Catching up

Okay, so it turns out that I am really horrible at this.  I didn't expect much else from me, but I was hoping I could really put in an effort this time.  Oh, well.  I have a lot of catching up to do.  Last I wrote I was headed to Kyoto.  I went and it was really nice.  I met up with some friends and their boyfriends, but surprisingly I managed to not feel like a 5th wheel.  We ate and had a bit of excitement with a missing wallet (she got it back right away, with everything), and was able to hit one Temple. 

We ended up at the Golden Temple, 30 mins before closing.  It was enough though.  The grounds are pretty small and it was cold out, so we wouldn't have stayed much longer than that anyway.  The temple is on this really big pond, or small lake, depends on how you look at these things.  Anyway, it is quite something, and the pond is full of Koi, which you could see from the edge of the pond.  I took the picture of the stairs, because I like stairs and because it was all roped off, so I think it was the actual stairs that the monks? priests? used.  It was starting to get dark and everything was shutting so we had to prepare to leave.  Not before my friends stopped at the souvenir shop.  I didn't pick up anything, it was all very expensive.  We did throw some coins at the wishing bowl, but nobody landed one.

This picture is from the exit of the Golden Temple.  I took it because it reminded me of the temple that Naruto got tangled in the bell ropes when he was travelling with Jiraiya to look for Tsunade.  I don't know how well you can see the bell or the ropes in this picture, but I thought of my brother and wanted to take this picture for him.  So, just in case he reads this, I decided to add it.  We went for some food after this, I spend a lot of time eating in Japan.  We were travelling with someone who spoke pretty good Japanese, and so we went into a posh-ish place.  The food was ridiculously expensive, but it was kind-of a neat experience.  There were definitely interesting people eating there.  Unfortunately, I had my back to most of it, so missed out on a lot of the action.  Just really interesting characters, old salary men and their "companions."


 NEW YEAR'S EVE and DAY
Next up is New Year's Eve.  My friend and I
decided to go out to meet up with some of our 
mutual friends.  Well, it turns out that we only knew one person in the group, and I didn't really know him at all.  But that didn't matter.  We spend the first part of the night in a bar called Absinthe, which I later figured out was a gay bar.  Then we went to a club just down the road to ring in the New Year.  It was packed!  As you can see from the above picture.  I had a great time, dancing my little butt off!  I think I terrified most of the Japanese guys in the club.  For those of you who have been out dancing with me, you know I can get a little...provocative, when I dance.  Well, most of the guys at the club were unsure of what to make of me.  I'm sure some thought some not so nice things, but I was so in my own little world, I didn't care.  And as it turns out, I had significantly less "grinding" than my friend, who is a much more conservative dancer.  I was pretty much left to myself, which is the way I like it.  I noticed some interesting things this night and may make a future post about it, but I need to go out to more clubs to see if it was a one off thing, or happens all the time.  I will bring earplugs next time I am out clubbing, because the music was inhumanly loud.  I included a pic of the car, because on our way back to Absinthe, we passed all these decked out old American cars.  Like at the end of a parade or something, but people were just hanging out in the street. 

SHOPPING!



 So New Year's Day is all about the shopping.  Here is the line up outside one of the stores, OPA that we passed on our way home at 5:45 am.  We didn't actually shop on Jan.1, we slept in until 2pm.  Which wasn't too bad, considering we got home at 7am.  But we did partake Jan. 2, which was chaotic.  Above you see the spoils of out outing.  3 of those bags are mine!  I got some killer boots, which I am absolutely in love with. 

I have to go, I need to get to work.  But hopefully this lets you know a little of what I've been up to, and you will forgive me for being so awful about updating.  I think I will have a decent amount of time at home this weekend, so I will try to get you completely caught up with me.