The Intrepid World Traveler and the Keisatsu...
Today. Was beer garden day. Yes, good sirs and madams. Beer. Garden. For around 30 dollars, one may purchase all you can eat Japanese food (tabehoudai), as well as all you can drink of beer and liquor (nomihoudai). Beer gardens are usually on top of buildings, so maybe the garden part comes from gardens on top of skyscrapers?We visited Byoudou-in, the temple on the back of the 10yen coin. The place was absolutely beautiful, and we even saw one couple visit the place decked out in summer kimono (yukata). We didn’t get to see the national treasure phoenix statues, since it was an extra charge, but the temple surrounded by water with fish and turtles was satisfying enough.
We also went down to Uji River, a fast moving, large river that runs through Kyoto. We stopped for tea at a beautiful teahouse, and there we drank cold matcha green tea, hot ocha green tea, and munched on some gooey things whose name I forget... Soon after we grabbed some green tea ice cream with matcha powder...
( Poor Matt hates tea, and in Japan, everything is tea related. In the US, water is free with a meal. Here, it’s tea. XD ) I told Matt that I will be the only person ever to gain weight in Japan, because although we walk a lot, the food is so good that I can’t seem to curb the urge to try everything. =(
Finally, we went to the Fushimi Inari shrine. Fushimi Inari is a about a 3 hour hike up the side of a mountain, with almost the entire pathway covered by a bajillion red torii gates. It was so pretty, and there are several shrines and such along the way. The guys even saw a Shinto priest performing a ritual. There was also a cat, whom we referred to as Neko-sama, sitting on a shrine asleep. We had to practically pry Matt away from it...
So, we soon met up with Randy and his girlfriend at the beer garden. The food was amazing, and it was fun sitting at the giant foreigner table in the middle of all these Japanese. Taylor spent some time talking to some drunk Japanese man who claimed he was in the yakuza, but I think the yakuza is kind of like Fight Club........rule #1 of the yakuza: don’t talk about the yakuza....
The people there were very friendly. Matt kinda stalked the female bartender trying to get a picture with her ( her name was Ayumi, btw.... -.- ), I got hit on by some college guy in line, and Taylor decided he needed me to find him some hot girls to take a picture with him. I figured everyone at the place was sufficiently drunk enough (and most were young enough) to not mind my random ‘Hey, you girls are pretty, can Taylor take a picture with you?” We befriended the table of college students next to us, who were there for 2 friends’ birthdays.... we took lots of pictures with them, and traded some email addresses. We foreigners were the last ones there at closing time, and the security actually kept following us around saying “Thank you...” until we finally left. Matt, Wes, Taylor, and I took a cab back to the Guest Inn, where things got kind of interesting...
So... on the way back to the inn, Matt and I were trying to figure out the taxi bills of the previous day. While I had only had a couple drinks, everyone else was a little... farther.. Matt asserted that the bill was one price, while I asserted it was, in fact, not. This fuss got somewhat agitated until we decided to talk about it tomorrow. We arrive at the inn, and Matt pays the driver, and we all head inside. Or so I thought....
A minute or two after entering, Wes looks at me and asks where Matt is. It appears, as I turn around, that Matt is indeed missing. I pop my head out the door long enough to see him walking down the street. Now, 3 things occur to me. One: Matt had a lot of beer. Two: Matt is prolly mad about the taxi bill fuss. Three: We got lost finding this place in the daytime...... Uh oh....
So I pop back inside and put on my shoes, handing my bag to Wes and telling him I will go after Matt. I go back outside, and he’s no longer in sight. I run down the street, across a couple blocks, and out to the main road where I ask a couple people if they have seen him. No one has, so I figure I best go back to the inn and grab my purse in case I need something. However.... I get lost. Crap..... After wandering about I see a couple Japanese guys on the sidewalk, and nervously ask them where to go. One kindly leads me all the way there, where I grab my purse. I ask Wes for the map the innkeeper gave us, to which he kindly responded by crawling into the bathroom to throw up. When I asked Taylor, he handed me his camera cord and went back to sleep. At this point, I deduce that this is not going to work, and go back down to find another map.
