05-07-2010, 02:53 PM
April 2
Yukatas, Ninjas, Gates, and a lot of Sakura.
After a much, much needed rest from the yesterday's getting a feel for the place thing, I immediately got up and checked my foot-it was still badly swollen and was hurting a bit, but not as bad as the previous day. Not wanting to waste time, I did my usual “just to keep in shape” workout, took a shower, then headed out to get breakfast for me and sforza. I kinda accomplished these quickly to buy sforza some time, and to also be punctual for hyejin as she will meet us on the guest house at 930(I woke up 730). So, once sforza was up, I was already done, so I proceeded to use the free(yes free) pretty fast net down on the main living room of the guest house to check on some work e-mail and surf a bit. Hyejin came around a bit late, by 20 mins, so we had to leave quickly.
I forgot to mention about the 500 yen unlimited one day bus ride pass that they sell in convenience stores-these are so convenient when you're touring around in japan.
After purchasing the passes, we set off for our first agenda of the day, and that is to buy a shitload of souvenirs for the humans in the ph asking for them. We went to this souvenir shop that hyejin used to work for, and she asked if she could get us some kind of discount. From what I understood from the cashier/owner/manager, it was 10 percent, so I was cool with it and proceeded to look for a yukata in particular for my sister, and some stuff for my relatives. All in all i got a bunch of stuff, and jake got a yukata too(for a member of rr lol). When we were about to pay, the cashier/owner/manager suddenly told me in english that we were gonna get 30 fucking percent off, much to my surprise, that i asked her again if that was correct and if she did say 30 percent. Well, she did, and so we got huge ass savings from this. Hyejin asked the cashier/owner/manager if we could leave our stuff first as it was still early and we still had to go to a lot of places, she agreed and told us to be back by seven. Bowing politely to them when we left, we then set off to our next objective, and was pretty much the one that hyejin and sforza had been looking forward to, was the cake/food buffet at a very, very cool and unique restaurant.
When we got to the restaurant, it had this name “sweets of ninja” or something like that. So when we came in, the front corridor leading to the receptionist had all these(most were fake, butsome were prolly real as they felt real) ninja weapons and stuff. Pretty cool I must say since I'm a fan of those. Once paying up and going in the actual place, I was pretty much smiling like an idiot as the joint was pretty cool and they had all these bamboo forest ninja thing going sup front, and yeah, all of the cakes, sweets and stuff are all immediately visible. They looked good-and they tasted even better. I would also take note that all of the waiters or rather, waitresses, were kunoichi and pretty much fully dressed to look like that. They even announced your arrival when you came in. So, upon getting a table for ourselves, we had one of the kunoichi give us instructions on the buffet-she told us that we had a time of roughly 1 hour and 45 mins iirc, and the certain rules that were written on a scroll that she pulled out of a ninja-holster something on her hip. I mostly didn't understand the stuff, but hyejin told me that most of those were really funny rules concerning ninja honor. I just laughed and thought that the only thing missing was the kunoichi doing a ninja seal and disappearing in a cloud of smoke after she was done
Fast forward to the meal proper, and all I can say is that most of the stuff there were good-stupidly good by ph standards, pretty good for jp standards. Sforza noted that almost all of the cakes(they were served in cubed slices) were stupid good, and the staple food, such as the pasta and pizza, were just good. Then again the main stuff served were the cakes anyway. All in all, the meal was good, we got our money's worth, and I even had a picture with a pretty cute kunoichi before we left!
Okay, so we had our stomachs filled, were happy, and pretty much wanted to find a place to doze off, but hyejin had to leave to meet with one of her professors, so she dropped us off on our next destination, which is yazaka jin-ja, one of the temples/shrines in kyoto. We had to stay there for almost two hours, so at first I thought: “we're gonna have to find something to do around these temples for that time span. Lol.” little did I know that theres was this park just behind the temples, which was stupidly pretty and nice, had an almost endless number of food stalls, and did i say a lot of Sakura(which one of the primary reasons why i went to japan at this particular time of year)? I told sforza I had to sit a bit because my right foot was really hurting again, so I just opted to get this grilled squid(which was really good) on a stick to justify my random sitting on a random spot(not really prohibited. sarcasm lol). After resting a bit, we eventually walked around and took a lot of pictures of the place. The park itself was very big, as it took us a while to go around the whole place. All I can say was that this was one of the places i liked the most out of kyoto.
