Three days late, sorry about that! Saturday was a wild and crazy day, starting at 5:30am. I had to get up for a food-field trip in Kyoto. Ironically, this was the morning my host mother bought bagels, cream cheese, and (passable) lox for breakfast - so I ate my fill. The morning commute was surprisingly tame - nobody wakes up for the 6:30 train on Saturday, I guess. Made it to Karasuma Oike with half an hour to spare. Met up with some KCJSers, killed some time, and then made our way to Yubahan.
I'm not going to give a full write up, if only because I've done it already for homework. Simply put, yuba is kind of the skin of boiled soy milk. It sounds gross, but it's really good. I ate things that don't even have names, because they aren't sold. Fresh yuba, fried yuba chips (tastes better than potato chips), and a bunch of other stuff.
After the field trip, we went over to Starbucks with a Yotsukura-sensei, and had a really interesting conversation about...something. I wish I had written this post earlier, because it seems I forgot. But anyway, getting to know teachers YAY! Afterwards, she took us to an import shop - I looked around for Kahlua. So what if it's girly, its damn tasty. Anyway, no luck. My group left to go pick up some friends. I met a couple of Hiro's college buddies, both of whom were super cool. More on them later. Then we met up with Nick, and his friend Ayaka. Yay, Japanese friends! Gotta keep it as close to the golden ratio as possible (the golden ratio is a secret).
So we started off towards Kyodai. But on the way, Christina was distracted by a manga festival, and we split our group. Bad idea, we would later realize. My team went to a food festival. Takumi (one of the aforementioned friends of Hiro) and I got hot noodles - bad idea, on a hot summer day. We chatted for a while - I really, really enjoyed our conversation. After the food, we continued on to our ultimate destination, Kyodai's Oktoberfest!
Which is where the problems began. I discovered, to my dismay, I was out of money! I had to borrow some to get a glass of delicious German beer which, due to the lack of hops, remains my favorite. Yum. But it was really pricy. Really, really pricy. So we decided to leave. But no, we couldn't we first had to reunite the groups. I'll spare you the details. It took an hour before we could get going again.
Due to my monetary depletion, I had to stop off at a 7-11 to pick up some bills. This is where the trouble really began. Due to factors I had yet to realize, I was unable to withdraw money. Cue freak out. In Japan, no money. WHAT.
We took the train to Shijo to buy beer at the コンビニ, during which I called my card companies. Luckily, I got it straightened out. I went with Kenji and Takumi to get some cash, and bought myself some drinks. I earned it. I was just about to join the others on the riverside to enjoy my purchase when trouble struck again.
In my distracted, money-deprived state, I had forgotten to contact my friend Leila, who was waiting at the station for us. I kept her waiting for two hours. She was going to have my head. Simultaneously, we had decided to split up into two groups for dinner. My team, following my stomach's impulse, went for Okonomiyaki. With me were Nick, two AKP students, Kenji, and Akira (the other of Hiro's friends). Once we ordered, I went off (with Kenji) to redeem myself. We walked halfway across the city (lies) to pick up Leila, and brought her back to the restaurant. I apologized profusely for missing her texts. Luckily, things worked out, and we wound up back on good terms. Back at the restaurant, the food has long since been cooked up, and we dug right in when we got there. Turns out, Akira also likes Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, making him the first of my Jojo Comrades. I can't describe how awesome this is.
Wait, I can. Nowhere near as awesome as the fact that Akira is priest in training, next in line to run a major temple in Nara. Somehow I forgot the name, but it's a big deal. Turns out, he's also the head of the Sado Club (tea ceremony). When I told him about my (very loose) connection to Sen no Rikyu, he asked me to introduce them. I'll see what I can do ^_^
We joined the AKP students at a bar, but everyone seemed to be super happy being around other gaijin. I don't share their interest, unfortunately. It was neat to see Jared there, although he was on his way to the fun part of the evening. I hear antics later ensued when they went to a club. I sat in the back with Kenji, Leila, and Akira, and we shared a few pitchers of beer. Akira showed one of his cool talents - he reads palms (or something like that). I was legitimately impressed. Unfortunately, he had to bail early. We left not too long after - the smoke started getting to me. So we headed home, although we stopped at a yogurt place on the way back. It was from Hawaii!
And then I came home, and slept. Overall, great day. Made some new friends, whom I hope to meet again soon. And I really owe a lot to Kenji, for helping me out with my multitude of unexpected problems.
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