Because I am actively studying two languages (Japanese and Korean), I have installed two IMEs on my laptop that allow me to type in Japanese and Korean, which I use fairly frequently. While Joel is usually a good sport about it, he occasionally complains that he can never get on this computer and expect to be able to type in English without turning off the IME.
Tee hee.
We decided to travel to Japan during Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, since we have about five days of vacation. After getting off of work on Thursday night, we went downtown with our co-workers for dinner and wound up staying downtown all freaking night. After returning home and getting some soup for breakfast/post-bar-early-morning-snack/I-actually-have-no-idea-what-to-call-that-meal, I showered, packed for my trip in about fifteen minutes, and then we caught an express bus to the Seoul airport. While I remain convinced that staying out all night was a terrible idea, Joel insists that we had a great time and it was totally worth it.
Some days I am convinced that this is the college experience that I missed in college and that I might be regressing slightly from being a responsible adult. One of my co-workers just calls it an "Accidental Thursday."
Anyway, we made it to the airport and onto our plane to Nagoya without any trouble, and navigated the regional trains to Kyoto with only minimal confusion. The only real problem with our all-nighter is that it took me all of yesterday to sort out and remember what day of the week it was.
We have been in Kyoto for about two and a half days now, and it has been awesome. It is obviously a very old city, and there are Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines (often both in the same complex) literally around every corner. During our first full day in town yesterday, we went to the Imperial Palace Park (entry to the actual palace is restricted to those who request an appointment for a guided tour) and Nijo Castle, the residence of the Shogunate. I was rather unimpressed with the Imperial Palace Park - it's huge and sprawling, but kind of sterile and not very pretty - but I thought the grounds around Nijo Castle were beautiful. Today has been kind of a drag, since there is currently a typhoon passing over us (making this the fifth once we have experienced since moving to this part of the world) and it has been raining all day, but we still made it to Fushimi-Inari Taisha (the famous shrine with the long path through the bright-orange arches) and Sanjusangen-do (with the 1000 Buddhas). We tried to go to the Kyoto National Museum, but it is closed for about a month (lame). It looks like I have persuaded Joel to accompany me to the Funaoka Onsen tonight after dinner (score!). Tomorrow, if the weather clears up, we can hopefully go on the walking tour of Southern Higashiyama recommended by Lonely Planet and maybe even check out Gion (where the geisha are based).
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