Kyoto - the Silver Pavilion & the Philosopher's Walk

One is Silver, and the Other Gold

After waking up late, yet again, I decided to head out to the Silver Pavilion (銀閣寺). As it turned out, quite a few other people wanted to go there as well! So I decided to meet them after an early lunch with Lauren and Tyler around Toji. After taking a crowded bus up to the silver pavilion area, I sat down in an empty cafe called "the Pink Bunny". It was decorated in pink and white chairs, tablecloths, wallpaper, and lots and lots of bunnies. Toys, stuffed animals, ceramics, plates, glass, you name it, it was a bunny. The owner even had a English sort of garden outside surrounded in bunny statuary and butterflies! It was my favorite place in the world for the 15 minutes I was there.

Afterwards everyone met up and we walked around the Pavilion which was extremely crowded. It was very beautiful and I will have to go back at a time it's not packed! They had lots of gardens, rock gardens, and a hilltop climb with beautiful trees. The changing of the autumn leaves made for a spectacular view as well! After the pavilion, everyone got interesting ice cream at a nearby stand. Blueberry, sweet potato, sesame, chestnut, matcha (green tea powder) etc. I had chocolate, myself.

After ice cream, I suggested that we go on the Philosopher's walk, which is a pathway about 1 mile long (1.5 km) that goes past quite a few temples and shrines. It's a lovely walk surrounded by a small river full of fish and flowers and trees on either side. We passed quite a few interesting shrines and temples as well, and stopped at the last one (Nanzen-ji 南禅寺) which is an expansive temple. We climbed up one of the towers and got a wonderful view of the area (many photos were snapped). We then trekked further towards the Museum of Modern Art (where sadly, I did not get a chance to go to). However we did see a dance contest between groups in wildly colored costumes doing obondori, which is traditional Japanese dance. Only it was mixed with some very lively modern music and modern dancing. The dancers were even smiling. It was one of the highlights of the day! We then walked endlessly in search of onigiri and snacks, which we had in spades.

Afterwards we wandered back to Sanjo where we met up with more JETs at a tavern type place and all had sandwiches and wine! It was a lot of people so it was a bit difficult to make decisions, but it was nice seeing everyone again and my sandwich was amazing. I also got prety drunk on a half bottle of wine that I was sharing with Leigh, which tasted somewhat like Jell-O. After that we went back to the river! I was already on my way to drunk at that point and decided that I was grumpy and then drank a LOT more. I think 3 or 4 beers more, which left me at being... the drunkest I have ever been in my life! I was stealing phones and writing nonsense texts, went into a very heated conversation about innie/outtie nipples with Blakeney and Fiona, wandered around giving high fives,, and had frequent conversations in line for the bathroom. One of which I remember was about a magazine entitled "glay" which I thought was hilarious at the time. And ... even now.Then eventually Liz, Leigh and Ger decided to take me home with them as Lauren and Tyler had already left and they figured I wouldn't be able to take a cab home alone (how right they were!) So I passed out in Liz's room almost immediately.
Although due to all the sight seeing everyone had been doing, it was an early night.

Weekend/fun had by many

Two Cars, Nine Foreigners, One Beach

This weekend was wonderful! On Saturday I cleaned my entire house... mostly. It was about 96º outside, so I took constant tea and coffee and ice cream breaks, watched a movie in the middle of the day, and spent most of the time reconfiguring the futon business and putting away the leftover blankets in the tatami bedroom closets. So now everything that was out is put away, which is awesome.

I also sorted all my gross trash and I can't wait until Tuesday when I can put out all my old food garbage, ugh its really beginning to smell funky! Blegh.

Sunday was a more eventful day, as I had nine people come over so we could all go to my nearby beach in Honjo, aptly named Honjo Beach. I drove down to Miyazu city, which is about a 50 minute drive, and picked up three ladies at the train station (Marina, Amy and Paulette). Marina is from LA and she is a hilarious tiny tiny Ukranian girl who lives in Fukuchiyama (which is a bit of a hike by train to Miyazu). Amy deLong is from Kentucky hilarious behind her freckled, quiet exterior. And Miss Paulette, who is an awesome theatre junkie from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is very boisterous.

