A few days break
Is just my way of saying that I got to sleep in after a long day of traveling to Kyoto and then walking at night to dinner. Sunday night we got into Kyoto and got setteled into our hotel and we, all the students, met up with Travis' friend Kauru and went to dinner following Devin down the main drag of Kyoto. We went to dinner and hit a few shops on the way back to get a basic feel for Kyoto and let it sink in that we are in the Gaijin district here.
Monday Travis and I slept in, to take a most needed day off and just relax. I think we finally made it out of the hotel around 4 pm to get something to eat and ran into Devin at the corner store. We talked for a bit and then came back to the hotel to chill a bit more and watch a movie while we waited for every one else to come back from the Temples. When the rest of the troup arrived at the hotel, we found out that they had reservations for a cool Kyoto restaurant so Travis snagged Yuri and the four of us (Travis, Yuri, Devin, and myself) went to downtown Kyoto and cruised around there and ate at a Yoshinoya because it was quick and cheap! We hit up an icre cream parlor on the way back and ended up at the hotel around 9ish.
We got back to the hotel and like 30 minutes later I was back on the streets of Kyoto with Sam, Sean, and Alex to look for either a place to go bowl or an arcade. I found out not 45 minutes earlier where these places were located, so we headed to downtown Kyoto. We didn't find a place to bowl, but we found Tower Namco and headed in there because it had everything we wanted to do except bowl. Sam, Sean, and I headed up to the top floor to play a few fighter games and Alex sayed on the floor below that to play Pachinko because he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So we hung out there until midnight and then headed back to the hotel.
Today Travis and I were up bright and early at 9 am and beat every one down to the lobby, had some coffee, went back upstairs and then met all the kids to go to Osaka. I've compared a few cityies here in Japan to the likes of NYC and San Fran, but I was completely wrong in those comparisons. Osaka is such a better example of a Japanese NYC because of it's stratification. There was an elecronic distric, a "Time Square" type district, American Town, etc. I don't think I've ever felt more at home in a foreign counry as I did today in Osaka. We walked around there for most of the day and then headed back towards the hotel, but on the way stopped for dinner. The night before Yuri spotted a Shyabu Shyabu restaurant on the main drag in Kyoto and we decided to eat there tonight. Shyabu Shyabu is an onomatopoeia for the sound the food makes in the water as you are cooking it; dipping it into boiling water, turning it over and repeating until the meat browns. The atmosphere of the restaurant is amazing, they have 4 or 5 rooms all set up like traditional Japanese dining rooms where you put your feet under the table and the walls are made of the cool rice paper that is really expensive. Knowing that, you could have probably guessed that the meal was pretty expensive, $45 per person, and really tasty.
We trudged slowly back to the hotel and Travis and I just kinda hung around in the room showing eachother the DJ programs we have on our laptops until about 11:30 when I went down to the onsen (but not quite) with Alex. The onsen in the hotel closes around midnight and apparently the best thing to do before you go to bed is to go and relax in there, and I have to admit that while I'm writing this I feel pretty good; nice and relaxed. Tomorrow is another long day of travel from Kyoto to Tokyo on the shinkansen, but I get to see the Ghibli museum!
５月２１日 日曜日
先生の家族とパチンコセンターへ行きました。そのセンターの中でたくさんの人がタバコをすっていました。センターの隣にあるビデオゲームセンターへ行きたかったです。たばこの煙のアルギーがありますので、１５分間ぐらいだけパチンコを見ました。何人かの学生は”これはつまらない”と思いましたので、ビデオゲームセンターへ行きました。つぎに先生の家族とかいてんずしへ行きました。これはすごい！いろいろなすしを見て、いろいろな食べ物を食べました。それから、新幹線の駅へ行って、豊川から京都まで乗りました。京都で皆さんとPig＋WhistleのIrishパブへ行きました。イギリスの食べ物がありました。Pubは変でした。ウェイターはイギリス人でした。でもシェフは日本人でした。
５月２２日 月曜日
私ののどと鼻が痛かったから、あまり何もしませんでした。
５月２３日 火曜日
大阪へ行きました。たくさん歩きました。そして店へ行きました。アメリカの町や電気街へ行きました。アメリカの町は変でした。そこのアメリカの文化はラっプの文化です。どの店も服とブーツをうっています。京都へ帰って、しゃぶしゃぶのレストランへ行きました。しゃぶしゃぶは ぎおんご（onomatopoeia）です。水の中で肉とやさいをゆでました。おいしかったです。