Adventures in Japan

Redundancy

I was going to write about January 20th, but Carla pretty much covered all the bases so I'll just mention what we got up to today.

First, we went shopping for groceries. Boy it'll be nice when we move into a place with an actual kitchen. Or at the very least some counter space.

I'm going to miss winter in Japan. It doesn't get all that cold, and all the fast food restaurants serve soup. I really enjoy a good soup. A good spicy Korean soup. I'm going to miss spicy Korean chige. Of course, right now I miss mom's chicken noodle soup.

After the shopping and the soup, we jumped on a train to Kyoto to meet up with Ayako. She took us to a nice udon restaurant and then on a walking tour of the surrounding area. Kyoto looks different at night. Maybe it's the lack of people.

We walked through a shrine and a park and then through a slice of the past. There is a section of Kyoto that looks like it hasn't changed in hundreds of years. It's all wood and stone and narrow streets. The electric signs, the streetlamps and the blinking lights of the security systems ruined the effect a bit but the deserted streets and the lack of normal city noises helped add to the mood. The dim lights meant no photographs, so my lackluster words are all you get. Sorry.

After that we hung out in a coffee shop for a while, chatting, and then we headed back home.

Oh yeah, Ayako showed us pictures of her dressed up as a nurse, a bunny, and a policewoman. I love this country.