I'm going to try to keep this one short in the interest of time. Yesterday was a good day. We woke up early and went East toward the hills. The #1 thing to do in Kyoto seems to be to visit the 1000-gates park. It's a windy and uphill hiking trail a large part of which goes through these shrine gates. It's very pretty. And there are a lot of gates! It was a hike! There are graves or something along the way. Very spiritual. We sat out early, but didn't get there until 10:00 or so so it was already packed with tourists. However the people thinned out the higher we went.
There were things to see left and right. The most memorable thing however was this old man sitting on the stairs covered in blood with a bandage covering this head and eyes. Judging by the amount of blood and bandage placement I want to guess he lost his eye. D: The rest of the hike was great thought. We got a good way up then got ice cream and I guess made a wrong turn because we ended up going down and eventually on the other side of the hills.
After that we went to the bamboo forest. So pretty. Oddly reminiscent of kung fu movies like House of Flying Daggers or Crouching Tiger Hidden dragon. So pretty though. On an odd note, I ran into a girl I saw at the train station next to where we're staying. We definitely shared a moment. Saw her a couple of times. She smiled back but I got the vibe she didn't want to have a conversation. Sigh.
Oh well. We pressed on and ended up in Monkey-land. Wow it was cool. Good hike. Beautiful view. And Monkeys! Japanese monkeys! We saw their feeding time. Fighting over branches. Saw them get satiated and then groom each other. Got lots of good photos, too. Finally figured out how to use my zoom lens to get good effects!
After that Alan and Annmarie went to get soba or something and Bria and I went out in sought of sushi. I think we definitely won that round, because we didn't find anything in the touristy part of town but I got asking around for a post office and so we went there. Directions took us outside of the touristy area and by a school. School! Kids! We found Japan's missing children! They have so few these days so hearing children laugh was like a godsent! But I digress. We got to the post office and mailed some post cards to friends and family. Loved the experience. Such friendly staff. The postage was super cheap, too. Only 70 YEN per card. That's a lot less than a buck. So good.
So there we were, walking back now to the train station through a normal Japanese neighborhood when we came across a small mom-and-pop corner store with sushi. It look good and I ordered a bento box for like $7. But then.. I noticed that I could buy a sushi tray for $12. Like 20 pieces of sushi for $12. Salmon, fish eggs, octopus etc. Holy ****. The chunks were big. They hand-made it for us. The lady was very nice as well! Best food ever! Bria had a pork bun earlier so she didn't order anything. Then after she saw what I got, she had to get some too. And she did. So good ^..^
After that we just wasted time at the Kyoto Station. I went up and down the 10 stories of escalators. We went to a super pricey department store. I so want a $350 umbrella now and a $700 travelling bag. Amazing quality. There are some things money *can* buy.
After a while Alan and I split off from the other two and we walked to the local grocery store. It smelled like Whole Foods. Was kind of expensive. He got oranges and I got peas. Both didn't taste the way we expected. They were expensive, too. Oh well. It was interesting nontheless. What was more interesting was how many California-grown fruit there was. Guess some things just don't grow in Japan. Cough *tangerines*.
I relaxed at night and watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2 on Netflix. I can't recommend it, but it was oddly fitting for a falling-asleep tourist in Japan.
Today we're going to Osaka. Lots of things to see there.
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