Off to Kyoto! We had to get up early(ish) to make it to the train station in time for our trip to Kyoto on the bullet train. We scarfed down a wonderful breakfast (fruit on the rind, waffles with maple butter, which by the way, is AMAZING, and met around 9 in order to begin our trek. Wholey crud, it was hot outside. It just kind of engulfs you and is sticky. It just makes the adventure more…adventure-like. We had to take a train to get to the bullet train. We were all good, until we got to the next station, especially as we only had about 5 minutes to make it from the subway to the bullet train. Three people (one being me) got stuck behind some HUGE crowds and a few really old/slow people (I’m not saying old people are slow…I’m saying that these particular people were haha) and we lost the group. No bueno. We were running up and down different sets of stairs trying to find the group with no success. We found out a general area we were supposed to go really quick, ran back downstairs, and luckily saw someone who was looking for us. We met up, ran up the stairs, and jumped on the train. Halleigh-freaking-lu-ya! We were so glad it all came together even if we were hot and sweaty.
The first part of the trip we were supposed to discuss the book that we have been reading as a group. It was a really fun discussion, as we were able to see different things that impressed each other. Its called Made to Stick, and it actually is really good, especially if you are trying to get an idea across to people (whether as a teacher, or as a business person…it applies in almost all situations).
The view along the track was phenomenal. We saw a lot of the Pacific Ocean (its weird to say that, as my hometown is right up against the Pacific Ocean too), and a ton of green, mountains, and villages.
I dozed a fair amount, and we eventually made it to Kyoto. After getting a few things (Money being the big one), we were on our way. Interestingly enough, we all decided to stick together as a group, which actually made things a lot easier. We grabbed a bite to eat and I learned quickly how expensive everything in Japan is, especially when compared to China (at least McDonalds isn’t as expensive as Switzerland. I had a set of small 1.5 inch square sandwiches that had som really interesting things on them. One was a normal ham and mayo sandwich, but the next was a weird type of egg sandwich and another one was a weird tomato thing…but they really were pretty good. I think it had potato in it to. Interesting. Haha. Then we met up as a group and went on the train to a large shrine. I can’t remember the name of the shrine, but it was great. I am amazed at how connected the Japanese people seem to be with the earth. It is just part of their culture. It love it. We walked around there for a while and saw some amazing things while we were threer. We had to wash our face and hands before we entered the shrine area, and all the orange arches are supposed to bring good luck. After a while, we went back to the train and caught a bus up to an ancient temple. We had to hike a bit of a hill in order tog et up to it. Talk about sweating. Here more than anywhere else, I feel like I”ve entirely lived in my swet. Its making me want real aa/c more than ever. We got to the temple and I totally thought of golfland in California. It has one of those asian temples thing like that. Anyway we walked around and got the lay of the land. A few of the things that we wanted to do were already closed, which is super lame. One thing we did go up to was these two rocks. The myth I that if someone is able to walk from one rock to the other with their eyes closed, that they will be able to find their true love without any help. If they need assistance from someone else, it means that they will be able to find their true love ,but only with help. Kind of a fun thing. It technically was already closed, but we snuck up there into the earea and got kicked out by security before I got the chance to do it. I hope that’s not saying something about my desiny haha.
Then we walked around the grounds some more, took a few more awesome pictures especially because you could see the entire city of Kyoto fro a distance. It really was pretty cool. Then we walked down to this spring thing that has three separate funnels that he water flows out of. One is supposed to represent health, one represents longevity, and one represents wisdom. You are only supposed to drink out of two of them because taking all three is just greedy. I had to participate, right?! They have these long tin cups on sticks that you use and then stick into a U V light to steralize it after you’ve used it haha. I totally knocked a lady in the head becaue the handles are so long. Oh well, life goes on. I picked…crap I don’t’ remember what I picked. They weren’t really even marked anyway. Oh well. Haha. So, we kept on walking and made it back to the bus as the temple was closing anyway. There were so man y people crammed onto that bus, I had no idea how we would be able to fit one more perons. But we made it back to the train station all right and then back to Tokyo. Thank goodness! It was definitely a fun filled day, especially when it ended with some ice cream. It’s a sad thing hen you are addicted to ice cream. Haha. What a good night.
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