Kyoto Day 2: Down Time

Today was much less exciting than yesterday. We all woke up around 9am and talked for the next hour. Tan had left much earlier and Ayana and Yuko had jobs to go to so they left too. Takuro and I chilled around his place for a while. I got to take a shower, but not change clothes because my bag was still stashed in the locker at the station. Once freshened up a little we went to McDonalds for breakfast. Sadly it was too late for breakfast sandwiches so I settled for a cheese-katsu sandwich. McDonalds is a good way to get away from Japanese food for a while. We went back to Takuro's apartment and watched some TV. I emailed all the people who I knew in Kyoto and tried to find something to do. Eventually I ended up deciding to go to the station by myself. Takuro walked me to the street and I was off.

The first thing I did at the station was grab my bookbag. I found an empty bathroom stall to change clothes in and brushed my teeth at the sinks. Now I was "freshened-up." I got an email from Keisuke saying that he wanted to hang out so I spent the next hour doing nothing around the station.

Once Keisuke showed up I was finally not alone anymore! We got on a bus and headed to Ginkaku-Ji in order to see the giant 大 symbol on the side of the mountain. It was nice having someone to talk to on the bus. We walked, went the wrong direction, and ended up on the wrong side of town. Retracing our steps we returned to Ginkaku-ji and found out that if we turned left instead of right, the entrance to the mountain was 100 feet away. We decided not to climb the mountain. I really should have tried harder to convince Keisuke, but didn't.

We ended up walking around Kyoto for the next hour. I got a call from Ayana asking if we wanted to eat dinner with her. Sure. We met up in 4th street in front of the Keiyo department store. Then we decided to eat some Italian food in the same department. The waitress mixed up Keisuke and my order, but we all received free drinks so it was alright. I got a speech from Ayana saying that I have to return to Japan in the future. If I don't then this experience will all be for nothing. I totally agree with her, but I need some sort of entry way to come back to Japan for an extended period of time... I basically have 3 options to do this: Join a Japanese company, come teach English, or get married to a Japanese girl. Coming back to study again is pretty much out of the question because I will be graduated by the time I have a chance to...

So anyway we returned to Kyoto station and I grabbed my bag again. I said bye to Keisuke and Ayana because I probably won't see them again before I return to Tokyo. Then I headed to Yuko's apartment.

Previously Yuko said that I could not stay with her (well she said to ask Takuro anyway) but since Takuro had to work all night she said it was alright. I gave her a call when I arrived, but she was cleaning so I had to wait 20 minutes until she finished. I didn't mind, but just thought to myself that I am used to really messy rooms. Living with college guys kinda gives you a different definition of the word "clean." She arrived and took me to her place. Needless to say it was almost spotless. She lives a couple blocks down from Takuro.

I thanked her immensely for letting me spend the night. We stayed up quite a while talking. I sent her and all my other Kyoto friends the links to my blog and Brenden's picture website. They all appreciated it. The sleeping situation was a little different than Takuro's. Yuko only had one futon. She opted to sleep on the floor, but I couldn't put her through that, especially since I was the guest. I made her sleep on the futon beside me, it was plenty big enough.