After grabbing another map, I head out and search for a bit longer, asking a few people here and there if they’ve seen a tall, red-headed foreigner. No luck. Eventually one nice lady takes me into a hotel and grabs the phone.... and calls the keisatsu ( the police ). O.O
Keisatsu-san rides his little bike to where we are, and he and I search ghetto Kyoto for at least an hour, checking bathrooms and such just in case Matt fell asleep. Nothing helps you practice Japanese better than walking around lost with Mr. Keisatsu-man, looking for your boyfriend. We go back to the inn a couple times, and each time the innkeeper tells me that Matt has not been back yet. FINALLY, around the 4th time back, we see Matt, passed out asleep and leaning against the entrance of the hotel. I thank the policeman, who looks quite amused, and begin to gently try to amputate Matt’s arm with the magazine.
At this point, I am not happy Jess. I am furious Jess. So furious that I didn’t let Matt tell me his side of the story, to which his response was to inform me he was angry, as he threw my pickled seaweed snacks out the 4th story window. O.O
Come to find out, Matt had apparently told someone he was going for a quick walk, and the several times he came back, the innkeeper told him we were all out searching for him, before shooing him out the door. So, I am out looking for Matt, who can’t get back into the hotel because I am out looking for him. The entire thing was a giant misunderstanding – like an old movie where the characters keep just missing each other... he was only a block away the entire time, just trying to get back into the hotel.
It’s really funny now, although I think Matt is kinda embarrassed about it. He has thus been nicknamed the IWT, or Intrepid World Traveler.
From the Desk of Matt
To Do:-Pick up milk
-Refill gas tank
-Feed cat
-Buy a cat in which to feed
Well, it seems I ran out of paper, so this'll have to do. Ignore my grocery list.
So, I felt that a story that great needed both sides. Jess got my side pretty much, although she left out her reckless violence. So here's my side.
I had gotten out of the cab, probably mumbled my "I'm too drunk to go to sleep, I'm going to walk around the block", and set out. I wandered around for about thirty minutes before I started feeling a few sprinkles of a soon to arrive rain shower, so I start heading back. I arrive, take off my shoes, and step into the building where I hear someone running my direction speed-talking Japanese. I don't understand what he's saying, and look confused, so he switches to his (broken) English. He says, "All your friends out looking for you. You cannot come in here."
Oh. My friends are gone.
Great. And it's raining. Or about to be.
So he tells me I can't stay in the building because they're looking for me, so I head out in the direction he points me. I walk to the end of the street, can't see ANYONE, so I look around there up and down that street for a bit before thinking, "This sucks, maybe they're back". So I turn around and head back. I get back and he pulls the same stunt.
At this point, I'm annoyed.
So I head back out and down the street, and I sit there, on the corner, leaned up against a wall, for about 20 minutes or so. I see MAYBE three people pass by, one of which wasn't so much "passing" as he was "stumbling". The sprinkles are picking up now to the point where my shirt is sticking to me uncomfortably, so I head back.
Again, I am accosted. He shoos me out. I wander outside, wait about five minutes, and then step back inside to lean against the door frame out of the sprinkles. I wait...
And wait...
Zzzzz...
Yeah, I fell asleep standing up leaning against a door. Apparently all that walking really did get the "too drunk to sleep" out of me. So I doze. Pleasantly. Dreams of whatever. And then, the only part of the dreams I really remember, was it was like a bee stung me on the arm. And I fell.
I woke up as I hit the ground, outside, after Jess had belted me with her big map-brochure thing. She is furious, and I'm hurting, and now I'm furious. So we storm upstairs, arguing all the way over whose fault this whole thing has been. Finally, I forget the circumstances, but Jess says, "I'm ANGRY!!"
Well, so was I.
I say, "Well, I'm pretty angry, too! You wanna see how angry I am?!" and look around. I see her little seaweed snacks, grab them, and turn hippie. I frisbee them out the window, and turn around (In a better mood, actually), to see her jaw on the floor, sputtering out incoherent threats.
I'm proud of my frisbee-seaweed, actually.
Anyway, we made up. Everything was cool about 30 minute later, after we stopped yelling at each other and told each other's side.
Unfortunately, I have been branded with the title "Intrepid World Traveler", which I believe can go into my passport under the class of passport it is.
No longer will I be barred from you, countries! I SHALL VISIT YE!!!
-Don't forget to buy butter
-Cat ate dog, get another dog
Matt out.
Just kidding.