Kyoto!!

Saturday, April 12

It was weird waking up to an empty house. I almost wished I didn't have anything to do so I could have just slept all day with no disturbances. But I was excited for the field trip!

After I got ready, I went in to the kitchen where I had the breakfast Yuko had left me.

I ate the pineapples and the jelly and then grabbed the bread to take with me and rushed out the door. Since my bike is still broken, I had to walk, so I wanted to make sure I left a little early.

While I was walking to the station, at one point I was waiting for one of the lights to turn, when this guy rode up next to me on his bike. He was flat out staring at me! Like people do double takes a lot when they see me, but they don't stare at me so obviously like this guy was doing. When the light changed, he rode off ahead of me, but looked back twice to stare at me more. Then he turned and when I got to the corner where he had turned, he looked back again. It was creeping me out!

There were a whole bunch of kids in uniforms on the trains and subways today. It was weird. I guess all the Saturday school activities are starting up again.

And it was weird to be at school on a Saturday! When I walked in, I saw Emma, Jess, and Heather standing by the bus. I signed in with one of the CJS guys and then Emma and I got on the bus to get a seat. I saw Yukari and Sara already on the bus! They shouted "Cate!!" There were a bunch of Japanese students already sitting, mostly girls.

I noticed way more Japanese students than American students came! None of my usual friends other than Emma went. Rafa, Esteban, Rana, Ben, Devon, Pearl, and Minju all weren't there! I was shocked! Who would pass up such an amazing opportunity?

The bus was packed full of people! It was so full, that people had to sit in the fold-up seats in the aisles, and all of these were taken. Emma sat by the window and I sat next to her. Next to me was a Japanese girl (in the ailse chair) and next to her were two more Japanese girls. They all introduced themselves and started talking to us right away. The girl next to me was named Kasumi and next to Kasumi were Amy and Kanno. 

Emma, me, and Kasumi

Then the two Japanese girls behind us introduced themselves (they were Saki and Tomomi) and the two Japanese girls in front of popped their heads over the seat to say hi and introduce themselves as well. All the girls immediately started taking pictures with us and adding us on Line and Facebook. It was so awesome! I made eight friends in less than five minutes!!

Emma and me with Saki and Tomomi

Emma started eating these weird Calorie Mate things she'd brought with her as soon as we started moving, so I broke out the pan Yuko had given me this morning. I was super excited to eat it because it said "grape pan" on it, so I figured it would be filled with grape jelly or something. Yeah... guess what grape really means in Japan? Raisins. It was raisin bread. Don't get me wrong, I love raisin bread, but I just totally wasn't expecting it!

When the Japanese girls saw us already starting to eat they were like, "hayai!" (basically like, "whoa, that was quick!"), and so they got out their snacks too. Kasumi shared these cake roll things that I had had at church that one time and really like. When I told her I liked them, she gave me another! So nice!! Then one of the girls behind us gave us some of her snacks as well! :)

Then Mitch had passed a microphone around and had us all do “jikoshoukai” (introductions). In his, he said he liked beer, haha. I was kind of nervous to do it since I’m in the lowest level of Japanese (thankfully three of my 300 classmates were there as well) and most of the people on the bus were native Japanese speakers, but it ended up being fine!

In my introduction, I said that I loved swimming, pink, and misokatsu, and everyone laughed. So it was good!! J There was this one really cute Japanese guy I noticed, since he was one of the, like, four Japanese guys, and was totally adorable. And he was from Kyoto originally!

At one point, Kasumi was playing with the hair of the girl in front of her, who we met, but who’s name I forgot. Then the two of them started asking me about my hair, if the color’s natural and whether or not I perm it. They were super jealous of my curls, but I told them I want hair like theirs! Then they felt my hair and said it was “fua fua” hahaha! That means fluffy. I love Japanese onamoatapeia.

At one point, I pulled out my manga and they all freaked out over it, amazed that I was reading manga in Japanese. I also showed them my DS and they thought it was cool that I was meeting real people from various prefectures in Japan and that I was playing a Japanese game, haha.

