Kimi's Visit

It was awesome, my first overseas visitor - my really good friend Kimi visited from Vegas~!!! It was her first time visiting mainland Japan, so it was a week of me playing tour guide. Here are the things we did:

April 6 - Mon.
Kimi landed. My teacher and I picked her up from the airport and then had dinner at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant.

April 7 - Tue.
We went around to look at cherry blossoms. They were in full bloom just in time for Kimi's visit. After that, we walked around Fushimi Inari to look at all the torii gates. Meandering throught Yasaka Shrine to fool her, I surprised Kimi with a trip to Gion for a maiko (apprentice geisha) make-over, her belated birthday/Christmas gift. She was really surprised~!!! We took a bunch of photos as we walked around Gion. Later that night, we met up with my good friend, Kohei, and his fiancée (a friend, too), Natsuko, for some awesome yaki-niku. BBQ beef is so f-ing delicious. I could never be vegetarian.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTOS

April 8 - Wed.
Went to Uji for some tea shopping and to see Phoenix Hall and Uji River. After that, we hit up Kyoto for some random shopping and people watching. For dinner, I took her out to a yakitori shop I frequent.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTOS

April 9 - Thu.
Took a day trip to Toei Uzumasa Eigamura Movie Museum. It was actually pretty neat. It was my first time going there, but I think it meant more to Kimi because this was the actual set where they filmed some old Japanese samurai TV program she used to watch when she was growing up in Hawaii. After playing around there, we passed through Koryuji before finally hitting up Golden Pavilion (of course, a must see if you're visiting Kyoto for the first time). Did more people watching in Kyoto and had dinner at Mos Burger. YEAH~!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTOS

April 10 - Good Fri.
This day was temple hopping. We went to Kiyomizu-dera, the Hall of the Lotus King, and Nishi Hongan-ji (the mother Buddhist church that Kimi belongs to in Hawaii). On the way, we stopped by this small bakery and had carrot cookies. We ate at a donburi shop and ended the day with coffee at Doutour. Thumbs up for all the staples of Japan, right.

April 11 - Holy Sat. We had a bunch of time, so we headed to Nara to check out Todai Temple and play with the deer in Nara Park. Check out this rad photo! Who else can say they fed a deer under a blossoming cherry tree?

After that, we made our way to Osaka to mess around Dotonbori. We met up with Kohei again for okonomiyaki and takoyaki. We also just walked around the shopping areas in and around America Village.


April 12 - Easter Sun.

HAPPY EASTER~!!! CHRIST IS RISEN~!!!
After going to church, I met up with Kimi around Osaka Castle. We walked pretty much the entire castle grounds and even ate food at the vendor booths. Finally, it was time for us to head back to the airport so Kimi could catch her plane back home.

This was an awesome week. Good food, good sites, good times, all shared with more than good company. Btw, I never used so much Japanese in one week. Yeah for practice~!!! :D

EARTH HOUR 2009

Yeah, I turned off all my stuff right at 8:30pm. Alright, now it's the opposite side of the world's turn. HAPPY EARTH HOUR EVERYONE~!!!

LOCATION: Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

紅葉が大好きだ～！！！ (EC Reunion Part I)

久しぶりやんな～！Geez, it's been FOREVER since I blogged last. I apologize to those who check up on my blog to find that there hasn't been a new entry since the beginning of October. Ok, here we go my fellow beastly friends~!!!

Quick Notes:

• I miss my family, girlfriend, and friends a lot, but I try to keep busy to keep my mind occupied.


• Taiko is something of the past in my life, right now. Seriously, who would've thought that finding taiko would be hard in, of all places, Japan!? I would like to say more about this, but for now, let's just say...I hate when my time is wasted.


• I was sick for 3 weeks in October. I wasted 2 three-day weekends because I quarantined myself. I'm better now (after going to the doctor and getting some J-drugs - powerful stuff).


