Pam: It’s with mixed feelings that we’re flying home today.  Naturally we’re looking forward to sleeping in our own beds and seeing Steve, Alex & Nami.  But, it’ll be a tough adjustment – esp. for Emily – to recover from jet lag (4 weeks’ worth for her!), and get ready for (dare I say it?) school.

Yup, back to reality!  That’s why we look forward to vacations so much – when the most difficult decision is figuring out where we want to go to eat, or where we want to shop for the day!  And there are definitely an abundance of options for both in Japan!

We’ll be checking out this morning and catching the 9 a.m. Shinkansen to Shinagawa (where we stayed in Tokyo).  We have a 2-hour “layover” in Shinagawa because the later train’s non-smoking cars were all full, and we opted to choose an earlier train rather than travelling in a smoking car for two hours.  Then we’ll get on the Narita Express to the airport, where we’ll arrive around 2:30 p.m.  Our ANA flight 6 is scheduled to leave at 5:30 p.m.

We’ll be back in the States around 11:30 a.m. Monday morning PDT.

And they say time travel isn’t possible.

All of our stuff fits into our suitcases (yes, amazing, isn’t it?)  I think because we decided to discard some older clothing items along the way.  We also both threw away one pair of shoes.  My trusty SAS sandals will be left here in Japan.  They have come here with me three times in the past five years, and after the day of mud and rain in Arashiyama, they are officially thrashed.  Emily’s beat-up Converse shoes are also being left behind – they have served her well!

Emily: An interesting note: last night right before we went to bed (around 10:40-something) there was a thunderstorm! We heard a loud *boom* that sounded like something exploded but it was raining hard and I figured if something exploded people would go “ahh” because the trains are still running and stuff.  (Paragraph breaks by Pam)

Anyway, today was quite an interesting day. Alarm went off at 7:30, but I hit the sleep button about three times (8 minute intervals) so I woke up close to 8. Mom sent me with money to get breakfast while she showered, so I walked to Sizuya and bought panda pastry and “monkey bread” (hahaha) for me and one of those savory pizza-like breads for her. I got us both grape jellies too and an apple juice for me. When I returned to the room she was finishing up so we ate right after. Debbie and Candace came by to check their email before they left for the train station.

We left the hotel around 10:30 after checking bus numbers for places we wanted to go to. We took bus number 206 from stop A2 to Shijo Kawaramachi. We wanted to go shop at Teramachi and Shin-kyogoku Shopping Arcades, which run parallel to Kawaramachi Street, which is a major shopping street. So we walked first down Shin-kyogoku shopping arcade and a lot of stores were just opening because it was really close to 11. We wanted to find Alex’s hat!

There was a Mighty Soxer store on the left so we stopped there. We bought a pair of black leggings, denim colored leggings, and three pairs of socks. Two of the pairs have panda faces on them and one pair has a piggy face on it. We proceeded down the street and stopped at various shoe stores because I was looking at tennis shoes. There was one store that had a lot of Onitsuka Tiger shoes for about 400 yen less than what we paid for for my shoes yesterday. Oh well. There was an ABC Mart (shoe store) so we stopped there. The second floor was all sneakers, which was pretty cool. I bought a pair of black, white, and red Vans (yes, Vans. So what?) that have shoelaces and velcro. They’re pretty cool. We bought some red shoelaces to go with them too.

Then we went and looked in every single store for young men that had hats displayed, all the while looking for Alex’s peace sign hat that says “no war, but…” on it. We stopped at a small mini arcade place or two but I think those dumb UFO catcher games are rigged because the little prizes would hang halfway in the hole but then when the claw pushes them down they spring back up. What the heck!? After going up Shin-kyogoku, down Teramachi, and back up Shin-kyogoku, we finally figured out from which store Alex bought his hat last year. We bought him a different hat with fobby writing on it that’s black and white and hopefully he’ll like it.

We stopped at a little store place with stuffed animals looking for something for cousin Jennifer but didn’t find anything that would suit her. There was a department store-like building near the bus stop and I wanted to go there so we checked it out. There was nothing too great there and some of the stuff was pretty expensive. So then we decided to stand at the bus stop off Shijo Street and wait for bus 207 to Kiyomizu Dera. Then, the political trucks came. And came. And came. Oh my goodness, there were so many! All these buses, vans, and cars, and trucks, with Japanese writing and banners on them. And people marching holding Japanese flags. Lots of the Japanese flags with the rising sun thing (the rays shooting out of the main red circle thing). And all the trucks had loudspeakers that were yelling at us! A LOT of people were covering their ears, us included. The yelling reverberated around the street and off the buildings. They were yelling stuff about something and we don’t know what. And all the vans lined up on the street and yelled/chanted the same thing at the same time and it was the craziest thing ever, maybe because the only protest type thing I’ve ever seen has been people wandering down the street with signs in Washington, DC. Crazy crazy.

So we stood there for about 10 minutes until we realized they were circling the block and blocking traffic and our bus would probably not come. We dashed to the Hankyu Railway Subway Station and were like “Ahh! How do we get out of here?” Mom was kind of panicked because she hates to feel “trapped” – and it seemed like we had no way out and no way to get away from all of the horrible yelling and chanting.

Once we collected our thoughts down in the subway (it wasn’t so loud down there), we figured that it was past 12 so we should just go to Hankyu Department Store for lunch. The subway station connected to the department store so we didn’t have to return to the street level and all the yelling. We went up to the 7th floor of the department store, walked around, then went to the 8th floor and decided to eat at a tonkatsu place. That was a good choice! For 1000 yen, we got three different tsukemono (picked vegetables), soup, cabbage salad, and tonkatsu (pork cutlet) curry with rice. There was really good sesame dressing for the cabbage and I ate all of it! The tonkatsu was made with large bread crumbs too. It was a great deal for 1000 yen.

After we ate we returned to the street level. Everything seemed calm and the only guy yelling was standing on a truck blocked off by orange cones so we figured he wasn’t going anywhere. We waited at the bus stop again to try to get to Kiyomizu Dera temple. Then, we noticed that traffic wasn’t going down the street anymore, and then the ominous sound of the yelling coming closer and closer.  

Indeed, the buses, trucks, vans and cars with the loudspeakers came down the street again, almost as if on cue. Scary. So then, we escaped back down into the subway station and walked as far as we could to the end.  When we came back up to street level, we started to walk towards the Keihan Line Shijo Subway Station.  We crossed a small river and then we realized, “Hey, wait, we’re in Gion!” Yes, we had walked all the way to Gion.

