Day 264 - 21st of May

9:54pm　特急

天気：晴れ

I’m on my way to Toji; alone! I slept in, so I was 30 minutes late to meet Carly. I’m guessing she’s already on her way, and I don’t blame her; I’m really not doing a very good job keeping time. I might catch her when I get there; hopefully I can find some nice souvenirs at the market today. I don’t really know what I’m looking for. I’m just coming out of Kuzuha now, so got a little while before I get there. It’s sunny, but there’s a thick haze in the air; no doubt because of how much humidity there was yesterday…

5:43pm　快速

We’re on the way back home now; hurting all over. Today was intense!!! When I got to the markets, I spent a lot of time browsing and buying. I bumped into Katie with her friends, and a few other people from uni, and I eventually found Carly; she was already laden with kimono. Since it was open to the public, I decided I’d go have a proper look at the pagoda; it was even more impressive up close. What was really cool was the fact that I could actually go inside the structure. The central pillar was surrounded be statues of Buddha; it was very special. I think it was about 1:30 when we finally left the markets, and I was really happy with all my purchases; I got heaps of gifts for people, and I even got a new wallet made from sea snake skin. Actually, having a wallet made from snake skin is supposed to be good for monetary luck. Now I just have to get used to it; it feels so light in my pocket. We walked to Kyoto station, and I noticed that the new mall wouldn’t be opening until the 4^th of next month; I was really disappointed. We walked through the station in the cool (it had actually turned out to be a really hot day), and took the subway to Shijo. We decided to go to Sweets Paradise for lunch. We were so hungry and exhausted by the time we got there that it was absolutely wonderful.

I got lots of cake, jelly and ice cream, and felt like I was going to explode; I will miss Sweets Paradise!!! We got out of there at about 4, and then went over to Teramachi once again; well actually, the street running parallel. On the way, I stopped at a few more places to pick up more gifts. Walking along the street, I spotted the sign for animate and had to go in; yet again, more gifts, and a few things for me! By that point, I had so much stuff that I had to buy my bag to put it all in. I decided on one from the store I had gone to yesterday. It’s a duffel bag, and I’m hoping it’s going to fit a lot of my clothes; it’ll be my second checked bag. Now I just need a carry-on bag and I’ll be sweet. There were a few there, but they were pretty pricy. So I’m going to wait. As you can imagine, we’re very sore by now and as soon as I get back I have to get straight into cleaning and packing; Yuji’s coming to inspect at 7. Then after that, karaoke time; I’m going to die…

10:07pm　カラオケ　－　牧野

Just got to Karaoke; feeling good… As soon as we got back to the seminar house this evening I started stressing, and got considerably worse over the next two hours. It was 7 by that time, and Yuji was already asking if I was ready for my inspection; of course I wasn’t. So, I was graciously given until 8:30 to get everything done; admittedly, I freaked out a lot. But, I got through it, and Carly was a lifesaver, doing most of the packing and helping to clean. It ended up that we got till 9, since Yuji was preoccupied; I needed every second. I didn’t end up cleaning out my kitchen box or fridge; there just wasn’t enough time. So Natsuki has to check that tomorrow; Yuji’s going to be out. After all that I was sweating like anything so had shower and washed my hair. It didn’t help that as soon as I got out of the shower I was sweating again. In that time, Carly had weighed my bags, and I’m a few kilos over. But, I think I’ll be fine because I still have to buy a carry-on bag, which I can stuff with the rest of my stuff. It just means that I’m not going to be able to buy anything in Tokyo!!! Oh well, I’ll still be able to do some awesome sightseeing. It’ll mean I have some money left over too... Ash and Roisin have joined us, coming from the 黒執事 (Kuroshitsuji – “Black Butler”) musical. Rachel’s flailing all over the place, envious that she didn’t get to go with them. They bought the program and a heap of other merchandise; looks like it was a lot of fun. Anyway, all night karaoke now, and then graduation at 9 tomorrow; YAY!!!