• Work's work. More kids are starting to warm up to me. Some still don't care that I'm there. A handful are super rude to me. Many really think I'm cool. Oh well, I really don't mind at this point. Whatever.

Ok, I think that about sums up all the missing info between this post and last. Anyway, last Friday (21 Nov. 08), 4 of my good friends from the Niigata area came down to spend the long weekend (the same peeps from Earth Celebration - Saiki & Susan from Sado, and Yoli & Jay from Kashiwazaki). It was such a fast weekend, but filled with memories I know I'll keep for a long time.

Coming from Niigata to my area takes up a good majority of the day, so the guys didn't make it into the city until 10ish pm. I met up with them at Kyoto Eki, grabbed some wholesome コンビニ (konbini - convenient store) food and headed back to my place to get our grub on.

Saturday was dedicated to touring Kyoto - with a whole mess of people from all over Japan and the world, it was really hard to go around, but we managed to have a good time without rushing.

東福寺 (Tōfukuji) was PACKED with people trying to get the full 紅葉 (Kōyō - colorful leaves of Autumn) experience. The Kyoto area is one of the prime destinations for people all over the world (and especially Japan) to tour around this time of year. The resilient golds, yellows, oranges, and reds among the transient greens were simply breath taking - undeniably something that NEEDS to be experienced first-hand. It's also something that can neither be fully preserved through the medium of photography or videography (although the products of effort are good enough keepsakes).

It was interesting walking from the the station to the temple. With guards and surprisingly clean traffic cones to lead the way, it was still difficult to navigate through the narrow streets as hordes of avid tourists went in and out of town. To accommodate the slow current of people, there were booths selling things - dorayaki (bean paste-filled pancake-like food), tea, mochi, and various dango to name a few. Yes, they were DE-LE-JUSS~!!!

Finally making it to the temple, we cued in a line that I swore was longer than that of any ride at Magic Mountain. It wouldn't have been so bad if people in Japan actually followed line etiquette.

Never cut in front of a group of Americans. NEVER~!!!

Once inside, we took our time to enjoy all the colors of the trees. The smell of autumn, the cool and moist air, and the barrage of visual stimuli was intense. We tried our best to take advantage of every photo opportunity possible. We spent hours enjoying the temple and the temple grounds, but the incessant pushes and shoves of other tourists eventually made us leave. At least we got our fill of the experience.

We started to get higgity-hungry, and the gang wanted to go do some shiggity-shopping, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat in Gion and went to the shopping district along Kawaramachi Street.

After a while of messing around, we headed to over to another popular site for 紅葉 viewing - 清水寺 (Kiyomizudera - Pure Water Temple), but this time we headed over at night. Only during the fall season, temples do what is called ライトアップ (RAITO-APPU - Light Up). Temples strategically place lights under, around, and above trees and parts of the temple to accentuate their beauty during the night. Like the last place, 清水寺 was packed, but it was TOTALLY awesome~!!! It was my first time experiencing ライトアップ. This is ALSO something that MUST be experienced up-close and personal. It was dark, so taking pictures was really challenging!

For dinner, we went to a place in the city called The Lockup for Yoli's super-belated birthday celebration. The Lockup is a theme bar where the waitresses are "sexy cops" in a prison filled with inmates and monsters (the other waitresses, waiters, and workers). You dine in a prison cell. Alcohol is served in either beakers, flasks, test tubes, syringes, or in capsule form. You have to ask the them for water seven times before they give you two sips of water - although I don't think that's part of the dining experience. It was an interesting place with interesting food, but honestly, we were all TOO exhausted to fully enjoy the atmosphere. This place was also too dark for pics.

After dinner, we dragged our asses through the streets, stumbled into the subway, and rolled into the train bound for my place. Yeah, this all took place on ONE day~!!!

EC Reunion Part II soon...tomorrow maybe?

さいしょはぐ～じゃんけんぽい～！！！