wake.eat.sleep

Let's start from earlier in the day. Any guide of Kyoto will tell you that there is a lot to see, and so I wanted to try to head some place different, and maybe see something similar, just in a different light. Armed with a one-day bus/subway pass, and a bit of appetite, I headed out to Nishiki Market. Eventually, this also led me to Teramachi Street as well, which is another shopping area. After a slight bit of debate, omurice won out over pizza buffet.

Now that I was that far east, I decided that I might as well see what Kiyomizu-dera looked like in the day. I walked a good amount before hopping onto the bus. But, the bus can only take you so close, so it was a bit more of a hike before you got there. The one advantage/disadvantage of not knowing Japanese as well, is that most conversations automatically convert into white noise. But as soon as someone speaks English, it pops out a lot more. I felt a little bad for this one mother that was touring with her family, she wanted to stand in line to drink from the Otowa Waterfall. Her family harshly criticized the idea saying it's a waste of time, that it would take too long. Her husband hung around but spent about 10 minutes commenting how the line wasn't moving, how people were taking too long, how it would be another half an hour. Yikes. Anyway, let's be a little bit more conscious on how we talk to one another.

(Drink from the hand, not from the ladle!)

All of that done, I headed back to the hotel for a short break to recharge for Hanatouro. 

Despite a long nap, I was still feeling a bit tired, so instead of slinging along a mostly empty bag I went bag free instead. I also decided to give up on the idea of going from Shoren-in to Kiyomizu-dera in less than 2 hours and to go at a much slower pace. I got a lot of great pictures, and I even still made it to Kiyomizu-dera, but right after everything closed.

Now, I had previously used the Wikitravel site to some success. This time, it was 0 for 2 in the listings for Irish pubs in Kyoto. Finally, I found one that was nearby, the Gael Irish Pub. They were celebrating St. Patrick's Day with green beer, some drink specials, and even corned beef and cabbage stew on the menu. I got to enjoy that (though it was closer to regular Irish stew, or even Filipino bulalo, but it hit the spot.) Gradually, I got to talk to and meet people at the bar. Allen, an Aussie fellow on holiday with his brother. Shiori, one of the bartenders working. Chris, an Irish guy working in Kyoto as a teacher. Lucas, an Aussie student on holiday. Sarah, another one of the bartenders working. There were two French women that I met, but whose names I forget. Later, another two French women and a Japanese woman showed up as well.

One recommendation is to always be observant, and I noted that there was a fellow that was pretty drunk that was offering to hug people. However, his hugs would turn into attempts to make out with you. Later, Allen was trying to get me to accept a hug from that guy, which I thankfully declined. Um, not that there's anything wrong with that, but just saying. Ha.

Anyway, I wasn't very interested in any of the women that weren't the bartenders. I did get to talk to Shiori briefly and Sarah as well. As things were winding down, Sarah left to go to Milan's, a bar/lounge that featured karaoke. Lucas, asked if I wanted to eventually go, and I knew that if Sarah was going I'd go. Sarah was attractive in all the right ways that you'd think a half-Japanese, half-French woman would be. We invited others to follow along, and eventually we were all at Milan's: Allen, Chris, Lucas, the two french women and some people that were at Gael's earlier.

We all had a great time singing. I even met a local Kyoto gal named Reina, but unfortunately my lack of depth with vocabulary kept our conversation pretty basic. Eventually, everyone would filter out and leave and the local crowd started singing exclusively Japanese songs. When I looked at the time, it was almost 7 am! Yikes! 

I grabbed some late night or early morning breakfast on the way home before putting myself to bed. Fun night, Kyoto! You win this round.

Here's the full set of pictures from Kyoto:

#3dc

-- wake.eat.sleep