Temple on the hill the day after we get in? Mmm, I'll pass.
Day 2 or..er...Japan stories. Going through this slowly. No pictures from today or the next few days. Rather self-explanatory.
Today's schedule was full of sights previously seen in Kyoto, i.e. Golden Temple, Kiyomizu Temple, Nijo Castle. Thought about it, decided to skip since I'd gone four years ago, & I had pictures. I don't need more.
And I'm jetlagged. Like, really. And they made me get up early. My uncle & I could tell the tour guide, Moto-san, that we aren't coming, hope everyone else has fun.
"Fun". AHAHAHAA. THAT HILL. Good luck. It's beautiful up there, may not have that same idea on the day after you get to Japan. I'm just sayin'.
Moto-san was totally understanding that we didn't want to go, since we'd seen it & we were tired. I think there were a few others who did skip the first day because they were really tired. Like the couple who were awake for the last 25 hours.
Woke up at 6:30am, I don't know, body doesn't even know what time it should be. Nice room. Fluffy bed. Fluffy pillows. Big shower, separate bath tub. Ate the breakfast buffet (they gave us meal coupons, since it was included in the price). Oh man. They had the one thing I can't get enough of in Japan. Well, the one other other other other...er, it's in the top 10, that counts, right?
Hot tofu with yuzu/soy sauce. Ahhh...so good. Bonito shavings. And tsukemono that tastes like tsukemono...the purple eggplanty one. There's this taste difference. It's authentic Japanese!
The buffet is mix of both Japanese & Western foods, all of it very good. I ended up eating the Japanese breakfast foods more often than not.
Busted out the map, decided to try & find this electronics store that my uncle saw on the map, look around at the local shops. The hotel is in downtown Kyoto, which is OK, except it's lot more shopping places than food. The restaurants are more spaced out & harder to find.
Compared to Tennoji, where we stayed the last time, being on top of a food market probably spoiled us. It's mostly likely not like this in a lot of other cities, especially major ones. My uncle kept complaining about this one little point. It's not like we're going to get it perfect every single time. Oy.
We walked for a bit, got lost, asked a salesperson, found the electronic store, which was a lot larger than I first looked at it. I also found Tales of Hearts (DS game - hee!) there. DS isn't region-locked, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered buying a Japanese DS game.
Came back, checked out the underground shopping area next to the hotel, & a few of the restaurants in the hotel. The only one which looked promising was the soba one, which was good & inexpensive (yay). In Japan, they serve you a pot of the soba water, which you're supposed to mix with the soba dipping sauce, then drink it as a soup.
The underground mall had a lot of women's clothes stores. And a haircut place. The farmer's market type event was cool. Except I don't have a fridge to take veggies back to.
Oooh, but after dinner, we found a massage parlor, & they did all kinds of different massages. Foot. Full body, partial body. We found out it was about 1 yen per minute of massage, went for the 30 min, partial body, was about 3,000 yen - oh man. Hello cute Japanese girls giving massages. Yes, please. ^_^;; It was a pressure massage, pain at the start, feel good at the end.
Tomorrow, we decided to go with the group to Nara, even though, again, we've seen it, just to hang out with the group.
Today's schedule was full of sights previously seen in Kyoto, i.e. Golden Temple, Kiyomizu Temple, Nijo Castle. Thought about it, decided to skip since I'd gone four years ago, & I had pictures. I don't need more.
And I'm jetlagged. Like, really. And they made me get up early. My uncle & I could tell the tour guide, Moto-san, that we aren't coming, hope everyone else has fun.
"Fun". AHAHAHAA. THAT HILL. Good luck. It's beautiful up there, may not have that same idea on the day after you get to Japan. I'm just sayin'.
Moto-san was totally understanding that we didn't want to go, since we'd seen it & we were tired. I think there were a few others who did skip the first day because they were really tired. Like the couple who were awake for the last 25 hours.
Woke up at 6:30am, I don't know, body doesn't even know what time it should be. Nice room. Fluffy bed. Fluffy pillows. Big shower, separate bath tub. Ate the breakfast buffet (they gave us meal coupons, since it was included in the price). Oh man. They had the one thing I can't get enough of in Japan. Well, the one other other other other...er, it's in the top 10, that counts, right?
Hot tofu with yuzu/soy sauce. Ahhh...so good. Bonito shavings. And tsukemono that tastes like tsukemono...the purple eggplanty one. There's this taste difference. It's authentic Japanese!
The buffet is mix of both Japanese & Western foods, all of it very good. I ended up eating the Japanese breakfast foods more often than not.
Busted out the map, decided to try & find this electronics store that my uncle saw on the map, look around at the local shops. The hotel is in downtown Kyoto, which is OK, except it's lot more shopping places than food. The restaurants are more spaced out & harder to find.
Compared to Tennoji, where we stayed the last time, being on top of a food market probably spoiled us. It's mostly likely not like this in a lot of other cities, especially major ones. My uncle kept complaining about this one little point. It's not like we're going to get it perfect every single time. Oy.
We walked for a bit, got lost, asked a salesperson, found the electronic store, which was a lot larger than I first looked at it. I also found Tales of Hearts (DS game - hee!) there. DS isn't region-locked, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered buying a Japanese DS game.
Came back, checked out the underground shopping area next to the hotel, & a few of the restaurants in the hotel. The only one which looked promising was the soba one, which was good & inexpensive (yay). In Japan, they serve you a pot of the soba water, which you're supposed to mix with the soba dipping sauce, then drink it as a soup.
The underground mall had a lot of women's clothes stores. And a haircut place. The farmer's market type event was cool. Except I don't have a fridge to take veggies back to.
Oooh, but after dinner, we found a massage parlor, & they did all kinds of different massages. Foot. Full body, partial body. We found out it was about 1 yen per minute of massage, went for the 30 min, partial body, was about 3,000 yen - oh man. Hello cute Japanese girls giving massages. Yes, please. ^_^;; It was a pressure massage, pain at the start, feel good at the end.
Tomorrow, we decided to go with the group to Nara, even though, again, we've seen it, just to hang out with the group.