ofc they have slippers for entering the house and another for the bathroom - due to religious reasons, traditional customs and cleanliness, its like this in most of Asia, especially in buddhist countries (i.e. Thailand) but the bathroom slippers are more of a common thing in Korea and Japan. We were running late as always and got the normal fast train but had to make a change
to help, she tried but she was unsure of the area as she was not a local, so she asked the older man who was next to her, who helped us after she got off. so nice!
renovation work done, until we ended up at the beautiful wooden UNESCO temple NISHO HOGANJI free & open till 6. it was beautiful, serene and elegant. the wooden floors soft under our feet from years of dedicated use. the interiors were simple, but the "prior" as we would call it, was lavish inside.
we continued round the outside washing our hands with their tradition wooden scoop and clean fountain water, (right hand then left) round the corner was a spectacularly decorated building, painted and slightly weathered, in its own right an heirloom. a priceless piece of art/ architecture. we stayed until closing (we were pretty much chased out)
(reb had another creepy guy moment, ryan sort of scared him off)once we left he pretty much power walked us to the GION area (red died a little on the walk)
the old main area of Kyoto famous for its Geishas, unfortunately those still working, were only viewable from afar on the river side banks, they were working in the tea houses, only usable by the Japanese men...though some (not sure if real or just dressed for desire/ tourists) were walking along the streets
old GION into new, lots of tourists, we wandered around before going into a COCO ICHIBAYA CURRY HOUSE (free water)affordable, plus they offer you a jar of pickled lotus roots to add to the curry which reb and I loved, it really complimented the sweet side of the curry, its a Japanese fast food chain, simple, lined with anime books - I was informed that the volumes were not cheap. we spent until closing in the shopping mall/pedestrian street were ryan bought a traditional outfit which he'd first seen in Nagoya but here it was cheaper.
http://www.ichibanya.co.jp/english/info/multilingual.html
KYOTO 5TH JULY
with her son as a kid, he works at a BBQ restaurant but dreams of becoming a model in Tokyo, she supports him? he stays in his mums room, which is a bit weird but okay. she wants to our the ground floor room also into a place for people to stay via AIR B&B (she's lonely) she's not be using air b&b for that long she's new to it (probably why she's so helpful and nice) she sort of gave us her life story over breakfast, she came to Japan for basically a weekend and decided to marry a Japanese man, as you do (perhaps the Philippines wasn't the best place to live then) she found out that after 2 years and having had a child, you can't divorce, so she stayed, with her husband and son, not really accepted by the Japanese (they aren't really foreigner friendly nor mixed blood friendly apparently, Korea can be like that too apparently according to my classmates) nor was she on good terms with the other Filipinos, so she's seem to have led a rather lonely life, her hubby died a few years ago so she got the house, she talked ALOT, super helpful and friendly. we got showered, repacked and left our stuff downstairs to collect later before we get our train to Nagoya before heading gout on our long walk to the famous GOLDEN PAVILLION
eye catching sight 让我们眼花缭乱, from here (after looking for and waiting a while before finding Reb) we left, getting some free Japanese rice cake samples from the stalls near the exit. we headed back stopping at a souvenir shop 纪念品店 and a fengshui temple 风水寺庙 didn't get much of a look around though as ryan and reb wanted to go back to the pedestrian street to get some more traditional outfits 和服👘 so another long trek. we got separated which was stressful, and time was heading on, took ages to get back to hers. we grabbed our stuff (she had kindly researched the best way to get to the station and the train) it was getting late, it was night , the sun had set. reb was dying from so much walking and it was painful. we had annoying discovered we could have rented bikes for half a day at a reasonable price!
we got our first train no problem, but hadn't realised that trains stop around 10pm! the train co-ductors helped us grab the next train to the nearest place to Nagoya, they helped us run through one train to the other. we finally got to the stop finding the place absolutely dead. the station was closed, we had no where to go, my phone was also dying, we called to a lawson (love how theres 24 hour shops everywhere in Asia) we got supplies (food and drink and I charged my phone and used the wifi)
NAGOYA
The last day together. I didn't sleep till after the sun rose. We are again on futons but all together in on room on the floor. He has some 和服👘kimono hanging up. We used these and towels to cover the window for the sun rise 日出🌄we lay in therefore leaving our host, a hairdresser who is very likely gay with poor English but offered us food and drinks and will drop us off at our respected bus stops the next day (he searched for it and everything along with adding me on Facebook haha) he thinks we are right lazy lumps. We got up and showered. His HAs like a low bath shower thing, so I reckon it could be used as a bath too? His home is bigger than the others, not in the center though so this is probably why, today is a lantern festival and at night it's possible to see he lantern high in the sky, but as we are in a city we weren't really able to.
We went to a nearby beautiful temple. No one around, it was very peaceful, there was a small garden area too - which I got bitten alive in! The mosquitos here aren't pleasant. Probably mutant size like the birds and butterfly's haha.
We then went in a little adventure finding some rice fields and a river, we went under a small road bridge and ryan was delighted to come across lots of giant gross colourful spiders! We chilled by the riverside and chatted. A relaxing day.
We walked late afternoon to the center. Finding lots of maid cafes (pink with lots of pics, light porn is everywhere, why they asked me on arrival if I brought any I will never understand) and came across some friendly albeit strange morons, who asked if we were Japanese, one girl was mixed and not so bright - they were friendly but of course there was underlining mentions of the good word of Mormon.
We browsed the center before going back to a final night in saizeriya for more of my tasty but small Japanese sized portion pizza. Here was a really odd guy eating paramesan from the shaker, he was alone needless to say. Back at the place we dressed up and chatted and watched some anime. It was great all being together in one big heap for the last night. To the point I was even looking up ways to stay and they would get me my bus ticket haha. It was super expensive so no success- ryan jokes they will get lost with no leader haha. But he has gained great map skills - if he has wifi haha. Was brilliant being with them. I have them each a postcard I bought yesterday to write to me. The morning was exhausting and I didn't want to leave them. They didn't come with me which was good. They needed the sleep. Got on the bus to the airport. Was too heavy and started chucking stuff typical haha
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