Kyoto, 1st trip

Kyoto was a lot of fun. It’s such a nice city! Much prettier and HAPPIER seeming than Tokyo. It also seems to be like the mecca of Japan or something – I never saw so many kimonos before. So I think people come from all over Japan for their fill of culture and shrines. The trip itself isn’t very interesting written down. We went to a ton of places, some very touristy spots as well. We basically just walked around the entire day. First, we went to 銀閣寺 kinkakuji、then went on the philosopher’s walk (but we were on the wrong path for about 30 minutes before we realized), then various other temples and zen gardens. Then later we went to 祇園 Gion, which was pretty awesome. I think if I lived in Kyoto instead, that would be my spot. They have these nice cobblestone streets, and it’s the biggest Geisha district left in Japan (although there are only a few in the whole country, and only under 2,000 geishas left in existence I believe). But we got lucky, we spotted two geisha! One was clearly late for one of her appointments, so she was walking EXTREMELY fast, which honestly, must take a lot of skill in those kimonos and block shoes. It was pretty fun chasing her, actually. I saw her up close at first, but I was caught off guard, so I didn’t have my camera. Then we proceeded to run after her, but she was too fast. And even all the Japanese people stopped and stared when she passed by, so it was difficult maneuvering. We saw another one later on, but just as we approached her, she bowed and ducked into a building for her appointment.
We went searching for a restaurant in Gion, and finally came upon one that looked reasonable. It looked really traditional on the outside, but once we got in, it was pretty strange, like something out of a futuristic sci-fi flick. There were weird objects, like shaving cream, in these glass tubes scattered around the room, next to the tables. And they were playing this music that sounded like it should accompany an alien touching things for the first time and going “ooooooooohhhhh” in an E.T. voice. But everything else about this place was very traditional, including the waitresses’ dress, and the food. They only had sets, so we decided to order off menu. It was pretty funny, my dad got huffy because he thought the waitress was flirting with me exclusively and not paying any attention to him. When she came to our table, she would only look at me, and she was very shy. So he tried to strike up conversation with her, but she turned to me and asked me some questions. And then finally, when she brought the cheque, she gave it to me, even though it was pretty obvious I wouldn’t be the one paying for it. At that point, he was pretty pissed. I told him to get used to being old. We returned home after getting directions from a very friendly dude, watched some weird Japanese TV with cringingly bad acting, then went to bed.
The next day, we visited that place I don’t remember the name of, the one that has 1,001 torii shrines all in a row. It’s really pretty. Also went to 金閣寺kinkakuji (not to be confused with ginkakuji), which was another pretty touristy spot, and then to Ryoanji, with the zen gardens. We got back to our shinkansen platform literally 2 minutes before it left. We cut it WAY too close, because dad decided he wanted to go back and see another zen garden last minute. But we made it, so all is well.
Once we got home, we had dinner with Kyoko, Nu, Tomoko, and Nobukazu, who I met for the first time. It was a lot of fun. It was one of those times I felt really good about my Japanese, because I understood practically everything they were saying. But those days are always followed by days where I understand nothing and feel like shit.