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

Yoli & Me: When Brown People Unite

YES~!!! No school today - thank you Mr. Emperor for making your birthday a national holiday. Thankfully, I'm taking 3 days off, too.

Anyway, last Saturday (the day after my birthday), Yoli midnighted to my place. She wanted to hang out in my area and do some Christmas stuff before our trip to Tokyo (which is in 2 days, btw). When she got to my place, she decided to take a nap before we headed out to 大阪 (Osaka) to meet up with my friend, Yuko.

Around lunch time, we met up with Yuko near 難波駅 (Namba Station) and walked to a place called WIRED Care. Yoli and I ordered Loco Moco, but it was TOTALLY different than the actual Hawaiian-style version. Instead of gravy, they used this demi-glace burger sauce. It was weird. Oh, and there was this f-ed up lookin' ketchup bottle...looked frozen, but it wasn't. Why was that? I don't know.


We took the train and made our way to USJ (Universal Studios Japan). We had to walk through Universal Citywalk to get there, so we did some side-shopping along the way. And, yes, we had to stop at the Takoyaki Museum, of course~!!!


The main reason why we went to USJ was to see the Christmas show. Yoli and I wanted to feel the Christmas spirit full-blast since it's known to be really commercial here in Japan. We rode the roller coaster, the 3D Spiderman ride, even watched a Peter Pan show. Churros? Had to eat some. We even ventured into the souvenir shops that were more packed than early morning commuter trains.

Dang, we DARK...jk.

Yoli & Yuko

Christmas Tree Hat?

3D Glasses x 3 (+ a random woman)

The Spiderman Ride Car

Christmas Churros

The Christmas show itself was amazing. There was a normal looking series of buildings on the lot. That night for the show, really colorful and winter-ish images were projected on the surfaces of the buildings. There were dancers and singers, people dressed up as angels., and a fireworks finale. It was hard to get good pictures because all these old people kept pushing their way through the crowd to get a better view of the events as they unfolded. And it was dark. And some tall-ass Japanese people were there.

All the songs they sang were traditional English songs, so I started to feel REALLY homesick. After all, it was my first time being away from family for Christmas. Finally getting our fill of "home," we parted with Yuko, and went back to my apartment.


The next day, Yoli and I went to 京都市 (Kyoto City) to do some shopping for our trip to Tokyo.We took a leisurely pace until we met up with Yuko for dinner. We had DE-LE-JUSS Japanese food and weird, but tasty-times drinks.


Monday rolled along, and I had to go to work. It was closing ceremony. After I got back home, Yoli and I headed down toward 宇治 (Uji) to get my haircut, but I didn't realize that all barber shops closed on Mondays. So instead, we just walked around the city; even got some 宇治抹茶ソフトクリーム (Uji Matcha Soft Cream). We went back to my apartment because I had to get ready for a school social in the city with the school staff. Yoli spent time solo in the city during that time.


Tuesday was Yoli's last day before heading back home. We pretty much spent the rest of the day up until Yoli left to soak in the scenery at 伏見稲荷大社 (Fushimi Inari Shrine). It was fun being able to explore the unbeaten paths that were hidden behind the obvious ones. We ended up going through a bamboo forest that suddenly became what looked like a pine forest (seriously looked like the California mountains at a point). We passed some vegetable farms and ended up in an area that NO tourist would normally end up (possibly a residential area behind the hill).



We even cut through a forested area and ended up on the other side of the viewing area f the lake. It was cool exploring the area with a good friend. Finally it was time for Yoli to head out. The both of us had fun during the long weekend. Down cuz we're brown~!!!


This is what goes down when brown people unite. WE OUT, SUCKAFISH~!!!

A Day in 大阪 & Turkey Substitute (EC Reunion Part II)

It was off to Osaka the next day (Sunday, 23 Nov. 08). I initially wanted to take the crew to Kyoto again to see more stuff, but Saiki had major issues with her Apple laptop, so we went to Osaka to hit up the Apple store.

We dropped off her computer and headed to 風月 (Fugetsu), an お好み焼き (okonomiyaki) restaurant in アメ村 (Amemura - America Village). It was DE-LE-JUSS. I'll let the pictures tell the story~!!!


After finally getting back Saiki's computer, we decided to hit up various stores and stuff around 道頓堀 (Dōtonbori). Naturally, I had to take them to the Glico Man, a well-known landmark, and OF COURSE we HAD to eat たこ焼き (takoyaki) from a street vendor before we left. I wanted to show them more of the area, but alas, we were running out of time (I had planned an early Thanksgiving dinner with them). We finally headed back to my apartment.


FINALLY, time to cook in Papa Noel's Kitchen...EVERYONE GET OUT~!!! Just kidding. Since we were all together and we all were scheduled to work on the day of American Thanksgiving, I decided to plan a dinner for all of us. All the guys took turns helping me out in the kitchen. It was rockin' times - sharing funny moments, cooking & breaking bread together, and telling each other what we were thankful for. And seriously, we were just thankful that we were in each other's company.

The Menu:

Herb Chicken in Mushroom Sauce
Garlic Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Seafood Shumai
Mini Meat Patties
Fish Fry
Brown & White Mix Rice
Alcohol, Juice, & Water

HAPPY THANKSGIVING~!!!