We went down to the subway station and checked out where the subway went (anywhere near Kiyomizu Dera, where we wanted to go? Nope!). So since the subway went nowhere we wanted to go, we walked through Gion and stopped at the bus stop in Gion. All the political trucks were turning left before Gion so we felt safe from them, at least!  We had to wait about 15 minutes until bus 207 came, though. One came right when we got to the bus stop but it was jam packed full. We got on another one 15 minutes later and it was full but at one of the early stops a couple got off so Mom and I got seats. The bus ride was only 10 minutes or so.

We got off at Kiyomizu Michi (Literally, path to Kiyomizu). We walked up the steep street to Kiyomizu temple. The street’s lined with shops with souvenirs and stuff. Mom decided that she would buy a wooden katana (sword) for cousin Jennifer. We went to Kiyomizu, which is very nice. There were a lot of Chinese people, it seemed. It was pretty crowded there. We walked through the temple after paying the 300 yen each fee. There were a couple of girls there along the garden path who were speaking English but with a very Asian accent. It was interesting.

We walked up a path to see a pagoda and some (probably) Chinese people who spoke English asked us to take a picture for them. We walked down toward the exit with the rest of the visitors, and Mom was like, “Oh, remember we saw two maiko go down that path the last time we came [5 years ago]?” So we walked down the side path and came upon a massive cemetery. Massive!

The tombstones cover the hillside. It’s amazing. It stretched from Kiyomizu to the street (about .7 km or almost half a mile). We walked down the side road along the cemetery and took a few pictures. It was cool in an eerie kind of way. It was very quiet and peaceful, though. At the end of the cemetery we ended up along the main street. We walked about half a block to the bus stop and one came right away for Kyoto Station. I was falling asleep along the way. Once we got back to Kyoto station we came back to the room for awhile and I took a 40 minute nap until 5:45.

We walked downstairs to Porta (underground) mall to have some dessert (we were didn’t need dinner after our big lunch, but we wanted something sweet). We stopped at a little sandwich and parfait place that was non-smoking from 11:30-7. Mom liked that. As we looked at the plastic food display, we were amused that one item was called “coffee jerry parfait” (coffee JELLY parfait) – then Mom commented on the fruit on the bottom, and I asked her, “you don’t like flute?”  HAHAHA – I think we’ve been in Japan too long!

We were still laughing about it as we sat down.  Anyway, I ordered a chocolate sauce parfait and Mom had the coffee JELLY parfait. Dang, those were incredibly good. There were bits of cake in it too which I loved. There was some fruit cocktail at the bottom. It was a really good final meal in Japan. We then wandered around Porta and decided to march up the 10 or so flights of stairs to the top of Kyoto Station. There is a nice little garden area there and also great views of Kyoto city and an overview of the station itself. We took a few pictures, then we walked down a little and walked through Isetan’s 10th floor and walked across the Skywalk that goes across Kyoto Station. That was cool too. We ended up at the ramen part of Isetan’s restaurants and Mom was like, “Oh, that takoyaki (balls of dough and octopus) looks good!” but we had just had parfaits and weren’t really hungry.

We walked back to beginning of the Skywalk and walked along another pathway that had a really good view of Kyoto Tower. It left us off above the hotel lobby in a really pretty courtyard type area. It looked like they could have weddings there. I took assorted pictures of the station at night. Then we returned to the hotel and started to pack. That’s about it! I’ll upload pictures now and I’ll add the videos to yesterday’s post.

Political stuff with people yelling at us

Tonkatsu curry. Cabbage salad and soup not shown because the tray was too big.

Kiyomizu Dera

Part of the Cemetary

Parfaits

Kyoto Station

Pam: We left Kyoto this morning a little after 9 a.m. and took the local JR Sagano train line to the Saga-Arashiyama station (5 stops away).  Along the way it started to rain.  When we came out of the train station it was showering quite steadily – Emily purchased a plastic umbrella from the local convenience store.  Then we trudged down the street, getting wetter and wetter and wondering if it was really worth it to be there.  (Okay, so it was mostly ME who was wondering what we were doing there . . .)

We reached the Togetsukyo bridge and crossed over the Katsura River into the main part of town.  It was still raining quite steadily and I was debating about whether to attempt the trek to the monkey park after all.  (Yes, I was a bit peckish . . .)  Anyway, we walked a bit down the street and passed the little shops and restaurants.  As we passed one shop, there were two girls in yukatas handing out samples of cold green tea.  Would you believe that one of the girls was Mayu – Emily’s penpal who we met with on Wednesday for the movie and dinner!  What a coincidence!

It happened to be her first day at this job; it was so nice to see her!  We chatted a bit and I took Emily’s picture with her.  Then, we promised to come back and purchase some manju (rice cakes) from her shop later on.

After that happy occurrence, we gained (I gained) the energy to tackle “monkey mountain”.  So we trekked back across the bridge and up to the entrance gate to the park.  We purchased our tickets from a little machine and handed them to the man in the booth.  It was still raining quite steadily and there were very few (we saw three) people around.  We started the hike up the hill.

Note to Steve: it was like the Hacienda trail in some parts - just add more rain and mud.  Joyful.

After hiking uphill for about 15 or 20 minutes – in the rain – we came upon a little playground area (empty) and a small building with an overhang and benches.  We made our way to the building so we could stand under the overhang and escape the rain.  On the map we were given this was called an “observation area” for the monkeys. 

As we stood there, we started seeing one, two, three monkeys on the slope about 30 yards away.  Soon there were a few more, and more, and more . . . They started running, playing, and cavorting around the playground area.  Silly us, we thought the playground was for little kids!  Actually, I got a little freaked out with so many monkeys around and just the four of us.  I kept my umbrella open and pointed out as a “shield” (haha).

Debbie, Emily & Candace took dozens of photos – while I stood watch.  One monkey was making his way over to Debbie’s bag; she picked it up before he could snatch anything out.  Then the monkeys started sitting and standing on the benches (also to get out of the rain?) and climbing up the rafters of the overhang.  We saw some really little babies who were carried by their moms either on the mom’s back or hanging off her underside.  So cute.  We were really lucky to see so many monkeys and there were no other people there!  We saw people pass by on the trail, but no one stopped as we had to take pictures (maybe there were too many monkeys for them?).

The rain subsided and we went up the trail a bit more to the feeding station/rest room (the map said to “feed the monkeys from the restroom” – we had to figure out what was really going on!).  At the feeding station there was the “ranger station”, a “rest” room, and – yes – bathrooms too.  We had a great view of all of Kyoto from there.  There was one monkey sitting on the pay binocular/viewing machine.  I told Emily to stand near him to take a picture.  Well, apparently he felt like she was invading his “personal space”, because he got sort of mad at her just as I took the picture.  The park ranger was there and shooed him away – then he got mad at the ranger.  Just in a bad mood, I suppose!

