Hello everyone! Guess what? We finally slept until a normal time today! We went to bed at 9pm and slept until 7am! Hoorah! Anyway, we are in Kyoto now. I am super amazed at Jeph's skills at navigating the Japanese transit system. He was able to get us safely from Osaka to Kyoto with as little transfers and little amount of money possible. Why am I surprised, I knew I married a smart man!

This blog will be short since yesterday was spent traveling and packing back up. We killed some time as we woke up early by eating at Mr Donut. Mmmm, I love that place. Jeph got a cute Halloween special donut that was pumpkin and had pumpkin (maybe pistachio) seeds on it. I got the good ol' crueller. We checked out of our hotel but didn't want to travel to Kyoto since check in wasn't until 3pm. So we went to karaoke! So, which is a better score in karaoke? A low number or high number? Jeph got the higher scores than me, but we both had a lot of fun! It was pretty cheap too since it was early in the afternoon.

Jeph's awesome navigational skills got us to Kyoto an hour before check in, so we dropped off our luggage and went exploring. Guess what is right up the street from us? Nishiki Market!! For those who don't know, on my trips to Japan with MSJ, Christina and I both LOVED this street market that held a lot of great items for otaku. So awesome it is up the street. We mainly looked for food, I stopping at a standing udon shop and Jeph settling on First Kitchen, I dragged Jeph into the Animate shop and the awesome bookstore with art books and doujinshi. I bought a Zelda art book while Jeph was tickled to find a fan book of Hatoful Boyfriend. Oh man, pigeons.

We finally checked in, settled into our room and then decided to go to Khaosan's origami lesson upstairs. It was cute, we got to talk to the Japanese students helping, but turned in because we were super tired. But we made it past 8pm! Yay!

Today we're gonna hit up a shrine or two. First to get us a bus pass. Ta!

Jeph says: So as it turns out, being a foreign guy in a shop which primarily caters to women and younger girls is slightly hilarious; if only for the giggles and sundry strange looks.

Meanwhile, I'm still paranoid about trains; always scared I'll choose the wrong one. But the trains and busses and such run so well over here that it'll serve only to highten my rage at the transit system in the US. Build a damn rail system, already, United States.

Also, we're a short train ride from the city of Obama, which is hilarious for no apparent reason.

Macca's here has multiple floors, is open 24hours, and often has Salarymen and drunk teenagers sleeping in it in the morning.

I was slightly upset at the drink CC Lemon, which tasted like lemon extract and nothing else. Seriously, if you want to drink straight lemon juice, there may be something wrong with your flavorsensors.

The bed here is basically a box spring, but not in the good way (if such a thing exists, that is). The Khaosan chain seems to cater to Japanese tourists a bit more than J-Hoppers does, which does give more of a language barrier with some of the guests. Ah, well. It gives me a chance to practice all the no Japanese I know. (This has also led to my least favorite recurring joke, which I shall reproduce below.)

Traveler: "Where are you from?"

Angie or I: "Ohio."

Traveler: "Good morning to you, too. Where are you from?"

Angie or I: "Ohio..."

Traveler: "Do you speak English? Where are you from?"

Angie or I: "Yes, I speak English perfectly well. I am from Ohio."

Traveler: "You make no sense. I'm going to go talk to those Aussie girls instead."

Angie or I: /sadface

That's all the news that's fit to print.