GW Part 5

Is this over yet gosh.

SO DINNER. YUM-YUM YUMMY. Kevin somehow got it in his head he really wanted some AMERICAN food and we were going to walk all over the place to find a TGI Friday's or Hard Rock or Planet Hollywood. I avoid these places like the plague in America, because any burger or steak or rack of ribs you can find at those places is almost always done better at another restaurant. Seriously. Half the reason anyone goes to a Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Cafe is for the shirt, which will one day end up at a Salvation Army for $4. In Japan, as I have already chronicled, THESE PLACES ARE A GODSEND. I just wish we had a Buffalo Wild Wings gaaahh that would be so good...

Anyway, after walking around for at least half an hour Tracy looked up those places on her iPhone and Kyoto has NONE of those chains. Sad pandas. So we settled for okonomiyaki in a small restaurant underneath the station. Meh. I can't say we ate anything really awesome the entire trip, other than the meat on a stick at Nara.

TANGENT BACKSTORY TIME: I remember during my study abroad days that Ashlie was a big fan of mints and gum. One day she bought a pack of Glamatic*, not understanding a damn word on the packaging but being nonetheless intrigued by the sparkles and glitter. She popped a piece in her mouth and told me it tasted like PERFUME. I didn't believe her until I chomped on a piece of my own and promptly spit it out.

I told Tracy and Kevin this story and Kevin was like, "THAT WAS SO MY IDEA FOR A GUM." I bought a pack for him in Nara and shoved it in my bag for later, when we all wanted that awesome rubbing alcohol flavor in our mouths. After dinner I was digging around in my bag looking for the gum, and we stopped outside the station to truly experience Glamatic. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it, but there was still a hint of perfume.

I believe at that time I dropped my wallet.

I didn't realize it until I wanted to buy beer at a Lawson (heh). We went back to the station to look for it, but it wasn't lying around anywhere so we were forced to go to the koban (police booth). I knew I'd have to stumble my way through a conversation in Japanese and it was a very FML moment in general. It reminded me of another wonderful experience with Ashlie, when she forgot her book folder at the fare adjustment machines at Shibuya station. We'd gone shopping at 109 and ran back to the station to get it, only to remember that neither of us really spoke or understood much Japanese. It was awful and I felt like a big pain in the ass to the station employees, who were mostly a bunch of old guys who obviously didn't want to help us. We got her bag back but not without lowered self-esteem. (Read about it here!)

Tracy and I walk into the koban, and there were two cops - an older guy and a younger guy, maybe in his late 20s/early 30s. Obviously the younger guy has to deal with the super mendokusai gaijin, so I start explaining the situation in my terrible Japanese. "I dropped my wallet about 20 minutes ago... outside the mall thing by the escalator... Sorry my Japanese sucks..." This time wasn't as bad as Shibuya, though! I actually understood some of his questions and was able to answer in Japanese. Tracy and her iPhone apps helped A LOT.

At some point during all of this, two j-boys walk into the koban. While we were walking around looking for an American restaurant I had noticed one very strapping young fellow on the street who was cute and well-dressed, and here was the same guy with his not-so-hot buddy talking to the older cop about his lost wallet. Neither Tracy nor Kevin remembered seeing them while we were walking around, but Tracy did agree that he was quite kakko ii. I refrained from nampa in the koban, as it probably would not have been in good taste.

Younger cop called the police station across the street and told me they probably have my wallet. Probably? Yes, probably. Because I didn't just give him my name, address, and an extensive list of what was in my wallet, and based on that list he couldn't possibly give me a definite answer as to whether or not that wallet was mine. I thanked him for being so patient and kind and we walked to the other station to claim my things. Three old guys and one younger guy were obviously waiting for the gaijin to show up, and again the younger guy got stuck helping us. He made me go through everything, count my money, and fill out a form.

Nothing was missing! Yay! So we went back to the hotel and drank.

This is already super long but TOO BAD WE'RE FINISHING THIS GW STUFF.

The next day was our last day in Kansai. We had to be out of the hotel by 11am, so we were forced to get up a bit earlier than the day before. We dropped our stuff off at the station and caught the bus to Kinkaku-ji, the big golden shrine in a pond! It's a fairly long bus ride, at least 40 minutes one way, and the shrine grounds are really small. My camera decided that it no longer had the will to function, so I don't have any photos after Kinkaku-ji for the moment.

Admission ticket is a sweet paper thing with all kinds of kanji on it!

Desktop background worthy.

After Big Gold Shrine, we caught the bus to Nijo Castle. I was annoyed that you can't actually see anything cool, all you can do is walk around the grounds and be in nature and stuff. It was nice and seemed like a great chill-out spot, but meh. I took some photos of the sakura (or some similar flowering tree) on my cell phone and have yet to upload those to my computer.

Around 4pm we decided we had time to hit up one more place, or at least have an early dinner, so we caught the bus back toward Kyoto station. We didn't anticipate some idiot ramming his car into another car and causing an accident that backed up traffic for forever. What should've taken us maybe 30 minutes turned into at least an hour, and we were scrambling to get back to the station before our train left. We ate at Lotteria, and Kevin and Tracy raced around the station buying omiyage while I bought a new shinkansen ticket to go back to my home station.

We made it onto the train with barely any time to spare. Now I can say that I've traveled outside of Tokyo for fun stuff (and not training)! Yay!

AND NOW I AM DONE WRITING ABOUT GOLDEN WEEK. I HOPE.

*I didn't read the article, there's just a good photo of Glamatic.