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write_my_dreamsHappy birthday to Hyde! I'll listen to L'Arc in honor of him. I'll try to get the second chapter of the L'Arc ghost story out soon, but certain muses were... very demanding and I haven't been able to get to my L'Arc fic yet. Bad Tatsurou and Atsushi. Such brats...
So on Saturday, I went to Kyoto to spend the night with the friend of an LJ friend who's been studying abroad in Kyoto since October '11. It was great to finally meet her... we had such a good time. Just an instant connection. We probably scarred some people for life (if they managed to understand us) while talking about fanfics and BL and just generally being creeps. It was fun though XD Excited to do this again! This entry is mostly details of what I did and some pictures. I used my iphone's camera and my regular camera, but my Mac doesn't read xd cards so I'm waiting until my USB card reader comes in. Until then, I can't get pictures off my camera >< Linking to her blog which is mostly pictures and not too much description, so you ca compare our entries nd get more pictures of what we did together. I'll post a link to my flickr account too so the rest of my pictures will show up.
While Hikone (specifically the area where my school is because there's NOTHING here) is not the greatest place to live, it's at least very close to Kyoto and Osaka. Kyoto is about 40 minutes away (by train) from Hikone Eki. Osaka is about 2 hours. Less if I take the shinkansen but that doubles the train fare so why pay that much when I'm so close. It's nice that I can escape to bigger cities where there's more to do when I have time on the weekends. It's also a better chance to explore Japan and speak more Japanese. I have a pretty bad sense of direction so I get to practice asking for directions. Also, in big cities, people are more likely to shyly approach foreigners and talk to them. That happened at one of the shrines in Kyoto... two random people came up to Johanna and I, said they wanted to have good relations with all people. They talked to us for a few minutes then got their picture taken with us. It was the first time that'd happened to me so it was kind of weird, but it was fun!
Getting ahead of myself though. Once I got off the train in Kyoto I waited for Johanna to pick me up then my lovely tour guide started my Kyoto tour by taking me to a big electronics store that was pretty close to the eki. (Eki = station) I think it was a 7 story building. There were school supplies, DVDs, games, bikes, a big display of these beautiful clocks... there was so much to look at. I didn't think we'd be allowed to take pictures but I got a picture of the Rilakkuma section since my roommate loves him. We spent most of Saturday looking around at the various shops and I bought some souvenirs. Stopped for lunch then did some more shopping and then... she took me to her favorite place to get to dessert.
It was glorious. I've been thinking of how good this parfait was and wanting another. I got the berry parfait and holy hell this was DELICIOUS Worth every yen I spent on it. Damn it, now I'm making myself hungry...
Delicious parfait もう一度食べたいなあ。。。
Also if anyone cares... this was lunch. I got pizza and some popcorn shrimp.
In one of the bookstores we went into, we found this massive BL section. I was in heaven. There was one huge shelf of BL manga, another of novels, and then the back shelf was BL too. I was tempted to buy something but I know I can find this stuff online and in English so it seemed kind of pointless. Also... any books I buy have to come home with me so it was best not to get any. I have some titles I need to look for when I next have some down time though.
So much BL
After dessert we did some more shopping then went back to her apartment. There we watched some PVs and hung out then we went out again to buy some food for tomorrow morning and to go to the mall by her. We got a pretty big shock when we left her apartment complex: it was snowing. Legitimate snow, not the pitiful excuse for snow that had been falling earlier. We got to eat our words since we'd made fun of the baby snow earlier. I'm from Michigan, where it snows a lot, and she's frothe tundra Sweden so we're both accustomed to snow. Well, we were soon covered in white. I had to keep brushing it off my coat and hat. First she took me to the shrine near her place and it was so beautiful in the snow. This was my first time really seeing a Japanese shrine with my own eyes so that just made the experience even more special. I unfortunately wasn't able to get many pictures of the snow or the shrine because I left my camera in her apartment and my iPhone decided it hated the snow and randomly shut off on me... but I was able to get a couple pictures of a small part of the shrine. Next time I go back to Kyoto, I'll be there in the daylight (hopefully) so I should be able to get some more pictures.
Nighttime shrine
We went to the mall after that and I found a cute miniskirt that didn't make me look fat (what a rarity) and a couple other things. Then we had the fabulous dinner of McDonald's... I tricked myself into thinking I was hungrier than I was and ended up ordering too much food. Blah! Big mistake. The grocery store was right next to the food court so we got some breakfast items then went back to her place to relax.