Day 263 - 20th of May

11:32pm　セミナーハウス

天気：曇り

Today was a very long day; I’m exhausted. But, I picked up lots of goodies, and saw a wonderful show, so it was worth it. And, it wasn’t nearly as hot as it has been recently, although the air was damp all day… After waking up at 9, to find Hugo missing, I got ready for the day and then took the bus to the station. En route, I rearranged all my badges and pins, so now they cover most of the bag and there is a decent space between each of them; it looks much better in my opinion. I met Carly in Hirakata at 10:30, and we went over to the bank so I could close my account, and she could cash some traveller’s checks. She ended up taking longer than me, because the bank wanted to know her hotel’s address; they couldn’t find it! Eventually everything was sorted out, and we came out a whole lot richer. Taking the rapid express to Gion Shijo, we walked around for a little while, me trying to figure out Katie’s instructions. It was getting close to 12, so I was getting a little anxious. We did end up finding the street though, and were seated just after 12; a bit early but anyway. Since all the regular seats were booked out, we had to sit in the second floor balcony on cushions. We were right next to the stage, looking at it at a diagonal. Unfortunately we were on the side where the walkway wasn’t visible; it was right under us. So we couldn’t see the orchestra or some of the action. Apart from that, and the mild discomfort, it was great; certainly for the price.

Of course, Katie had ended up with front row seats (she did end up having to pay more) and we soon caught her attention as she sat down. Her two friends are visiting from Canada and after the show we got acquainted. Seeing as it was getting close to 2 by that time, we decided it was time for lunch. After meeting up with Sarah near the station, we made our way over to Sukiya; it was cheap and delicious. After eating, we slowly made our way over to the Teramachi shopping arcade, the girls stopping it shops along the way. Once at Teramachi, I took them to the second-hand kimono place, and while they were browsing, I tried to sell my kimono. Well, that didn’t turn out very well at all. Not only did they not want to buy it, they wouldn’t even except it as a donation; this made me wonder where they actually got their kimono from. I don’t know, maybe I just wasn’t negotiating properly, or maybe it’s because I’m a gaijin. It just meant I had to haul it around for the rest of the day, and believe me it’s not light. After exiting the shop, Katie and her friends went to karaoke, and Sarah, Carly and I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping; separately!

Well not at first. We went over to the t-shirt printing place, and I got exactly what I wanted. I had to pay a bit extra because the expression was so long, but it was totally worth it. I now have a bright yellow shirt that says 豆腐の角に頭をぶつけて死ね (tofu no kado ni atama wo butsukete shine – “Go bash your head on the corner of a block of tofu and die”) on it!!! Extremely satisfied, I made my way over to ABC Mart, to see if I could find a pair of shoes for my brother; I couldn’t. I had left the girls at a fabric shop, and when I returned, they weren’t there. I waited around for a bit, then went back to ABC Mart; no sign of them. I walked back to the fabric store again, and they weren’t there, so I decided to just continue on; maybe I’d bump into them again. Well, I didn’t, but I went to a heap of shops, and found some really great stuff. I tried looking for some bags and found a few places, but I wasn’t entirely certain about any of them; I needed a second opinion. So, I’ll have to get them tomorrow for sure. I found another Village Vanguard (it’s also in Kuzuha Mall and has a whole lot of crazy, fun stuff in it), but didn’t end up buying anything. I also had a look around some of the small temples and shrine crammed between the shops; everything looked so lush in the rain.

