The Wonder That is Kyoto

1. Light Fellowship: I am a terribleeeee blogger, but I will make up for it! I have 4 blog entries lined up right now!

2. Friends: I am alive. Fear not.

3. After Sun ended, Ming and I traveled for a week around Japan. Our itinerary was:
8/10: still in Tokyo, but kicked out of apaato, so in the Sakura Hostel in Asakusa (DEF recommend it, by the way)
8/11-12: Kyoto♥ with some SANC classmates
8/13-15: Fukuoka (on the island Kyushu), with day trips to Beppu (hot springs) and Nagasaki
8/16: back to Kyoto for the Daimonji (http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/festivals/gozan.html)
8/17: final rush meet-up with some SANC-ers and Kajikawa sensei in Tokyo before running to Narita to board plane back to the States!

**the following was transcribed from the pink notebook that accompanied me on my travels**

Date written: August 12, 2009

Early morning wake-up to meet up with Mattie, Kisho, and Evan was no problem--we were meeting at the Nijojo-mae station, the station we used as home base when I was in Kyoto last year with Genji's World! Ureshii! Recognizing the station's little details, while at the same time realizing it resembles our Nishi-Shinjuku 5-choume station, brought me endless joy =] It was like acknowledging the intersection of two beloved cities--Kyoto and Tokyo--into one uniting concept--> Japan.

It was hot as hell at Nijo Castle, but it was a perfect segue into Kyoto shrine-and-temple mode. Kiyomizudera was a definite stop on my itinerary, and it just so happened that K wanted to drag M back anyway to buy more things, haha. I can't say I had forgotten how strenuous the walk up the street to the famous temple was, because last time I had smartly opted for a cab with CJ and Julian, but I DID forget it's no longer mild May but hellishly humid and hot August. Because we didn't fit on K and Ming's bus originally, Mattie was running the risk of missing his shinkansen (again), so me and E said our goodbyes and continued trekking up the gravestone-ridden path to Kiyomizudera. Finally at the entrance, we said goodbye to K as well and went through the vermillion temple-lined path to fountains of love, happiness, and good fortune (literally). After eschewing fear of contamination via (ultra violet radiated and sterilized) silver ladles at the Kiyomizudera waterfall (thank you, Japan), we settled for some shaved ice (don't get matcha) and then feasted on Kyoto udon.

That was also our first case of translating today, explaining to a European(?) tour group 17-strong that there was only room for 10. Common language: English. Status: win.

Our tummies full of udon (even III say that with a smile, despite it not being soba) and the fact that it dropped from 140 degrees F to only 120 meant that we were ambitious. Our plan? Bus to Kyoto Station, then head 40 minutes over to Kinkaku-ji (Golden Palace/Pavillion) for some pre-dinner bad-ass sightseeing and picture-taking. Too bad it was closing in 40 minutes by that time.

[Sometime between here we went to the Sanjyuusangen-do, where I got the best god luck you could possibly get. 1001 Kannon statues, one of them rivaling DaiButsu size. Thanks to Eddy K, I will never forget Kannon, Goddess of Mercy.]

Our new and improved plan, courtesy of the helper lady at the Kyoto Eki, was to JR-line-it (for free, thank you, JR Pass) to Inari and check out a lot of pretty vermillion torii (Shinto shrine gates) there. What we thought would be a casual strolling around a small Shinto shrine admiring 2 or 3 big gates torii turned into a 2-hour journey through the woods, up an almost deserted mountain, guided by an eerie path of lined-up torii (see facebook pics) and oscillating between being scared of the horror movie setting and soundtrack (cicadas) and being scared of the resemblance of our situation to Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away). Please see our 3-episode horror movie video once I put it up on youtube for more info.

Our reward for being true Yalies and actually making it to the top of the mountain was not the view from the summit (which was obscured by trees, womp womp) but the sushi dinner E bought for us afterwrad =] It was glorious. And probably only the 3rd or 4th time I've had sushi in Japan this summer.

Fatasses that at least me and Ming are, we transferred 3 restaurants down from SushiDen to Lipton, where the quintessential soup was replaced by 2 peach parfaits (E and M) and THEEE most delicious 3-mango tart. Mmmm, seriously. Me and M have eaten SO well, trying to cram in as much Japanese food and Japanese sweets as we can before we get back so we don't miss the food as much. That's our reasoning, anyway =]

Plans were made to sightsee with E the next day before parting ways (he's a great travel buddy--completely a follower in that sense lol), and an epic me-M-E-Diana-and her friend Karen lunch materialized after I threatened D with bodily harm if we didn't see her before she left to study abroad in Nagoya for a YEAR.

On the way back to our own little apartment (aka Tani House), M and I walked through the station's underground restaurant-and-shop place thingy, which was closed and deserted because it was already 10:30ish. We came across a group of 12 guys, BREAKDANCING. We just stood there are watched them, flabbergasted. They were doing craaaaaaaaaazy things on their heads! After interrogating one of them (in Japanese! =]), we found out they were a new team called Zest and they are going to be in Tokyo (Yoyogi Park!) on the 22nd for an annual breaking BATTLE. SUGOIIIIII!!!!