3rd Day in Japan!

The third and final day in Kyoto was another thrilling one. I wasn't sure what I was going to do that day because there was no accompanying persons tour scheduled and although Japan is very very safe, the language barrier can be a problem if you are lost and need help. However, at breakfast we saw my Canadian friend and Korean friend and they invited me to spend the day with them. They were planning on going on this really cool walking tour of Kyoto (apparently it has been fairly popular - like on the Discovery Channel and stuff) and it only cost 2000 yen ($20). So we took off and found our tour guide (named Johnnie Hillwalker). He's this cute little Japanese man that has been doing this same five hour walking tour for 47 years. Seriously...47 years! He moved to Kyoto right after getting married because he wanted to be a tour guide and has been doing it every since. Anyways, on the tour we walked all through town seeing different shrines and temples, different artisan parts of town and other neat things around the city. I didn't know this, but Kyoto is the handicraft center of Japan. If you have a fan from Japan (like the real hand painted ones) it came from Kyoto. A lot of pottery comes from there too. And other various crafts. And the craftsmen all living in these towns live and work in their houses and their families have been doing it for 17 generations. And all the potters live in one part of town, all the fan makers in another, all the tatami mat (the mats on the floors in their houses) makers in another and so on. It is very very cool. I even got to see and take pictures of the craftsmen making these crafts. After walking through all the crafts parts of town, we went to this really good sushi makers place and got to try a piece of inari sushi (vegetarian). Oh my I have never had such good sushi. And ours was simple - the flavored rice with tofu wrapped around it and lightly fried. Delicious! After the sushi, we went to a Japanese pastry maker's shop (one of the best in Japan) and tried a pastry and some tea (of course...nothing can be eaten without tea in Japan). We also went by the pottery painter's house and watched him paint and then outside, there was racks of pottery on sale that you could buy that they actually painted. I bought a really pretty bowl with purple flowers on it.



After the really long tour, we caught a taxi back to the hotel. My dad wanted to do some stuff so I freshened up and we headed off (on foot...so much walking in Japan). We went to the handicraft center again and got all the gifts/souvenirs we planned on. I got a really pretty miako (geisha) doll. We got my brother this really cool puzzle box that can only be opened a certain way and its like a logic puzzle. We got my mom a musical kokechi doll. Kokechi dolls are really pretty wooden painted dolls. And Audrey, I got you a couple of prints there...I'll get them to you soon. After the shopping (we got it all done in an hour...record timining!), we headed over to this part of town called the Philosopher's Walk. It's just this pretty stretch along the canal that has lots of trees (it is especially popular when cherry blossoms are blooming in March and April) and there are little restaurants and shops all along the way. It kind of reminded me of the River Walk in San Antonio but more quiet and peaceful. None of the shops or restaurants were opened because it was 5:00, so I wished we had gone earlier, but oh well. It was still peaceful. By that point, I had had my fill of walking (8 hours....ouch!) so we trekked back to the hotel. Since I hadn't eaten lunch that day, I was starving.

We decided to leave the hotel for dinnner, but stay pretty close by. So we got a list of suggested restaurants from the concierge but really just kind of looked at restaurants as we went by. We ended up at this really cute little restaurant (they are all really cute and little in Japan) and we chose it because it had english translations on the menu. This place, you also took off your shoes and sat on the floor to eat. Very authentic. In Japan, some of the restaurants have pictures or wax replicas of their food outside the restaurant so you just point to what you want (without really knowing what you are getting) and not much is in English. However, you do find some with english translations, so that way you kind of have an idea of what you will be putting in your belly. My dad and I both ordered Tempura Soba (buckwheat noodles in broth with some tempura shrimp). So yummy. I would love to eat Japanese noodles for my whole life. The bowl was huge but so good to my hungry belly. We also talked to this older couple from Denver who were on a month long tour of Asia and they were really funny. People from Colorado are always interesting. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and packed up. I am proud to say that this is maybe the best packing job I have ever done thus far. After the disastrous packing job I did for Boston, I didn't want to make that mistake again. Not only did everything fit in my suitcase that I brought, but I was able to pack all of our souvenirs (including one fairly large box) and all my clothes and shut the suitcase without struggle or having to sit on it. Nice. I was very pleased with myself :0) Then it was time to sleep. Yay!

The next morning, we ate breakfast and checked out. So sad to leave! We boarded our flight and there was the same male flight attendant we had had on the way there. He was so loud and obnoxious and gave everyone random nicknames. Ugh. It was a long flight with him being our flight attendant. But otherwise it was okay and I just read almost the entire 13 hours (this is why I don't read constantly because once I start, it is very hard for me to stop and I can swallow up hours and hours just reading). The rest of the trip was uneventful and we made it back to Houston!