Because of the traffic, we arrived in Kyoto at 12:30, thirty minutes late. We got off the bus and took a giant picture of everyone in front of the TOEI samurai movie park. Then we entered and were allowed to break into groups and roam around for the next three hours.


Cool statue at the entrance

And cool bird sign

There was a ninja crawling along a wire up in the air too! (He wasn't a real person, unfortunately...)

Saki and Tomomi, the two girls who had sat behind Emma and me on the bus, immediately stuck to us. Yukari and Sara found me and they joined our group as well. And then the cute guy from the bus joined our group as well!!! OMG!!!


Tomomi, Emma, me, and Saki

These two other girls whose names I didn't know joined as well. We hung around the entrance area for a bit because everyone wanted to take pictures with the people there dressed as geisha and samurai. For some reason though, even though everyone wanted to take pictures with them, no one wanted to be in them! So I took a hitori de picture with the geisha girl. I was all like, "Whaaat? Why do I have to be alone in the picture?" in broken Japanese, but everyone understood and laughed haha.


Then Yukari and Sara saw a samurai they thought was cute and made me pose with him! It was super awkward.  I said it was "hazakashii" (embarrassing) and everyone laughed. And no one else took a picture with him!! It was just me! I was all like "watashi dake???"

Afterwards, I was like "my face is turning red!" (kao ga akakunarimasu) and the cute guy heard and turned around to smile at me. I wanted to go up and talk to him and introduce myself, but before I could, he came over to talk to me and introduce himself. His name is Takuya and he's studying Indonesian and wants to study abroad in Indonesia! Also, he's a second year and is also 20, although he only turned 20 this year.

We also saw another geisha who we finally took a group photo with! I saw Kasumi and the girl sitting in front of her on the bus, who's name I forget, so I grabbed them to be in the picture too.

I'm next to Takuya in this picture :)

Everyone was really hungry, so after we took a bathroom break for the girls, we headed to the restaurants.

Little shrine area by the bathrooms

Hitori de shot

Group shot!

On the way, there was a huge bridge that was a replica of Nihonbashi (which literally means: Japan Bridge). So of course we took a picture on that. 

 

Sakura tree from Nihonbashi!

Pony you could ride for 200 yen on the other side of the bridge

We also saw a place where you could try on kimonos and do a photoshoot. I wasn't really interested because I'd already worn kimonos for free in sadou class. And Emma had too with her host mom. So we didn't stop there.
Across the bridge were two restaurants with similar food next to each other. I'd wanted to go to the don restaurant because I was craving donburi, but no one else seemed to want to. So we looked at these restaurants, which both served a variety of foods. They both looked good and no one could decide where to go, so Sara made me pick. Of course. Haha. I hate decisions. But I ended up picking the second one.
We had 10 people, so we had to split up into six and four. Saki, Tomomi, Yukari, and Sara all wanted to be with Emma and me, so Takuya was at another table... :(
I went out with Saki and Tomomi to look at the display foods outside the restaurant again because I couldn't decide what to get. I ended up getting yakimeshi teishoku because it looked really good. And it was! Tomomi had to help me order though, because I kept forgetting the freaking name of it, lol!

My lunch!

When our food came, it came with chopsticks in these awesome chopstick wrappers that opened like sword sheaths!

All of us eating! I look obese because Tomomi decided to take this picture when my mouth was full!

While we were eating, I saw Mitch and the other guy who's one of the CJS faculty eating at another table. When they finished and were leaving, Mitch came over to our table to tell us to head over to the Patio building at 2 pm, because there was a guided tour of some of the park going on then. 
By the time we finished lunch (I was the slowest eater so I rushed a bit to finish at the end, which is why my mouth was full in that picture), it was almost 2, so we headed over to the building.
At the entrance, before you walked in, there was a face hole you could pose in. These ladies were taking pictures in it, so we all kind of looked at each other, wondering if we should take pictures in it too. Then Takuya was all like, "Keito!" and looked at me and gestured toward the face hole and everyone immediately started agreeing and telling me to go take a picture in it. So yeah...

