05/23/2023

Woke up at 7:30am(??) to eat breakfast in the hotel lounge (@ anteroom kyoto).

Simple but yummy! I love smoked salmon toast.

We met our lovely tour guide Yuuko-sensei and headed out on our long day of touring at around 9:15am.

Since we all visited the same places today, I’ll post just my favorites!

My nicer photos & videos are still on my SD card…in my camera.

The tldr is that we visited & saw lots of shrines & important religious/cultural landmarks today (Kinkakuji -> Arashiyama Bamboo forest -> Fushimi Inari)! These are all places I’ve seen lots of shows & series referencing, as well as just seeing gorgeous photos of them online in general; it was incredible to see them for myself now, and our guide did an amazing job giving us succinct descriptions of each locations’ history & significance.

This bridge wasn’t mentioned as part of our tour, but I noticed the name on a sign while we were walking through Arashiyama and asked our guide, Miss Yuuko, about it. I had recognized the name surprisingly from a Kuraki Mai song before ever actually seeing photos of the bridge, and she and I sang a bit of her songs together while we walked around?! I have never been so glad of my knowledge of J-musicians until today.

After our tour ended, we were taken to KCG’s campus and straight to the theater room to watch Mugen train together and to meet with more important faculty!

This is my 5th time watching this film, and I swear it hurts me more each time. It took all my energy to not audibly sob like how I normally do at home, and I think this drained me more than after all the walking from earlier today (I miss u every day rengoku).

Maybe a little weird of me but I took the chance during one of the less engaging scenes of Mugen Train to make a quick trip to the restroom outside, and it was really nice!! While the stalls were small, it was clean and I really liked how the restroom was designed?! The view out the big window inside was lovely.

After the movie (and trying to hide my waterfall of snot & visible tears), we all headed to yet another food court within the station nearby for dinner.

I got udon. Again!

Kakeudon again, this time with ebi tempura and a singular inari, to celebrate our trip to fushimi inari taisha today.

I’ve finished typing this post exactly at midnight, and we’re set to wake up in about 7 hours for another early day tomorrow!