From the train station I drove us to Mipple, which is a big lame department store on the bay in Miyazu. There we met Jarrad, a 31-year old ex lawyer from Tacoma. He looks like he’s about 24 years old. He told us that everyone he meets thinks he is a nice Jewish boy because he has a sweet face and glasses and a beard and he's a soft spoken lawyer. There are worse things to be mistaken as, I guess!

We also met up with Yumi, my favorite Japanese person. She is a 25 year old student who lives in Miyazu and likes to tag along on JET outings. Her English is flawless and she asks great questions, such as "what is crazy sex?" Or "do you think Lucy Liu is beautiful? Japanese people don't." Her mom of all people dropped her off, which I guess isn't extremely embarrassing in Japan (nerdy things tend to not be nerdy here, I have noticed). Grown men in Hello Kitty slippers? HELL yeah.

We then went inside Mipple and grabbed some food, since everyone wanted lunch. I personally was dying to go to a restaurant, but nobody else wanted to. I guess they all have restaurants in their towns so they didn't find the idea nearly as exciting. So we bought bentos and onigiri (the rice balls of deliciousness). The coolest thing I discovered, other than the pikachu ride in the upstairs arcade, was a cooler of green tea cans. I reached in to grab a can of ice cold green tea for the hot day and then realized the can was HOT. It was a cooler of hot drinks! Technology! The rest of the JETs started touching all the cans and yelling "its hot!" I then realized we must have looked insane to everyone else in the store. Stupid gaijins.

In Mipple, we met up with the last three JETs, Desirae (Kentucky fried Sweetheart), Scott (our South African resident/former film student), and new JET from Maryland, Liz! Liz is 100% Maryland. She came in with her dark blue regatta sports t-shirt, jean shorts, flip flops and dark blue visor, complete with freckles and a runner's ponytail. She is also a huge Harry Potter fan, so the conversation flowed like buttah.

The crew drove out to Ine in two cars: my little kei-car and Scott's white plated, normal-sized car. It was a long trek, and very warm, but we finally made it to my house! Everyone oohd and aahd at the size of my "mansion" and we ate snacks and put on sun screen. Then we grabbed the beer and food and went to the beach. The beach by my house is AWESOME. The water is mostly warm (but not too warm), there are no waves, no sticky sand, and no pointy things in the water. It's the perfect relaxation beach. We grabbed some inner tubes and hung out in the ocean for hours. It was delightful. Desirae brought her snorkel mask and kept finding us starfish! A few of us got nibbled on by a curious little crab (I am convinced it was the same crab every time) and we saw quite a few fishes. It was pretty much the best day ever. After we'd had enough swimming, we plastered ourselves on the sand and drank beers and had delicious Japanese snacks, procured by Miss Paulette. Mochi-balls (sticky sweet rice) and shrimp crackers and delicious beeeeer (brought by yours truly and Amy). Then we swapped bad relationship stories (I received much sympathy for the Randall debacle, or as Yumi called it "that horrible bastard boyfriend" because she couldn't say his name.) The best was the few who were admitting to writing or receiving really bad poetry from significant others or people who had crushes on them.

After the beach we had some delicious Nyuu Yooku sutayaru cheezuke-ki (New York style cheesecake) made by Yumi. It was very delicious! People kept telling me they wanted to stay, and I honestly wanted them to stay for more time! But sadly, there were trains to catch. So we began the long trip back to Miyazu, where I dropped everyone off, and turned right around to go home. I think I spent about 4 hours in the car yesterday. Worth it.

It's amazing how many instant friends I seem to have already! I only just made good friends my last few weeks in Los Angeles, so it's incredible to have so much socializing all of a sudden. I am not complaining, mind you.

Anyway, it was a good weekend and I even got a tan (to cover my burn!)