Sunday was our time to tour traditional Kyoto. Johanna took me to the Gion district, Kiyomizudera and Ginkakuji, Heian Shrine, and two more shrines whose names I'm forgetting. We're saving Kinkakuji for next time as we had a lot to do today and didn't think it was possible to make it to the three famous temples. So we just went to two, but those were gorgeous and I got to see shrines too so no complaints from me.
Kiyomizudera was interesting because there was a street of shops that we had to walk up to in order to get to the temple. I bought a couple fans from one of the shops there and we sampled some food. It was fun to look around at the shops and see people in kimonos walking around. I even saw two monks, which was impressive. Although one of the poor monks had sandals on... looking at his bare feet made me so cold. Also saw the rickshaw drivers who were all pretty fit. It'd be fun to ride in one but I imagine it's expensive and the weather wasn't bad, just chilly, so there was no need to ride in one. There were different sections in Kiyomizudera: the gate, what I thought was the temple, the lover's section, the main temple which was further back and cost money to get into, etc. etc. It was beautiful though.
Pictures
Shops and part of Kiyomizerudera in the distance
A little shrine where you can write your wishes. There's a big Buddha statue inside this shrine and behind it is another larger shrine. Only on my big camera though...
The steps leading up to the temple
Part of Kiyomizudera
Most of my pictures in Kiyomizedera didn't turn out so great because it was really cloudy
Next we did some shrine hopping. Shrine pictures are on my camera and I just have the one picture of Heian Shrine on my iphone. Here's the outside gate of the shrine. Isn't it beautiful? I have more pictures inside.
Heian Shrine
Between shrine hopping and going to Ginkakuji, we stopped to eat lunch at an Indian restaurant. This place was glorious. Lunch special was 990 yen and for that I got curry (butter chicken curry, Johanna's recommendation), soup, salad, and a choice between rice or naan. Naturally, I got naan. As my food arrived I was shocked that the naan was so... huge. But it was delicious and I ended up getting another. I haven't had curry yet in Japan but instead of big chunks of meat like you get back in the US, the meat is very small and there's not much of it. The curry is more of a sauce to put on rice or dip the bread into. So I basically had to get another piece of naan (unlimited, whoo!) so I could eat my food. Johanna and I ate way too much... our motto (that I stole from a meme) for this trip was: The meal isn't over when you're full. It's over when you hate yourself. Man we hated ourselves after that lunch but it was so good we couldn't regret it.
My lunch
So we hauled our bloated selves back up the stairs and got on the bus to go to Ginkakuji. It's supposedly the silver temple but... it doesn't look silver to me. Or to her. Maybe it was silver back in the day?
Personally I didn't think the temple was too much to look at but the area around it was GORGEOUS. My camera battery died on me when I was walking around taking pictures so switched to my phone camera. Yay for backup camera.
Around the temple Money collection Ginkakuji
After Ginkakuji we went back to Johanna's place and hung out a bit more. I couldn't stay too long because we both had homework and studying to do and I didn't want to stay too late. I had a commute to make and then I needed to get back to school from Hikone Eki. It seemed to take longer on the way back and it was dark so there wasn't much I could do... ended up continuing the fic I'd started writing on my phone to kill time. Then I got paranoid about draining my phone battery too much so mostly just stared out the window and daydreamed. Once I got back to Hikone I wasn't in the greatest mood because I'm really not happy with the area my school is in, the bus that takes me to the hotel next to the school had stopped running for the night, and there was snow on the ground. I wasn't going to take a taxi so... it was time to walk back to school. Took about 40 minutes to get back and walking by the river was so damn creepy because there was this eerie mist rising above it. Pair that with a full moon... ergh. Not pleasant. Most dangerous thing was the ice on the ground though.
Well, I got back to my school grumpier and missing Kyoto... but got back in one piece. Then it was time to do some homework, but I didn't last long on that since I was so tired XD
Oh my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84426656@N05/with/8425679603/#photo_8425679603 ;
Cookies for anyone who actually reads all this. Also, please tell me if my links aren't working. I'm sort of rushing through this since I need to get back to studying
So on Saturday, I went to Kyoto to spend the night with the friend of an LJ friend who's been studying abroad in Kyoto since October '11. It was great to finally meet her... we had such a good time. Just an instant connection. We probably scarred some people for life (if they managed to understand us) while talking about fanfics and BL and just generally being creeps. It was fun though XD Excited to do this again! This entry is mostly details of what I did and some pictures. I used my iphone's camera and my regular camera, but my Mac doesn't read xd cards so I'm waiting until my USB card reader comes in. Until then, I can't get pictures off my camera >< Linking to her blog which is mostly pictures and not too much description, so you ca compare our entries nd get more pictures of what we did together. I'll post a link to my flickr account too so the rest of my pictures will show up.
