It's All About Lake Biwa

Today, I woke up at 6 am because my body still is not use to the time change. So, I got ready and went to breakfast with the group at 8 am in one of the cafeterias here on campus. When we were standing in line, I basically took every single food item because I didn’t really know what to eat. I ended up with tofu (which I originally thought was cake), a soft hard-boiled egg that wasn’t completely cooked all the way, spinach, bowl of rice, fish, and an egg roll. I surprisingly ate everything, except for the tofu.

Mioko Sensei and Day at breakfast

 Our first destination was to the International Lake Environment Committee Foundation by Lake Biwa. We had to take two buses and two trains to get there. I enjoyed the ride there because I was able to look at some of the landscape. I quickly realized that I wished I was able to read some Japanese. When we got to ILEC, we were brought into a lecture room, and a man showed us a powerpoint on what they do. Basically, they are an awareness group and target lakes all around the world that have bad water quality. I asked whose standards they used to determine if the water quality was bad and they explained that they go off of the country’s preference that they were working with.

Left to Right: Kristen, Leo, Julia, Tori, and Sam
Posing in front of "Motherland" after lecture

Afterwards, we were brought to the Lake Biwa Museum. I thought this was really neat because it showed prehistoric stories and other things that showed how the Japanese once used Lake Biwa with their boats and fishing resources. I went into the gift shop there and bought a post card and some chopsticks. Then, we went to a restaurant in the Museum where I had some type of noodles to eat. 

Restaurant in the Museum

Sam in front of traditional long boat

Our next destination was to the ferry boat around a portion of Lake Biwa. Our boat set sail at 3:20 pm and it was an hour and a half long ride. It was beautiful and I was able to see a duet play on the boat. They serenaded our group with a song that was from the United States. I forgot the name of the song but it was really cool because they sounded pretty good.  After the boat ride, we had dinner and went back to BKC for the night.

View from boat

Jill and I with the male singer from the duet