We went into the “rest” area where there were some benches and windows covered with fencing.  The idea was to buy either a bag of nuts or sliced apples for the monkeys for 100 yen each and feed them through the fence (probably so they don’t attack the people . . .).  The monkeys were climbing up the fence and stretching their arms and hands inside for food.  It reminded me of pictures of refugees begging for food from the other side of a fence. . .

Anyway, refugee images aside, it was easier and more fun to feed the monkeys than those aggressive deer in Nara Park!

Afterwards, we made our way down the mountain and crossed back over the bridge.  It was about noon, so we decided to stop for lunch before going to the bamboo grove.  We ate at a nice little restaurant right on the corner right after we crossed the bridge.  It was all non-smoking (yay).  Debbie had beef curry rice, Candace ate tempura udon (is anyone keeping count of how many times Candace has had this?), Emily had unaju (unagi on rice with soup on the side) and I ate “yama kake hana soba” – which is a fancy way to say tororo soba (mountain yam on buckwheat noodles with bonito shavings).  We all enjoyed our meals.  Emily finished with an orange shave ice with gel (like thick jello), and Candace had a lemon shave ice.

After lunch we walked through town to Tenryu-ji shrine.  There is a beautiful garden there that was designed and “built” in the 1200s.  We walked through and took pictures (thankfully it had completely stopped raining) and went through the back gate to enter the Sagano bamboo forest area.  The reason we knew where to go is because the Ikeda family visited (and got a little lost) last year.  It was much easier this time . . .

The bamboo forest was rather dark since it was so overcast today, but it was still quite pretty and an awesome sight.  Emily took many photos in hopes of capturing a perfect one to frame for her bedroom.

At the end of the bamboo forest walkway we took a left turn into a nice park area (that went behind the shrine garden).  There were a few people walking including a woman with a very cute dog.  The path took us along the river, and we ended up at the same corner as the restaurant where we had lunch.  It was a very pleasant walk since the temperature was mild and it wasn’t raining!

We then walked back to the confectionary shop where Mayu was working and sampled some Kyoto-style manju (rice cakes) with strawberry paste.  We bought a couple of boxes.  Then we told Mayu, “see you next year!” and told her good-bye.  Emily stopped at another sweets shop and picked up a couple of cute jars with candies in them.

We made our way back to the JR station and came back to Kyoto by 3:30 p.m.  Debbie said that she took a little nap and a quick shower; Emily & I went out by bus to the Onitsuka Tiger (shoe brand) store in downtown Kyoto.  By the time we got into downtown, it was pouring torrential rain.  Yikes.  We went around a short block looking for the store, then got reoriented and found it on the 2nd pass down the street.  You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find buidlings in Japan, much less find them in the POURING RAIN – did I mention that it was POURING???

Emily found some cute shoes (the sales people must be so bored in those boutique-type shops!) – and the young sales guy was very indulgent of my bad Japanese (he said that his English was bad and he had only studied a little in school . . .)  Anyway, we told him that Emily had bought a pair of Onitsuka Tiger shoes last year in Sapporo and that she loved them and wanted another pair from Japan – US stores don’t carry that brand.  He was very appreciative of her brand loyalty and thanked us for coming into the store – and told us to come back next year too! 

We walked back down the street and continued our search for a hat for Alex.  He put in a specific request for a certain hat like one he got last year, but we haven’t had any luck trying to find it.  Along the way we found a small arcade where Emily got a little stuffed chicken wearing little pants and a crown (I know, it sounds weird).  There was a bus stop right outside the arcade, but after we saw four buses bound for Kyoto station pass it by, we decided that it was the wrong stop for today (Saturday).  We walked a bit further down and came upon the next bus stop where we caught the “express” bus to Kyoto station.  Hurray – we were finally seated and dry!

By the time we reached the station it had completely stopped raining.  I soaked two pairs of sandals today.  We went down to the basement of the Isetan department store and picked up some gift boxes of cookies and our dinner – Chinese cold noodles for me and some pork dumplings for Emily.  As we walked back into the room, the Chiyas were just leaving for their dinner run.  They stopped by after their dinner, checked their emails, and then went back to their room to pack.

That’s it for now – I’ll let Emily upload some photos from today, and maybe a video too?

Please leave us your comments!

Mayu and Me (Emily) in Arashiyama

Monkey and Baby

Baby Monkey

Me and Monkey. About 5 seconds later it jumped for me and was screeching. Seriously!

Candace and Debbie and a view of Kyoto

Sagano Bamboo Forest

Are these dragonflies? Damselflies? They fluttered and didn't float like dragon/damselflies. Odd.

Pam: The plan today is to go to Arashiyama, an area in Western Kyoto about 20-25 minutes away by train.  Once there, we will be heading to the Monkey Park Iwatayama, which is an uphill walk once we cross the Togetsukyo bridge.  We also plan to see the bamboo forests.

This should be a relatively “short” day, as the Chiyas are flying out tomorrow and will need to pack up most of their things tonight.  We’ll blog later on with photos.

Emily: Hello! This morning the alarm went off a little earlier – around 6:45. I was really sleepy! We left the hotel at about 7:50 or so. We stopped at a little shop in the train station for breakfast. They had pastries so we got chocolate chip pastries (one each). We also got salmon onigiri so we could have something salty. We walked to the Shinkansen area of the station and since we had some time before our train, we looked around at the little shop near the platform. We didn’t buy anything. Our train was at 8:22. We took the Hikari Shinkansen to Hiroshima Station. The train ride was roughly 2 and a half hours. I ate breakfast and then I slept. I first slept sitting but I woke up and my neck hurt a lot so then I put my messenger bag on the tray table and slept on that. It sure made the trip go by faster! After that we transfered to the JR lines and took a local train on the Sanyo Line to Miyajimaguchi. That train ride was maybe 20 minutes or so. I wasn’t really paying attention. At Miyajimaguchi we walked out of the station, down stairs, and up stairs again to cross the street. There’s no crosswalk so they make you go underground. Strange.

As we were walking toward the ferry landing I realized that our rail passes might work for the JR ferry. I checked the back of the rail pass (read the fine print!) and it said that it applies to the ferry to Miyajima. So, we walked right onto the ferry without having to buy a ticket! Pretty nice. We went up to the third or so floor of the ferry and stood along the rail during the 10 minute ride. The boat went in a way so that first it was heading straight for Itsukushima Shrine so people at the front could take a picture, then it turned so people on the right side (our side) could take a picture. The torii gate in the water is really pretty. When we landed we just showed our rail passes at the gate. We walked along the water toward Itsukushima Shrine. There were some deer scattered here and there but not nearly as many deer as Nara. The deer are really calm (unlike the ones in Nara) because people don’t feed them (like in Nara!).