Thankfully Emma took a picture in it too!

We got there a bit early, so we looked around in the gift store. Then the tour started. The tour guide saw me, the token blonde girl, and asked, in Japanese, if Japanese was okay. I said it was. But I barely ended up understanding anything anyway! The tour guide was pretty cute, though!
During the tour, Tomomi explained everything the guide said in slow Japanese-for-dummies for me and Saki did the same for Emma (since neither of them speak English). It was so nice of them!!

Pretty pond!

I thought this shot looked so colorful with this guy in it!

An onsen!

Old traditional town area

Cutout of a house up there!

Pretty sakura tree and pond full of sakura petals

Sakura

Cool water wheel thing

More sakura

It was really neat that the sakura were still blooming in Kyoto. Emma and I both had always figured Kyoto was warmer than Nagoya since it's farther south. But actually, Kyoto is colder, I'm not sure why. So yeah, the sakura bloom later than Nagoya!

The tour ended at Nihonbashi. It was cool because we were taken to some places we probably wouldn't have walked by on our own. I also learned a lot about the set. The guide was telling us how he puts on his own wig and makeup and kimono! Only the famous celebrities get people to make them up. Everyone else has to do it on their own.

Me with the guide. He let us hold his sword!

After the tour, we decided to go to the Haunted House, because I'd told everyone earlier I liked haunted houses. When we got there, though, it turned out to be 500 yen!! Kinda takaii, y'all. Most everyone was too scared to go in, lol. Takuya didn't want to go in, so that sucked. But I decided to go in and Saki wanted to too.
I was feeling kind of sick to my stomach, probably because I ate so much (since I didn't eat anything with milk in it). I sometimes get sick when I eat big meals, since I usually just snack throughout the day instead of eating real meals. But I didn't want to leave Saki by herself. Thankfully, then one of the girls who's name I didn't know decided to join us. I was still going to try to go in, but then I figured if I didn't I could use the time they were inside to go to the bathroom and not make everyone have to wait on me. So I told Saki and the other girl I wasn't feeling well, and then I sold back my ticket and headed to the bathroom.
I was really bummed to miss the Haunted House. Stupid sensitive stomach! All too soon, Sara came in asking if I was okay. It turned out that Saki and the other girl had gone through the house and everyone was waiting for me now. I wasn't feeling 100%, but another girl who's name I don't know had medicine that she gave me. It was a bunch of little red ball-like pills that she told me to take all at once, so I did. And boy did they work!! I didn't feel bad again for the rest of the day!
Everyone was really worried about me and Takuya was all like, "daijoubu, Keito?" :)
It was so sweet!

It was getting close to the time to go, 3:30, so we made our last stop. We all really wanted to go in the Trick Art Museum, so we did. Everyone went in except Yukari and one other girl.
It was also 500 yen, but I think it was worth it! It sounded like the Haunted House hadn't been worth it, because Saki hadn't had much to say about it...
But yeah, the museum was totally awesome! We took a TON of pictures inside. :)

So cool!

OMG, the snake's gonna eat me!!

Yay, finally went to Kinkakuji!

Giant Emma! Tiny me!

Giant me! Tiny Emma!

Whoa, big frog!

Just some racoons fixing my hair, you know...

Whoo! Dolphin training!

Help!! I'm gonna be eaten!

I was eaten! And now all that's left is my head :(

It was time to go then, so we headed out.

