the manager of Urasenke’s international division. We passed the gate to Konnichian, the historic Sen (whence UraSENke) family residence, at which students are required to bow in respect, saw the actual school building and cafeteria, and completed a circuit of the block before retrieving Almerindo from the dorm and retracing our steps to get lunch. The cafeteria, or shokudo, is small and cozy, serving lunch and dinner to students and Urasenke employees; based on the soba I had today, I’ll always look forward to mealtime.
We returned to the dorm via one of Kyoto’s many hidden gems: a little shrine complex tucked away just across the street and around a corner. Sakura trees bloomed explosively between the wise old buildings of weathered wood.
A maintenance crew brought me a dresser, and another trip to the 2nd floor yielded a big wheeled clothes rack; I rearranged my room again and was happy with the results. Sean and I went for a walk around the neighborhood, stopping in a tea utensil shop and a small department store. Then we met Szymon for dinner. The shokudo was empty except for the three of us eating and the two ladies who served us miso soup and tempura and then chattered quietly in the kitchen.
After dinner Szymon disappeared and Sean and I went to the roof of the dorm to take pictures of the city at sunset. I realized then that I wasn’t quite past the jet lag after all. I wrote a little and edited video for a while, popped over to Sean’s room for a cup of tea, and turned in early.