I ended my shopping in a music store, hitting the jackpot on the 4^th floor; piano sheet music!!! I ended up buying four books: two Kingdom Hearts piano arrangements, the Advent Children piano solo, and Chopin; one of the pieces Austria always plays in Hetalia is Chopin’s Nocturne, so I want to learn it. I was so happy after that, but my legs were killing me. I had a lot of bags, but luckily one of the shopkeepers offered me a really big bag to put them all in; that was a huge help. I made my way back to the station, and after buying some sweets from the bakery, I decided I’d do a little more looking around before heading home; I had just enough energy left. Since Book Off was just upstairs, I browsed that for a while coming back empty-handed; oh well. On the way home, I drifted in and out of sleep; having a chair was very comfortable. I finally got home at about 8, and went straight to dinner; leftovers with rice. I stayed up there until about 9 and when Sarah came in, I asked her what happened; after they left the fabric shop they went into the 100円 shop so I must have walked straight past them. Anyway, it all turned out okay. I spent the next hour sorting stuff out, and then after saying goodnight to Carly, I went and sat down to watch the drama with the girls; this week’s episode wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the last one. Still, it was fun and a chance to practice listening. Well I’d better get some sleep since we’re going to the flea market pretty early tomorrow. And 0% chance of rain…

Day 205 - 23rd of March

9:40am　休息所

天気：雨天

In the lobby, waiting for Sandy and Nan to eat their breakfast on the 13 floor; the buffet breakfast wasn’t included as part of Alex’s and my stay. I’ll just pick up something small later; Alex and I are thinking of going to sweets paradise for lunch, so I should save my appetite. Despite expectations, I slept really well; I guess I really needed it. After going to nakau for dinner again, we got back to the hotel and after talking for a while, fell asleep from exhaustion. Anyway, don’t know what we’re doing today; just have to wait and see…

11:15pm　セミナーハウス

Alex + Japan = one of the best days ever. Seriously, whenever we’re together on holiday in Japan, we have at least one day that is absolutely amazing, and today was that day; everything was perfect. My feet are killing me, and I’m really tired, physically and mentally, but it was so worth it… After checking out, we went into the adjoining department store, and Sandy and Nan did some last minute shopping; not that they didn’t already have enough clothes. Actually, Sandy found an absolutely amazing deal on boots; I wish there were some for men. We went down to the basement floor, to find an ATM, and came across an outlet store; lots of really cool imported miscellany. Of course, I had to by some badges for my bag. After that, more clothes shopping ensued, and Alex got a really great looking hat. I thought it would be a good idea to take them to the new department store across from the station; the massive one. So we made our way over there, walking through the station, past all the restaurants. We found a bakery, and Alex and I decided to pick up something to eat; I just got a sandwich. Then we continued on, past more restaurants, and the really cool water feature; which Sandy and Nan really appreciated.

Going outside, we made our way over to the department store, only to find that it actually hadn’t opened yet; I had misinterpreted the sign. On it, it said in English, “Spring Open”; so I assumed since it was indeed spring, it should be open. So we made our way back to the awesome flan store (called Berry Café), in the station. Sandy just had to try one of the flans; I had a feeling they would be very expensive. Nevertheless, we went in and sat down, and everyone ordered expect me; Nan was shouting, but I didn’t feel right letting her pay for me. Since I was thinking at that point we’d be going to sweets paradise anyway, I wasn’t really fussed. I have to say though, the flans looked incredible; it’s a shame I didn’t take a photo. The slices were also a pretty decent size; though still not worth as much money as they were. I ended up trying a bit of Alex’s, which was a custard tart topped with banana and mango; it was very tasty. Sandy got the same one, and Nan ordered some sort of chocolate filled flan with strawberries, raspberries, and dark chocolate on top; equally as tasty. Also, I ended up drinking Sandy’s hot chocolate since it was “too strong” for her; it was indeed very chocolaty.

After leaving the café, we went in search of another ATM (this time for Nan), and after asking at the information desk, we were directed upstairs to one close to the shinkansen section of the station; the old man who told us the way was so nice. Since we were right there, Alex suggested Sandy and Nan buy their shinkansen tickets, and with our help, they did; just used the machines. We had thought of going to Kyoto tower, but seeing how Sandy and Nan wanted to get to Tokyo at a decent time (it was about 1 o’clock at the time), they decided they would go now. So after, hugs and kisses, they went back to the hotel to pick up their luggage, before they would be spirited off to Tokyo on the shinkansen. As soon as we parted, Alex was feeling all protective of them; she had been with them in Japan since they got off the plane. I assured her they would be fine, and she knew they would be; with hand gestures and pointing, they’d get the message. And besides, in Tokyo there would be many more people who can speak English; they’re going to have a great time.

