First of all, I am typing on a Japanese keyboard at a Capsule Hotel and it is not easy to do contractions, so this will be awkwardly contraction free so I can hurry things up a little. So I guess I left off at Kyoto. We rented a fairly nice hotel there for a couple of days (for cheap, because of the internets). Amusingly without manually entering a channel number you could only get previews of mosaic filtered (pixelated genitalia) porn. There was an upskirt channel also that was pixelated even though all the girls had panties on, which was pretty funny. Actually I do not think there is anything in Japanese TV which is not pretty funny. The feeling I usually get out of any given Japanese show is total confusion, or confused bemusement.
The first day we were there we went to Inarimaebashou, or something similarly named that you can find on Collin`s blog, which is basically a shitload of Tori gates up some paths in a nature area of Kyoto. It was cool, although we didn`t go that far because Collin was still in a lot of pain and I did not want to leave him sitting there while I did a hike even though I am sure he would not have had complaints if I had (but we all know Collin does not complain about many things). I actually kind of like that they do not try to hide the fact that you have to pay gods here. In Christianity I feel like they try to thinly veil paying God because it is kind of silly, but here it is just a normal idea. I think nowadays most of that money goes toward restoring and maintaining the monuments. But the gate place basically had a gate from every company in Japan donated to it, which was many thousands. It was kind of funny because a lot of them are like, used car companies, or similarly silly things to be at a big historical monument. But I thought it was neat, and it was neat that it was in the middle (not totally literally although literally enough) of a city.
That night we tried to go check out the Gion district. Apparently it is a place where you can go to try and catch a glimpse of geisha as they go somewhere from early evening engagements. There is also a really pretty river there at night. But actually on the way Garrett wanted to find an Izakaya he knew of, and when we asked a group of young Japanese guys where it was we happened to be right next to it and they were like ''yeah let's go get drunk together!!!!'' so we went and did that. It was 300 yen for anything, which is awesome. You could get some huge beers for 300 yen there. Their names were Daisuke, who spoke the best English, Kenji, who was cool and had a place kind of nearby, and Masa, who was illegally drunk at 19, and man was he drunk. He just kept telling us how much he love American, and asking us where we were from. Daisuke was a little embarassed on his behalf I think. Anyway we spent the night drinking with them and talking and exchanging contact info (damn I've met a lot of people and gotten their info here). They invited us to go play wii games with them, but we wanted to go sleep at our hotel because we paid for it and there were beds.
The next day Garrett and Collin went out to the Philosophers' trail and did some sight-seeing. I had my freak-out about money and did not want to go, which probably turned out to be an okay, although depressing, decision. I had spend 1200 yen on a train/bus pass the day before, and that would definitely be necessary again, along with the money for getting into temples, and the money for buses if Garrett and Collin (who actually are in much worse physical condition than me now for some reason) if they wanted, and random trains that were not included, and gifts, and blah blah blah money bleeding. So that day I hung out and talked over Skype to my high school friend Lauren for awhile, which was fun, and did not do much, and then went and wandered the area around our hotel, which had like 3 cool little temples and the museum of Kyoto, as it turned out.
That night we went to a yakisoba place we tried the first night, which was cheap and delicious, although I did not get anything for the aforementioned responsibility-mode reasons. We met Kenji and a friend of his there, then went to a karaoke place. Actually we went and got some cheap liquor to sneak into the karaoke place and then went there. That was probably the first time those Japanese people have ever broken any rule in their lives, and they giggled about it and called it Secret Sake. I thought that was pretty funny. Karaoke was actually very fun just like everyone says it is here. You get a small room with couches, and you can smoke and drink in there and you get as many drinks as you want, although I do not think the alcoholic drinks we got there were very alcoholic. I think that was about all we did that night. We talked to them for a little while in our hotel room before leaving, and then I watched soccer until I fell asleep. Next day was Nara time, and I'll pick up with a post about that tomorrow hopefully. Hope you all are doing well. At the moment I am staying in a capsule. Yep. It is a little lonely now that Garrett and Collin are gone, but now they do not have to keep being around me which I am sure becomes grating, and I can do whatever I want. Which is probably going to be studying the LSAT. Actually on the 8 hour train ride over here I wrote half of a song which is cool. Looking forward to making music with Tom when I get back. The end.
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