Before Itsukushima Shrine we took a left turn and walked down Omotesando Shopping Arcade. Debbie and Candace stopped at the Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store and Mom and I walked to the post office to mail a card she wrote to St. Jude Medical Center (work) on the train. We were standing there preparing to ask how much stamps for postcards to the US are and then we walked up and there was a little laminated paper that said in English “postcard stamps for anywhere are 70 yen.” So we’re like “oh, how cool!” and the post office guy just took our postcard and our 70 yen; we assume he stuck the stamp on and mailed it for us. Mom was happy because she didn’t have to do much thinking in Japanese.

So we went to the 1050 yen store (hey, this whole day is like deja vu! I was there two weeks ago!) and bought jinbei for ourselves. Mine is pink with white rabbits on it and Mom’s is light blue with goldfish on it. We’re going to wear them as pajamas, probably. I also bought a 1050 yen watch because it’s inexpensive for a watch. Mom bought folding fans (for herself and gifts). Candace found another pretty yukata and obi and Debbie found a yukata for herself (the one on the mannequin – we turned around and all of a sudden the mannequin was naked!  Funny.) After paying for everything I decided I wanted a wider obi (belt for yukata/kimono) so I bought a light pink one with flowers on it.

Anyway, we wandered down the street and found a good place to eat lunch. There was a small restaurant (called Shinagawa! Haha) that I think does handmade noodles. There were a couple families in there and the little kids were amusing. One of them practically yelled/screamed “SUMIMASENNN” (Excuse me!) at the people working. It was funny. Anyway, I got anago meshi and cola. Anago meshi is saltwater eel on rice. It had some ginger too. Instead of miso soup there was a side bowl with udon noodles in it and kamaboko (fish cake). There was a dish with takuan (pickles) and a type of pickled seaweed that was really good. And guess what!? My food cost 1800 yen. That’s about 17-18 dollars. But, anago meshi is a specialty of Miyajima so Mom let me have it. I thanked her profusely. Candace had tempura udon and Debbie & Mom had curry rice bowl.  Mom also had iced coffee that she loved because she said it tasted like dessert.

We stopped at a little store where I bought a folding fan for myself with bunnies on it and I also got a clear folder that says “Dreams Come True.” Then we went to a store that has momiji, the little pastries that have like pancake-like dough shaped like a maple leaf and filled with random fillings. They were selling individual momiji treats for 80 yen so Mom and I got a peach and a cheese cream/cream cheese one. Debbie & Candace tried the custard and chocolate flavors.

After that we walked to Itsukushima Shrine. I asked for one adult and one high school student ticket in Japanese. Mom was proud of me (haha). We walked through and I was incredibly happy because it was pretty much exactly high tide (1:11 PM) so the shrine appeared to be floating in water. When I went two weeks ago we went at low tide so where there’s usually water there were little bulldozers getting rid of seaweed on the ground. Today we could see seaweed floating but there were also jellyfish in the water. And trash. Oh well. We took various pictures then we walked back through the entrance and wandered along the main steet back to the ferry landing. We all used the restroom and then shopped at the little store in the terminal. Mom bought a t-shirt (as a gift). Then we took the ferry back to Miyajimaguchi. We sat inside in a little booth-type area where there’s two/three seats facing each other and a little table inbetween. Mom and I tried both momiji treats on the ferry. We got off the ferry, went underground and back above ground, and caught the Sanyo Line again to Hiroshima.

This ride was amusing because a bunch of people were sleeping and I was waiting for the teenage guy in front of me to hit his head on the little side bar. I think he did so he stuck his hand in between his head and the bar and he kept sleeping. When the train got to Hiroshima it was cute to see a man trying to wake his little son who kept insisting on sleeping. We decided our priority was to buy the momiji treats to bring home.

So, we first walked through a little shopping mall called Asse because that’s where we ended up when we got off the train. There were some cute clothes stores and I stopped at a shoe store to look for shoes but I found none. Candace bought some cute sandals. We wandered to the train station area and spotted a momiji sign on a building across the street so we tried to walk toward it. We got to the bus terminals but there was no crosswalk! We found an elevator that took us down to level B1 so we took it to an undeground area that’s probably connected to the subway station. We went to the department store (eeru eeru? LL? In Japanese class that’s “language lab”) and looked for food. We couldn’t find the peach flavored one! They only had standard: custard, chocolate, green tea, and red bean. Debbie stopped at a place there and bought some boxes for people. The lady there gave her lots of samples!

Then we went back to the station and walked down a little tunnel-like path that took us to the Shinkansen area. We stopped at a little food place and I walked around swiftly and found okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style. Okonomiyaki is basically cabbage and noodles and batter and meat and egg and sauce and seaweed, etc all layered. Hiroshima is the only place that has noodles and makes it layered, though. Osaka style mixes everything together. We bought two okonomiyaki that had soba noodles (I said “two okonomiyaki” because japanese don’t do plural words for that type of stuff). Then we continued our search. We found another food place near the Shinkansen platforms that had a wider variety of momiji flavors. Though, nobody had peach. Darn. We bought boxes of the pastries for family and ourselves. I also bought two individual lemon ones.

We went to the Shinkansen platform and waited there until it came. We took the Hikari Rail Star from Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka. It was pretty nice. Mom and I sat in 17A and 17B but we were near the front of the car because it was theoretically going backwards. We ate our okonomiyaki and the lemon momiji and then I slept the rest of the way. At Shin-Osaka we transferred to a different shinkansen, the Kodama, to take one stop to Kyoto. It took about 14 minutes. When we got back to the station we returned to the hotel room, dropped off our stuff, then went out wandering. Mom and I walked through the Cube to look for clothes. There was a cute dress but then the lady’s Japanese was confusing and she said something and I gave her the dress then she put it back on the shelf. What the heck!? So we didn’t buy it. We decided to go to Isetan to look for shoes. They were incredibly expensive! Roughly 200 dollars for regular shoes or sandals or stuff. Lame. We walked out frustrated and went to Bic Camera, which is right next to the station. We went up to the 7th floor to look for Jennifer Ikeda’s bakugan toy/game/thing. We looked around and finally asked the girl there if they had it. She didn’t know what it was, so she asked the guy there about it and he started bowing and said that they didn’t have it. Oh well. We went to the capsule machines and got stuff for people there.

Then we returned back to the hotel room. Debbie and Candace came to use the internet for a bit and I watched Music Station. Now, I’m tired so I shall upload pictures and sleep!