Little town area we saw on the way out

Geisha and samurai in the town

We left the park and went back out to the bus, but no one was there! We asked a security guard, and he informed us Nanzan Daigaku was meeting inside. Whoops! Thankfully, they let us back in the park and we checked in.
While we were waiting for the last few people to show up, Takuya was talking to his friend (this pretty fat dude) about what our group had done. Then he looked at me and smiled super cutely and was like "tanoshikatta, ne?"
I freaking love the word "ne." It's so cute! Whenever Miya tells her parents about something she did with me, or something I know about, she always says it and then looks at me and tilts her head to the side and goes "ne?" It's adorable!
So yeah, this sparked a discussion between Emma and me on the way to the temple about how we love "ne." I was saying how kawaii it is, when Saki and Tomomi heard us talking about it and turned around and laughed and agreed it's a cute word!

Anyway, when everyone had gotten back, we walked over to the next part, which was Koryuji Temple.

Hand washing area

So much bamboo!

Cool tie-dyed like flower

We split into two groups to go into the main temple, because it wasn't very big inside. Emma, Saki, Tomomi, Sara, Yukari, and I were in the second group. Emma and I were talking about something and I was all like, "awkwaaard..." which made me wonder if there's a word like that in Japanese, so I looked 'awkward' up on my phone, and got "kimazui," so to make sure this was right, I asked Saki and Tomomi if you could use "kimazui" like that. I explained awkward situations in Japanese and asked if you could say "kimazui" in those situations and they said you could!!
It was fun. :)
While we waited outside the temple to go in, we had to be quiet because it was a holy place. Inside, we couldn't speak at all and we also weren't allowed to take pictures.
Inside it was really dark and there were a lot of statues of ladies with billions of arms. They were selling the kinds of charms I've been wanting forever that are always so expensive, and here they were only 500 yen!! But they didn't have pink or any cute colors... :( Only red, green, and dark purple. So I didn't buy any.

Afterwards we walked through the garden area a bit, and then we all left. We ended up leaving thirty minutes before we were supposed to (we were supposed to spend a whole hour at the temple). I didn't mind though. The temple was kind of boring, I liked the eiga park much better!

Outside the temple, we took another group photo. Takuya stood by me for the photo. Then, on the way back, he started talking to me again. I was proud to have been able to have a conversation with him (he speaks no English), but there were a few times when I had trouble expressing myself well, because I just don't know enough vocabulary, but he understood whatever I was wanting to say.

Shrine we passed on the way there and back

On the bus ride back, it was a free-for-all for seats, so most people who had sat in the aisles on teh way down, stole actual seats. Thankfully Emma and I had left our stuff in our seats and we got on the bus pretty quickly as well, so we got our same seats. But the aisle seat next to me was now filled by a ryuugakusei and the two seats next to that one were ryuugakusei too. And the two seats in front and behind us were ryuugakusei as well! Ahhh, we were surrounded! It sucked. I'd wanted to practice Japanese more on the way back too. Ah well.

On the way back, I ate the taiyaki I bought. It was actually really good! It tasted like an anko filled belgian waffle! I also ate my green tea chocolate. I'd been planning on sharing it with the people who'd given me food on the way down and the girl who had given me medicine, but none of them were around!

Though it looks pretty derpy...

We stopped at a rest stop quickly and pretty much everyone bought food. I didn't want anything. Emma bought a weird savory bread that I didn't really like (she let me try some. I only really like sweet breads) and an ice cream of which she gave two pieces to me. It was delicious! It was vanilla ice cream surrounded by two wafers that were coated in chocolate in the inside!

Freaking adorable omiyage that was there!

Sign in the bathroom. Yeah, I don't know who would actually stand in a toilet...

We didn't end up getting back to campus until 8pm, and hour later than we were supposed to!! Emma let me use her phone to text Yuko that I would be late.
Back on campus, Emma, Saki, Tomomi, and I went in to R to use the bathrooms. Then we walked to Yagoto Nisseki to take the subway. While we waited, Saki and Tomomi told Emma about how they'd gone to Florida last year with their high school band to play with American marching bands in Disney World!!
Saki showed us a picture of her host family. She said they were big. And they were! They were all pretty fat and looked like giants next to the tiny Japanese girls! The American girl who was 18 like the Japanese girls, was way taller. And the other American girl, who was the same height as the Japanese girls, but way fatter, was 12!!! I was so shocked, haha!
But Tomomi told Emma that Emma and I are hosoi (thin), so that's good! :)
Emma got off the subway at the first stop, and then Saki got off about five stops later. But Tomomi and I rode together all the way to Kanayama! And then we got on the local JR train together, because Tomomi's stop was the next stop after Kanayma.

