I will describe the people on the tour:
Richard - 48 - New Zealand (but he looks much younger)
Jamie - 27 - London
Brad - 45 - US
Wendy - Over 60 - Sydney
Gordon and Jane - 50's - Scottland
Reena - 25 - London
Jerry - 36 - Ireland
Takayama - 35?! - Japan - group leader
Highlights since last post:
- Nikko - very beautiful small town. Went to this awesome bean throwing ceremony thing, forget what it's all about. It was hell fun though. There wasn't a whole lot of beans being thrown, more like packaged food and towels. Japanese people are supposed to be really polite etc, and they are... but man it was wicked to see them pushing, shoving and generally cutting sick to get at these parcels of goodness. It made me so happy. Like being in a moshpit of short asians.
- Went on this pirate ship like boat.
- Open air museum in Hakone - holy shit it was amazing, best museum I have ever been to. It was this huge out door area with art such as statues etc. My fave part was that heaps of the exhibitions were interactive, for kids.... but I got in there anyway. Slides, this awesome ropes course, plastic play fun times... I had a blast. These was this excellent picasso building. Made me realise how excellent he is, how diverse his artistic abilities are.
- 5th of Feb! 25th Birthday! Tour group surprised me with this awesome little cake and a card that they'd all signed. They sang happy birthday too. We caught the bullet train to Takayama that day. They are freakin fast! Made me real excited. The train ride was real nice. Makes we want to come back to Japan and really explore it properly. So many lovely things to see. Really want to come back when all the cherry blossoms are out, or in Autumn when the leaves change colours.
I got to wear a kimono to dinner... a special one coz it was my birthday! This woman from the hotel put it on me and tied an awesome bow with the obe. Everyone else wore less cool ones. Went to dinner at the hotel. We sat on mats around individual tables. It was a real feast! Some of the food was a bit crazy, most of it was real yummy though. After the feast we went to Kareoke... holy wowzers! It was hell fun, everyone got involved... I sang I will survive (cake style) and Stayin' Alive... We were all in a private room. I wasn't too nervous coz everyone was singing so loud you couldn't hear the person on the mic. There were instruments too, maracas and tambarines, so it was real good.
Coldest temperature experienced: -7 degrees celcius
Click here for more photo's.
4 comments:
Very much enjoying your blogs Kate. Appreciate you taking the time in your busy schedule. Hope rest of tour is just as good. Cheryl
Ate a bento box last night and thought of you. Yours looks heaps better!
Bean festival sounds great! Good to see people still spoil you on your birthday even if you're on the other side of the world.
Stay real banana peel.
Three temples I liked in Kyoto:
Kinkaku-ji (The Golden Pavilion)
Kiyomizu-dera (literally the temple of pure water)
Nanzen-ji
DON'T MISS the Gion district!!! It centres around the Yasaka shrine. My advice is to get there in the afternoon, have a look around the shrine and Maruyama park behind it, then wander the streets at dusk. Dusk is when you are most likely to see a genuine Geisha scurrying off to a tea house. Have your camera ready, 'cause they don't like to pause for photos.
You can catch the Imperial Palace too, but you need to have your passport ready to organise a tour inside. Don't do what I did and touch the outside wall of the palace, as very loud alarms go off.
Teramachi-doori is a long shopping lane which I thought was interesting, but to be honest Kyoto is full of shooping areas if that's what you're into.
Oh, how I wish I was there to take you around everything. Kyoto is awesomely awesome.
man, i feel like Im missing on all sorts of shit, its so hard when youre not sure... the guide is here to tell us, but his idea of awesome and mine differ a bit.... we saw a fair bit in kyoto today... some of the shrines are closed at the moment though.
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