Sad to say, our vacation is coming to an end in a couple of days!  Please leave us your comments about this or any of the rest of the blog!  Hope we didn’t bore you with too many details (and the previous lack of paragraphs!)

1800 yen Anago Meshi

Mom and I in front of the large Torii Gate

Okonomiyaki on the train

Lemon Momiji

Emily: I’m tired and it’s only 8:31 PM here! Anyway, woke up a little after 7:30 because I hit the sleep button once. We walked to Sizuya and bought breakfast. I had a panda pastry and Mom and I both had little pizza-like bread pastries. We also got grape jelly and some water. We walked back to the room and ate it and we left the room a little after 9:15. We walked to the bus stops (right outside the station near the Kyoto Tower Hotel. We stopped at the ticket building and bought two single-day bus passes for 800 yen each. We went to bus stop D2 and took bus 206 to Gion. The bus was pretty crowded so we had to stand. The bus took about 20 minutes!

Pam: (Paragraph breaks courtesy of me) Emily: It was about 5 minutes to 10 when we got off at Gion. After getting off the bus we looked at the directions for the Maiko Studio and it said to go to Shijou street and we didn’t know where that was so we asked a guy nearby and he told it where it was. Well, it was one street over so that was no big deal. Then we proceeded to look for the studio. The directions said we had to turn right at Kiridoushi, so we were looking for it. Mom found a different street before it and said “Doesn’t the address say this street?” It was Hanamikoji. So we turned there and wandered down the street totally lost. The address from the internet also said it was the fourth floor of the Ouka building so we were looking upward at the signs that had the individual stores/businesses for each floor of each building. We couldn’t find it so we turned left and wandered down another small street and still couldn’t find it. I called the studio and was like “Yeah, we’re lost” in basic English and Japanese. All he told me was “Kiridoushi! Kiridoushi!” So I’m like (in Japanese) “Is it close?” and he’s like “Kiridoushi!” So I said “Okay thanks” and basically decided that his directions were useless. We walked back down Shijou Dori and were approaching a street when I looked at the map again and realized the side street was supposed to be somewhere in between the street we were approaching and the street we first turned on. So we went to the small street (with no street signs anywhere) and walked all the way through and couldn’t find it. I asked a guy on a bike for directions and he walked us back about 20 feet to the location, which was on the FIRST FLOOR of its own building. The stupid online address lies or something! That or Japanese addresses are really rude. Bah. So we thanked the guy and he went on his merry way.

The studio was marked by a little hanging cloth curtain thing (you know those little hanging cloths you see in doorways of some sushi restaurants and stuff? Yeah) with its name on it. We went in and told the guy that we were sorry we were late but it was fine. We sat down in the entryway and filled out a form with our name and address (so they can mail pictures). Then a lady came and escorted us to a locker room where we stuck our stuff in lockers and changed into little white cloth robe-type outfits. Basically an undercoat type thing. I put my camera in a little basket. We also put on little socks with an indentation between the big and the second toe for the geta (Japanese sandals like flip flops type thing).  Pam: They are called “tabi”, in case anyone wants to know.  

Emily: After we changed we went upstairs to the makeup area and the lady put makeup on us. We got white makeup put on and bright red lipstick and eye makeup and mascara and everything. We had our hair in a little hairnet too. It was a weird experience! I got my white makeup finished first (I looked like a ghost) so I went to the adjacent room to pick out my kimono. I picked out a blue one with cranes on it. Then I went back to my seat and got my makeup finished. Mom picked out a black kimono. Pam:  She picked the one I would have gotten, oh well.  Emily: We got dressed (so many layers!) and had the hair pieces put on. We walked to another room where they take photos and the lady helped take photos with my camera. Then the guy from the front desk area and the one who also sucks at giving directions came to take our pictures professionally. I went first. He was really nice though and I was able to understand almost all the Japanese that he and the lady used throughout the process. When we were doing makeup the lady said people probably look at us and think we can speak Japanese. Hahaha. So anyway I got my pictures taken.

I took pictures with an uchiwa (a round fan), a folding fan, a ball-thingie, a little package thing, a paper umbrella, standing up, sitting down, looking at the camera, not looking at the camera, everything! I took a ton of shots. Then Mom got her pictures taken but hers went by faster because she told the guy her head was hurting from the heavy hair piece. After she took her pictures (similar poses), we took pictures together. The last two shots we got to pick our poses so we did one with the peace sign and one where our bodies are facing backward but we’re looking at the camera. After that we went to the dressing room and Debbie and Candace were finishing getting dressed. We got pictures taken of the four of us (included below) and then Mom and I went downstairs to the washing room (powder room) to wipe our makeup off. We walked back to the locker room and changed into our normal clothes. The next appointment (three teenage girls) were in there changing too. After we changed we went back to the powder room so Mom could wash off the rest of her makeup (she didn’t get it all). Then we went to the front room and we got our photo sheets with about 26 photos on it. We got to choose three from each sheet to get printed so we each chose two individual and one pair shot from our sheets. We also got to choose one to get touched up so we chose our close-ups. We also bought the CD-roms (to come in the mail) of all 52 photos! We asked the photographer/sucky direction giver man what time Debbie and Candace would be done and he said around 2 (it was 1:20) so we walked down the street to Starbucks.

Mom bought two Kyoto Starbucks mugs for gifts and we both got Zakuro Peach Frappuccinos. Pam: We think the Zakuro peach must be a regional fruit; in any case it was very refreshing and delicious. It also has pomegranate.  By the way, the weather today was GREAT – the coolest and most comfortable it’s been for the entire time we’ve been here.  The rain yesterday must have helped the weather, unfortunately we both got mosquito bites in spite of using repellant (washed off by sweat and rain, probably).  Bite count – Emily=2, Pam=3.  BOOOO! Emily: We wandered up and down the streets and scoped out places to eat for lunch and places to shop. We got back to the studio at 2 and the Chiyas were sitting looking at their photos. They picked out the ones to get printed and then we walked to the street corner (opposite end of the street from the bus station) and ate at Nishin Soba.

The restaurant was downstairs from street level. The service was pretty fast there. I had anago soba. Anago is saltwater eel and soba is buckwheat noodles. Mom had tororo soba but they called it imokake soba. Strange. Anyway, after we ate we shopped around a bit. There’s like three stores off the main street for Chirimen Craft Museum place where they have a whole bunch of little sewn bunnies and bears and creatures like frogs and stuff and jewelry and watches and belts and hairclips and hanging things and things that collect dust and everything! At the third shop I bought a little thing that has a flower shaped frame that’s a little image of creatures (I don’t remember what. Frogs?) in the hot springs. It was cute. All the time we were shopping there were these huge vans going up and down the streets making loud political announcements. The vans were black and had writing on them. I took a picture. The guys looked like they were wearing camo too. We stopped in assorted little shops but just bought stuff at a tapestry store where Mom bought a long rectangular cloth image she wants to put in the hallway at home. It had goldfish on it.