Once we were done, We eventually met up with hyejin, and decided to go to Fushimi inari, the place where there are a lot of torii(traditional japanese gate). The funny part about going there was we werent really sure on how to get there, so we ended up taking a VERY VERY scenic route to the place from the last bus stop we got off from. The walk was approximately 20mins. Upon getting there, we ended up walking some more, this time going up the mountain and through all the torii. The place was supremely nice, with all the torii and the shrines along the way while we walked past. Unfortunately, however, by the time we stopped over at the place we considered the top, we wound out that it was just 1/3 of the whole place, and that it was getting dark. We then opted to leave and go back for dinner.
On a side note, I lost another umbrella on our way back while on the bus(was too fixated on the location where we should get off from. Mark fail.
After the bus ride, we then made our way back to the souvenir store to pick up our stuff, then picked a kind of random location to get our dinner, which was kyoto university. Seeing hyejin off, we then had our dinner. It wasnt anything special or what, but the food was good enough to pass for a good restaurant here. Upon finishing our dinner, we made our way back to the guest house, with sforza making a very silly yet pretty good suggestion-he suggested that we put all of out 10 yen, 5 yen, and our 1 yen coins on the small table in the middle of our room so that those would be used for breakfast money(yes we always buy in family mart for breakfast when in kyoto),but the one who will be doing the buying is me(lol). Once we were discussing and loling at the proposition, I took a short hot shower and finally went up to my bed and slept. What a day.
Some quotes:
arch_angel: oh shit. I left my umbrella, AGAIN. What the fuck. Oh well, might as well consider it a donation to some random fool who doesnt have one.
sforza: So....we use these money to buy breakfast for tomorrow! But you'll have to do the buying though. I wanna sleep.
Yukatas, Ninjas, Gates, and a lot of Sakura.
After a much, much needed rest from the yesterday's getting a feel for the place thing, I immediately got up and checked my foot-it was still badly swollen and was hurting a bit, but not as bad as the previous day. Not wanting to waste time, I did my usual “just to keep in shape” workout, took a shower, then headed out to get breakfast for me and sforza. I kinda accomplished these quickly to buy sforza some time, and to also be punctual for hyejin as she will meet us on the guest house at 930(I woke up 730). So, once sforza was up, I was already done, so I proceeded to use the free(yes free) pretty fast net down on the main living room of the guest house to check on some work e-mail and surf a bit. Hyejin came around a bit late, by 20 mins, so we had to leave quickly.
I forgot to mention about the 500 yen unlimited one day bus ride pass that they sell in convenience stores-these are so convenient when you're touring around in japan.
After purchasing the passes, we set off for our first agenda of the day, and that is to buy a shitload of souvenirs for the humans in the ph asking for them. We went to this souvenir shop that hyejin used to work for, and she asked if she could get us some kind of discount. From what I understood from the cashier/owner/manager, it was 10 percent, so I was cool with it and proceeded to look for a yukata in particular for my sister, and some stuff for my relatives. All in all i got a bunch of stuff, and jake got a yukata too(for a member of rr lol). When we were about to pay, the cashier/owner/manager suddenly told me in english that we were gonna get 30 fucking percent off, much to my surprise, that i asked her again if that was correct and if she did say 30 percent. Well, she did, and so we got huge ass savings from this. Hyejin asked the cashier/owner/manager if we could leave our stuff first as it was still early and we still had to go to a lot of places, she agreed and told us to be back by seven. Bowing politely to them when we left, we then set off to our next objective, and was pretty much the one that hyejin and sforza had been looking forward to, was the cake/food buffet at a very, very cool and unique restaurant.
