Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

Hi everyone, I’m Claudia, and this is my first blog post of the program—we’re already more than halfway through! I started my day at 7:45 AM, which gave me enough time to get ready and eat breakfast. We met as a group and left the hotel lobby at 9:15 AM to head to a new university (new location unlocked!): Ryukoku University. The university has multiple campuses, and we visited the Fukakusa Campus.

Upon arriving, we entered a very big classroom where we learned about the background of the university. Afterwards, our host Karen Tawarayama gave us a campus tour with some RU students. The campus was huge and extremely beautiful with so much greenery to complement the modern buildings. It was a very hot day, so traveling from building to building was difficult.

Afterwards, we were having our lunch early at 11:30 AM to beat the rush. We entered the dining building where there were multiple cafeterias and dining options. The dining area was huge with tables everywhere. After picking a designated cafeteria, we had the options of getting hot brothy foods like udon, or hot plate foods. I decided to get Rosukatsu Oroshi Ponzu because it was too much of a hot day to get udon. We all ate alongside many of the RU students.

Rosukatsu Oroshi Ponzu at Ryukoku University

After lunch finished, we went back to the classroom we were at in the beginning and did speed dating with the RU students. The students would rotate from table to table in each round, talking to two Northeastern students at each table. It was a bit awkward at start trying to initiate conversations with the students but after a little bit it was very easy and exciting because all the students would return the energy with high spirits. They all had very unique experiences where we could all relate to somehow.

Me and Huong taking to Karen (Japanese Student)

Once this speed dating finished, we transferred to a new building where we had our only class of the day, Professor Young’s Biology and Society. Our lecture of the day was about Nutrients.

Right after finishing our nutrition lecture

After our programmed schedule was finished, me and some fellow friends went to the Gion District, where there is so much shopping that one can do. One of the places I went to was My Only Fragrance, where I made my own customized perfume (it smelled AMAZING). I was able to watch the process of them customizing my perfume. I named it Claudzilla.

Personal sweet custom perfume

Afterwards we were exploring random shopping, we were trying to make sure that we weren’t going to go back to the hotel empty handed. I ended up buying lots of things that are necessities and lots of different clothes for random occasions.

Johan was in the food court in the basement of Kyoto Tower. He ate a burger and honestly had a really good time eating it. He got wagyu burgers that were really rich. They were relatively expensive but worth it. He said it felt very well paired with the lemonade beer. The food court was very crowded and intense, with a big space and an overwhelming amount of food choices, but he was very set on getting his wagyu burgers from the start and did not regret it.

Eventually, we were completely burnt out from the entire day, so we made it our journey to go back to the hotel. We never really had time to get food, so I decided to end the day with some onigiri from 7/11 and a nice visit to the onsen.