Kyoto!!

Wednesday, May 13

Today I was going to Kyoto with Father!! But first I had to do what I was dreading, and move my huge ass suitcases out of the emergency housing, up the stairs, all the way across Nanzan, and then across the street to the dorms.

So I woke up at 6:45 to get dressed and then start. Thankfully the guy working at the dorm helped me carry the first, and biggest, suitcase up the stairs. Then I walked it all the way to the dorms. 

At the dorms, I lugged my suitcase down another set of stairs. Why is everything in Japan below ground level?? When I got inside, this cute old man was waiting for me. He was nice and gave me a dolly and showed me the ramp I could use instead of the stairs. Yay!!

So I used the dolly to bring over all my non-rolling bags. And then I returned one last time to get my last giant rolling bag and bonsai. The guy at the emergency housing was so surprised I was able to move out so quickly. He'd taken one look at my bags and thought it would take me 3 hours! I knew it wouldn't lol.

So we cleaned up my room quickly and locked it up and I gave him back the key. Then I heaved my giant suitcase up the staircase and rolled it off to the dorms. On the way, I passed the old man from the dorms, who was ending his shift. He laughed at the fact that I was carrying a bonsai, but also thought it was really cool!

At the dorms, a lady had taken his place. She was also super nice. She helped me get my last bag in the luggage storage room and then told me I could move into my room at 5, which I knew. So I dropped off my textbooks (Rafa gave me his Genki II, so I have two now!) and then left for Nagoya Station, where I was meeting Father.

I met him out by the long distance bus stop. He took me down under Nagoya Eki to a discount ticket store so we could buy the Shinkansen ticket, and then shortly after boarded the Shinkansen to Kyoto!!

It was a short 30 minute ride. On the way, Father helped me with the itinerary for my trip around Japan with my mom and sister. He's so great!

And then we were in Kyoto! We took a train in the direction of Nara, to Uji, which is a city outside of Kyoto. It's famous for a type of green tea, called ujicha. It's also famous for Byodouin Temple, which is where we went.

Kyoto is kirei :)

Humungo stone torii!

Entrance to Byodouin

When we walked in, I realized I'd seen pictures of this temple. I'd had no idea it was in Kyoto!

There were a lot of middle school students on school trips there as well.

So pretty!

I wish the weather had been nicer though... :/

Father told me it was the place that was pictured on the back of a 10 yen coin. So I got out a 10 yen coin and he was right!! Wow, sugoi!

The same!

There were koi in the pond!

Then we went through a museum of the history of the temple that had some artifacts and paintings as well, because entrance came with the price of admission. Outside the museum was this cool bell.

You weren't allowed to ring the bell :(

And then we had seen everything, so we went to find somewhere to eat on the way back to the station. On the way out, these middle school girls on a class trip all were like "hello" to me. I said "hello" back and then they were all like "kawaii!", "kawaii ne", and "cute" and gestured at my outfit. Haha it was adorable! I told them "arigatou."

Pretty mountains! This reminded me of New River in Blacksburg

Drain covers here :)

We ended up eating at a sushi restaurant. Father said he really likes seafood and doesn't eat much meat. It was good sushi! It was kaitenzushi, but not as cheap as Kappazushi or Sushiro. There were weird sushi as well, like hamburger sushi (a piece of hamburger over rice wrapped with seaweed) and sausage sushi (same but with sausage).  Father got a squid sushi and let me try it. It was super squishy and chewy!

After lunch, we got back on the train to Kyoto Eki and from there, we rode a bus to Toujiin Temple and got off at a small town where the temple was.

Father had been here before, but not for many years, so he got a bit lost when we first exited the station. I was really tired from sleeping on the floor in a new place and from lugging around all my bags this morning, that I dozed off a bit on the bus and Father asked if I was okay.

The temple was a nice place, really quiet and peaceful.

Outside were gardens that I walked around while Father sat and looked out at the scenery.

Such typical Japanese gardens. I loved it!

And koi!! I really liked the golden koi :)

Cute little bamboo fountain

After I walked around the garden, we headed back out. On the bus ride back to Kyoto station, there was a group of middle schoolers. A girl was talking to three guys and I was eavesdropping and discovered I could understand just about everything she said! It was awesome. :)

It was getting late, so we took a train to this town that I forgot the name of, where Father's sister lives, and we had dinner there.

We ate a restaurant on the top of a tall building across from the station. It was an all you can eat buffet place with a lot of different types of food. My favorite thing was the red bean and mochi soup!! It was the same one Yuko had made way back when that I had loved. It was SO SO good!! Father also got this golden beer, that this area is famous for, for us to share. I don't really like beer, but I still drank it. Man, I ate so much and I was super full, but it was all really delicious!

Then we went to another cheap ticket shop and bought tickets back to Nagoya. Father got off at Ichinomiya and I continued to Nagoya to stop and get on the wifi before heading back to my wifi-less dorm.

I completely forgot to mention yesterday, that while I was at Nagoya Station, after calling my mom, I was texting one of my friends when I GOT INTERVIEWED!! This guy came over and asked to interview me because he had to interview foreigners in Japan. He turned out to be from France, but his English was pretty good. He said he'd only been in Japan two days though, and knew no Japanese lol. 

He told me he'd have to take my picture at the end and it would go on Facebook. By now I was pretty excited because I'd seen that Facebook page, with interviews of foreign people in Nagoya and I always wanted to be on it! Sure enough, he brought the page up on his phone to show me, and told me he just started his internship with them.

So he asked me a bunch of questions and then took my picture! Yay, so exciting!!!

Anyway, I got to the dorms around 10:30 and apologized for getting there so late. But the guy from earlier was there and he didn't mind at all! He showed me my room and them helped me being my stuff to it. Then he taught me how to work the shower and bath and even took me up to find Taylor's room, since she said she'd lend me shampoo! We went up and she gave me the shampoo. And there was a towel in my room.

There was a bath!! Ahh, so exciting! I immediately took a nice, long bath. It was amazing. Then I went straight to bed, because I was so, so excited and tomorrow I have big plans! I'm going to Little World in Inuyama with Emma and Father, and then tomorrow night I'll finally be hitting up the clubs!