March 20

I woke up around five in the karaoke room to one of the employees opening the door to see if we were alright (allegedly from the light being off). Shortly after, the phone in the room rang to remind us of the 6:00 cutoff. We grabbed our stuff and went downstairs to pay, then made the long walk to Kyoto eki to buy our train tickets home. First though, we dropped all of our stuff (which had grown significantly over the week) in a locker. Ticket-buying went pretty smoothly, and I even got to use my waribiki (which I now understand is only for trains). Unfortunately, Christian didn’t ever get one, so he didn’t benefit from it, but the difference was about 400en, so he wasn’t terribly affected. He also left the poster for the onsen trip in the locker though, so we had a few minutes of frustration before he remembered he had taken a picture of the copy on the hostel wall and it was on my camera. He did have to walk all the way back to the hostel to buy the ticket though because it was a local train line (which didn’t have a platform at Kyoto eki).

I departed for byoudo-in and he for the hostel. We were both a bit nervous about becoming lost on our own, but when I got to my stop, I just asked the station master where to go, and it was fairly simple. In fact, everywhere I went, I just asked questions and I was fine. Byoudo-in was kind of disappointing, but worth the change of pace. The area around it is quiet and I was one of very few foreign visitors. Byoudo-in itself was much smaller than I imagined and looked in disrepair as compared to the pictures in books. I didn’t go in (judging from the outside and the extra cost), but I don’t think I missed out. There was a museum on the grounds that had a lot of the kinds of statues that would be inside the shrine, but it was small too. The routes in the area were really hard to follow (I found myself going through the museum backward) but no one bothered me about it, so it was pleasant backward too. My camera batteries started punking out though, so I had to resort to my spent ones, which miraculously came back to life. Before I got on my return train, I stopped in a small shop where the proprietor was very personable and asked me about my trip. I felt very much at ease.

When I got back to Kyoto, I still had time before I had planned to meet back up with Christian, so I decided to look for one of the stores in the shopping district that we had not been able to go into because of the time of night. Going alone, I had no problem finding the place (amazingly), but I had to ask a cop for directions back to the river.

I decided to go back to the giant pagoda we had found by chance to buy some things I had passed up the first time, when I was finally able to get in touch with Christian (I had been unable to reach him when I attempted before, due to network switching). He seemed ticked (also opinionless and lost) so we agreed to meet at the hostel half an hour later. That was the best twist of fate though, because that gave me time to finish waking down the street in Gion that I was interested in and I had a wonderful oppertunity; two geisha (and a photographer) stopped at the intersection I was coming up to to have a photo shoot. I saw real geisha!!! That made the whole trip for me.

When I did finally meet up with Christian, he apparently could not find the temple with the many statues (that he wanted to see) and had run out of time (he thought) so we decided to go to the pagoda together. First though, we visited another (orange) shrine that I had found, and when we saw people coming out of it with an-filled fish, we had to find them. There were lots of venders inside the shrine and I got my cream-filled fish. After the detour, we returned to our mission of finding the pagoda. We had to find it by chance again because we didn’t know where it was, but we did find the two stores (among others) and we came out of it successfully. The only problem (again) was finding our way back to Kyoto eki by 8:00 to catch our train. I’m not sure if we went in circles or not for a while, but we had a hard time finding the river (which, by the way, was our landmark for almost everything, if you didn’t catch on). We got to the eki with perhaps a half of an hour (somehow) and found our platform (by asking a conductor) rather easily.

We did, however, have some trouble on the train. We accidentally got off of the train one stop too early and I began to worry that I would miss my last train to Nisshin (since I had left a closer station than I would today at an earlier time and missed the last one). We caught the next one, and when we had to make our first real transfer, I recognized the way people were walk-running as a sign that another train would soon depart, so I rushed to the platform with our destination listed (Christan was somewhere behind, and I figured if he was smart, he would catch up), but both sides of the platform had the same names, so we jumped on one and I asked very loudly (because there were so many people on the train that I didn’t choose anyone in particular) if it was going to our particular station, but receiving no answer whatsoever (and getting more nervous about when and where this train would depart), I asked again, and looked at the closest woman as I did so. I had to ask a few times to get a confirming response, but having that, we went to sit in another car where there were empty seats. I was a little concerned that she had just given the quickest answer, so I asked (more composed) the man behind our seat if the train was going where we wanted. I realized then, though, that I was probably being rude and had scared the woman by practically yelling at her (in a place where most people say nothing) and felt pretty bad as a person. It was on this train that Christian told me he was feeling pretty sick. We hadn’t slept long in the karaoke place, and as he told me, he hadn’t eaten anything, so I told him to have some of my pastry, but he refused. I wasn’t feeling very sympathetic, as the only available solution was refused, so I told him to puke in the other direction if he did.

Half an hour later we were getting off to catch our final train to Nagoya. I asked again on the train (less hectically this time) just to be sure, and the guy I asked told me (in Japanese) “of course it’s going to Nagoya.” We did, “of course,” get to Nagoya, where I rushed to my train with a quick good bye to Christian. After catching the Higashiyama line and getting to the station to make my transfer, I found that there were still several trains going to Nisshin (though it was 11:00), and I didn’t understand, since the one time I had missed it, I had left for a closer station at an earlier time (not to mention today was the holiday schedule). Either way, I waited for the next train (letting the limited-stop car pass). It turned out to be a kind of bad idea (though I would think the change of pace of waiting at Fushimi instead of Akaike would be more interesting) because there was a yoparateiru American also waiting. He was talking (the only one among dozens of people) very loudly (and drunkenly, as well as lewdly at times) on his phone about the wedding he was just at, the high seven (actually 8% according to him) he was drinking, his brother’s sickness while visiting him in Japan, the tickets to disney land he won at the wedding, and whatever else. This was fine. What wasn’t fine is when I got on the train and he decided to sit next to me, open his beer (spraying my bags), proceed to talk to me, provoke the Japanese passengers, and later spill his beer on my bag. He was an idiot, to be honest, and fulfilling all the bad Japanese stereotypes about Americans. He even insulted me (though probably not as much as the Japanese girl he stared at while giving the peace sign, which was a way of mocking her distinct fashion choice) by telling me I looked older than I am. He, apparently, works for JET (nice choice there, recruiters) and doesn’t really like his position (or studying) as much as partying. I was very relieved when I finally got to Nisshin, though his impersonation of a southerner was a bit bothersome as I departed. I think I heard him say “she hates me” as I left, and I hope he did.
When I got to the first set of stairs on the walk home, I had a weird feeling where I thought, “I’m going home to okaasan and otousan’s house.” I’m not sure if it was a relief (as in, “I’m going home”) or a realization that I wasn’t going home (to my real house). When I was outside the house (a little after 12) I received a call from Okaasan wondering where I was. I hadn’t called to tell her I had missed my train (I should have at Fushimi, especially since I had the time) and she was wondering where I was. I told her I was outside the house and she seemed a bit confused. Either way, she opened the door for me and let me in, letting me know it was alright to take a shower and that she was sorry but she had fallen (or gone) to sleep. She left for bed and I found a note on my stairs (there’s a staircase that goes only to my room) saying she had gone to bed. I realized (again, after hearing her say she would wait when I called her the first time from Kyoto eki) that I should have told her it was okay to go to bed before I got back. At that point though, I couldn’t do anything, so I put the sheets on my bed and got a great rest.