We walked back to the bus station and took bus 206 again to Higashiyama Nijo because we wanted to go to the Kyoto Handicraft Center, which is behind Heian Shrine. We got lost again. There were a whole bunch of police people barracading random streets so that didn’t help much either. It looked strange because there were police at every street corner. Luckily the police presence around a particular building helped us identify that we were in front of Kyoto Kaikan (a large hall/building/meeting building type place). We looked at assorted maps and figured out we were going too far for Heian Shrine. We backtracked a street or two and crossed the river and we spotted the Kyoto Handicraft Center right ahead of us. At the Handicraft Center I bought two Japanese books (one on usage of particles and one on idioms) and a pair of geta (Japanese slipper type shoes). I asked the salesperson why there were all the police in town and she said that there’s a big political meeting and there is a large group that opposes it so that’s why the police were around. Interesting. Candace bought a pretty blue yukata and a light blue obi. We walked down to the bus stop (turn right and right again) and took bus 206 back to Kyoto Station. This time I got to sit but I was falling asleep on the bus!

When we got back to the station we walked to the JR ticket office and got reserved tickets for tomorrow to go to and return from Hiroshima. Then Mom and I went off shopping. We walked to Porta, near the subway station, and looked for male clothing stores so we could find Alex a hat. No luck. Do guys not have their own clothing stores? We went to the Cube in the basement and there’s a bunch of cool clothes stores (some the same as Shibuya 109) so I said I want to go there Sunday. There was a shoe store but I didn’t see anything that “spoke” to me. We were looking for a store Mom had seen with Japanese style pajamas in it but Mom couldn’t remember where it was. Finally we went to Isetan and bought the tonkatsu-don that Mom said was really really good and had its own special sauce. We walked to the outside vending machines and bought water and lemon water. Then we returned to the hotel room and ate our food. After finishing Mom said she wanted dessert and I agreed. But, Mom didn’t feel like leaving the hotel room. So I took some money and went to the department store and stopped at a little counter to get cafe mocha for Mom and shortcake (strawberry) for me. I brought it back to the room and they didn’t give us utensils so we used a spoon Mom has for stirring coffee. The dessert was really really good! Hmm. That’s about it. I’ll post pictures now.

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Mom and I (my eyes are freakishly large. I don't think we look related!)

Candace, Debbie, me, and Mom

Anago Soba

Loud Political Truck

Pam :  Today we become geishas or maikos (apprentice geishas).

I had to put that in bold letters because of the incongruity of the concept (“incongruity” is for those of you who are studying vocab. for the SAT – heheheheh)  We have an appointment in Gion – the “geisha” region of Kyoto – at a “makeover” studio where we will don the makeup and authentic costumes of a geisha or apprentice geisha (maiko).  I have to point out that I have never, ever had a makeover of any kind – I guess I like myself as the plain sort that I am!  This should be interesting.  The studio allows us to bring in our own cameras, so we’ll have photos to upload after the experience and put here on the blog.  Our appointment is at 10 am and the Chiyas will be there at 11.  We’ll be taking the city bus, so we’ll probably use the bus throughout the rest of the day and visit a couple of other places too. 

Debbie commented that the kimonos in the Isetan department store were $5000 – yup, that’s right – $5000!  They must have very special little silkworms who work on contract . . .  We may try to find a more affordable yukata (summer kimono) option for Candace today.

That’s it for now from me.

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

Pam:  Yes, believe it or not, that’s what the weather report said today for Osaka.  Emily is currently out with cousin Lisa.  Emily went to the (I think) Kanjani 8 concert in Osaka at the Kyocera Dome – it started at 6 p.m.  Don’t know if they went out to eat afterwards or not, so I’m just staying up and updating the blog until Emily gets back.

This morning we left on the “rapid train” bound for Osaka Station.  Once there, we transferred to a train on the JR Osaka Loop line and rode it to Bentencho.  From Bentencho we took the subway to the Osakako stop, then walked about a block to Tempozan Park (on the edge of the Aji River) which contains “Kaiyukan”, or the Osaka Aquarium.  The area looked very nice – clean and well-kept with a mall area adjacent to the aquarium that had shops and restaurants.  Anyway, overall it took about 2 hours’ worth of travel time to get there.

Once inside, we paid our 2000 yen per adult entrance fee and – to our dismay – there were throngs of people entering the aquarium display area.  Again it was wall-to-wall bodies.  Don’t any of these people WORK????  Debbie said that it wasn’t even that crowded on opening day at the Long Beach Aquarium!

Okay so – it was pretty much a run-of-the-mill aquarium.  If you’ve been to Monterey Bay or Long Beach aquariums (or even Sea World, for that matter) – you’ve seen the creatures that were in there.   The crowd did thin out a bit as we walked around the sloping walkways – basically you circle the same large tanks of fish and see them at different levels as you go down.  There was a HUGE sunfish cruising around – he came right up to the side of the tank where we were standing.

When we (Emily & I) came out of the aquarium, we saw one of those “Let us know your opinion” questionnaire stations so we both filled out one.  Yes, I gave them a “BAD” rating – my suggestion is that they need to monitor and control the number of people who enter at one time so we do not have to be in a solid mass of humanity as soon as we walk in.

Yeah – like they care – like I’ll ever go back again (not).

Anyway, afterwards we went to the mall area and had a nice lunch at a restaurant there.  We sat at a table that was in a tatami room, so we left our shoes in little lockers before we sat down.  Our feet were in a recessed area under the table so – no – we did not have to sit on our heels throughout the meal.  Candace had tempura & udon, Debbie had udon, I had soba (cold buckwheat noodles) and Emily ate kushi katsu – a specialty of Osaka – basically a variety of foods on sticks and deep fried – fish, shrimp, plus a couple of asparagus.

After lunch we wandered through the mall area and Candace bought a pair of cute shoes.  Luckily she did because her flip-flops broke later on at the train station.  We ended up in a SEGA game center where Emily & I played three songs on the taiko (drum) game.  It was SO FUN and a great stress-reliever!  Candace did the UFO catcher game and won a stuffed Snoopy dog – so cute!  Then we walked back to the subway, paid our 230 yen to get back to Bentencho, then get on the JR Osaka Loop to Osaka Station, then went to the Osaka Granvia Hotel to meet Lisa.  Emily & Lisa left right away for the concert venue and the rest of us got back on the train to get back to Kyoto (since it was nearly 4 p.m. by then).

