Misadventures in Kyoto

Previous capital of Japan, located near the center of Honshu. Temperatures nearly that of Utah Valley and about twenty times more humid. Let me begin by saying, I have never seen so many foreigners in the four months that I've been in Japan. It's insanity. Funny thing is, most of these tourists can't speak a lick of Japanese. How inconvenient, not to mention difficult. . . not everything is translated here. :d I digress.

I took a walk to the north, following the largest river that runs through Kyoto on Sunday. It's a rather wide river, cemented like every other river in Japan that runs through a city. This one has a lot of growth though. Grasses of various kinds, and many animals reside in these waters. On my walk I discovered many things. Being in the middle of the suburbs, there are many bridges for the convince of motor vehicles as well as bikes, pedestrians, stray cats, etc. Under these bridges reside many homeless people? I don't know if these people qualify as homeless. They have quite the set up. Many large boxes, shacks made of wooden planks, you name it, all covered with tarps to increase insulation and provide weather protection. Radios, racks built to hold potted vegetables and flowers, bicycles for transportation. . . like a very very small community under each bridge.

On the flip side, about forty minutes later, I came across a very wealthy part of time. Huge houses (by Japan's standards) all custom made. Each had an "artistic" feel to it. That's not to say I liked each one of them, but they all had a distinctly unique design. Bizarre neighborhood. I was in awe. I eventually made it to the Botanical Garden of Kyoto where I collected various photos of all kinds of plants. I even got to see a Rafflesia Arnoldii. . . a REAL one! Nasty. I also had the pleasure of accumulating about fifty fantastic bug bites. I should consider becoming a regular collector.

Monday, I decided to take a jaunt through a more major part of the city, within close proximity of the train station. I forgot my camera. So I made a short stop at Kyoto Tower and got lunch at Starbucks. A fantastic cinnamon roll and some iced-cocoa. Making my way back to pick up my camera, I want along the river again. I came across an elderly man feeding birds. Sitting near the water's edge, he was surrounded whole army of pigeons. Pigeons weren't the only taking part in this great feast of free bread. There were carp, a heron, some small birds, ducks, and hawks that would swoop down occasionally to which Ojiisan would throw bread to, having them catch it mid-air. Kinda like in Dejima Park, only with more success.

Yesterday, I met up with Kaiti and Stephanie. Hooray for having friends to do things with. c: We went to three main attractions. Sanjusangendo, Toji Temple, and Inarisan. Inarisan being my favorite. Sanjusangendo was also very impressive, but photo taking wasn't allowed. . . getting our fortune for 1oo en was one of the best parts. My fortune for yesterday looks like this:

Good!

• Health: Stress and strain tend to build up.
• Work: Trust is one's life-long fortune.
• Money: Managing funds is not going to be easy.
• Exams: Agreeable if you work hard.
• Love: You may seek the southwestern direction.
• Journey: Be careful, and you will be safe.
• Finding your soul mate: Will be late.
• Home: Agreeable.
• Lost item: Will be found later on.

My thoughts on the my fortune: BWAH HA HA HA. That was fun. As far as my:

Health goes, I think that is fair to say that I have a tendency to get stressed sometimes.
Work- I need employment. I don't find any relevance in the prediction.
Money- it couldn't be more accurate. I just got an evaluation on my checking account. I have just enough to get out of this country. When in the world did that happen? I worry that my flight was charged to me twice. . .
Love- let's see, southwestern covers alot of ground. Anymore specific?
Journey- wise words from a wise piece of paper. :d
Soul mate- what exactly qualifies as a soul mate anyway?
Home- yes, thank goodness I have one to go back to.
Lost item- I don't recall having misplaced anything.

So my question is, was that really a good fortune? Silly silly. Silly, but fun. No seriousness in the matter, whatsoever.

Recently. From having hiked all day yesterday, and being rather irritable and cranky (maybe due to interrupted REM cycles) I slept in until 10:30-ish. Ate some good fruit and yogurt for breakfast and have been blogging, Facebooking and such for a while now. Hooray for vacation being time to relax and not feeling obligated to do anything in specific!

Alright, now that I've written an epistle, I think I'll wrap it up for now. This is Renae, over and out.






Moral of the story: even half-full backpacks can become heavy in the duration of seven hours. . .