Our final week with Hopson & Alex

Where did I last leave off....that's right..ok!! So after our first fun week it was back to the grind! On Tuesday Steve and Alex headed to Tokyo for the the night. They returned Wednesday and once again when we returned home from work the drinking started again!

This time we took a break from the GST's and delved into some wine and beer. It was the first time in a while we had just chilled out at home with some tunes and bevies. It was nice. How can I summarize that night? Ummm....ham fight, talk of a duplex, meeting new friends, finding a new cure for the hiccups and a late night!

The next day the plan was to go to Kyoto for the day. Steve and Alex left a bit before us because they had their Shinkansen pass and wanted to check out some temples that we had already seen before. So we decided to meet up with them a few hours later at Nijo temple...the same temple we attempted to see last week, but got there too late. I'm not going to lie to you...it was hard for me to be up and about as I was feeling pretty rough because of the night before.

We met up at about 1ish and the temple was swarmed with high school students. Thankfully we weren't bothered by them like Alex and Steve were bothered non-stop in Nara!! The temple grounds are huge and spectacular. The temple itself is known for its ornate interiors and nightingale floors. The purpose of the squeaky floors was to warn to Shogun of any intruders. It is by far the largest and most beautiful temple I have seen since being in Japan.

After that we headed back to the station and made our way back to Osaka. We decided to go to another one of our favourite hang-outs Tin's Hall as it was acoustic night. The night started out with some delicious burgers and quesadillas and of course mega beers! I skipped out on the beers because I was still hurtin' and couldn't fathom putting more booze into my body. The artist performing that night was amazing!!!!! We had a great time watching him and had planned to take a cab home since he was so good, but unfortunately he was from Nara, so he had to catch the last train home. We decided to do the same, so the clan had to chug their beers...nice work!!

The next day Steve and Alex headed back to Kyoto for one last time. Unfortunately it was pouring rain, so when they came home we decided to chill out. We went to a Korean BBQ for dinner then came home and watched Babel. Has anyone seen that movie? What did you think? It was a laid back night, but a much deserved one :)

Their 2nd last night we had some fun with some friends and went out to the themed restaurant Lock Up. Good food and fun drinks! After that we headed off to karaoke. We started at 11pm, drank a lot of shochu and chuhai, sang a ton of oldies, but goodies, rocked out, took a break to eat some smuggled in McDonald's and left at 5am. It was dark when we arrived and light when we left!! We got home at around 6am and crashed!!!!

We all woke up about 6 hours later and took off to do some shopping. We were all walking zombies, but it was good to be out and about. For dinner we headed to the World Trade Center. It gave us a great view of the city, but unfortunately they didn't have any crab! WHAT?!?!?! Oh well! On the way home we made a pit-stop at the local Pachinko parlor. Gambling is illegal in Japan, yet Pachinko is quite common and popular. I have no idea why. We tried Pachinko and Pachi slot, but because we didn't really know what we were doing, there were no big winners. It was fun though!

After that we got home and the picture downloading and the packing began. We had some "farewell" bevies and stayed up chatting till about 3am. Five hours later we woke up and walked Steve and Alex down the street to the bus terminal. They had a looooonnnng flight home!

Now that our guests are gone my body is saying "What the heck just happened?" :) We had soooo much fun with them and it sucks that they're not here when we get home from work! We cannot believe it is already the end of May. Time is once again FLYING!!! We head to China in 2 weeks and then we will pretty much be back home before we know it! WOW!!! Good times!!!