1. Kyoto Tour: Part 1


    Welcome to Hirakata Station, the nearest train station to Kansai Gaidai. From here you can get to downtown Osaka, Kyoto, and connect to Shinkansen (bullet trains) that will take you to Tokyo and all over Japan.


    Our contingent to Kyoto. In more trivial technical news, I’ve found that the softness caused by maxing out my new lens at f/2.8 (the lens that took all the Japan photos you’ve seen so far) goes away when I push it one step up to f/3.2.

    The Kinkaku-ji, or “Golden Pavilion” is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto.


  2. (green is leisure, blue is work)

    As you become more educated, your work time starts to equal your leisure time.

    via @the99percent

  4. thiscitycalledearth:

    Photograph by Peter Zeglis, Tokyo.

  5. New Student Opening Ceremony and Reception



    The flags you see in the above picture represent the 39 countries students are from this semester at Kansai Gaidai. Of the 423 international students, 247 are from America. Other countries with large contingencies: the UK, Sweden, France, Norway, Canada, and Australia. The tough thing about being an international student at Kansai Gaidai is that all the classes are taught in English, which means students from places like Germany have to be studying English and Japanese simultaneously.



    My friend William from Alabama, left, and my friend Clement from New Zealand, right.



    The reception was filled with all kinds of delicious food. It ranged from traditional Japanese sushi and sashimi to more western foods like ice cream.











    But what stole the show was this chocolate excreting fountain of deliciosity, placed right in the center of everything. It was tempting to try out chocolate-covered sushi, but I stuck to the standard bananas, pineapples, and marshmallows.