Japan Part 4

way overdue eh?
now i gotta try to remember what happened... oh yeah, i'm in kyoto...
i had an iced coffee and a tuna filled pastry at the starbucks in the hotel... yes, tuna.
we took a train from the central part of kyoto to one of the peripherial mountain areas...
...or what thought was a train until the next thing i know, we're on the street
a couple old ladies on the trolly
when we arrived at the area, we were wowed by the scenery and the rustic feeling.
we hiked up a hilly path and came across a hobbitt home. i kept on humming the lord of the rings music and annoying my sister.
pretty hills
problem with fancy camera is that you can't always just point and click. i saved this one with photoshop, but a lot of pictures of me came out blurred or overexposed or something beyond repair.
the sun was so damn bright that where the sunlight hit, it was always overexposed.
i'm quite sure i wasn't supposed to climb up there.
we trekked further up the hill into a bamboo grove area. all i could imagine were ninjas hiding in the shadows.
i'm glad my sister and i went here without a tourgroup...
...because here they come ruining the peaceful and contemplative feeling.
somewhere the photography gods are smiling as i get a perfect cross-section of transportation in japan.
the cemeteries are as crowded as the cities. can you give me some elbow room so i can rest in peace dude?
some temple
some other temple. by this time, the sun was killing us so i wasn't in the mood to hang out at the blazing hot temples.
we had to take a break from the sweltering heat and had some shaved ice. and yes, the colors really were that toxic in real life. but it really hit the spot.
only in japan would i pay $4 for a dish of frozen water and sugar. it's wierd how money just flow like water when you travel. at home i'd put back a candy bar cause i didn't want to waste 65 cents. wierd.
after we got to the hotel and cleaned up a bit, it started storming shooting any plans we had for the evening.
the arcades always had a floor or at least a section with slot machines just like the ones in the states. they really don't regulate gambling over there.
this was the arcade in kyoto we spent countless hours on that drum game and casino games. and oddly enough, i didn't play one fighting game.
now it's time for a game...

CAN I EAT THIS???

The objective is to decide whether or not you the item in the picture is consumable or not...
put your cursor over the picture for the answer.
self portrait
yes, they might look like soap, but are really glutenous cakes that are overpackaged and overpriced.
bite into these and you'll be pulling bits of plastic out of your teeth.
yes, cleverly designed as sushi boxes, these are actually candies.
obviously it's a display, but can you believe it?
would you eat this? probably not. but somebody in japan will.
would i eat this? only if i wanted to be taken to the ER afterwards.
easy one, real.
looks a little too shiney and perfect right? but that's because there's a delicious layer of sugar glazed over the top.
the pizza is fake, but then i had to touch the pasta cause it looked too real... that's because it was... squishy.
mcdonalds is fake no matter what.
during the bullet-train ride back from kyoto, i grabbed some mcdonalds to go... they had fish dippers which were like fish mcnuggets, pretty good. but the "mcgrand" was wierd... topped with horesradish... blehh.
back at the yokosuka, there was a little band performing at the train station... there's always stuff going on in public areas which i really miss back here.
culinary adventure #16. this was fun, i forgot what it was called, but there was an open fire in the table, and you order meats, and veggies to grill yourself. for some reason, the pork slices kept on making the fire flare up, shooting 10 inch flames in the air. as good as it was, i'd rather not suffer 2nd degree burns during a meal.
one of the more interesting, and surprisingly more tasty cuts of meat was beef tongue. but this was just a really wierd translation. i'll have a side of estrogen with that please.
yay, back to the pretty sunrise
as bare as the apartment was when i arrived, it was gonna become more empty as my sister got ready for the final pack out. the movers are so fast and efficient, i'm siting there playing gameboy for a few minutes, and the next thing i know, they're done.
next plan of attack, we're back at the new sanno hotel planning on our excursion to mt. fuji. but it turns out that the bus is full except for one seat, and since my sister had to return to work the next day, it will be me going alone.
...problem is that once i got to the bus station on the other side of the city, i couldn't find the ticket sales counter for the life of me. i had a whole half an hour to find it, but the whole language barrier thing made it a nightmare. so i ended up missing the bus, and i came back to the hotel quite pissed off.
a tall building
my sister and i salvaged the next day by hanging out at the roppongi hills complex... malls and museums and such.
uughhhghhgghh.....
giant spider was pretty cool. it's the tiny ones that i'm schoolgirl shrieking afraid of.
a nice shot of tokyo tower from a distance
these billboards for olympics were all over the place. that girl on the left was on the sports news all the time and in commercials. writing this after the fact, i know she didn't win a medal in table tennis, the chinese won all those obviously. and that guy in the middle always bothered me cause i couldn't figure out what sport he did. then as i watched the olympics, i found out he did the hammer throw... he won the gold.
so this is where the museum exhibit is. i had to see it to believe it. but then i wasn't gonna dish out 12 bucks to see the exhibit itself... cause it's hello kitty.. why?
YESSS! the 150 Yen super value menu! who says eating in japan has to be expensive?
everybody's got Really Into Cellphone Holding Syndrome in japan... also known as RICHS