Everybody~ we are going into the second day of our wonderful days in Japan~ let's hear a KYAAAAAAAAAAAAa~~~~~ (^▽^)ﾉ Yosh, yosh~! On the second day we went to Kyoto and the first place we landed was going uphill on foot to the Kiyomizu temple~ XD~
Before all that, let's have a little insight into an instruction by our dear Elina gave us the night before. We are to adhere to the 678 routine for the rest of the days with the tour to ensure the efficiency of the trip. The 678 routine spells for a 6AM wake up call by Elina, 7AM for breakfast and 8AM for hopping onto the bus~ trust me, even on the first day, i feel extremely disturbed by it nonetheless. But i was thinking of Elina, if i were in her position it wouldve been worse. Waking up just to call us. For this, we salute u and thank you for your sacrifices made in this trip~ XD
So the day began with the hotel room phone ringing, and because i had terribly sleep talked about being too hot..(>.<") Hikaru was the one who picked up the call and we duly went back to sleep. Hahahah... i really did not recall talking in my sleep about being too hot (it was cold in Japan so we set up the tempreture in the room to 32C) but i do remember getting up and fell back onto the bed...(^.^") Gomen, Hikaru, for terrorizing you on the first night. Anyway, we got up anyway and took our baths and picked up our eyes, noses and mouths, got dressed and headed down to the lobby with our belongings in tow for breakfast~ After a nice breakfast we hopped onto the bus for our next destination : Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺)~! Sitting in the bus as we arrived in Kyoto, we could see a lot of those old school buildings and housing area, a maze like road that leads up there. The roads are generally narrow, it makes me feel close (^_-)-☆ We arrived at a parking lot and as we hopped down the bus with a little nausea, we saw a hill slope populated by shops peddling all sorts of souvenirs along the way up to the temple. I saw a few things i had in mind to purchase but we got very much entranced in the temple and we sorta ran out of time. Anyway, upon reaching we saw a big wooden gate and upon entering we saw a well, which were surrounded by people. It is a tradition in Japan that if you are ever going to visit a temple, you should clean you face and your hands and prepare to enter a sacred place. Everyone sort of winced due to the cold, but for me and Hikaru, we have to because we are training to become Japanese..(^ω^) and i shrieked. (^.^")
We walked around and saw the magnificient temple, built with completely no nails. No freaking nails and you are on a freaking hilltop babe. Woot~! This temple houses many other shrines, but our highlight of the temple was the Jishu Shrine, dedicated to Ōkuninushi, a god of love and "good matches". Yes, most of you can see where this is going. Huhu~ We climbed up the stairs and upon reaching the top, we immediately saw one of the 'love stones' which were placed quite a distance apart. It is believed that if one person with their eyes closed, and thinking about a special someone should walk in between the stones and reaches the end he/she will find true love~! At the time when we were there, a group of Caucasians were trying to encourage a rather plumpy but sweet looking girl to find her way over the other side. We cheered for her and cleared the way as well and it gets really fun~ She was walking and her friend was guiding her by telling her to "Go straight, go straight, its alright~ Everyone's cheering for you~" and then, some snobbish lady pushed that girl aside in the out-of-my-way manner. Shocked by the push she opened her eyes and it sort of cancelled all her efforts... Awww.. i feel kinda bad for the girl. But she has good friends with her so im sure she'll be fine~ (^.^) So, we walked around and saw a lot of amulets for sale. Of course, what we saw and bought is a S.E.C.R.E.T~
We moved onto the Otowa waterfall, where three channels of water fall into a pond. We understood that each stream brings three elements of wisdom, health and longetivity. We lined up and drank from the streams~ A very refreshing and cool drink indeed~ Kyaho~! After the drink, we ran for our life because we ran out of time and Ernest san told us to wait in the parking lot~! Yes, we ran downhill, evading people and i hope i didnt knock anyone down while doing so~ We boarded the bus in time huffing and puffing. Everyone got on the bus and were mostly waiting for us..Yes we were late. hehheheh
Most of the day we went visiting temples, there was one i couldn't remember its name, but it was a place where i first saw a field of sakura trees~ We also did visit the Heian Shrine which was built for the 1,100th anniversary of the establishment of Kyoto. We did nothing much here, except that we bought some souvenirs so im not going to elaborate much~
We were taken to a train station around evening, but the most exciting thing at that moment was that we were required to walk to the station as the bus was caught in a jam~ XD. Personally, i was excited as it was the first time we walk to the station~ Just like a Japanese~ Both me and Hikaru was so busy trying to live it up, rushing over to the other side of the road, climbing down the stairs, coming out from another flyover to the train station~ We were both smiling and busy looking at just about everything~ We got our tickets for our Hikari Kodama bullet train ride and as we were waiting we noticed that there was a electronic board that tells us the temperature we were surviving against. It was a chilly 12C! No wonder Hikaru were already shivering despite wearing warmers and coat. The funniest thing that happened during our wait for the train to arrive was that all of us in the tour group took pictures of another bullet train by the same window. Sitting by the window there was an uncomfortable salary man looking at us taking pictures of what he deemed 'normal'. (^.^") Hikaru and me caught the opportunity to take a picture and bowed to thank him and apologized for bothering him. In true Japanese fashion, he nodded back to the whole tour group. Hahahahahha~~~
Our train ride brings us to the city of Hamamatsu~! This post is getting long and naggy~! Yes~! So~! I'm going to call it a post today and next, our super drama drunken brawl up next~! Kyaho~!
