Saturday evening, Stephanie, Adam, and I went to a cooking class. We found it on Lonely Planet, then did some research via Emi's (our teacher) blog. All the food looked great, so we were all pretty excited, despite being exhausted from our whirlwind bike tour. Emi lives in a nice house in the northwestern part of Kyoto. I was surprised at how large it was, but the design and decor were just like I'd imagined. Her kitchen was very cooking friendly. You could jus...

We only had 2 days in Kyoto together, before Adam, Stephanie, and Kenny had to leave. Unfortunately, they had to work Monday morning! That meant that we had to see as much as possible during that time! One of the first sites we saw was the Golden Pavillion, Kinkakuji, in the northwest part of town. For some reason, we'd decided to take the bus, like the Lonely Planet suggested. What they failed to mention was that it would take over an hour! By the time we g...

Kenny and I are superstars! Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. Let me back up for a second. We arrived at KIX without a problem on Thursday, and the four of us (including Adam and Stephanie) were immediately weirded out! Our first challenge was to find the train that would take us from the airport into Osaka central, about an hours ride. Luckily, a kind Japanese man helped us, and we were on our way. Our second challenge was to buy a subway ticket ...