So, now Alex and I had to decide what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. After a little bit of thinking, we decided that we wanted to do some shopping, because we really hadn’t done enough; we’d mostly just been watching Sandy and Nan. We thought about taking a bus at first, but then I suggested we just take the subway, since it would be cheaper; well actually it was 10円 dearer, which really isn’t that big a deal anyway. We went two stops away to 烏丸 (karasuma – lit. “crow circle”), and soon emerged out into a rain-filled sky. This time, it was my turn to find an ATM, and as luck would have it, there was a Sumitomo Mitsui bank just across the street; it was a massive building. After going to the toilet (which had automated everything – flusher, soap dispenser, water, hand drier), we found the ATM room over in the other corner of the room. After that, we went back out onto the street, and started walking up the street; not entirely sure where we were going.

Of course, we were exactly where wanted to be (all thanks to me needing an ATM), and after a bit of walking, we found the entrance to 寺町 (teramachi – lit. “temple town), which is the huge long shopping street I can never remember the name of; hopefully now I will. The next three hours consisted of some of the most enjoyable and satisfying shopping I’ve ever done; it was great…first we come across ABC Mart, and each bought an amazing pair of converse shoes. Alex got a black pair with a blue tongue, and I got an orange, green and blue plaid design pair. We also bought some bright coloured laces to go with them; Alex glittery purple, and me green. Well, they aren’t boots (which I’m still looking for), they are an awesome pair of converse; and so cheap too. Next, we came across a t-shirt print store, where you could get kanji, hiragana, or katakana printed on a shirt colour and size of your choice. The kanji was limited to a few pages of words and expressions, and a set that represented the phonetic alphabet so you could get your name in kanji; which wasn’t too appealing. Alex and I both wanted something meaningful to us, and after a lot of deliberating, we both came up with some great ideas.

I poured through my iPod to find some expressions that I liked, and shoed the shopkeeper the “go bash your head on a block of tofu and die” expression. He had a little laugh, and then explained that they didn’t have the kanji, and doing it in hiragana might take up a bit too much space. So I continued looking, and the expression, “don’t worry, be happy” caught my attention. I shoed this one to him, and asked him if it made sense. He told me that the expression was actually in an Okinawan dialect (I was really surprised), so I asked him what the Kansai dialect equivalent would be. He came up with どうにかなんでー (dou ni ka nan de), which roughly translates to something like, “it’ll get done one way or another”. I was really happy with this, so decided to get it. I choose a dark red shirt (A small fit me – so I guessed they were Western sizes; it is a shop catering for tourists after all), and got the hiragana in white. 5 minutes later, it was all done; basically just a matter of arranging the characters, and putting the shirt in an iron press. I got the expression on the front of the shirt, and on the back I got 京都 (Kyoto); this was a complementary service.

Alex decided to get two shirts – a light blue one with ゆきまつだ (Yuki Matsuda – her “Japanese” name) on the front, and 夢 (yume – dream) on the back; and a dark blue one with 濠太剌利 (oosutoraria – Australia) on the front, and 日本 (Nihon – Japan) on the back. I’ll have to go back there again and get some more shirts done; I still want to try to get the tofu expression. It was a good price for what it was too, especially since you could get practically anything you wanted on the shirt, and choose from a huge range of colours. While we were in there, a group of Germans and Japanese came in. I was really impressed with the German woman, who was constantly switching back and forth from Japanese to German; I could understand a lot of the Japanese too. Basically the whole thing was about them wanting to get their family, ‘Deiter’ on a t-shirt, and they were trying to figure out the best way to write that in Japanese; ディター, or ジター. I was also really happy with myself for being able to talk with the shopkeeper to get exactly what I wanted. I know I can speak it, I just need to not be so shy; I’m going to try harder from now on! During the time we were there, we also went into the adjoining shop called 人参倶楽部 (ninjin kurabu – “carrot club”), which had a plethora of anime goods; Alex found some very “interesting” designs on coffee cups.

