Arigato go-zai-mas!

I was miserable. Tossing and turning. Sweating and shivering. I just wanted some water, but I couldn't even get up and the thought of the ladder was too much. So I just rolled back and forth. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, so I got down and gasped, "Laura, water!" So she handed me a bottle, I took 2 Advil I had (thankfully) brought and like magic, 2 hours later (a little later than we had planned to leave), I felt pretty good. Advil is magic. I seriously thought I was so sick I would be stuck in Tokyo in the Ace Inn for another 2 days in that stuffy cubbie hole.

We were off to Kyoto! Being well-organized college students, we hadn't bought tickets for the Shinkansen yet thinking, "Who's riding to Kyoto on Tuesday morning at 9:30?" A lot of people apparently because all that was left was the SMOKING section...dun dun dun...It sucked at first, but I took some Dramamine so I slept most of the time and kind of forgot about it.

Just like Lonely Planet warned, Kyoto wasn't much at first sight. The train station was very interesting, futuristic-ish, but didn't quite fit the old beautiful Kyoto I was expecting to see. So then we hopped on a bus and went to Gojo Guesthouse, our traditional Japanese style inn. It was a really cool place and we had a big room with a sit-on-the-ground table, a sweet wooden weaved ceiling, a walk in closet, and lots of space for our 3 futons. Since it was already noon, our plan was to do the Lonely Planet's suggested walking tour of Gion (the "old town" area) on bikes. But there's a reason it was called a WALKING tour. We rode our bikes across the street and then started heading up Gojozaka Slope. About 1 minute up the hill, I was like, "Oh HELL no." So we ditched our bikes and ended up walking. It was a great little street with the traditional wooden houses converted into candy shops selling all sorts of green tea and red bean candy. (I took a free sample at every shop and then felt really sick; I can't even THINK of eating red bean anymore!) We got green tea softserve ice cream. Mmm...so good! We then went to the shrine near by (Kiyomizu Temple) and got interviewed by a group of 5 Japanese school girls practicing their English. As she read off her cell phone, "Hello, we are Japanese students and we are going to read a book on peace and friendship. Our teacher would like us to ask you about your opinions on peace and friendship in Japan." They then handed us a piece of what looked like a yearbook signature page, and we all wrote a little blurb about how wonderful the Japanese had been to us. Afterward we explored more of the little traditional streets and even saw a geisha! This was the beginning of my geisha spotting obsession.

Geisha are silly characters. What if you were a geisha in 2008? You don't make any sense! but I guess that's what makes them special (especially when you see one hailing a cab! that was lucky!) . That night we had dinner at this restaurant that ONLY served dumplings (gyoza) and they were INCREDIBLE. We also really enjoyed watching the 4 old ladies at the table next to us eating 20 and 30 dumplings a piece (Laura and I each had 10 a piece and thought THAT was a lot!) and drinking lots of "birru."

After dinner, Daniel suggested we hit up the public bath house. Having seen pictures of luxurious wooden tubs filled with green tea infused water, I thought that sounded great! Even better, there was one right around the corner from Gojo Guesthouse! So we headed off in our pajamas, towel, and toiletries in hand. We arrive at the door and pay our 400 yen. Daniel heads off to the men's side (after he accidentally had walked in our side - the signs were of course in Japanese), and we ours. So there we were. What now? We were in the front room where there were a bunch of cubbie holes for your clothes, a huge mirror, a coin-operated massage chair and some little stools. Hmm...well (1) where's the bath? (2) do I get naked here? (3) where do I put my towel? can take it to the bath with me? Fortunately, the lady next to us spoke enough English to help us through these questions. As she got naked right there, we realized, okay we're supposed to get naked right here. As she walked toward the bath with no towel, we soon realized, this was no place for modesty. So we did it. We got naked and headed into the bath/shower room with all the other old, naked Japanese women. Okay, so here we are, naked. It looks like an children's bathroom with shower heads all around coming out of the wall about waist high and Hello Kitty toiletries and wash cloths all over the place. Not quite the wooden bath/green tea infused water experience I was imagining, but nonetheless, a cultural experience! So we started to squat down at one of the shower heads next to the woman who had spoke a bit of English to us and she makes a motion to stop and then runs off and brings back 2 stools. Oh! Apparently you don't want to be sitting naked on the tile, but these community stools are much better! To figure out the rest, we just sort of used our prereferral vision. It was A LOT of work when you have to bend in toward the shower head to wash your hair. Man, I was exhausted. And some of those ladies were working up quite the lather. I wasn't so good at it. They must have thought I was still dirty. Then we decided to try the actual tubs themselves. I lasted about 2.5 seconds. They were SCORCHING. So we left to dry off and this tiny old Japanese woman spoke to me and pointed at me, smiled and pounded her heart, then patted me on the shoulder, said "bye-bye" and left. I have no idea what she said, but I assume/hope it was friendly?

We walked back to Gojo Guesthouse with our pajamas on and towels wrapped up on our heads giggling the whole way.