Day 5 - 6 In Japan!

...Good evening. I just came back from a whole day trip a couple of streets down Kyoto and my feet are hurting like soggy banana. And after I dumped in 100yen into the machine, my blog conveniently appeared on the main page. (Which means...nobody touched the computer since I touched it yesterday O.O) Thank God. Or they'd be reading about boo-boos.

So, we lingered around in Kyoto Station in this hotel I never knew the name from 5+ till about 6.40am xD The weather was friggin cold and we didn't really want to go out and face the weather... Eventually the sun came out and we went out with a crude directions given on a flimsy piece of paper. Walked past the Kyoto Tower (I think it's the name of the shopping mall), then the Higashihongan-shi (I think...I only remember the hongan part xD), and finally came to a little alleyway. We couldn't find our place of residence so we continued to walk in circles and finally found it... Ikoi no ie! (I kept reading it as Ikoi no le -.-???) For some funny reason, the reception area was another corner down the street... .

The reception was open at 7am but the friggin room was ready only at wtf, supposedly after 1pm. ZZZ!!! ZZZZZZ!!!!! I was exceptionally grumpy due to lack of sleep, thus the lack of energy and the resulting susceptibility to coldness. Haiz. Super sian. We sat around the common area and waited around... My mother wanted to go jalan jalan but I wanted to KO until room was ready. There were two computers in the common area, but I didn't have 100yen and my mother didn't want to give me =/ I tried to access the wireless via my psp and it worked but thanks to psp's retarded online function, I could only read my blog but not log in and post -.- Then I fell asleep on the chair...

...until my sis violently smashed me awake, telling me about my morning alarm from my handphone in my bag. Best part? Three Caucasians were in the common area with us, and the ringtone was some really weird song that was obviously European and had funny lyrics "Aqua bomb~" ... ... Okay. I heard one of the Caucasians wondering to himself, "aqua bomb?" Worst was I couldn't find my friggin phone the entire time until the alarm was over. (And the ringing volume was set to ascending. Tmd...)

In the end, I was dragged out into the coldness. I don't remember most of what happened here except the fact that we hadn't bathed for 24hrs and we hadn't even washed up. Went to the nearest 7-11 to buy something so I could get 100yen to use internet xD

With the Higashihongan-shi as the most obvious attraction in the area, we went over and took a look. Friggin' pigeons are damn obvious with their request for food... But well, to be honest, the Temple was huge but generic; nothing too interesting. D= We stood around trying to hide from the wind and trying to absorb the sunlight...but I think my low energy was so bad I still felt cold =/ We went outside and sat near the fountain...and my mother and sis almost dozed off there -.- How do they do it?!

Then we wandered around, found 100yen shops, Pasco (something like our Yes Supermarket), and erh I don't know, some random shops. Super LOL when my mother taught my sis that chopsticks is kitte, and so she went to ask the cashier as Pasco for kitte. I think the cashier is called Nagata. My sis did this funny action showing chopsticks, and Nagata-san asked back, "Hashi?" She gave us chopsticks...and it was printed on it, "HASHI."

Then I stared for a while before telling my sis, "You know? You just asked the cashier for stamps."

Conclusion? Mother + Japanese = No no. Don't listen to her when she tries to teach you Jap. I can't remember the number of times she said something looked exactly like the one we had in our hands and the difference turned out to be that of oranges and apples.

We went back to near the 7-11 (cuz it's the landmark that marks the pathway to our hostel) and went to eat the ramen at the Ramen King Shop. <-- We'd been waiting for it to open at 11am. Ahh. It's the first time I could tell the difference between good noodles and bad noodles...! It's nice! Tasted strangely like ba chor mee (how do you spell it huh).

And thank God!!! The hostel was ready by 12+ and we could check in!! YAY! Ugh passing time literally became a learnt skill by then... We went to our room and it's pretty nice xD For some weird reason, we had a bathroom to ourselves, but the toilet remained public -.-??? Shortly after we settled down and washed up, I pulled down my futon and then everything was a whirlpool of conscious void. (???)

When I woke up I finally went to bathe xD Then...we went out to...erh...I don't remember. I think we went to the same friggin' department stores to buy bento and whatnots. Wahh speaking of bento, we ate them again this night -.-||| Something that I think is nice once in a while, but eating it all the time? No thanks man.

Wtf!! 40% of online time left!!

Then we came back, ate bento, washed clothes...and came down to use the internet. And played PSP and went to sleep.

OMG! I finally can catch up with my day entries! Left out a lot of details, but I guess that'd have to wait.

Today, we woke up to breakfast at the...Ramen King Shop all over again. (Tells you the time we woke up huh) Then we began our day trip to Nijojo (Nijo Castle)! My sis pulled out a map and we started deciphering the map...and started walking. Aouh man. The map looked so small. The roads... ... ... I guess we felt pretty healthy.

Kyoto is damn nice! It's very neat, making our sparsely marked map look super accurate! (Okay... We did debate for a while where we were but anyway) The streets are so much more interesting to look at than Tokyo!

Then we got to Nijojo and bought the admission ticket via a vending machine at 600yen per person. Wow. Let me tell you...if you ever go to Kyoto...GO TO NIJOJO!!! It's highly inspiring!!! Sadly, photography is allowed only on the outside, and not the interior, so I can't show you what it's like... I took the photos of the outside though. (Gotta wait till I come back from Japan) Hopefully I can remember it enough to sketch it out. (Amazingly, it wrote "no taking photographs, and no sketching in the interior")

It's amazing though. The entrance area was for visitors. The floor is made of nightingale wood or something like that because it makes sounds that warn them of intruders sneaking in. Damn cool! Then they have separate rooms for official workspace, meeting room, shogun lounge and messenger room. Damn nice xD If you're wondering what they look like, they look vaguely like Fatal Frame rooms. Haha!

While I'd like to describe more, it's 20% time left tmd. Short points!
- Went to Kyoto Imperial Castle but the gate to the main castle was closed at 3.30pm and we reached only at 5
- Headed to Ni something Food Market and walked around the Teramachi shopping arcade. Very big, very nice, very Bugis and I want to watch a Japanese dubbed Sherlock Holmes! xD
- Walked all the way from there back to our hostel

GAHHH 20% is blinking! I better post now! xD

See you tml hopefully~