While Hikone (specifically the area where my school is because there's NOTHING here) is not the greatest place to live, it's at least very close to Kyoto and Osaka. Kyoto is about 40 minutes away (by train) from Hikone Eki. Osaka is about 2 hours. Less if I take the shinkansen but that doubles the train fare so why pay that much when I'm so close. It's nice that I can escape to bigger cities where there's more to do when I have time on the weekends. It's also a better chance to explore Japan and speak more Japanese. I have a pretty bad sense of direction so I get to practice asking for directions. Also, in big cities, people are more likely to shyly approach foreigners and talk to them. That happened at one of the shrines in Kyoto... two random people came up to Johanna and I, said they wanted to have good relations with all people. They talked to us for a few minutes then got their picture taken with us. It was the first time that'd happened to me so it was kind of weird, but it was fun!
Getting ahead of myself though. Once I got off the train in Kyoto I waited for Johanna to pick me up then my lovely tour guide started my Kyoto tour by taking me to a big electronics store that was pretty close to the eki. (Eki = station) I think it was a 7 story building. There were school supplies, DVDs, games, bikes, a big display of these beautiful clocks... there was so much to look at. I didn't think we'd be allowed to take pictures but I got a picture of the Rilakkuma section since my roommate loves him. We spent most of Saturday looking around at the various shops and I bought some souvenirs. Stopped for lunch then did some more shopping and then... she took me to her favorite place to get to dessert.
It was glorious. I've been thinking of how good this parfait was and wanting another. I got the berry parfait and holy hell this was DELICIOUS Worth every yen I spent on it. Damn it, now I'm making myself hungry...
Delicious parfait もう一度食べたいなあ。。。
Also if anyone cares... this was lunch. I got pizza and some popcorn shrimp.
In one of the bookstores we went into, we found this massive BL section. I was in heaven. There was one huge shelf of BL manga, another of novels, and then the back shelf was BL too. I was tempted to buy something but I know I can find this stuff online and in English so it seemed kind of pointless. Also... any books I buy have to come home with me so it was best not to get any. I have some titles I need to look for when I next have some down time though.
So much BL
After dessert we did some more shopping then went back to her apartment. There we watched some PVs and hung out then we went out again to buy some food for tomorrow morning and to go to the mall by her. We got a pretty big shock when we left her apartment complex: it was snowing. Legitimate snow, not the pitiful excuse for snow that had been falling earlier. We got to eat our words since we'd made fun of the baby snow earlier. I'm from Michigan, where it snows a lot, and she's fro
Nighttime shrine
We went to the mall after that and I found a cute miniskirt that didn't make me look fat (what a rarity) and a couple other things. Then we had the fabulous dinner of McDonald's... I tricked myself into thinking I was hungrier than I was and ended up ordering too much food. Blah! Big mistake. The grocery store was right next to the food court so we got some breakfast items then went back to her place to relax.
Sunday was our time to tour traditional Kyoto. Johanna took me to the Gion district, Kiyomizudera and Ginkakuji, Heian Shrine, and two more shrines whose names I'm forgetting. We're saving Kinkakuji for next time as we had a lot to do today and didn't think it was possible to make it to the three famous temples. So we just went to two, but those were gorgeous and I got to see shrines too so no complaints from me.
Kiyomizudera was interesting because there was a street of shops that we had to walk up to in order to get to the temple. I bought a couple fans from one of the shops there and we sampled some food. It was fun to look around at the shops and see people in kimonos walking around. I even saw two monks, which was impressive. Although one of the poor monks had sandals on... looking at his bare feet made me so cold. Also saw the rickshaw drivers who were all pretty fit. It'd be fun to ride in one but I imagine it's expensive and the weather wasn't bad, just chilly, so there was no need to ride in one. There were different sections in Kiyomizudera: the gate, what I thought was the temple, the lover's section, the main temple which was further back and cost money to get into, etc. etc. It was beautiful though.
Pictures
Shops and part of Kiyomizerudera in the distance
A little shrine where you can write your wishes. There's a big Buddha statue inside this shrine and behind it is another larger shrine. Only on my big camera though...
The steps leading up to the temple
Part of Kiyomizudera
Most of my pictures in Kiyomizedera didn't turn out so great because it was really cloudy
Next we did some shrine hopping. Shrine pictures are on my camera and I just have the one picture of Heian Shrine on my iphone. Here's the outside gate of the shrine. Isn't it beautiful? I have more pictures inside.
