We woke up early this morning at 5:30 a.m. to do our morning chanting with monks. I don’t know about the rest of the group, but I didn’t sleep very well considering our beds were very thins mats on the floor, our pillows were rice sacks, and our heat turned off in the middle of the night. The monastery life is full of excitement! My room was a quad on the other side of the building so we had to walk outside to go to the bathroom. Ironically, we sat on the heated toilet seats for warmth! After we chanted at 6:00 a.m. we headed to our breakfast of rice, miso soup, tofu, and other sides. My three roommates and I were still sleepy from our restless night so we took a nap before our 10 a.m. lecture. For class we were able to slide the paper doors open and combine all the rooms into one big room because we stayed in a monastery with traditional Japanese rooms.
      With lecture finished and our bags packed, we left our bags at the monastery and walked into town for lunch and free time. My friends and I found a nice restaurant that had some nice traditional elements where we had to take off our shoes to sit on pillows by the table. It was nice to get some food that was warm! After that we left Mount Koya and enjoyed the snowy forest views on the drive down the mountain.

      After many changes in our modes of transportation (bus → bus → train → train → bus →walking), we unloaded at our next hotel. This time I didn’t have just three roommates, I had seven! It really was like a giant sleepover! Some more friends and I had supper at a delicious ramen restaurant where, funny enough, they played music variations from Ariana Grande to Carrie Underwood...quite the variation. For dessert we went to our oh-so-familiar Family Mart (basically the Kwik Trip of Japan) for waffle ice cream bars. After that we went on a quest to find karaoke, but ended up shopping at a Japanese thrift store. It made me so happy because they had so many pant suits and button down shirts!!! So of course I bought one, and for only $2.50 US dollars! I can’t wait to sport it at some wrestling duals when I am back on campus!