Debbie, Candace & I went around a bit of Kyoto station and looked in some of the shops, then bought some food at Isetan department store for dinner.  Debbie & Candace got meatballs and plain onigiris (rice balls) and I found a little shop that sold the yummiest “roast katsu don” (pork katsu on rice with shredded cabbage).  (Okay, I know it doesn’t sound appetizing, but trust me, it was DELICIOUS.)  The shop has their own sauce that was quite tasty.

Anyway, I think Emily will add her comments about the concert experience since she is now back in our hotel room. . .

Emily: So after I left with Lisa we took the Midosuji Subway Line from the station (Umeda) three stops to Shinsaibashi. At Shinsaibashi we transferred to another subway, the Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line, and took it to Dome Mae Chiyozaki. “Mae” means “in front of,” so the station basically left us off in front of Kyocera Dome (formally Osaka Dome). We met Lisa’s friends who were waiting on the steps. They were waiting for another person (Russian girl?) so we waited a bit (I wasn’t paying attention to how long) until she showed up. Once she did we went up the stairs (to catch her because she went up the escalator) to the street level. We met up and then decided to go check out the goods line. The goods line went up stairs and was jam packed with people so we decided not to get anything. Lisa said that if I wanted something she could get it for me (not at the Dome because there’s so many people). I decided I’d (eventually) get a clear file of the whole group, a Nishikido Ryo uchiwa, and a bag. We wandered into the dome and they checked our bags for cameras (once again, I hid mine). Our seats were at entrance 4, gate 18, row 6, and I was at seat 203. I think the seats were pretty nice. They were near third base (or like right at third base) and the main front stage was basically the far end of the field. Lisa was really hungry so we went to get something to eat. I ended up with McDonalds french fries. Unfortunately, I ate all that salty food and then realized that I finished all my water. Darn. The concert was really fun. It was funny because a little before 6 they played the “Wahaha” sound/noise/thing which is one of their songs, so everyone started screaming and some people stood up because they thought the concert was starting. And then right after the “wahaha” noise they continued with announcements (“no picture taking, videotaping, etc.”). I asked Lisa if they do that at every concert and she said yes. So the concert started at 6. Lisa gave me her pen light (basically a plastic star with a handle that you hold and it changes colors) to wave around. I’ve never seen an entire baseball stadium full of people (plus people sitting on the field) wave little lights at the exact same time. It’s crazy! It was like the whole stadium was glittering with everyone’s lights and they were all waving it up and down in sync. Same thing with when they did songs with dances. I’ve never seen a whole stadium of people do the exact same dance (me included, though). Pretty cool! The concert was nice – I enjoyed it even though I don’t know some of the songs. I think I knew about half the songs or so. The Kansai Jrs. were in it but all they did was kind of run around the perimeter of the stage and do the dances. There were little fireworks (or sparks or whatever) on some of the songs and that was pretty cool. They had a talk portion that I understood bits and pieces of but for the most part it was pretty funny. Haha, sorry, it’s hard to update because I’m trying to mentally go in order but it’s hard. I liked doing the dances for the songs – good thing they’re easy to learn. The show had two encores. The people all chant “enko” I think. I thought they would use “a” instead of “e” but oh well. The first one they came out and sang Zukkoke Otokomichi and threw out their signboards. One person (was it Shota?) gave his autographed signboard to a guy in the arena area who was all dressed up in a long sleeve button down shirt and black slacks. It’s kind of interesting because he’s surrounded by a stadium full of 99% girls. The second encore I think they sang Wahaha. Or I got those mixed up. Or my memory totally sucks and I got it completely wrong. Boo. Anyway, something interesting is that after the concert ended (about 8:45) they dismissed people by sections. So like, they’d say “Gate number 18 can leave now” so they regulated the number of people who left. It didn’t matter much though because once we got out of the stadium it was like a mass of people anyway. We squeezed our way back into the subway and I got a subway ticket for Shin-Osaka. Lisa and her friend got off at Umeda and I rode it three more stops. At Shin-Osaka I transferred to the Shinkansen and took the Kodama shinkansen back to Kyoto. It took about 15 minutes. I wandered back into the hotel room at 10:26. I’m a big girl now because I can find my way back from Osaka to Kyoto. Haha. I was thirsty so I walked out of the train station and bought water for Mom and I. And now, I shall check to see if there’s any pictures worth uploading and I may upload them.

Uploaded for the heck of it. This is a sunfish (I think. It's an opa for sure)

Kushi Katsu

Candace won this

Kyocera Dome. We can't take pictures inside

Pam:(you will enjoy the benefit of paragraphs as I write):  We left this a.m. at 9:30 on the express train to Nara out of Kyoto Station.  It took roughly an hour to make the trip out to Nara; once we exited the train station we got on a city bus bound for Todaiji Temple (180 yen per person) and Nara Park.

Todaiji Temple is the largest wooden structure housing the largest Buddha in Japan (yes, he’s bigger than the Big Guy in Kamakura).  To get to the temple we went through the “gauntlet” of hungry deer.  Debbie and Candace spent 150 yen each for packages of deer crackers.  The most annoying deer was a big buck with antlers who kept sticking his face in front of Debbie.  Debbie tried the “Dog Whisperer”/Cesar Milan technique of pushing his head away in an attempt to establish “dominance”, but I don’t think the critter got the message!

Once we escaped the deer, we went up to the temple grounds and paid our admission to enter.  Inside the temple it is quite cavernous (and dark).  There are a number of very large Buddhist deity statues in there besides the aforementioned Buddha.  The creepiest one to me was “dressed” in a bright red cape with shower-cap looking thing on its head.  That one had to do with occult powers or something.  It was weird.

We left the temple grounds and went through the park to another temple called Nigatsu-do.  You have to climb a number of stone steps to reach sort of a veranda around the temple.  Since today was a clear day, you could see a lot of Kyoto in the distance.

By this time we were hungry, so we headed out the back of Nara Park and found a shop where we bought some packages of the local specialty pickle, and then we went to a mom & pop restaurant where we ate lunch.  It happened to be the same place where the Ikeda family ate last year – and Pam had the same thing for lunch: tempura with cold buckwheat noodles (Ten zaru soba).  Debbie had a cold somen (thin Chinese noodles) dish, Candace had ramen, and Emily had Unadon (eel on rice) which had grated tororo (yam/potato) on top.

After our meal we walked back through the park, caught the city bus back to the train station, and then took the “rapid” train to the Uji stop.  We walked to the Byodo-in temple, which was built around the 11th century and is quite ancient.  There is also a very nice museum included in the admission price to the temple grounds.  (Nice as in bilingual and air-conditioned!)

