I attended the PanSIG 2023 language conference at Kyoto Sangyo University yesterday. The commute took just over 2 hours on the express trains from Hirakata, so I arrived too late for the 1st session I had hoped to catch, which began at 10:40. My haste to get out the door, resulting in an abandoned thermos of hot, pour-over coffee, provided me no benefit after all.

Nevertheless, I attended an Oxford graded reader presentation, which focused more on books for children than I anticipated. I spend so much time focusing on English for academic purposes that I forget ESL for children also exists. I caught the plenary, on COIL, as well as some poster sessions, one of which demonstrated a way to use Google Workspace alone as a substitute for an LMS. The lunch consisted of a panoply of katsu items (i.e., fried), from which I’m still recovering today.

You can see in the pictures above how beautiful and modern the KSU campus is. The campus lies in the mountains outside Kyoto, so escalators connect the various levels. The building that housed the conference stands five stories. The central staircase (shown in the photos) ascends from the 2nd to the 5th floor.

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Later I slipped in some sightseeing at Shimogamo Shrine (下鴨神社) in Kyoto, one of Japan’s oldest Shinto shrines, and a popular historical tourist attraction in Kyoto. The rain had begun by the time I reached the shrine. I like the atmosphere rain clouds give to traditional sites like this. The lanterns really stand out beneath the storm clouds.

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The trip ended not far from the shrine at a Chinese/Korean restaurant on the way back to Demachiyanagi station called Daitoryu. The mochi soup was fantastic, and I hope to visit again to try their soon tofu.