A touristy day for a change

8.22 AM Kizu-Cho, Kyoto

Well yesterday was a touristy day, we woke up kind of late and we decided to explore the area, so, we went to Kyoto which is around 40 minutes by train. Oh! I have to tell you that we live in the prefecture of Kyoto but not in the city itself.

After we got there it took us a while to find a place to eat, since it was Sunday everything was closed, however finally we found this nice cozy place, I had a type of hamburger deeped in curry and some shrimps, rice and the soup that I cant remember the name right now, anyhow some old ladies sat next to us, they were having fun watching us trying to eat, specially me since I put some soy sauce on the rice, which I think you're not allowed to do.

Also it was good that we found a post office and so I could finally take some money, apparently they only charge you like 2 USD which is fine with me, once that was done Justin had the great idea to stop by a hotel and ask for help at the information desk for guests, though we were not guests but they didn't know.

A few blocks north from the hotel there was a temple, that to be honest I have no idea what is called, it was nice though, we got to enter to a kind of celebration, like a mass, of course you have to take off your shoes and knee in front of some figure, but it was fun, uh! And the information office was in this old classic style building, however as soon as you pass the threshold of the door shazam! A complete modern style building, the contrast was bizarre. Also there was this Chinese-gate that was supposed to be really famous and took us a good 20 minutes to find, of course there was nothing special on it, but well we had nothing better to do during the day.

Then we went to this other temple Mizu-something, it was all the way up in a hill, I should mention that I suffer of lower back pain and Justin of a knee injury, so we had to stop every other block for like 30 minutes. Anyhow the temple was quite beautiful, a lot more colorful than the previous and it had a type of waterfall where you are supposed to drink water and ask for a wish (Note: I drank the water because I was really thirsty but I forgot to make my wish). Also I should probably mention that we took the wrong way and we ended up starting the tour at the end and finishing in the start, but whatever. Down the hill there were a lot of shops for souvenirs and etc. Is not as crowded as other countries such as Mexico or the US, but you found what was necessary, although it took us a while to find postcards which by the way are really pretty and I may end up keeping instead of sending them to everybody.

The walk back to the train station was tedious after being walking all day uphill, but it was uneventful and we got to get to Takanohara station (10 minutes by foot from our apartment) pretty early.

Doing grocery shopping in a language that is completely alien to you is a whole adventure by itself. Finding simple stuff just like Salt or Chicken breasts was not easy to do, but at the end we came up victorious, with the barely minimum of items that we needed and an exorbitant price, uh! And of course a pack of beers for 28 Bucks!! We came back home just to get ready for dinner with Yanagida-san's family.

I should get ready, today is our first day at work and I have to dress up (which means Jeans instead of trendy pants).