天気：晴れ
I’m sitting in the Makkas in Makino. We’ve been for about 40 minutes, and enjoyed a small breakfast. Karaoke was the best!!! We staying until just after 5, when they finally realised we were still in our room; we were literally the last people there. Getting out, the funniest thing ever happened… we decided to do purikura, and the photos turned our really well. But, as we were embellishing them, the power went out; thinking that everyone was gone, they shut everything down! They soon realised we were still in the booth, and a bit shocked, promptly turned the power back on. We were really worried that the photos would be lost, but after everything loaded back up they were there. We beautified them as quickly as possible before printing them off, and left feeling pretty bad; we had a good laugh about it soon after. Anyway, we’ll be making our way back to the seminar house shortly…
8:34am 枚方市駅
Now we’re in the waiting room at Hirakatashi; going to take the train back to Kyoto. Basically as soon as we got out of Makkas, I decided I would crash at the hotel tonight, so we could spend some more time in Kyoto. So we walked back along the river, enjoying the beautiful cool morning, and got to the Seminar house. Unfortunately, despite my efforts, Alex wasn’t allowed into the Seminar House since it was before visiting hours. So I had to make her wait outside while I quickly got changed and packed a few toiletries for tonight; trying very hard not to disturb Hugo. I emerged feeling a lot better; ready to face the day. We walked over to the uni, so I could show Alex, and I think she was really impressed; we didn’t go in since we just wanted to get back to Kyoto. Catching the bus across the road from the uni, we soon arrived at the station; getting on the train now…
10:44am ホテル
I just had a bit of a rest in the hotel room (couldn’t sleep). Alex crashed on the bed as soon as we got here, and now we’re waiting for Sandy and Nan to get back from breakfast. Apparently we’ll be going to the imperial palace today, which should be great; ever better because I haven’t been before.
12:09pm ホテル
Suprisingly, although not so surprisingly, I’m still in the hotel room, waiting. Out of boredom, I made a quick trip around the block and through a shopping centre, before coming back just in time; Nan and Sandy had just gotten in the door, with more clothes. Now they’ve gone back down to reception, because Sandy lost the key. So yeah, hopefully we leave soon, before the whole day has gone…
1:53pm 地下鉄
In the subway; finally!!! We’re making our way to the imperial palace, getting off at 丸太町 (Marutamachi)…
3:42pm 京都
I’m sitting on the pavement outside of Makkas. Alex and Nan are getting something to eat; I’m not too keen on eating Makkas again today. The palace grounds were amazing, and although we couldn’t enter the main complex (it’s only open on special occasions), the trip was definitely worth it.
There were so many massive, old trees, including a huge, weeping cheery blossom in almost full bloom; it was really incredible. After walking a fair way down, we stopped at a small souvenir shop, and Nan and Sandy picked up a few things. After getting a photo of a beautiful young girl dressed in kimono, we exited through a side gate and made our way back down along the main street, looking for somewhere to eat. On the way, we came across the 護王神社 (Goo shrine), dedicated to the 猪 (Inoshishi – boar). Also, it was apparently a shrine for feet protection; something I’ll definitely need after all this walking around. We’re on our way back to the station now…
5:17pm 京都
On the move; walking back to the hotel… They all decided to get Makkas in the end, and I just settled for a few onigiri; I’m really starting to like them. However, it can be a bit of a gamble when it comes to the filling, since I can’t always read it; I got a few weird flavours today. After getting to the entrance of the subway, the girls decided to make their way back to the hotel. I on the other hand, wanted to explore some more, so we separated and I continued down the street. After a bit of videotaping, I stumbled upon 
the Kyoto International Manga Museum; what luck. I decided I had to check it out, and promptly made my way in. Because of copyright and all that jazz, no photography was allowed, so I’ll try my best to explain what it was like. Basically, it was a huge three storey building packed with manga, which people could look at, and even read at their leisure; so many people were doing just that. They would be sitting at tables, in the stairwell, on the floor, or just standing; there was even an outside area of artificial grass, for people to read and play on. I had a sneaking suspicion that the building was a converted school building, due to the layout and architecture…
5:30pm 京都
I’ve just made it to the intersection in front of Nijo castle; turned left and now heading back towards the station… So yeah, I wandered the corridors, and marvelled at the sheer amount of books. On the second floor, I found chairs set up for something, and decided to sit down. It turned out to be a 紙芝居 (kamishibai – lit. “paper drama”) performance. Basically, it’s a mode of storytelling that uses illustrated boards inserted into the stage. These are withdrawn one by one as a story is being told; it actually originated in the 12th century in Buddhist temples so the monks could convey stories with moral lessons to a mostly illiterate audience. The storyteller, noticing me, asked if I wanted him to speak in English, and I said no Japanese would be fine. I was really happy that I could understand a lot of what he was saying, and he was speaking really fast; he was a very energetic speaker too, using lots of vocal techniques and hand gestures. He started off with a quiz that involved word play to get the kids (and the adults) involved; while I could understand what he was asking, I couldn’t comprehend the contextual meaning behind it. When they answered correctly, the kids would receive tickets that they could exchange for gifts after the show. After the quiz, he went on to tell a few stories, one about two siblings using their mums “mixer” i.e. blender, to create bubbles and getting in a lot of trouble.
The other stories and illustrations had been devised by primary school children, and admittedly they were very clever and funny. He finished off with a bunch of “countdown sequence” boards (best way to describe it), getting the audience to count down from 5 to 0, showing a consequential sequence of events. My favourite was a piece of toilet paper that ended up pooping out a toilet roll. Others included, a beer bottle that when shook up exploded with bottle caps, and a boy blowing up a huge bubble, with him eventually exploding not the bubble; they were all very dramatic and unexpected. Very satisfied I continued exploring, and confirmed my suspicion, finding a memorial room for the primary school it once was. It made a lot of sense, the floor boards were squeaky, there was a central stairwell, and the doors were very typical of primary schools. After coming out of a room that showed the timeline of manga (with books from every decade of the 20th century), I had a little look around the gift shop, and not finding anything I liked in particular, collected my bag from the coin locker (well it was free, so I guess you would just call it a locker), and exited feeling very happy. I haven’t really seen anything else of interest yet. Oh well, it’s getting dark and cloudy, so I need to get back anyway…
6:34pm ホテル
Finally back at the hotel; my feet are killing me!!! I ended up walking past the 西本願寺 (Nishihonganji – the Western equivalent to Higashihonganji) before finally getting to the station. I walked down into the subway, emerging just out the front of the hotel, and dragged myself up to the 6th floor, to Alex’s and my room, which ended up being right next to Nan’s and Sandy’s. I’m not hungry at all now, but I guess we’ll go out for dinner soon…
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