Our day in Kyoto

Today we finally had the same day off as my friends Yumi, Miho, Shuhei & Kenji. We had planned about one month ago to all go to Kyoto together...and that's just what we did.

Jame and I have been quite busy this last week or so working and packing, so we were super exhausted when we woke up today. We caught the 10:30 am train and headed northwest to meet everyone at 11:30. The train ride was long.....well, not really, but it seemed super long to me because I had a bit of motion sickness. I was ok, just a bit nauseous.

We met Yumi and Miho at the train station and boy oh boy it was hot! It is the middle of October and today the temperature was 26 degrees! Once we got outside I instantly fell in love with the city. It is not a concrete jungle like Osaka with sky-scrapers everywhere. In Kyoto buildings are not allowed to be any higher than 8 stories....this is nice because you can be standing downtown and still see the mountains in the background.

We proceeded to walk to one of Kyoto's most famous temples. Along the way we stopped in many shops and did some window shopping. I picked out the things I wanted to buy so I could purchase them on the way back -- that way I wouldn't have to lug everything around the whole day. On the way to the temple we walked through many of the area's side streets. It was very nice....tradiational Japanese architecture and cobble stone pathways. This is how I had imagined Japan to look like!

On the train ride over I told Jame to be on the lookout for a geisha or two as I have heard and read that spotting a geisha in Kyoto can be rare. We hadn't been in the city for more than 45 minutes when we were walking down this deserted walkway and low and behold we came across two geishas walking in the same direction. I was so excited to come face to face with these beautiful women. We asked them politely if we could take their photo and they ever so elegantly gestured "yes". I have seen geishas in photos and on TV, but it was amazing to see how lovely their hair, make-up and kimonos were. One thing I want to know is how long it took them to learn to walk so gracefully in those sandals!?!?! What an awesome experience.

After our encounter with the geishas we were stopped by a guy and his film crew. He started talking to Yumi and Miho and they called me over. I had no idea what was going on as he was speaking in Japanese and people walking by were staring and pointing and taking pictures of the host. I didn't know until afterwards that he is the host of some famous music TV show here. Supposedly we are going to be on TV at the end of the month! Ha ha ha!!

Once we arrived at the temple we met Shuhei and Kenji. This area was packed with many students and tons of tourists! It was nice to be surrounded by mountains and greenery. We are planning to go back in a month or so when all of the leaves will be red, orange, and yellow. Here are some pictures from our walk around the temple's grounds:

After a couple of hours, we headed back down towards the main area. Yumi suggested we go to this sweets cafe where you can dress-up in a kimono. It took about 20 minutes to walk there from the temple and on the way we saw a couple more geishas!

At the cafe we ordered some drinks and dessert, then us girls went upstairs to try on some kimonos. It was such a neat experience. I don't know how geishas do it....I was only wearing a kimono (with a short skirt) for 30 minutes or so and I was sooooooooo HOT! The fabric was so thick and heavy. It was worth it though because us girls had a lot of fun!

After the cafe we did some shopping and headed into the city center. We made our way to a Japanese restaurant for some good food and drinks. I will admit that walking around for 6 hours and then having some Chuhai made me a little tipsy :) Ahhhhh.....good ol' chuhai...I love it!

After dinner we all headed home. Once we walked in the door I made my way to the computer to upload all of the photos we took and to write this blog entry. We are moving tomorrow and I think it is going to be a while before we will have the internet again. Unfortunately there isn't a Seattle's Best Coffee near our new place, so I won't be able to take advantage of their free internet.

Chat with you all soon!

To view all of the pictures we took in Kyoto, please click here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33808451@N00/sets/72157594335652391/