Two weeks ago I was in Kyoto (during their biggest flood in decades; 140,000 people were evacuated and every few hours everyone's phones were beeping with warnings from the Japanese government) and took koto (Japanese harp) lessons with Sachiko-sensei. Her house is a hundred year-old traditional wooden Japanese house, just across from Nijo castle (the castle of Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the men who united Japan. This castle also was the historic place that saw the birth and the end of the shogunate in Japan).
Photos were taken with iPhone (only 2 of my sensei with DSLR) and they are blurry because some were taken via snapshots of videos. We did a duet of Sakura (cherry blossom; Japanese folk song) in the end. I became hooked immediately with koto! Sachiko-san's contact can be found through Airbnb Experience, or feel free to contact me! I'd highly recommend the experience!
My sensei wrote my name in kanji.
Our duet on the easy version of Sakura (after around 30 minutes of first time being acquainted with koto):
Akane, my long-lost university friend now living in Kyoto took me to this breathtaking garden (Murin-An) in old Kyoto.
