Hmm... I think the Japanese Gods are starting to hate me...

One thing I need a little more adjustment to is what is considered "comfortable" room temperature. In my room, the temperature ended up being 24 degrees Celcius... I guess for Japanese people, that's comfortable, but I felt like I was being slow-cooked. Also, I don't think the air-conditioner was working properly, but in the end, I survived. It was now time to visit another friend - Ly in Kyoto!

	Gotta get that mirror portrait of me in there.
	The entrance to the Marounichi subway stop. This is the closest stop to the hotel I was staying at as well as Nagoya-jo. But why would I take a picture of a this subway stop?
	Simple - the evil stairs. Damn all the flights of stairs I had to go through. Also at this exit, there would be a number of other flights of stairs around the corners and through the hallways. Evil I tell ya - EVIL!
	The Nagoya subway system. Not as complicated as Tokyo's insane (but very efficient) subway routes.
	Overlooking Nagoya outside the Shinkansen departure point - again, I really didn't explore much of Nagoya. I'll explore a lot more of the city area next time I visit the city.
	Looking out the window on the shinkansen to Kyoto. It was starting to snow.
	Hmm... more snow. And I didn't bring proper gloves or boots for this trip...
	Overlooking a snowy countryside.
	But then, it clears up!
	At Kyoto station. Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan before it moved to Tokyo. However, tradition runs very deep here - if you are looking for people in a large, modern city that still sticks with the old Japanese roots such as kimono-clad women, then this is the place. When I was in Tokyo, it was VERY RARE to find women in traditional kimono.
	Kyoto TV Tower. Apparently, every city in Japan has at least one of these structures for TV broadcast.
	Astro Boy! One of the all-time classic Japanese anime characters.
	Hello Ly! She's a really cool friend that I met in University, and I was in the same beginner's Japanese class as her! But unlike her, I lost most of my Japanese speaking skills (and I was a pretty good student as well... DAMN...)! Now, if she was in Great Britain (or if she was thinking British), she's trying to tell you to fuck off. (An inverted V sign hand gesture translates to that meaning) Honestly, I just caught her with this picture before she reverted it to the good V sign. At least, that's what I thought she attempted to do... hmm... *j/k*

Once I met up with Ly, we decided to start exploring right away - however, there would be a problem: would I be dragging my heavy luggage everywhere? Luckily, at every train depot, there are common lockers that people can store personal belongings. And thankfully, Kyoto station had the HUGE lockers to store massive luggages like mine. Man, carrying my luggage everywhere would be a bitch if it weren't for lockers.

Anyways, continuing on...

	Daimonji-yama. Basically, this mountain is home to an annual fire festival, where the Chinese character dai (meaning "great") is set ablaze on this mountain. This is done to guide dead spirits back home.
	A map of the area I was exploring. We were heading to Kinkaku-ji (Golden Temple) - it's the yellow temple on the map. And on the top right, you will see Daimonji-yama.
	Me at the entrance of Kinkaku-ji.
	Kinkaku-ji. Can you take a guess as to why this is also known as the Golden Temple?
	Ly with Kinkaku-ji in the background.
	Me with Kinkaku-ji in the background.
	Another view of Kinkaku-ji.
	A monument in memory of the White Snake. There's a legend to this... let's see if I remember... I think it had something to do with some white snake or someone like that. I forgot. :P
	This is REAL green tea. The tea you usually drink in Japanese restaurants are standard fare, but what you see is the real deal - besides, it's really green! Now, real green tea is very bitter; therefore, there is usually a sweet candy (which is the item on the left) that you eat to counter the bitterness. It's REALLY good stuff.
	During warmer and less windy times, drinking the real green tea should be done outside on these tables that I am sitting on in this picture.
	The haiden for Kinkaku-ji. This is where The Curse began for me. What curse, you ask? Well, let me explain - basically, a traditional prayer would involved tossing a coin in the box, bow twice, clapping your hands twice, and finally one long, final bow and prayer. However, some haiden will require someone to swing a rope connected to a gong after tossing a coin - this is used to summon the Gods that you are here. Now, at other haiden I would just do the traditional prayer, but this was the first place that I had to ring the gong. After watching Ly go through the procedure, I figured this would be easy. So I tossed the coin, and just started banging the gong. While continuously banging the gong, I asked Ly, "How many times do I gong?" She replied, "ONCE!!!" Oh shit. I did three gongs before stopping. At least I got the attention of the Gods... I think the overdoing of the gong was where The Curse started. Case in point...
	... the omikuji, or a Japanese fortune telling paper. Beside the haiden were vending slots for people to purchase an omikuji. This place had omikuji of various languages, such as Japanese, English, Korean, and Mandarin. Of course I picked out an English one; however, when I started to open the omikuji, the paper started to rip. Ly just ragged on me and said that a ripped omikuji is a BAD sign. Anyways, I wished I recorded what was on my omikuji, but I did remember a bit of it - basically, my overall luck was good (there are different rankings from very good to very bad); however, a few things that I remembered the omikuji said were that I was going to be a failure in business, I would spend too much travelling, I would end up getting profit, I should stay patient for luck, and I should be silent when it comes to love. In order to improve one's fortune, one can tie it up to a rope that is located next to the haiden, so I tied mine up - however, as I tied it, I accidentally ripped another part of the omikuji (you can notice the rip at the bottom portion of the paper). Ly was just laughing it up now... she did not know anyone who had ripped an omikuji before I came along, and I ripped it TWICE. Great.

Go to the next page...