I continued to the next stop after that, which was Nagoya. At Nagoya, I took a weird exit and got lost, but I asked for directions to the Meitetsu area and then I was able to find it! I also used the wifi there to text Yuko that I was taking the next train.
I bought a fruit juice, because I was dying of thirst. Then I drank that with my second taiyaki while I rode to Sumiyoshi. The next stop was Kanayama, which pissed me off. That's where I'd just come from! Yuko hadn't told me I could have caught the same train at Kanayama!
By the way, random thing I forgot to mention from last weekend. When I was the JR on the way home from Kiyosu, where I visited Kiyosu Jo, there was a ripped our page of a magazine lying on the floor of the train. And it was from a porn magazine with seriously x-rated pictures on it! I took a picture of it to text to my friends, haha. I would totally post it on my blog, but kinda trying to keep this blog family friendly...
But yeah, I was so shocked that there was such obscene porn just lying out in the open where little kids could see it!

Anyway, the voice on the train that read out the stations was super muted, so I had to look at the sign at each station to tell where I was. At one station, the sign wasn't there, so I freaked out, hoping that wasn't my stop. But I was pretty sure the voice hadn't said "Sumiyoshi." At the next stop, I was pretty sure he hadn't said "Sumiyoshi" either, but I looked for the sign to make sure. The sign was there at this station and it said "Sumiyoshicho." Crap! Was that it?
I wasn't sure because I know "Shinsakae machi" is different from "Sakae" and "Inuyamaguchi" is different from "Inuyama," but I decided I'd get out anyway and if I was wrong, I'd just wait the half hour for the next train and hopefully Yuko would wait for me.
When I walked down to the platform, I didn't see Yuko. I was scared to exit in case it was the wrong place, so I decided to try the other side of the platform. So I crossed over. When I got to that side, I heard "Keito!!" and I saw Yuko and Miya walking over, about to cross the tracks. I exited and met up with them.
Yuko told me she thought she'd be late because she thought maybe I took the earlier train, but since I hadn't, they ended up getting there just in time!
I was completely exhausted and really just  wanted to go to bed. But since it was only 9:30 and the matsuri continued until 10:30, they told me we were walking to see the end of it. Ughhhh.
Oh well, it was still exciting! The floats were all lit up. We saw Ken in his happi walking behind one of the floats. He was behind the one with less lanterns. I thought the other was cooler. They looked like the floats at the Inuyama matsuri that I'd wanted to see at night and hadn't been able to. So I was glad I got to see these!

Ken's float

The other float

We walked all the way to this storage area that everyone put the float in. Then they took the lanterns off and blew out the candles in them. While Yuko and Miya and I waited for Ken to talk and drink with his friends, we saw Saki chan and her mom. Saki chan was all like "Keito!" when she saw me! It was so cute! This old grandpa dude in a happi gave me one of the cloths that all the matsuri guys (the guys in happi) were wearing! It had the kanji for North on it!

Float going in it's home!

After Ken was finished, we headed home. I was so, so tired, but Yuko asked if I'd eated dinner and I said no, so she said I could have the sushi they'd left out for me. There was California roll-like sushi with the fake crab I love and the stuff that's in the sushi and inarizushi combo I like from Lawson's. And there was inarizushi too!! I was in Heaven!
I didn't eat too much, because I wasn't very hungry and I was so tired and it was already 11. Then I showered and obaa san showed me to my room, which I was sharing with Miya, Yuko, and Ken. We all had futons on the floor to sleep on. I got in my futon and then passed out.