Kyoto Part III: Birthday in the Rain

10:00am - Finally in Kyoto!

We arrive in Kyoto after taking the hour long train from Nara. It's raining, but lucky for us there is a ¥100 store in the station and we buy seven umbrellas for under $6.50. After a convenience store breakfast we start walking around the city. Kyoto is like a historical toy-box, building from every era of Japan all just jumbled together. There are temples, shrines, gates, castles, everywhere; all mixed in with modern architecture. It’s incredibly beautiful and I find myself running out of memory on my camera much earlier in the day than I had imagined. Unfortunately, I am not very good at picture-taking, so because of the weather, a lot of them didn't come out. I did get a few good ones though.

3:00pm - Tea Ceremony

Alisha and Drew take me to a tea ceremony for my birthday. We are led into a room, given a pre-tea cookie-like snack, and watch as a young beautiful girl prepares the tea with amazing precision. There is a certain way that you are supposed to drink the tea, certain motions you are supposed to go through, but even Chiaki wasn’t exactly sure what they were. Since I was the second person to receive the tea, I just fake it the best I can. If I make a major mistake, the other Japanese people in the room fail to notice. We leave the tea house, and combined with the soft and overcast day, I am overcome with a great feeling of peace.

5:00pm - Return to Nara

After a little more sightseeing and some omiage-buying, we head back to Nara because we have a lot of driving to do that day and everyone (except Drew and myself) has to work tomorrow. In the subway we run into a geisha, but she is running late for a performance or something, so she darts before we can take pictures. Alisha is able to snap one before she leaves so I’ll use her picture.

7:00pm - Dinner

Back in Nara we are about to head home when Chiaki's parents suggest that we go to dinner with them, so we end up going to a nearby noodle restaurant. I have a very tasty fried pork cutlet that is sitting on an egg with rice and udon noodles. Very tasty. Chiaki's father slyly pays for the whole meal and after much bowing and many arigatos we pile in the car and head back home.