These Five Seasons: kyoto and whatnot

We have made it to Kyoto, but let us recount our adventures in Tokyo.

After a hardy nap, Ericka and I made the excursion to Shinjuku (home of such fine films as Lost in Translation) and got sufficiently lost. Luckily, my old friend Atsushi brought a cellular device and met us at the koban. We had sushi on the 13th floor of a fancy mall.

Seeing Atsushi was a bit of a surprise. When I first met the guy, he had some bonkers dreadlocks and looked oh so fashionable and cool. When he moved in with us he wore sweats all the time and rocked some long hair. When we hung out in Japan last time not much had changed. But he has finished school, got a real job and has cut the hair, ditched the sweats and bought a suit. Hayashi-san is a full blown salaryman. Yow.

Due to jet lag and poor sleep we retired early. The next morning we walked around Asakusa and went to Shibuya. We picked up our rail passes and wandered around the streets, taking in Japanese fashion, crammed spaces and record stores. We then headed to to Harajuku for more fashion. While we were in Bangkok, Ericka was on the hunt for the perfect faux Chanel purse. I know it well. Black with white C's on the front, black handles and tall but not to tall. It was around Bangkok for $5 to $25 dollars. Well, we saw the real one in Harajuku for about $2000. Yow.

We met up with Atsushi, who was wearing street clothes, and went to pick up his friend Tomoko - who studied at both EWU and WWU. We actually know some of the same people (whatup blaz) and we all hit it off well. Italian food was enjoyed by all, and then off to the infamous Lotus Cafe in Harajuku where we drank cosmos, seabreezes and spicy gingerale like nobody's business.

The next morning we barely made the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. It was a matter of minutes, due to us not bringing an alarm clock on this trip. I have no idea how we made it, but we did.

The trip to Kyoto was smooth and easy, and with the help of some dramamine Ericka passed way out.

We met up with Risa (our friend from Laos) and her friend Masumi, enjoyed some tasty udon and checked out a temple with 1,000 cannons. Onward to an amazing green tea shop, where I had green tea ice cream, Ericka had green tea shaved ice and the girls had green tea parfaits. Ericka's motion sickness pills began to wear off, and we headed out to Kodaiji - a shrine to Hideyoshi, one of the three guys who unified Japan in the 16th century. It was quite grande, and we were fortunate enough to take in a traditional Japanese dance, which was quite nice until the guy who played Hideyoshi picked up the mic and started crooning. We left shortly after. I know that karaoke is a Japanese art, but come on - it can't be a traditional one.

We wandered the streets and parks of Kyoto, and parted ways with Matsumi, ended up meeting up with another friend of Risa named Naoki. After a spectacular sushi dinner we headed back to our hostel, where I now write you these words.