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At the Park
Liz swingin!Time yet for another installment of the trip!
March 26, Wednesday Today would be dubbed our “easy day” for the trip. We had been going at quite a pace for the past few days, so we were all eager for a bit of an exhale. After checking out of the hotel, we headed back to Hideko’s house, and she even made us lunch! Already, it felt kinda nice to be back at her house. After lunch, we played in a little park near Hideko’s, then headed to Kyoto station. Underneath the station is an underground mall called Porta. Sorta like a very small Sunshine City. Lots of fun. We took some time to explore, and I bought a new watch (I broke my old one at the hotel). From the bottom of the station, we went all the way back to the top to view the city again. We vegged out there and took everything in for a while before heading back home. Hideko took us out, that night, along with Keiko, to a restaurant for okonomiyaki, her treat. Pretty amazing. I realized I had forgotten my camera when I got back to her house, though… Lauren and Hideko
At the Park 2
Lauren swingin! She looks so happy ^_^ came to the rescue and got it back for me, safe and sound. Whew!
March 27, Thursday Since we had to leave the house for the station before the restaurant opened the next morning, I was without my camera this day. Guess that’ll teach me though, huh? And what a day to be without it! We went past Kyoto all the way to Nara for our first stop of the day. Nara is famous for having lots of deer. I didn’t realize the extent of that until we were there. Deer EVERYWHERE! It actually made me feel bad… They were all out in the open, dependent on people buying feed for them from vendors along the streets. They were very heavily commercialized, and the city seems to make a lot of money off of them. Everywhere I looked, the souvenirs had deer stamped all over them. It was very sad to see animals in nature just being used for entertainment and money. After seeing the deer, we went to Todai-ji Temple, home to a GIANT statue of Buddha surrounded by lots and lots of offerings. Pretty creepy... I ended up pulling another blunder and forgot my phone at
At the Park 3
Happy swingidees. the temple, but luckily, I had been paying attention to an announcement made that someone had forgotten their phone, and I understood it. Liz helped me get it back.
After Nara, we went on to Osaka to see Osaka Castle. The castle itself was… kinda boring, actually. The gardens were really pretty, and quite vast. But the castle itself was actually a museum filled with history about how the castle came to be and how it was destroyed in wars in ancient Japan. Not a shred of the actual castle still exists, so we were actually touring a reproduction made from old drawings and pictures. We met some high school Otaku in the gift shop, and that was a pretty awesome laugh. -Otaku, by the way, are basically Japanese culture enthusiasts… Very much into anime and video games, but to a rather socially stunting level. They said we were really lucky to live in Tokyo… I kinda envied them for being in Japan for a week and seeing the country through rose-colored glasses. But then again, it is nice to get an honest, non-tourist look at a country other than my own. It is very eye-opening. Anyway, we had
At the Park 4
This was actually right before Aimee fell on her delicate derriere. takoyaki for dinner before heading back home, very worn out.
That's it for this installment. Next up is my favorite: Inari Shrine!
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