Kyoto Trip and Hirakata YO!!! Part 1

Hey, I just got back... kinda. I had a shower and then sat around for a bit... Anyway. I hate sitting in smelly shinkansen seats. There, I said it. My seat smelled like spoiled cabbage. In hindsight though, it was worth it. This was one of the best weekend/vacations of my life. It started out quite crapee. I had a cold all weekend whose main attrribute was an overwhelming chest infection. I had trouble walking up one flight of stairs, so try to imagine how I looked trying to climb all the stairs to shrines and temples... Yeah and for those of you who are knowledged in Japanese religion, this is no easy feat. The Japanese are obsessed with putting shit at the top of mountains. Anyway, the chest thing was bad enough, but I went the the gym on Thursday, before we left and stupidly did a leg workout, so the entire day Saturday, my butt and leg muscles, or glutes and quads for all you Kin majors out there were in a state of dying attrophy. Up was painful. controlling my speed of descent was a whole other level of torture. I want to send a shout out to Tito, who acted as a fantastic human brake during that dark day. Anyway. the whole first day, Friday, was devoted to touring Kyoto on foot. This was great, since I can look back on it now and see that it really did me good. It did work out all the pains in my body and it exhausted me and let me get a solid sleep and recouperate properly. Anyway, the tamples were nice, but the best part of the day was the end when we all went to dinner for all you can eat/drink. I sat ar the veggie table with Calen and Siggi, and constantly ran back and forth, fetching meat from other tables for myself. Calen and I also indulged in more than a few Peach Fizzes. Both he and I pretty much never touch booze, but it was all you can drink and the Peach Fizzes tasted SUPER!!! Anyway, the restaurant was followed by an English pub that Professor Olsen led us too. It was pretty much exactly like The Winchester Arms from back home and there wasn't a cover charge, which was great. Everyone played drunken darts, and we found out that we all play better sober.... Anyway. The night was great and we got to spend a lot of quality time drinking and having fun with Prof. Olsen, Nogami-san from the CIE office and Kojima-san from the CIE office.

Luckily, the following day, we got an exclusive bus tour around the city. It was much easier on me bod. At the end, I went to meet Tomoko at the station. We went and had dinner with Calen and Joel, and then took a tour up the Kyoto tower. The actual train ride to her house was about 1.5 hours, and I went to bed as soon as I got in and had a shower. I got to sleep on an authentic Japanese futon, since all their stuff was packed, but it turned out to be REALLY comfy and I was pretty much dead when I het the pillow.... I have trillions of kanji to study last minute now and a huge japanese journal entry to write so I have to bid you adieu for tonight. I promise I'll write more tonight. BYE