Kyoto

After a short night's sleep, I was ready to go meet up with Mike, so I said goodbye to my new friends: The girl who helped me find the place, and the receptionist who was really nice too. The girl who helped me find the place even drew me a little picture as a parting gift.

(receptionist)

(new friend)

Our tour guides for the day were Sonny(a friend of a friend of Mike's mom)'s daughter and her friends. 

Random tourists.

Kiyomizu-dera, a bhuddist temple founded in 798. The entire structure was made using no nails. 

More random tourists. 

Geishas!!!

So I was super stoked for lunch. Most of the time in Japan I feel like I just can't really get full, or even if I do I can't stay full. I was especially excited to try something called Okonomiyaki!

Okonomiyaki. Translation: Everything I hate about food combined in a way I never imagined possible. 

Hahaha, so the worst part is that when it first came out I thought it looked great. 

There are two things I really hate to eat: 1. Seafood 2. Excessive Mayonnaise 

At first it looked like a hash brown with bacon on top. Then, they basically dumped mayonnaise on top (they literally had a bucket full of mayonnaise and applied it with a huge brush), and then they put shredded fish skin on top of it!! Ew!

On the inside it turns out that there were chunks of squid!!!

I actually ate about a quarter of one of those pancakes, but only because I washed it down with Calpis: 

Not to be confused with: Cow piss. 

Haha, I actually really love Calpis and it tastes great. 

Our waitress. She's great. 

Ever since Myajima Island I've been totally stoked on deer. 

Japan is full of photo ops all over the place. They love photos! So we actually went to a photo booth and got some done.

 I used to laugh at all the photos my Japanese friends in college had because their photo-booth photos always looked so silly. I especially love how their eyes get blown up extra big. Anyway, I got to go once in Osaka and again in Kyoto to get photos done! 

I should clarify: my Japanese girl-friends in college. I don't think guys usually do it..

It's kind of a big deal. You can rent costumes for the photos. 

Ready for it? Here's one of the photos we got done: 

Hahaha, so great. 

Trading card store in Kyoto

This was probably the highlight of Kyoto for me. We found a second-hand store, which turned out to be more like a "vintage clothes" store, and they had an N64, with Super Smash Bros. 

So you have to understand something: Kyoto, Japan is the birthplace of Nintendo. I grew up on Super Smash Bros on N64, and there I was, playing the Japanese version, at the birthplace of Nintendo!! So awesome. 

Oh, and to top it all off, Mike and I played a game against each other!!! I played as Pikachu and Mike played as Fox. It was a really close match, and a lot of fun. 

There's something I really love about the underdog winning. I know that Mike has way more Super Smash Bros. experience and should definitely have been able to beat me, but I totally won!!

Okay, so by now you've probably noticed that I have a lot of random photos with girls on the trip. Hahaha. Mike pointed it out to me, but I realized one of my favorite things to do is this: 

I see a group of girls taking a photo of themselves, so I go over and offer to help them take a photo. I take their photo, and then pull out my camera with a look like "whoah! I have a camera too!" and then get a photo together with them. : D Hahaha. Usually they then get another photo with their camera with all of us together. It's so great. Haha. 

So then we went for donuts. 

They literally had an Okonomiyaki flavored donut. I actually chose that donut until they told me that it was Okonomiyaki flavored!! Ew, sick. Squid guts in a donut. 

Dinner was excellent. Korean-style barbeque. 

This is where the magic happens! Nintendo Headquarters. Although I wouldn't consider myself one of those people who are so into it that they make the pilgrimage to Nintendo Headquarters, it did make sense to at least stop by since we were in the same city. 

Japan is one of the safest countries in the world. I was super surprised that Mike had never heard that, but when he accidentally left a new T-shirt he bought behind in a random store, I was happy when we were able to witness first-hand how great it is! We went back to the store and although the T-shirt was no longer in the same place as he left it, the store had set it aside for him and he was able to pick it up. 

After Mike hopped on his night bus to Tokyo, I went to find the place I was couchsurfing for the night. Unfortunately after getting to the general area, I wasn't able to get ahold of the girl on the phone (from a phone booth) and I actually didn't know exactly where she was. 

I got super lucky because at McDonald's I heard some people speaking English, talked to them, and found out they were actually friends with Celestine (the girl from couchsurfing) and so they got ahold of her for me!! It was great. 

I stayed in a room with a couple girls that teach English in Korea. One was from Vancouver (slash Hong Kong), and the other was from New Zealand. It was fun chatting with them, and I also had a great night's sleep (there was a good heater). 

The photo above is actually from the next morning when I was getting ready to go catch the bus to Tokyo!