We had hoped to visit one more temple today, but it was already after 5 p.m. when we left Byodo-in so we had to skip the Fushimi-Inari shrine.  However, it is only two stops from Kyoto station (7 minutes), so I think we can squeeze in a visit later this week.

Once we got back to the station we went down to the Isetan department store basement and picked up some food for dinner.  Emily & I ended up with four Chinese pork buns and some beautiful fruit/gel cups for dessert.  Debbie & Candace picked up some goodies as well, including some meatballs that caught Candace’s eye!

Tomorrow we are heading out to Osaka; we’re going to the Osaka Aquarium first, and later Emily will meet with Lisa to go to a concert at the Kyocera Dome at 6 p.m.

Emily will now add her comments and upload some photos.

Emily: Indeed, now I shall add my comments. As mentioned earlier, we went on the Nara Line to Nara. At the station we took bus number 2 at bus stop 1 (this is for future reference!) to stop N-7, which stops right in front of Nara Koen (Park). There were a lot of Europeans around the area and on the bus and I’m yet to figure out what language they’re speaking. Definitely not British or French because those are the only I can recognize. The deer were pretty amusing; I tried taking pictures with them (my head next to the deer’s head) but my aim’s pretty bad so I ended up cutting off half of my head. Oh well. We walked to Todaiji and there was a half blind deer near the temple gate place. One of its eyes was all white and it was really sad. I bowed to it and said “Ohayou Gozaimasu” (good morning) and it bowed back. I felt bad for it and wanted to take it home with me (just kidding). The thing with the shower cap that Mom mentioned I think is an “ojizousan” (not sure if anybody would get that) but the little desctiption says that if someone touches part of it then touches the same part on their own body then they will be healed. So if I wanted to cure my headaches I could touch its head then touch mine and I’d be all better. Maybe. Todaiji was pretty cool and I took pictures of pretty much everything there. Mom took a picture between two head statues that Alex took a picture with 5 years. We bought a postcard to send to Mom’s work and I bought a little charm with two deer on it. We walked through the park to Nigatsudo and the view was pretty clear from the top. Nothing much else important about Nigatsudo. The steps on the way up were pretty cool because the bottom three steps and the top three steps had different patterns on them. We decided to look for the small restaurant we ate lunch at last year where the kind old man had us eat in the little family restaurant in the back of their shop. So we wandered up the path toward Mount Wakakusa (but didn’t go up, of course). Along the way I found a cicada on a tree (heard its shrill shrieking noise) and took a picture and a short video to record the sound. I was happy I finally got my cicada picture (I’ve developed a strange fascination for taking pictures of insects. Not sure why or how). Anyway, we stopped on the shop street to stare into a door to see if it was the restaurant we were looking for and then this lady came out and was like (in Japanese, of course) “Come in!” so we did. Since Debbie was looking for Narazuke for her husband she got some there and Mom got some too. We found the shop we were looking for and ate there. In addition to my eel meal, I also had cream soda which was melon soda with a scoop of ice cream on top. I saved it for last and it was really refreshing. After eating we kind of meandered back to the bus stop. While others were using the restroom I tried (and failed) to use a tote bag to catch dragonflies. I really wish I had a net or something. We took a picture next to a pond that was really pretty and the dragonflies were mocking me because I didn’t get a picture of them. We walked to the bus stop and got on bus number 1 back to the station. The darn bus dropped us off across the street from the station instead of at the station. No big deal, though. We took the rapid line to Uji and I slept. Good thing Mom was there to wake me up because otherwise I would have slept all the way to the end of the train line. Uji was pretty cool. We walked out the south exit and walked down the street to the river and turned right and walked like 5 minutes until we got to Byodo-in. Mom had me get the tickets for her (Otona, ichi mai. Koukousei, ichi mai). Byodo-in’s situated on a lake so it’s really pretty (Google it if I don’t post a picture). We walked into the museum which I loved. It had all the deity carvings which are so intricately done and they have so much detail. They’re like little deities floating on clouds and they’re all made out of wood. It’s amazing and the museum’s one of my favorites. Mom and I walked through the gift shop and waited as Debbie and Candace finished their walk through the museum. The little sitting area was outside but it was covered on top, and there these little butterflies stuck beneath the covering because they kept trying to fly upward (into the white glass or plexiglass or whatever it was) but kept failing. The butterflies were spazzing. There were some boys racing across the wood sitting area (I think they were imitating swimming) and they were quite energetic. After Debbie and Candace came, we walked back to the train station. The train we caught was delayed 7 minutes which wasn’t too bad but we waited about 15 minutes on the platform because we just barely missed the train that came and left right before we got onto the platform. I bought a water from the vending machine while we waited for the train. It was scheduled for 5:22 or so but came around 5:30. Not so bad. On the train ride back to Kyoto the man next to me almost fell asleep on me but when I was adjusting my hair clip I think I hit his head slightly and he woke up. I decided to just close my eyes on the train ride but I opened them at every stop. The time I was almost about to really fall asleep was when we actually got to Kyoto so I had to get up anyway. We walked to Isetan and went and bought food, as Mom said. I got a peach and mango jelly cup and she got an orange cup. They were really good and incredibly refreshing! When we got back to the room we had tonkatsu (pork cutlet) sandwiches we bought this morning, a pork bun, and our jellies. We watched TV and Sakurai Sho was at the Olympics watching Japan play Canada in baseball. At 8 “Hey! Hey! Hey!” was on Fuji TV and I got to see Arashi on it. (“Look! Sakurai Sho’s on two channels at once!”) It would be funnier if both shows claimed to be live. Anyway, they had this cool thing on Hey!x3 where there were two “cool people” who had two different talents. The first guy could play stuff on the keyboard from memory and even blindfolded. He did stuff like the melodies for Tokyo and Shibuya Station and then he did the startup sound for Windows XP. He also did Super Mario Bros., which I’ve heard lots of times on the keyboard, but his was pretty impressive. He did Arashi’s debut song, “Arashi.” The second guy made a flute out of a chikuwa (according to Wikipedia, it’s a “Japanese food-like product made from ingredients such as fish surimi, salt, sugar, starch, and egg white”). He played little tunes on his little chikuwa thing and he tuned it by eating part of it. Seriously. Then the two “cool guys” did a collaboration on Arashi’s song and it was cute. Arashi performed their single that’ll come out on Wednesday called “truth.” That’s about it from me! I’ll upload pictures now.

Mom said “put LOTS of pictures” so  I’m posting 10 today + 3 videos instead of 4 pictures. Now, aren’t you lucky!? And I also figured out what it means by “image caption” hahaha. Another note, sorry that Youtube butchers video quality.

Debbie feeding deer

Eel with tororo

The deer was making sounds for its baby.

Byodoin