On Friday, 1st May, I got to University, and realised I had left my shinkansen (bullet train) tickets at the dormitory. I was already feeling not so happy...in fact Nasu-san approached me before class began to ask whether I was okay; my reaction showed I was not. She listened to my problems, and made me feel a lot better :) After class she even gave me a really, really lovely card, saying that we could talk any time I would like.
She's a very lovely person.
Anyway, I went back to the dorm by bus, got my tickets, then caught the subway back to Uni to pick up my bags, then Natalia and I went together to Nagoya station, which is about 15 - 20 minutes by subway. We parted, as she was going to Osaka by bus. And so my adventure began!! My tummy was full of butterflies as I had never done anything like this before; especially in a country that speaks an entirely different language! Nevertheless, I found the platform and received a very lovely phone call from Dede, how lucky!
Moments before leaving Nagoya behind for Kyoto.
The trip from Nagoya to Kyoto only takes 30 minutes, which is extremely fast, considering going by car or bus would take hours. I met my friend Fumi at Kyoto station; it was a huge relief to see a friendly face after all this time. We went by subway to her apartment; it's a normal size for Japan's standards, but would be very small for anyone in Australia. Still, it's a lot bigger than the dorm rooms, and a lot newer too. After resting a while, we went for a walk around the neighbourhood.
Shimogamo River; famous as it's an old style Japanese river
Shimogamo Shrine
We had Italian for tea; I had pizza :) It was nice, but the Japanese don't do Western food like westerners do. There was hardly any topping. Fumi's sister was to come that night, but I fell asleep before she had arrived. I met her when I woke in the morning. She was nice, but I didn't see a lot of her.
So on Saturday Fumi and I set off for Kyoto's Movie Village-thing; I can't remember the real name. It's basically a kind of theme park where old buildings (I'm guessing Edo period, because there was an Oiran statue there) are reconstructed. Sometimes period movies and tv shows are filmed there. They had people dressed up in pretty kimono, and there were random samurai shows, etc there.
Next we went to Myoushinji; a garden (perhaps?) where there are about ten different temples! I thought that was amazing. We went to the main one, and had a tour. Unfortunately the tour was in Japanese, and difficult Japanese at that. I honestly didn't understand one bit. On the ceiling there was a dragon painted, which appears to be looking at you no matter where you stand. It made me dizzy!
We went to another shrine, I don't remember it's name, but it was near a neighbourhood where geisha live. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any. The picture below is of that shrine.
That night we went out to tea with Fumi's sister Tomoko. I had tonkatsu, it was so yummy! Tonkatsu is basically fried pork with a special sauce which I think tastes like barbeque sauce. I just realised I didn't take a photo of it unfortunately. It came with rice, pototo salad, lettuce, miso soup and some other things. I don't even know what they were. I couldn't have any soup because I was so full; Japanese set menus are always so large! How do they stay skinny? It's weird, because I've been eating so much, but I feel light somehow...
We had KFC for lunch at 3.00pm; I felt so weak because I was hungry. Naughty Fumi paid! In fact, she paid for a lot of things because her family gave her money. I kept trying to pay for things, but she wouldn't let me! We both had the Japanese-style chicken burger....it was so good! KFC chicken isn't oily and gross like in Australia. The problem was with the chips. They were so yummy; they don't put chicken salt on which is awesome. I only got about ten chips in a bag :( Terrible...
The next day was the best; I was extremely lucky. First we went to Kyoto City Zoo; quite small, but there are a lot of animals there. I think Auckland zoo is better because the animals are in larger enclosures which are made to appear like their native habitat. It wasn't the case at Kyoto. Still, I saw jaguars, and huge eagles! Most of the animals were sleeping, so I won't post any photos. They're quite boring, hehe!
Next we walked to a Japanese garden, which looked very private, called Murin-An. This is where I got lucky; Fumi and I decided to have Macha, a kind of green tea, in a traditional Japanese room overlooking the beautiful gardens. To our surprise, a recently married couple and their family were there to take photos. Fumi and I took photos of them as well; we felt like we were intruding, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up! I even walked past the bride; I was so close to that beautiful kimono! It doesn't show in the photos, but they looked so happy together; it was so so lovely. Definitely the highlight of my trip.
