Kyoto and Yuya

Yesterday (9/15/2013), Yuya and I went out to Kyoto! We were accompanied by Tara, and two of Yuya's friends, Shun and his speaking partner, Colon. We met up at ten and set off for Kyoto despite the Typhoon warnings everywhere. We ended up going to Kiyomizudera, a massive buddist temple on a mountain. It was so beautiful! I love the forests in Japan, because they have so many shades of green and are very vibrant!

Before we went there though, we went inside to a small Studio Ghibli store. I ended up buying a picture of Chihiro and Haku from Spirited away, a handkerchief with Totoro sewed on it, and a small glass Totoro. So Cute! And, in the back of the shop was a adjoining shop that sold yukatas! The yukatas were on sale for only $21! So, with everything it was about $45, so of course I bought one! Yay!!! Yuya and Shun helped me pick it out (Thank you!). WOOT! Yukata! Sadly though, summer festivals are now over, so I have to wait till spring to wear it I think.

Spoiler:

I tried it on once we got back to the dorm! What do you think?

Then, we made our way (through the unending rain) to Kiyomizudera! Neither me nor Yuya had an umbrella, so we got soaked, haha. (I did have a rain jacket, but I was using it to keep the things I bought dry.) The rain never let up and we were outside from 11:00-4:00ish. But it was quite fun getting rained on! (It's better than getting sweaty in any case)

Yuya and Shun!

Yuya and I after walking in the rain for about 2 hours. We were soaked! The Kiyomizu temple entrance is behind us!

After walking around, we went to a really good udon and soba shop. It was quite fancy (many people were in yukatas). I got Duck Soba! Mmmmmmmmmmm~ Actually, we all got duck soba, lol!

After that, we explored Kyoto a bit more and went around to some tea shops! I'm slowly getting used to tea. I like green tea flavored things now, though I still have a little trouble with the actual drink. 

Sidenote: Ramune and Vanilla ice cream is yummy!

Then, we went back to Hirakatashieki and wondered about. The karaoke place, Ring, was full so we went to the used Tsutaya to buy manga, Mister Donuts, and a few other shops. Colon had to leave at this point to go back for dinner with his host family, so Yuya, Shun, Tara, and I went to Karaoke again and this time there were rooms available! (This is my third time at karaoke ^^) So, I had fun singing, and I even attempted to sing along with Yuya on some Japanese songs (I kinda think he was purposely choosing slow songs with easy kanji, so I wouldn't fail as bad, lol). But, some of the songs had so little furigana above the kanji that I could barely sing a word! DX 

Shun kept on breaking the microphone while we were singing. First, the top round thing you sing into came off (it still worked luckily). THEN, he was testing to see if he had fixed it and pulled the whole thing off again, but this time he accidentally pulled the cords apart too! He managed to fix it, but the whole thing was hilarious. (And when I tried to help him fix it he snapped a picture of me with the broken microphone! Dear world, I promise you, I did not break the microphone.)

I also had him and Shun sing the Doraemon theme song with me (haha! you guys did an excellent job!). Surprisingly, Yuya and I like a lot of similar songs! Yay! Now I just need to learn the Japanese to them so I don't fail so badly at karaoke....

We left karaoke in a rush, because we had to be at the bus station so I could get back to the dorm (for kitchen cleaning duty). We made it to the bus station right as the bus pulled up! 

Thank you for taking us around Kyoto, Yuya and Shun! I really appreciate it! たのしかった！