And yet for me, the rain still falls. (Day 9)

I'm in my last Monday in Japan! Every day will be like that from here on out. BUT, there is still lots that will happen yet…

Today we really slept in – like, left the house to got for lunch at 1 PM and were planning on doing a walking tour to the Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) yet (FYI, most temples and shrines close at 4 PM in Japan). Somehow Kyoto just feels a lot more laid-back than Tokyo, so it really wasn't a thought as we made our way to downtown for some Indian food.

We got off at Higashiyama and started our journey for the day in Kyoto's pleasure district…



…and soon enough made our way near more canals and residential areas (um, guys, where the hell is this Indian restaurant?)






This one has…er…different accentuations.



And soon enough…


Oishi kata!

We managed to move our now-jammed, full-of-curry-and-nan bodies back out onto the sidewalk to stumble onto the nearest train bound for our Kinkakuj (short for Kinkakuji) adventure. We arrived at our first station at around 3:30 and began our trek.


This is the first temple on our walk, but we only made it around four o'clock, so most everything was closing.



It drizzled a bit on our walk as I double-gunned it with Jen and Chris single-gunning it behind me. Since the other temple closed at four, I was afraid the Golden Pavilion would be the same – hence the double-gunning.

We arrived at the park with the pavilion (it was behind a giant blockade wall because you must pay to get in) at 4:45, and we since we saw people walking out the gates, we booted it up a million steps and then realized we had just scaled the exit steps. The entrance was up on the other side of the park, but was open until 5:00 – so we double-gunned it back over to the other side of the park and paid our four dollar admission. It was so worth it.








Hottest…temple…ever. This is the temple they had used in our kabuki, but this time, it was real. And oh-so-hot!





I basically had to post a million pictures of it because it was the coolest thing of my life, okay? I mean…a building…coated in gold. C'mon…tell me that's not cool. That right there is the definition of bling.

We then hopped the first bus that came along to the Kyoto Station – which is also basically the hottest train station known to man.



Opened in 1997, this station has a huge underground shopping complex, theatre, 15 floors of shops and restaurants, a hotel, skywalk, and even trains that pass through it on occasion. We decided that tonight would be a good opportunity to explore the station…but first, dinner!

We headed to the underground concourse and found a ton of restaurants. We decided to give Lipton (aka Ripton), like the soup, a try. You see, this restaurant was ironic because even though it was the same Lipton, they had no soup on the menu. I was torn between omeretrice and a sammich, but the calories (listed in every menu) made me pick the sammich.



After Ripton we decided to explore the bowels of the Kyoto Station. So first off, I booked my ticket for the shinkansen back to Tokyo and then we hauled ass up the fifteen floors of stairs (escalator-style, to be sure) to the roof to stare out over the nighttime sky of Kyoto.









Cutting through Isetan, we found the skywalk which ran the length of the station. A few feet in, they had this little vantage point spots where the hall got wider before narrowing again. They had these vantage spots several times going along, and every single one had this black blob on the floor which appeared to be alive. At first, it was like, oh…a black ball of Japanese teenagers, clenched into an embrace, not moving, talking, breathing or anything. Then a second, third, fourth, and fifth (but only one per vantage area). They didn't move…it just kind of looked like perma-clenching. Awkward! Then we got to the end of the skywalk and headed down into this patio-type/wedding chapel-ish area.


(Not pictured: Japanese couples all around me in every nook and cranny, clenching each other.)

After our station adventure, we decided that tonight was the night for all of us to attempt karaoke for the first time. Ever. We hopped our train over to downtown again and hit up the Karaoke Room – bringing you smoke-filled lungs, watered-down drinks and private karaoke rooms since 1995. (And not understanding English since way before then.) After a lot of pointing, hands making microphone motions and saying "30 minutes", we were on our way.










(Literal Japanese character translation: "Don-to sutopu biri-uin, ho-rudo on tou za-to fui-rin, sutouri-toraishi pi-puru…")


Singing the karaoke staple 'I Think We're Alone Now'.

Annnnd scene. Bang. Addicted to karaoke. 30 minutes there turned into an hour, which could have turned into far longer, but we didn't want to run our wallets too dry. So we headed home feeling somewhat of a heightened perspective, and Jen was in a bit of stupor. Grabbed some chocorate from Lawsons and called it a night.

Tomorrow: NOTHING. Well, we did some stuff if you consider eating lots of bread doing something, but it was one of the laziest days known to man. I was going to head to Miyajima by myself, but the thought of traveling so far alone didn't really sound that appealing. Sleeping in – very appealing. Ganbette.