Fumi and I in the tea room. I have a photo where you can see my face better, but it's doing that thing again where my face looked huge - Mum knows what I'm talking about! Next we went into the city for lunch; by now it was already 2.00pm so we were starving! We decided we both wanted parfait (is that how you spell it?), and shared some sandwiches at Lipton (yes, the tea). I had purin (pudding) and fruite parfait, Fumi had the green tea one. My gosh it was so delicious! I think the Japanese are parfait-mad; last time I came parfait was available everywhere...and it still is!
I want to have parfait again now that I'm looking at it!
See what I mean about the Japanese not doing western food so well? The sandwiches were fine; for once they left the crust on (they usually cut it off; how annoying, it's the best part!!) There were hardly any chips :( We got like ten each, it's ridiculous!
Finally, we went to Nijo Castle, but we didn't get to go inside. There were hundreds of people lining up for tickets, which is unusal, but as it is Golden Week...I was lucky yet again though; I saw a Maiko entering the gates. I wasn't fast enough to take a good photo so I won't post it; you can only see her obi. Still, it was lovely! In only two hours I had to catch the subway, so we decided not to wait. Fumi made a few errors in how to get to Nijo Castle and to her place, so she paid for the subway for me. It was only $3 or so, but yet again she wouldn't let me! I felt so bad. Next time we meet I won't let it happen; especially because she let me stay with her and her sister free! They had to sleep on the floor...
I got on the shinkansen at 5.56pm and got to Nagoya at 6.32pm. I took the subway to my station, but got a bit scared. A young Japanese man was staring at me the whole way; I got paranoid that he was going to abduct me, because it gets dark here at 6.30pm, and if I were to get off and he follow me...eek! He kept looking at his phone then at me, so I thought he was emailing his partner in crime to get me. Luckily he got off one stop before mine. Scary!! When I got back, I set up the internet in my room! I had a nice night after that :D I love webcams
Just a few souvenirs; overall, I didn't spend a lot of money, which is excellent. The bottom left is a bento box, so I can now make my own food and take it to Uni; it has it's own apartment for the used chopsticks (which came with it free!). I bought it at the zoo, hence the zebra. I was going to buy a Lesser Panda soft toy, but forced myself against it. But it was so soft and cuddly and lovely! The right is a katsu bento I bought to eat on the subway. I was eating the last one when I realised that all of the pieces were different kinds of meat. I really, really, need to start reading th things that I buy. It was really yum though!
And that was my Kyoto trip! I still can't believe I did it on my own.
She's a very lovely person.
Anyway, I went back to the dorm by bus, got my tickets, then caught the subway back to Uni to pick up my bags, then Natalia and I went together to Nagoya station, which is about 15 - 20 minutes by subway. We parted, as she was going to Osaka by bus. And so my adventure began!! My tummy was full of butterflies as I had never done anything like this before; especially in a country that speaks an entirely different language! Nevertheless, I found the platform and received a very lovely phone call from Dede, how lucky!
Moments before leaving Nagoya behind for Kyoto.
The trip from Nagoya to Kyoto only takes 30 minutes, which is extremely fast, considering going by car or bus would take hours. I met my friend Fumi at Kyoto station; it was a huge relief to see a friendly face after all this time. We went by subway to her apartment; it's a normal size for Japan's standards, but would be very small for anyone in Australia. Still, it's a lot bigger than the dorm rooms, and a lot newer too. After resting a while, we went for a walk around the neighbourhood.
Shimogamo River; famous as it's an old style Japanese river
Shimogamo Shrine
We had Italian for tea; I had pizza :) It was nice, but the Japanese don't do Western food like westerners do. There was hardly any topping. Fumi's sister was to come that night, but I fell asleep before she had arrived. I met her when I woke in the morning. She was nice, but I didn't see a lot of her.
So on Saturday Fumi and I set off for Kyoto's Movie Village-thing; I can't remember the real name. It's basically a kind of theme park where old buildings (I'm guessing Edo period, because there was an Oiran statue there) are reconstructed. Sometimes period movies and tv shows are filmed there. They had people dressed up in pretty kimono, and there were random samurai shows, etc there.
Next we went to Myoushinji; a garden (perhaps?) where there are about ten different temples! I thought that was amazing. We went to the main one, and had a tour. Unfortunately the tour was in Japanese, and difficult Japanese at that. I honestly didn't understand one bit. On the ceiling there was a dragon painted, which appears to be looking at you no matter where you stand. It made me dizzy!
