So the night after my last post was quite low key. I hung out and did a little reading for my sexuality class, and then we had a Barbie colouring party in the lounge!
The second to last one in the lower right corner is mine. There are two barbies. I was very proud of it.
Yesterday I woke up kind of early and just hung around. I should have been doing homework but I wasn't. I met up with Ayaka and Yasmina at Kansai Gaidai's main gate at 12:40 and we caught the bus to Hirakata station, where we met up with Ayaka's friend Yuki, who is so sweet and cool. We caught a few trains and buses until we got to Kyoto station. I didn't realize how expensive transportation around Kyoto can be, and everything's so far apart. What I've seen of Kyoto so far has been mostly around the Kamogawa river, temples and stuff. I've seen the big city area and shopped at a department store, but right next door there was Kiyomizu-dera and these adorable traditional houses. Kyoto station looked really cool though. I got some pictures:
It was so big and I loved the way it perfectly reflected the clouds.
After this we caught another bus to Kinkakuji-michi, which was very long especially with how much traffic there was. I actually felt myself starting to fall asleep because it was kind of hot and buses always put me to sleep. I think Ayaka noticed because when I start to get sleepy I do this really attractive thing where one eye droops shot and my jaw is kind of slack and hangs open. She was like, "Are you okay?" It was kind of embarrassing.
Once we got to Kinkakuji, it was amazing. I totally understand why it's a World Heritage sight. One of the most beautiful things I've seen since I've been here, definitely.
I love this one because I loved how perfectly Kinkakuji reflected off of the lake. The set up was just so perfect, the serenity of the landscape and the bright colour of the building.
It really was so beautiful. Yasmina and I were so happy.
Here we are posing in front of Kinkakuji. Ayaka is to the left of Yasmina.
I'm honestly not sure what this was, but there were a lot of people taking pictures of it and it did look sort of pretty with the greenery.
A mini waterfall on the path from Kinkakuji. I asked everyone what the significance of it was. They were like, "It's a small waterfall".
Everyone throws small change into the bowl for luck. I grabbed a few 1-yen coins and tried my luck but I missed.
I don't know what this is but I love this shot.
These are Omikuji machines that we found on the way out of Kinkakuji. You put a 100-yen coin in and it gives you a little paper fortune. I got kichi (good, but not the best). It was all in Japanese but Ayaka translated a little for me. She said that it's saying if I work hard, I'll get what I want, and that I have happiness in my future. She said I should carry it with me in my wallet. As we were leaving I noticed that there was a machine for English fortunes too, but I already had one so whatever. Also, strangely enough, there was a Haagen-Daas ice cream vending machine.
I got a couple of souvenirs too--a little pink silk bag with Kinkakuji and cherry blossoms and kanji embroidered on it that hangs from a little white rope is supposed to bring me luck in love. I also got a tiny Kinkakuji cell phone strap for my phone. When I took out my cell phone to put it on everyone giggled because there are so many straps. They were like, "Isogashii!" (Busy!)
If you get a bad omikuji you tie it to this thing to take away the bad luck. Juunji was sad because he got the worst, so he tied his on.
The matcha parfait I shared with Yasmina after Kinkakuji. It was amazing, there were layers of matcha ice cream, sweet red beans, whipped cream, matcha sorbet, vanilla ice cream--it even had cake and mochi in it. I was in heaven.
We were both kind of devastated when it was gone. After we had finished eating I accidentally left the money for our parfait on the table (in Japan you're supposed to bring it up to the front when you're done). Juunji said I was very American, although I think that was maybe a good thing because on the bus earlier we joked about how I was more Japanese than him because I like sushi and natto and he's more American than I am because he's been to New York and I haven't so we should switch.
So after the parfaits we caught a train and subway back to Hirakata station. I went to get dinner with everyone but Yasmina headed home. I was a little nervous about her walking back by herself since even though Japan is pretty safe it was dark, but she was fine.
At dinner I had quite a decent sized beer. It was a yakitori place--yakitori is skewers of chicken I guess. It was delicious. We all ordered what yakitori we wanted and shared them, and also a bowl of some kind of salmon rice soup and french fries and some fried chicken. I ate chicken heart and it was DELICIOUS.
After dinner I went to karaoke with Reisshi, Yuki and Ayaka and about 15 people from the seminar house and a couple of their speaking partners. I wasn't planning on it but they were all already there, were right upstairs from where we ate and it just sounded so fun. So now I've been five times so far.
Karaoke.
Ayaka got invited to a party at this club that started at midnight so she asked if I wanted to go. We ended up staying at karaoke until about 1:30 and then heading there. It turned out to be this really cool place above a tiny restaurant. It was so small but it wasn't crowded or anything. The music was awesome and the girl that was DJing was so cool that I was a little in awe of her.
We stayed until about 3 or 3:30ish. I had a lot of fun and it was a good crowd of people in general. Most of them were from Kansai Gaidai. It was altogether an amazing day.
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