Day #6

Today was my Bday and I officially turned 27 in Japan. Today also happened to be one of my favorite days in Japan! I started the day by skipping breakfast as usual, instead I decided to hang the still wet clothes out on the balcony and hope they dry and not fly away.



I heard that they sell used women's underwear in vending machines so this would be easy access for the pervs to get some for free! :)

We took the local bus to the bus station to grab another day bus pass for our travels. While waiting for the bus we saw a monk on a motorcycle which I somehow got a picture of even though I had to dig my camera out of my bag quickly.



Today we visited the Golden Temple. It definitely lives up to it's name. It is covered in gold foil and is beautiful! You couldn't help but look at it in awe and wonder how it has stood so perfectly without someone trying to peel off the gold! The architecture in Japan is just so unique and nothing like anything in the US. I just loved it and kept taking pictures of it.



Our next stop was the botanical gardens. Our bus stop was a block from the gardens so we decided to take the scenic route and walk by a river. It was so great and peaceful. People were sitting and having picnics, kids were playing in the water. We walked slowly enjoying the sites. We did find a see-saw to have fun on.



We took turns riding on it and then I decided to stand on the middle of the see-saw while Hope and Rach were riding it. This brought many looks and smiles from the passing Japanese people. They were probably thinking, "Stupid Americans!" :)

The town area by the botanical gardens was very quaint too. Some cool hotels (I think there was a Miami Hotel or something like that), shops and restaurants. The gardens itself were nice. We got lost a bit cuz the map was very hard to read. We saw artists painting and sketching the plants. We took a picture of the cutest little kids ever. The five of them were eating lunch on a bench and talking. I was dying to take a picture of them but was afraid of scaring them but Hope was all for taking their picture so she went and asked them and took a picture. SO CUTE!



We ate at a sandwich shop in the town area. It was great cuz I just got a club sandwich!!! WOO-HOO!! I was very excited. On the bottom floor of the restaurant was a pastery place. We grabbed dessert on the way out...yum!

We took the bus back to Kyoto Station and we went up Kyoto Tower to see the sights. This is where we got our first experience with Print Club. Print Club is a photo sticker thing that is so fun and is the rave of all teens, pre-teens and American 20-somethings! :) This Print Club experience was nothing compared to the Print Club experience we were yet to have. At the top of the tower you could see for miles. It was great. It took us a while to see the "bear" (i think it was bear) symbol that is carved out in one of the mountains. They had little kids singing pumped into the speakers up there which was cute at first and then a little annoying and spooky after a while. There were also games and places to buy souveniers as well up there.

We went back to the hotel and found that the hotel lady had taken down our clothes from the balcony and hung them up on hangers and moved our underwear and hung it over the shower curtain bar because it had started to sprinkle during the day. We thought that was funny since there is no way anyone in the US would do that. We got ready to go out karaoking for the night.

We rented a room for 2 hours and Rach and Hope sang until their hearts content.



I enjoyed just watching them make asses out of themselves, it was very entertaining although 2 hours was a bit too long....but still fun nonetheless.