When we got to the restaurant, it had this name “sweets of ninja” or something like that. So when we came in, the front corridor leading to the receptionist had all these(most were fake, butsome were prolly real as they felt real) ninja weapons and stuff. Pretty cool I must say since I'm a fan of those. Once paying up and going in the actual place, I was pretty much smiling like an idiot as the joint was pretty cool and they had all these bamboo forest ninja thing going sup front, and yeah, all of the cakes, sweets and stuff are all immediately visible. They looked good-and they tasted even better. I would also take note that all of the waiters or rather, waitresses, were kunoichi and pretty much fully dressed to look like that. They even announced your arrival when you came in. So, upon getting a table for ourselves, we had one of the kunoichi give us instructions on the buffet-she told us that we had a time of roughly 1 hour and 45 mins iirc, and the certain rules that were written on a scroll that she pulled out of a ninja-holster something on her hip. I mostly didn't understand the stuff, but hyejin told me that most of those were really funny rules concerning ninja honor. I just laughed and thought that the only thing missing was the kunoichi doing a ninja seal and disappearing in a cloud of smoke after she was done
Fast forward to the meal proper, and all I can say is that most of the stuff there were good-stupidly good by ph standards, pretty good for jp standards. Sforza noted that almost all of the cakes(they were served in cubed slices) were stupid good, and the staple food, such as the pasta and pizza, were just good. Then again the main stuff served were the cakes anyway. All in all, the meal was good, we got our money's worth, and I even had a picture with a pretty cute kunoichi before we left!
Okay, so we had our stomachs filled, were happy, and pretty much wanted to find a place to doze off, but hyejin had to leave to meet with one of her professors, so she dropped us off on our next destination, which is yazaka jin-ja, one of the temples/shrines in kyoto. We had to stay there for almost two hours, so at first I thought: “we're gonna have to find something to do around these temples for that time span. Lol.” little did I know that theres was this park just behind the temples, which was stupidly pretty and nice, had an almost endless number of food stalls, and did i say a lot of Sakura(which one of the primary reasons why i went to japan at this particular time of year)? I told sforza I had to sit a bit because my right foot was really hurting again, so I just opted to get this grilled squid(which was really good) on a stick to justify my random sitting on a random spot(not really prohibited. sarcasm lol). After resting a bit, we eventually walked around and took a lot of pictures of the place. The park itself was very big, as it took us a while to go around the whole place. All I can say was that this was one of the places i liked the most out of kyoto.
Once we were done, We eventually met up with hyejin, and decided to go to Fushimi inari, the place where there are a lot of torii(traditional japanese gate). The funny part about going there was we werent really sure on how to get there, so we ended up taking a VERY VERY scenic route to the place from the last bus stop we got off from. The walk was approximately 20mins. Upon getting there, we ended up walking some more, this time going up the mountain and through all the torii. The place was supremely nice, with all the torii and the shrines along the way while we walked past. Unfortunately, however, by the time we stopped over at the place we considered the top, we wound out that it was just 1/3 of the whole place, and that it was getting dark. We then opted to leave and go back for dinner.
On a side note, I lost another umbrella on our way back while on the bus(was too fixated on the location where we should get off from. Mark fail.
After the bus ride, we then made our way back to the souvenir store to pick up our stuff, then picked a kind of random location to get our dinner, which was kyoto university. Seeing hyejin off, we then had our dinner. It wasnt anything special or what, but the food was good enough to pass for a good restaurant here. Upon finishing our dinner, we made our way back to the guest house, with sforza making a very silly yet pretty good suggestion-he suggested that we put all of out 10 yen, 5 yen, and our 1 yen coins on the small table in the middle of our room so that those would be used for breakfast money(yes we always buy in family mart for breakfast when in kyoto),but the one who will be doing the buying is me(lol). Once we were discussing and loling at the proposition, I took a short hot shower and finally went up to my bed and slept. What a day.
Some quotes:
arch_angel: oh shit. I left my umbrella, AGAIN. What the fuck. Oh well, might as well consider it a donation to some random fool who doesnt have one.
sforza: So....we use these money to buy breakfast for tomorrow! But you'll have to do the buying though. I wanna sleep.
