I actually made it!

こんばんわ。(konbanwa = good evening)

Big developments yo!

I’m in Kyoto man. It’s pretty cool that I made it. But hey some of you didn’t know I was coming here! Let me give you the low down.

Starting Monday, I began getting anxious about how I would spend my last, class-free days here. There were a few friends staying ‘til the 18^th, but they apparently were just staying in their dorms in Kichijoji (the town next over). I would have had to get a hotel or something, which is lame because I’ve been there for 6 weeks already.

There was no choice for me but to set out alone. One person. ひとり。

I picked Kyoto, because of its historical relevance and its relatively close proximity to Tokyo. So the next few days I spent about an hour and a half a day in the library on my computer researching options. It was scary without Dad for help (I just remembered that I did mention some of this in my blog before but I don’t care and don’t feel like rewriting what I’ve written. Consider this a refresher), but I pushed on because I just didn’t have the time for extensive email tag across the world.

I went ahead and booked a room at the Orange Inn in Kyoto (where I am sitting right now) in a 6 woman dorm. That was the only way to get affordable lodgings. Anyway, I’m staying here from tonight (the 15^th) ‘til the morning of the 18^th. I will then head back out for Tokyo where I have booked a room at the Narita Airport Hostel (convenient neh?) and sleep the night before leaving the next airport for the states.

So I had my rooms, which was important because the affordable ones were already almost full. Now I had to worry about transportation and my luggage.

I looked up all sorts of information on the Shinkansen (bullet train) and decided I wanted to take a Hikari train (the 2^nd fastest of three the others being Nozomi and Kodama) so that I could leave in the morning from Mitaka and get here at the decided check in time of 2pm. After checking the times and train numbers obsessively, I finally got to a train station where I could buy the tickets and stop worrying about it. (Charlene Anju and I went to Shinjuku for dinner Friday night as a celebratory thing and a “we’ve taken the train though Shinjuku dozens of times now but never actually left the station before” kind of thing. More on that and my last days of classes later).

They were a little expensive, but worth it to know that it was possible to go now. The only concern left was my luggage. I did NOT want to carry my ginormous everything-I-needed-for-a-whole-month suitcase all the way to Kyoto, leave it in a potentially unsecure room and then all the way back. It was also not an option to leave it at the Kuzuhara’s because I would have then needed to on the 18^th get to Tokyo around 2pm, go to Mitaka (hour and 15 min train) then aaaaall the way back to Narita (another 3 hours) so get to mu hostel. Not gonna happen. Fortunately, Kuzuhara-san came to my rescue.

She accepted my request to send my luggage to the airport for me while I was in Kyoto. This is common in Japan, as so many people use public transit, getting luggage to the airport is difficult. So she will send my bag in the next couple of days, I will call her for the confirmation number, then I will use that number to claim my bag at the airport on the 19^th.

This is exciting! Everything is actually working out! Now all I have to do is figure out how I will spend my time here in Kyoto…

Ok observations so far. It seems dirtier and smaller and older than Tokyo. I will reserve judgments for now though, as I have only seen a small part where my cheap little hostel is located. The owner of the hostel is very nice. He speaks English very well, but offered to try speaking Japanese instead when I told him about my studying. There is wifi available only from 5pm to 11am so I’m writing this in a word doc now and will post it later.

I guess when I get hungry I’ll ask him where I should go to eat. I have a few hours to do stuff, but I’m so tired after that last bit of running all out this week that I don’t really feel like it. I have all of tomorrow and Monday to explore. That’s good enough for me.

Yeah so this last week.

I think I mentioned the Isakaya in my last post so I’ll skip it. What’d I do Tuesday? Meh, I’ll try to remember…

Wednesday was study for huge ugly final exam day. Thursday was big ugly final day. After big ugly final, I went to the library for more Kyoto prep and general internet chilling (I desperately needed it). I also spent time rehearsing a speech I had written and would read in class Friday, and also finishing up my translation of the theme song from Miyazaki’s new film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea that was my project for the class (I don’t think it was graded though…)(ps - if you watch Ponyo which I highly suggest, do NOT under any circumstances listen to the American remix of the theme song. It will break your heart into little pieces and make you lose all faith in Disney)

Friday after class we had a lovely farewell party. There was great food and it was great to be able to say goodbye to everyone in other classes too. There are a few I will really miss, but fortunately two of those (Andrew and Eric) go to Toronto, so maybe I could visit them sometime or meet up for dinner or something. The end was all so very sudden. I was so busy this week that I didn’t think about the fact that these people I had gotten to know would soon be scattered around to world. It was surreal to say the least.

Then, Charlene and I chilled in her dorm ‘til we (and Anju) ready to leave. As mentioned before we went to Shinjuku where she and I bought train tickets (Charlene was getting tickets to the airport), and started to wander. We eventually found building with different restaurants on different floors, picked one that looked decent and reasonably priced and headed up. It was very good. Ironically it turned out to be the same restaurant that Charlene had eaten at with her family her very first night in Japan. Now it was her last.

We then wandered back in the direction of the, wait for it… KRISPY KREAME that we passed earlier. Yes, it’s in Japan too. Anju wanted to get some for the dorm and I just wanted one so we got in line.

Delicious pasties in tow, we headed back to ICU and got there by 8:15 (not bad if I do say so myself). I was home by 8:30 and started to continue my packing. I took a break to email my parents, found my Dad on AIM, chatted with them, updating them on my plans, and such forth. Then more packing and sleep. The AM came loud and obnoxious as always, as I stumbled downstairs, showered and back upstairs to finish packing and cleaning. I ate breakfast real quick, got a couple pictures of my host family (I didn’t forget! Yay!) and brought my suitcase downstairs and vacuumed the room. I then struck out, accompanied by Yumiko for the bus station. I got there in time for the 8:21 bus, and said my last goodbye to anyone I knew in Japan.

I got to Mitaka station and then Tokyo station in no time, actually by 9:30. My Shinkansen didn’t leave ‘til 11:03 so I chilled in a waiting area and bought a bento box lunch for the train. Finally I was on the train, and played my gameboy for a bit, ate and then napped a little, making sure to be aware of where I was so as not to miss my stop. I will note here that I was sitting next to a cute couple with a baby young enough to still be breastfeeding.

All of the sudden I was in Kyoto (though the trip was two and a half hours) and getting off the train. I asked a security guard where the bus station was. I asked in Japanese and got an answer in English. That always happens. When I speak English because I don’t know enough Japanese they answer in Japanese. When I can speak Japanese they answer in English. I guess there’s nothing to do but to learn more Japanese so I can speak it all of the time.

Anyway, found the bus station all right, got to my bus stop, got on the bus, got off the bus, walked about 20 feet in the wrong direction, corrected myself, headed in the right direction, turned and found myself face to face with the Orange Inn.

Aaand Safe!

じゃまた！

Ps – sorry for the stream of consciousness format of this post. Hopefully you get the idea.