Kyoto Trip Day 1

Day before Fall Break (Friday)
Today we had our speeches. Super nervous because we had to say our speeches in front of our host families. After that I think my host mother probably thinks I speak really really well (we had our speeches corrected and edited by our teachers multiple times). I just hope she doesn't expect too much of me ^^;; otherwise I'll be spending most of my time nodding my head XD I really need to improve my listening...

After the speeches we headed back to our apartments. After a couple hours (around 6 or 7pm) me and 4 others headed to the train station in which we took the train to the bus terminal. We were on our way to Kyoto :D The bus was super awesome. The most comfortable bus ride of my life! Like seriously, the bus was super comfy. The seats were laid out so that there were 3 chairs in each row and each chair was separated by a walkway so it wasn't like normal buses where they had two chairs right next to each other. Each chair had its own blanket and head thingy. I was too short to use the head thingy so it made me uncomfortable so I didn't use it. The seats reclined and there was also a foot rest which you can adjust yourself. Being a Japanese bus you had to take off your shoes if you wanted to put your feet on the foot rest. They also provide you with slippers. Oh, I forgot to mention that our bus scheduled to leave at 9pm and didn't arrive in Kyoto until around 6am. Around midnight the lights in the bus turned off (took long enough...) which was a sigh of relief because everyone was getting sleepy and I think most of us were waiting for the driver to turn off the lights haha

Arriving in Kyoto (Breakfast, trying to find our hostel, visiting a Temple)
It was early morning when we finally arrived. One of the EAPers had already been in Kyoto before so we trusted him to lead us to the right direction. We headed out to first find our Hostel. He ended up taking us in the wrong direction. It's a good thing we were able to ask for directions in Japanese XP We ended up walking to his Hostel first. He wanted to see if he was able to drop off his luggage, but he wasn't able to until 8:30am so we had about 2 hours to kill. After finding his Hostel we decided to go find somewhere to eat Breakfast since we were all hungry. We ended up at Kyoto Station and ate an Italian-like restaurant. The breakfast was really expensive considering the portions they gave... It was still good, though.

After breakfast we headed to our Hostel. When we got there we were able to drop off our luggage. We couldn't check in yet since check in time was at 3pm. We decided to go back to where the other EAPer's Hostel was. We decided to check out a temple (I forgot the name of it...). As we walked we saw this river that was really cool. It was a nice view. We continued to walk and soon found ourselves walking alongside a much smaller river. The others didn't like it very much because that's also where a lot of bugs were. In Kyoto, bugs bite you a lot and I mean it. In Tsuru I hardly got bug bites, but in Kyoto I kept getting them... Not as bad as the others, though. Anyway, after a few minutes we found our way into a small park near an apartment complex. We decided to hang around there for a little big. I played on the swing which was even too low for me lol We eventually headed out because there were a bunch of bugs there, too. After a long while we finally made our way to the temple. It was awesome. The structures were awesome. We didn't stay long, though because the main attraction cost money so none of went to it. It was still cool seeing the buildings.

On the way back we saw a boy looking at something on the wall. We went closer to see what he was looking at and man were we shocked! We saw a black bug carrying a dead spider twice it's size! It was pretty neat and creepy at the same time. Probably one of the coolest things I've seen in Kyoto lol

We back towards our hostel and stopped by a restaurant for lunch. This place wasn't a tourist place (menus were only in Japanese) so there weren't many foreigners in there (which was nice, actually). The food was super cheap, too. I got bowl of sukiyaki which was only ￥250. Quite satisfying indeed. After lunch we headed out to find desert. We went to Kyoto-Yodobashi which is a mall-like building that was next to Kyoto Tower. We wandered up and down the floors for awhile. There was a Jump Store there (place where they sold Shonen Jump stuff). I got a little happy when I saw Gintama and Ao no Exorcist stuff x3 but we didn't stick around very long. We eventually found ourselves on  the B2F. A few of us bought ice cream and bread. We sat there for a bit. I just waited since I didn't buy anything. Eventually we headed back out. They decided that they wanted to head back to our Hostel and chill in the Bar next to it. Me and another EAPer decided that we wanted to check out Kyoto a bit more so we split from them.

Exploring Kyoto and More Temple Visits

We walked for a bit and found ourselves lost lol a random old lady saw us looking at our map. She pointed to the Kyoto Station and told us that it was the Kyoto Station. We nodded our heads and said thank you. We already knew that lol One thing about Kyoto is that every Japanese person will think every foreigner is a tourist. Can't be helped. Anyway, we went to check out a temple (I would look up the name, but I'm kinda lazy right now XP) There were actually two temples next to each other and we checked them both out. The buildings were amazing! Very beautiful in my opinion :3 One of the temples were were allowed to go inside. The architecture and stuff inside was awesome! It felt like I walked right into a Japanese movie during the older periods. I wanted to stay and stare at the them, but we headed out to the next temple.

The next one was bigger and more people were there. Inside one of the buildings there were actually people who were sitting on the ground and praying and stuff. Me and the other EAP sat down as well. After a few minutes I suddenly heard the sound of a bell. A monk was ringing one of those old Japanese bells. Something was going on in the building across from us. We decided to check it out. There were a bunch of people sitting on the ground watching some guys chanting. We sat down and watched. All they did was chant so we didn't stay long XP

We decided to head back to the hostel, but on the way back we stopped by a restaurant. I learned how to say green tea (maccha). We ordered green tea ice cream. It was super delicious! I freaking love green tea flavored stuff =3 I wish it was easier to obtain that stuff in SB :( After the ice cream we went back to the Hostel. When we got back the others were sitting on couches drinking wine (or some other alcohol). It wasn't until maybe another 30 hour until the others (3 more were joining us) arrived and until we were able to check in so we just chilled in the bar until them. They eventually came and we were finally able to check in.



Our Room in the Hostel
We booked an 8 room mixed dorm at the hostel since there was 7 of us (actually there was 8, but the other guy decided last minute to join us so he wasn't able to book it with us). So the entire time we were there we had some random people rooming with us. I think we had 3 different guys. I wonder if they felt awkward being in a room where everyone else knew each other. Also 6/7 of us were girls lol  We didn't hang around the rooms most of the time anyway so no big deal. When we got settled in our room we all decided to take a nap. We napped for about an hour. When we awoke we all decided that we were hungry lol

We walked to a ramen shop not too far from the Hostel. Unfortunately, it was a small restaurant so not all of us were able to fit. So, 3 of us decided to eat at the restaurant right next to the ramen shop. This placed had ramen, too, so it was no big deal. I ended up ordering fried rice instead. The others were kind enough to give me a bit of there ramen =3

After dinner we headed back to our room (not before the others bought alcohol at the convenience store). We went back to our room and they drank and we talked for an hour or so. I've gotten used to hanging around people who drink a lot XP After their pre-gaming they decided to go check out the mini-performance happening in the bar at the Hostel. Me and two others (the 3 who drink the least) didn't want to go so we decided to watch a movie in the tv room. We watched Tallageda Nights. We watched it with Japanese subtitles which was part of the fun since we were able to read and understand most of it. Translations were really funny lol It was also my first time watching the movie. It was pretty funny and interesting. We also met a student from Australia. A lot of people kept staring through the door (it was clear door) and we only got one person to watch with us. She was pretty chill. It's nice meeting people =)

After the movie we went back to our room. Some other things happened but probably not that important to mention xP First day of Kyoto ends here!