Heian Shrine
Between shrine hopping and going to Ginkakuji, we stopped to eat lunch at an Indian restaurant. This place was glorious. Lunch special was 990 yen and for that I got curry (butter chicken curry, Johanna's recommendation), soup, salad, and a choice between rice or naan. Naturally, I got naan. As my food arrived I was shocked that the naan was so... huge. But it was delicious and I ended up getting another. I haven't had curry yet in Japan but instead of big chunks of meat like you get back in the US, the meat is very small and there's not much of it. The curry is more of a sauce to put on rice or dip the bread into. So I basically had to get another piece of naan (unlimited, whoo!) so I could eat my food. Johanna and I ate way too much... our motto (that I stole from a meme) for this trip was: The meal isn't over when you're full. It's over when you hate yourself. Man we hated ourselves after that lunch but it was so good we couldn't regret it.
My lunch
So we hauled our bloated selves back up the stairs and got on the bus to go to Ginkakuji. It's supposedly the silver temple but... it doesn't look silver to me. Or to her. Maybe it was silver back in the day?
Personally I didn't think the temple was too much to look at but the area around it was GORGEOUS. My camera battery died on me when I was walking around taking pictures so switched to my phone camera. Yay for backup camera.
Around the temple Money collection Ginkakuji
After Ginkakuji we went back to Johanna's place and hung out a bit more. I couldn't stay too long because we both had homework and studying to do and I didn't want to stay too late. I had a commute to make and then I needed to get back to school from Hikone Eki. It seemed to take longer on the way back and it was dark so there wasn't much I could do... ended up continuing the fic I'd started writing on my phone to kill time. Then I got paranoid about draining my phone battery too much so mostly just stared out the window and daydreamed. Once I got back to Hikone I wasn't in the greatest mood because I'm really not happy with the area my school is in, the bus that takes me to the hotel next to the school had stopped running for the night, and there was snow on the ground. I wasn't going to take a taxi so... it was time to walk back to school. Took about 40 minutes to get back and walking by the river was so damn creepy because there was this eerie mist rising above it. Pair that with a full moon... ergh. Not pleasant. Most dangerous thing was the ice on the ground though.
Well, I got back to my school grumpier and missing Kyoto... but got back in one piece. Then it was time to do some homework, but I didn't last long on that since I was so tired XD
Oh my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84426656@N05/with/8425679603/#photo_8425679603 ;
Cookies for anyone who actually reads all this. Also, please tell me if my links aren't working. I'm sort of rushing through this since I need to get back to studying
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-29 02:24 pm (UTC)gimme gimme gimme gimme! *grabby hands*
I'm practically drooling at those Rilakkuma products and your lunch. *__* Not to mention those BL books! xD
no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 10:02 am (UTC)They're pretty cute, I never paid too much attention to Rilakkuma before but now that my roommate likes it, I'm always aware of it. My lunch was so tasty and oh the BL section was glorious.
...I need to find some doujinshi XD
no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 02:17 pm (UTC)...but I don't think I'd understand most of it xD
no subject
Date: 2013-01-31 11:41 am (UTC)Haha! That is true XD
I should get one to flip through it and see how much I can understand but like I said up there... it's something I have to take back with me. And the few Japanese manga I have at home have such tiny furigana that it kills my eyes to read it
no subject
Date: 2013-01-29 07:33 pm (UTC)Glad your trip to Kyoto was such a blast. While I only got to spend three short days there and was there alone instead of with a good friend like yours, meaning I ended up having a pretty different experience than you, I still absolutely loved the city. So beautiful and rich in history. I really want to go back because while I hit up some pretty fab spots, I didn't have the chance to get out to Kinkakuji or Ginkakuji, nor did I see the Inari Shrine (though damnit I tried and got horribly lost). I'll have to vicariously live through your adventures until I have the chance to travel there again. Maybe I'll get some good ideas from you for where I should go next time. ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 10:06 am (UTC)It was good having a tour guide to show me around... and it was fun to have someone to be with too so we could chat and laugh. You should try to come back if you can. Next time I visit Johanna she's going to take me to Kinkakuji and the Inari Shrine. (Ugh, well at least you tried) Maybe you will. Going to Osaka this weekend so I'll do a post on that when I get back on Sunday. Or well, it might have to wait until Monday. Not sure how energetic I'm going to be on Sunday
no subject
Date: 2013-02-03 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-04 02:59 am (UTC)Yay, you can travel vicariously then XD