b’s blog

Back in Tokyo and we stopped off on our last whole day in the Akihabara region where all the electronics come cheaply. It was very busy with neon signs and hawkers and many advertised Duty Free. We walked into a small alleyway market with tons of little transitors and other electronic gagety thingies that would make anyone doing any sort of electronic home repair drool.

We were thinking of going to a Maid Cafe but were put off by the price and the no picture taking policy. Maid Cafe is an experience. Japanese girls dressed in cute little maid outfits serve you food. Just to sit down was 500yen, a polaroid pic with them (one guest only) was another 500yen. When we first walked up, their greeting was “Welcome Home” instead of the standard “Welcome”. The mall that the Maid Cafe was located in had a ton of costumes for Cos-play (dress up) and I think Harajuku girls.

We came away with a Wii controller, Nintendo DS plus one game and a digital camera (which was 1000 yen more expensive in the Narita airport). We went out for bbq dinner, Korean style and spent the evening playing Wii. The raw liver I tried made me gag (and Winnie too) and the cooked liver was edible but I just don’t like the bloody liver taste so it was only one portion for me. The asparagus brushed with oil and sea salt was the best after a little toasting over the hot coals. The homemade red tea/vanilla ice cream for dessert was excellent!

I got to Kyoto station about 4 hours earlier than everyone else and so I stored my bag in one of the lockers and wandered around the station and area since the LP said that it:s worth a look. Well, the Skywalk across the top of the station was a dissappointment because you couldn’t look down into the station, just out to the city. The Garden top was kinda nice. A small patch of green in a concrete and glass structure. Wandered the shops and got lunch and then went to a temple about a 5 minute walk north of the station.

Once everyone arrived, we went to our respective hostel/hotel and then went for dinner that was a fusion of Korean and Japanese.

Next morning the young adults rented bikes (It:s THE way to see the city) and met up with Auntie Amy and Doug (they took cabs) at their hotel for a “bao” breakfast before heading off to the Golden Temple (covered in gold), Imperial Residence(permission needed for a tour) and Silver Temple(not covered in silver but has a beautiful rock garden, green grounds and great view at the top of the hill).

Biking around is slightly dangerous since the sidewalks are very narrow and there are many pedestrians. The road is not meant for cyclists(you get honked if you`re on the road). There were many near misses because Vicki, our tour guide, didn:t have a horn on her bike. I became her horn when I was riding second on our caravan. I think biking around was fun and not too tiring. It:s a good work out and makes the central city seem smaller. (but today my butt is sore;) )

This morning, before heading back to Tokyo, we visited Nijo-jo castle. Shogun residence. it was neat cuz the floors were squeeky. It:s a feature of the wooden floor. haha.

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