What happened to the weekend?

I’m writing this from Kyoto, Japan outside the gates of Katsura Palace.  Henry, Roldolfo, and I are waiting our turn to tour this must-see attraction.  We’ve actually been waiting a really long time because our tour guide messed up and dropped us off an hour before he was supposed to.  However, it’s given us a chance to sit in the shade and relax.  We spent the morning visiting Nijo Castle and Ryoanji Temple.  Ryoanji is known for its zen garden which contains 15 boulders where only 14 are ever visible from any one point.  It was relaxing to chill and stare at the garden, although it wasn’t exactly quiet since there were quite a few other tourists doing the same thing.  After we tour Katsura Palace, the three of us will be taking public transportation back to the hotel where we’ll meet up with the rest of the class and have the evening free to explore Kyoto.

We also had last evening free to explore after we checked into the hotel, so the whole class ended up sticking together and taking the subway to explore Shijo-Dori, a street with lots of lights, shopping, and food.  From there, we went down Pontocho-Dori, an alley that’s about 10 feet wide and completely lined with restaurants, bars, and small clubs.  At this point, we split up for dinner and five of us ended up finding an awesome place located underground that felt like you were in a cave.  Each table was in its own little mini-cave.  The food and drinks were good and the waiters screamed at you in Japanese (but in a good way).  After dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed, exhausted after over 24 hours of travel.

Speaking of travel, the flights were long but didn’t really feel too much longer than what I’ve been on before.  The 15-hour LAX-Hong Kong flight felt similar to the 10-hour Dallas to Amsterdam flight I took a few years ago.  Anyway, the planes were nice: good food, lots of movies, and comfortable seats.  I expected to watch 6 or 7 movies on the long flight to Hong Kong but only got through 3 because I actually managed to sleep on the plane, which was a good thing.  Hong Kong was a pretty nice airport to transfer through, which is good because I’ll be passing through it 3 more times this summer.  After arriving in Osaka at Kansai Airport, which is built on a manmade island in the middle of Osaka Bay, we picked up our Japan Rail passes and took an hour train ride to Kyoto.  From there, we walked about 10 minutes to the hotel.

The hotel room is nice but small.  My roommate Emilio and I each sleep on a mat on the floor of our room.  Our pillows are more like beanbags than actual fluffy pillows.  The bathroom reminded me of a cruise ship bathroom with a small toilet and the sink hanging halfway into the bathtub.  Our room is on the 4^th floor and the narrow, twisty stairs are just like the narrow, twisty stairs to my 4^th floor room in the apartment in LA that I just moved out of.  We’ll be staying here for almost a week before checking out and moving onto Tokyo.