SUSHI

Journal # 42 April 7, 2009

I woke up early got ready, packed, went to breakfast, and headed to Kyoto with Kathleen and Cole. We were planning on meeting about 7 of our other friends later that day. We had no trouble finding our way to the train stations because Cole is very good at traveling and finding our way around places. We took a rapid train today so it was not as quick as a bullet train and we had to stand for a little while. It was hard because I had my book bag, purse, and rolling suitcase. I packed way to much stuff :)

The train ride only took about 45 min. and when we got there we headed to the hotel to drop our stuff off. We realized that our hotel was connected to the subway station so it was very convenient. The hotel we were staying at was absolutely gorgeous. It cost us about $600 for two rooms but we were splitting it between 12 people. Our group had 3 girls and 9 guys.

After changing into some cooler clothes, it was about 65, we headed to get some lunch. We went to a sushi bar that had a conveyer belt taking the sushi around!!! It was really cool. Each plate of sushi was only $1!!! It was the best sushi I had ever had.

When we left we went to some temples to see all the gorgeous cherry blossoms and learn some more about their culture. I was really surprised how many tourists were in the temples. The prettiest temple we went to was a Buddhist temple which was about a mile long. They have several different buildings that you could walk through. You could see where the monks taught other man how to become monks. I was able to see some of the monks do some of their rituals.

When we left the temple we walked around Kyoto for a while and just enjoyed the scenery. It was hard to go into some of the shops because Japan is so expensive and they sell some many cute things you just have to buy them. But I was very good and did not buy anything. When we went back to the hotel we checked in and relaxed and took naps. At around 7 we headed to dinner. We walked along the streets for a while and found a restaurant that served a variety of Japanese foods. The food again was awesome. I got soup, tempura, and sushi. As you can tell I LOVE SUSHI!!!

It was quite hard to communicate with the waiter so some of the stuff we got, we had no clue what it was. We were at dinner for about 3 hours so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest. I bet you are wondering how we worked out the sleeping arrangements. Well the three girls and one of the girl’s boyfriends shared a room and the other 8 boys all shared a room!!! It was funny because they pushed the beds together and all slept on one big bed, hahaha. I must tell you that they were not sober so it makes it sound a little better :)

Love
Michelle