We were on such a high from buying those shirts that we forgot about our aching feet for a time, and pressed on down the street, looking at a few more shops. In a bag and t-shirt shop, Alex got a really cool looking white rucksack (really cheap too), and I bought a maroon coloured shirt with an awesome design of a phoenix on front and back with the word for phoenix (不死鳥 – fushicho) printed in gold; such a great find. We came to the end of the street, and made a right onto an adjacent one, continuing to browse the shops. I noticed there was a Shakey’s on the street, and since we were feeling hungry, we decided to check it out; Shakey’s is an all you can eat pizza and pasta place. Getting inside we realised that we had come at the end of the lunch time period; it was about 4:15. We asked about dinner time, and found out that it started at 5 and went till 10; unlike sweets paradise, there is no time limit!!! We decided to come back then; it wasn’t too long to wait. In the mean time we did a bit more shopping. I found some caramel latte flavoured yatsuhashi; which in retrospect tastes really amazing although the coffee smell is a little overbearing. Alex wanted to go back to ninjin kurabu, to pick up a watch she had seen for one of her friends. So we walked back there and got the watch; that killed a heap of time.

We got back to Shakey’s a few minutes before 5, and the girl who we had talked with before was nice enough to let us in a bit early. We were seated, and then got stuck into it. I have to tell you now Shakey’s was one of the best eating experiences I’ve ever had!!! First of all, for what it is, it’s amazingly cheap; all you can eat for up to 5 hours! The pizza tasted amazing, and there were so many different toppings; there were even dessert pizzas. I only end up having a little bit of pasta, since I wanted to fit in more pizza; they were all thin-based. Apart from pizza and pasta, there was curry, salad, and even potato wedges. If you want to pay extra, Shakey’s is also a nomihodai (all you can drink) restaurant, which extends to alcoholic drinks. Since we knew that drinking would just fill us up, we decided to just buy one drink (orange juice for Alex, and grape fruit juice for me), which lasted a surprisingly long time; we would just take small sips every now and then. We ended up staying for almost 2 and a half hours, after a lot of eating, we just sat there talking and letting our food digest; although I had to go back one more time to try the new batch of dessert pizzas they had brought out.

While sitting there, Alex laced up her new shoes, using the black ones, and purples one to create a really cool pattern; she’d found an app for the iPod that shoes you about 50 different ways to do laces. We also finally divided the purikura photos up; I got scissors from the lady at the front counter. Alex also had to sort out all the stuff she had bought, trying to minimise the number of bags she had to haul back to Nagoya; she got it down to two, and her backpack. Finally, it was time to leave the wondrous Shakey’s, to whence I will hopefully return to soon. Alex wanted to go back to ninjin kurabu one last time, to by a Rei outfit, so we trudged back there again; luckily it was still open. We had decided to split at the store, so after buying the outfit, we had a big long hug. Then I read a sign saying that the Keihan line and the subway were in the same direction, so we ended up continuing on together. Coming out onto the street, we couldn’t find the subway, so Alex decided she would just take the bus; much easier. So we crossed the road, and waited at the bus stop for it to come; it didn’t take too long. With a final hug, she got on the bus, which soon sped off into the rainy night; now it was time for me to get home. I walked over to 三条駅 (Sanjo station), which is just over the bridge, and caught the rapid express back to Hirakatashi; walking back from Makino wouldn’t have been very pleasant at all. I was so tired that I fell asleep for a little while. When I woke up I felt a little disorientated, and was worried that we had already gone past Hirakatashi. Soon enough though, we came up to Kuzuha, and then went onto Hirakata. I was on the first bus back to the seminar houses, and then used up my last bit of energy to walk home; so exhausted. What a wonderful way to start spring break…