Day 4: Making Manga and Memories

Today’s adventure took our group to the famous Kyoto Manga Museum.  It was just a quick 5-minute walk from our hotel!  This museum houses the world’s largest collection of manga, dating all the way back to the ’60s, with some dating even further back.  Established in 2006, this museum was built in an old elementary school that had been closed down after the area around it slowly turned into a business district.

There, we got treated to a small lesson on how manga assistants work learning how to color in hair, draw motion lines, and add lines to evoke certain emotions from different panels.  As with the other museums, we were not allowed to take pictures of the museum in order to preserve the atmosphere and value of the museum.

I highly recommend that you try and take a trip here if you haven’t already.  There were so many more exhibits I wish I could have looked at longer, but we were on a tight schedule.

After our visit to the Manga Museum, and lunch, our group packed up on the bus and began our two-and-a-half hour bus ride from Kyoto to Shiga prefecture.  Along the way, we took a brief rest stop at Shirahige Shrine, along the shore of Lake Biwa.  A short distance offshore, on of the shrines old gates stands in silent vigil as a testament to how large the shrine had once been.  The large red gate was a magnificent sight to behold, standing on top of the glassy surface of the lake.

Proceeding from the shrine, we finally made it to our destination, a quiet little minshuku, or Japanese family-run inn.  Our group was divided among 3 different inns.  Our group went to the inn run by the Yoshinoya family.

I cannot begin to describe how great I feel in this place.  The atmosphere is just so relaxing and homey, all the way out here in the countryside.  We were treated to a very fulfilling meal of sukiyaki, followed by a calligraphy lesson from the family head.

After, our group of guys all broke the barriers big time as we shared the community bath.  It was most of our first time experiencing bathing with our peers, but we were all pretty cool about it as we talked about life, school, anime conventions, etc.

Now we’re all relaxing as we continue soaking in the atmosphere.  The agenda for tomorrow is a trip into the nearby Kutsuki Forest, then preparing our presentations for when we return to Tokyo.  There, we’ll be presenting our findings, as well as our steps moving forward, to the Chief Secretary of the Cabinet Secretary.  What is our take on the “Beauty of Japan?”  What will we do to spread the knowledge of this beauty?  I’ll keep you posted.

By the way, it’s snowing here in Shiga, and I am absolutely ecstatic.  It’s my first time experiencing snowfall and actually getting to hold snow in my hand!  This trip has just been fantastic.