have you ever ate squid jerky?

I got home late last night from our (yumis Yukas, and mine) very educational, wet, and exhausting three day trip to Kyoto. Kyoto is a place of tradition, natural beauty, and is filled with the remains of ancient Japanese history. It`s common for young girls to tour the city in the geisha getup viewing cherry blossoms weaving threw the cobblestone alleys that lead to majestic temples at the top of hills stopping every now and then at the little shops of cute old couples who serve bitter green tea and Japanese sweets made of cherry blossoms or ancho. I didn`t know to much about Kyoto before visiting but Ive always been intrigued by it, possibly by nothing more than the fact that its just the two characters that make up Tokyo to and kyo backwards to make Kyoto. Japanese are funny like that. Needless to say I was excited for the trip.
We went by skinkansen (or bullet train). I was pretty pumped for that It was my first time and it was cool shooting along a 200mph, but my eyes kept being drawn to the window despite yumis warnings and I soon had one of the dizzy headaches she described. We stepped off of the train in to the icy wind and the beginnings of a three day long rain storm. Come on- you knew that was coming right?... And so for the next three days we trudged slopping wet, teeth chattering from temple to temple to shrine to gold budha to ancient castle ect. ect. We tried our best at enthusiasm posing in front of the mot surrounded castle of some ancient shogun or whatever it may be with two very cold fingers forming a piece sign, my pink cheecks forcing an unattractive smile but really it just ended up getting my camera wet and honestly most the picutures look like crap cuz a gold budha just doesnt look that cool in the rain.



We did get done up like geisha though but only for pictures we didnt pay the extra to keep the clothes for the day obviously that would have only made the treks to the sites more miserable, although alot of other girls must have had thier hearts set on it cuz we watched as they slipped and wobbled on thier wooden shoes up the steep paths. The process of being turned in to a lil china doll was long, but fun and I was laughing the whole time at the strangeness of it all. By the end of it I was ready to whip out one of those bango lookin japanese instruments I was definitely about to start belting out some traditional japanese music and dance in that way that wearing a kimono inspires, you know flailing your arms about with the flowing material. I kept cocking my head and doing that lil giesha smile in the mirror and then laughing my ass off cuz it was so weird. You try looking yourself in the mirror with an asian starrin back.



With all that said my Kyoto experience was not the ideal one but I believe that we, being aesthetic young people made the best we could of it.