Emily: So Mom said “I always use clever titles” so I shall too instead of putting the date and where we went. Anyway, the alarm went off at 7:30 again today. I think that’s pretty much the same every day. Mom and I walked down to Sizuya and I had a panda head pastry and something that was like cheese but it tasted really sweet (would that make it cream cheese!?). I had milk tea to drink too. There were a bunch of students near the bus/subway area and they all had suitcases. Wonder what that was for. We left a little after 9:30 for Fushimi-Inari. Before we left I had to get the directions for the movie theater in Nijo. Anyway, we took the Nara Line two stops to Inari Station. It was pretty convenient because Fushimi-Inari Shrine is right next to the station. Near the entrance there was a little shrine area with all these paper cranes hanging. Mom found a dragonfly so I took several pictures of it. The beginning had a big construction area blocked off and for a split second we thought it was closed. We did the routine wandering up the endless steps bordered by torii gates. I found a pretty spider along the way and took a picture of that too. So we spent quite a while wandering up. Toward the top loop we ran into a Caucasian couple who spoke English (instead of some weird European language) so Mom started talking to them. Together we figured out which path (of 3 choices) went to the top of the mountain/shrine/whatever. It took 15 minutes from that point to the top. There was no real indication that it was the top except for a small map signboard that had “top of mtn” written on it in pen. Interesting. We took pictures there and we also took pictures at the little stop before that because we thought that was the top. Along the way there were also a bunch of random cats. Like, there was one on the ground and one sleeping on a row of mini torii gates and 6 at one little resting area. Strange. The fox motif was present throughout though because that’s what Fushimi Inari is known for.  It was pretty tedious going up the hill but then we went down pretty quickly. We stopped at the place where we met the Caucasian people to have lunch. The Caucasians kept going down to the bottom. We sat at a little table (the kind where you sit on the elevated ground) and ordered 4 bowls of kitsune udon. The green tea was really bitter. There seemed to only be an old man and a (not so old) man working there so it was kind of slow. Our food came eventually though and it was pretty good. We marched down the hill again. Candace took a minor tumble but she’s fine. Mom stopped for a bathroom break. Yes, I like to be detailed! So by the time we reached the station it was a little after 1 and we just missed the 1:04 train by like 10 seconds so we had to wait for the 1:14 train back to Kyoto. We took it to Kyoto and then Mom and I rushed right to the far platform (32 or something) and we took the Sagano Line (part of the main Sanin Line) two stops to Nijo station. Debbie and Candace returned to the hotel and I think they did some shopping at the station. Anyway, we got to Nijo about 1:35 or so so we went to the little building (4 floors) next to the station and I went to the au store and bought a new prepaid card for my phone. We waited in front of Lawsons for my penpal, Mayu. She’s a college student at Ritsumeikan University (will graduate in March) and I’ve been emailing her about twice a week for almost 4 years now. I met her last year when we were in Kyoto. She showed up at 1:45 and told us that the 2:00 showing of Hana Yori Dango Final was sold out. This surprised me because the movie came out June 28! We went to the movie theater anyway and bought tickets for the 5:00 show. Since today’s Wednesday we got a discount for being women (haha) and it was only 1000 yen for a ticket. We also got to pick our seats when we bought our tickets so we sat in row D seats 10-12. After buying tickets we went to the first floor (movie theater’s on floor 4) to a little coffee shop. I had an orange parfait with jelly in it, Mom had some sort of coffee with ice cream, and Mayu had some sort of tea (cold). We sat down at a table and Mayu gave me a mini uchiwa and a really pretty hand towel that has sakura flowers on it. We drank our drinks and then went up to the 2nd floor to that game center. I hate that game center because it’s so cruel to me. I spent so much money at that stupid place and I swear all the games are impossible! Yet, there’s this old guy carrying around bags with a whole bunch of stuff he won. He must be a regular there or something. In the meantime, I did a total of two taiko drum games. Once with Mayu (Daite Senorita by Yamapi and Love So Sweet by Arashi) and before we left I did a game with Mom (Tsubomi by Kobukuro and Peach by Otsuka Ai). We also did purikura for 400 yen and we split the pictures. Purikura is basically a photobooth where you take pictures then you decorate them and draw on them and stuff afterward. It’s pretty nice. I wasted more money at that stupid arcade then we went back downstairs and stopped at the book/CD store. I bought Arashi’s new double-side single, Kaze no Mukou e/truth. It’s pretty nice. I got the one with the Kaze no Mukou e DVD. We wandered around the first floor a bit then decided that we had an hour left so Mayu took us on about a 5 minute walk to a building that’s associated with her college. In the entrance area there was a cool place with a timeline on the wall and a little machine thing that you can use to look at pictures from Ritsumeikan’s history. Ritsumeikan has an elementary school, junior high schools, high schools, university, and graduate school. It’s pretty cool. After that we decided to leave and it had started raining so we dashed back to the movie theater. We went up to the theater and I stopped at the store and bought a Hana Yori Dango Final pamphlet. We looked at it as we were waiting to get let into the movie. The pamphlet’s pretty cool! The cover’s all sparkley and stuff. About 10 ’till 5 they let us into the theater. The walkway to the theater is cool because the ground is black but then there’s an area in the middle where it’s clear and there’s rocks and sand underneath (like zen style) but they have those multi-changing lights that make it all rainbow-y. It’s awesome. Our movie was in theater 7. They had a cute animation about proper movie theater etiquette. I think the cartoon had something to do with an upcoming movie about some guy who’s also a rock star or something. Yeah. So the movie was really awesome. I might post some spoilers but I think people who read this will either never see the movie or have already seen it. Mom and I loved the movie. We understood most of it! They went to Vegas and Hong Kong and stuff in pursuit of a stolen tiara. Makino even punched a bear (what was it doing in the middle of the jungle? And how come it just disappeared after she punched it!?). Mom pointed out that when Domyoji jumped on the table to chase that guy (played by Akira) and he screwed up the gambling thing (I don’t know my types of gambling games) then it should’ve been made invalid because he jumped on the table. Oh well. It was pretty cool that they went to Kiyomizu Dera. And they got married at Ebisu Garden Place! I was like “oh, I just went there last week!” The ending was really cool and it was cute how Makino’s like “My dream has already beenay,  realized/found” and then she indicates she’s pregnant. Hahaha. Awesome movie. So the movie got out a little after 7:30 so we took the train back to Kyoto Station then went to the shopping center (Porta) under the subway station to look for food to eat. We ate at a tonkatsu place that was really good. All three of us got the standard roast tonkatsu which came with a heaping pile of cabbage, rice, and miso soup. I ate all my cabbage for the first time in my life and I even ate the okra in the soup. I’m surprising myself. After we ate we went back to the hotel room and I gave Mayu my gift for her. I got her cookies from Mt. Fuji (she’s never been there) and a photo frame from California Adventure. I showed her the pictures I’ve taken so far on this trip on the TV screen. At about 9:50 she left so we walked her to the JR gate. She lives about 30 minutes from the station. We also discovered a much faster way to get to the hotel from the central area but Mom pointed out: “But I love the glass walkway!” (the one that goes over the station). So, we’ll take the long way for her. I’m getting tired and that’s all I have to put so I’ll upload pictures now.

I have to get in one of my insect photos

Kitsune Udon

Probably like 20 of the bazillions of torii gates

Mayu and I played the taiko game