We went to another shrine, I don't remember it's name, but it was near a neighbourhood where geisha live. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any. The picture below is of that shrine.
That night we went out to tea with Fumi's sister Tomoko. I had tonkatsu, it was so yummy! Tonkatsu is basically fried pork with a special sauce which I think tastes like barbeque sauce. I just realised I didn't take a photo of it unfortunately. It came with rice, pototo salad, lettuce, miso soup and some other things. I don't even know what they were. I couldn't have any soup because I was so full; Japanese set menus are always so large! How do they stay skinny? It's weird, because I've been eating so much, but I feel light somehow...
We had KFC for lunch at 3.00pm; I felt so weak because I was hungry. Naughty Fumi paid! In fact, she paid for a lot of things because her family gave her money. I kept trying to pay for things, but she wouldn't let me! We both had the Japanese-style chicken burger....it was so good! KFC chicken isn't oily and gross like in Australia. The problem was with the chips. They were so yummy; they don't put chicken salt on which is awesome. I only got about ten chips in a bag :( Terrible...
The next day was the best; I was extremely lucky. First we went to Kyoto City Zoo; quite small, but there are a lot of animals there. I think Auckland zoo is better because the animals are in larger enclosures which are made to appear like their native habitat. It wasn't the case at Kyoto. Still, I saw jaguars, and huge eagles! Most of the animals were sleeping, so I won't post any photos. They're quite boring, hehe!
Next we walked to a Japanese garden, which looked very private, called Murin-An. This is where I got lucky; Fumi and I decided to have Macha, a kind of green tea, in a traditional Japanese room overlooking the beautiful gardens. To our surprise, a recently married couple and their family were there to take photos. Fumi and I took photos of them as well; we felt like we were intruding, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up! I even walked past the bride; I was so close to that beautiful kimono! It doesn't show in the photos, but they looked so happy together; it was so so lovely. Definitely the highlight of my trip.
Fumi and I in the tea room. I have a photo where you can see my face better, but it's doing that thing again where my face looked huge - Mum knows what I'm talking about! Next we went into the city for lunch; by now it was already 2.00pm so we were starving! We decided we both wanted parfait (is that how you spell it?), and shared some sandwiches at Lipton (yes, the tea). I had purin (pudding) and fruite parfait, Fumi had the green tea one. My gosh it was so delicious! I think the Japanese are parfait-mad; last time I came parfait was available everywhere...and it still is!
I want to have parfait again now that I'm looking at it!
See what I mean about the Japanese not doing western food so well? The sandwiches were fine; for once they left the crust on (they usually cut it off; how annoying, it's the best part!!) There were hardly any chips :( We got like ten each, it's ridiculous!
Finally, we went to Nijo Castle, but we didn't get to go inside. There were hundreds of people lining up for tickets, which is unusal, but as it is Golden Week...I was lucky yet again though; I saw a Maiko entering the gates. I wasn't fast enough to take a good photo so I won't post it; you can only see her obi. Still, it was lovely! In only two hours I had to catch the subway, so we decided not to wait. Fumi made a few errors in how to get to Nijo Castle and to her place, so she paid for the subway for me. It was only $3 or so, but yet again she wouldn't let me! I felt so bad. Next time we meet I won't let it happen; especially because she let me stay with her and her sister free! They had to sleep on the floor...
I got on the shinkansen at 5.56pm and got to Nagoya at 6.32pm. I took the subway to my station, but got a bit scared. A young Japanese man was staring at me the whole way; I got paranoid that he was going to abduct me, because it gets dark here at 6.30pm, and if I were to get off and he follow me...eek! He kept looking at his phone then at me, so I thought he was emailing his partner in crime to get me. Luckily he got off one stop before mine. Scary!! When I got back, I set up the internet in my room! I had a nice night after that :D I love webcams
Just a few souvenirs; overall, I didn't spend a lot of money, which is excellent. The bottom left is a bento box, so I can now make my own food and take it to Uni; it has it's own apartment for the used chopsticks (which came with it free!). I bought it at the zoo, hence the zebra. I was going to buy a Lesser Panda soft toy, but forced myself against it. But it was so soft and cuddly and lovely! The right is a katsu bento I bought to eat on the subway. I was eating the last one when I realised that all of the pieces were different kinds of meat. I really, really, need to start reading th things that I buy. It was really yum though!
And that was my Kyoto trip! I still can't believe I did it on my own.
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