Holiday J-Tour...Part 2

Boxing Days in Osaka/Kyoto
December 28
As I sit in a hotel room in the historic city of Kyoto, I am calling it a fairly early night. The past three days have been pretty fun and I must say that a quiet night to myself is a rather refreshing change. Here's a recap of the past couple of days.

My last night in Osaka consisted of dinner and drinks with Kayo, Mayu, Keisuke. The rain and fatigue didn't deter our appetites nor our drinking elbows one bit. Eventually, I had to bid my farewells to Memu, Kayo and Mayu and thank them for their wonderful kindness and endless smiles! Keisuke was going to join me the following evening in Kyoto.

Kayo, Keisuke, Mayu and Me

I was off to Kyoto -- about an hour away by train -- for three days to see a couple more ex-KGIC students and the historic sites of Kyoto.

I was picked up from Shijo Subway Station in downtown Kyoto by the fantastic Erina Morishita and Keiko Kikuchi, a KGIC student that I never met during her time in Toronto.

After getting some delicious takoyaki (fried fritters filled with octopus and a sweet and savory sauce) at a street stall, we walked around some historical neighborhoods -- which have been left relatively untouched by time (other than the occasional vending machine) -- the Teramachi shopping area and Nishiki food market. After taking a few much needed hours sleep at my hotel, we had a traditional pork dinner at great restaurant. Then we met Keisuke and geared up for another session of karaoke and then some endless eats and drinks. I got back to the hotel around 5:00 am.

Keisuke, Keiko, Erina and me

The next day, Keiko and Erina took me to some of the sites of Kyoto, an incredible town with all kinds of ancient temples interloped with the modern commercialism. There is a by-law against skyscrapers and obscenatious signage in the city...which in itself makes it a pleasant city to be in. Any city that forces mega-corpo McDonald's restaurants to change its signs from red to brown gets a big plus in my book!

During our tour, I visited the Gold Temple or kinkaku in Japanese. Kinkaku is something i've been interested in seeing for a long time and it is beautiful.

Me at the Gold Temple

Later in the evening, i met up with Hiroko Bowers, who was visiting Kyoto with Ranie's sister Romy and her husband Toby, and Romy's friend Jennifer. We had a lovely dinner before I made it an early night to prepare for Nagoya tomorrow.