- miyako part 2 -

currently listening to - promiscuous girl (nelly furtado feat. timbaland)
mood - troubled

yeah especially when you thought you did a good job for the exams and you turn around finding that actually everyone around you performed as good as you or even better than you. and when you get unbelievably famous throughout the school for foreign students because you're being stalked by some lunatic who fell in love with you (who enjoys examining your room with binoculars every night and take snapshots of you when you're unaware of it. apparently).

*****

so yeah. just came back from our 2nd UA outing to kyoto. some proof.....

we promised our japanese culture teacher that (who lives in kyoto and is a very briliant tour guide) to be punctual this time - since we took the wrong train previously and ended up reaching the meeting place later than the expected time. but then........ sad to say, the fact that we didn't know that 23rd of september, the autumn equinox day, is a PUBLIC HOLIDAY (which means the buses will follow the sunday/holiday timetable instead of the usual saturday one) delayed our arrival at the train station. on top of that, one of our fellow classmates overslept (as usual). made it to kyoto a few 10 minutes after 12 noon (when we're supposed to be there by 11.30am).

then we received an e-mail from out teacher. "get out of the train station, walk along Karasuma-dori towards south for 5 minutes, and you'll see a Family Mart. i'm there." and we did. except that we didn't realise we were walking towards the north. surprisingly there WAS a Family Mart at the north part. thanks to modern technology (the cellphone) we were able to reunite with our teacher, who glared at us for not knowing how to tell directions by referring to the position of the sun.

had kyo-ryori (kyoto dishes) for lunch. teacher's treat. we love you, sir. 3 of us ordered sashimi set lunch, and the remaining 3, tempura set lunch. reported to dear sir (with love) about how we caused chaos in the shabushabu restaurant in our previous outing after he left us, till we were stared at by every single japanese customer and the waiters.

later we took a train to the Eigamura (direct translation: Movie Village. but its actual english name's something to do with the word "studio" bla bla...). that was my 1st time taking a train that runs on the tarred road together with the cars and other vehicles (and follows the traffic lights too). this is the place where many famous japanese historical dramas were produced. found the olden japanese-style toilets (a male urinal and a squatting toilet), as well as an antique wooden bathtub. fooled around the bathtub till we attracted a lot of curious tourists (our crazy Russian friend was pretending to bathe in the bathtub by pulling down her spaghetti straps *sexily* when a kid stopped his mother and both of them looked at us in awe).


our teacher then tried out some games like archery and japanese darts (they call it shuriken. please watch more naruto). bragged about how "you'll be able to get the grand prize when you understand the trick of the game muahahahahahahaha" (he told us he's from a real ninja village and that fact did amaze me a little, especially since i've really seen the name of the clan somewhere in a ninja manga. NOT naruto, ok) and things like that. in the end, he got us loads of party goods. and a katana-shaped balloon. but not the grand prize.

watched a ninja show at the theatre about Hattori Hanzo (Tokugawa Ieyasu's loyal right-hand man) and his double (naruto's Kagebunshin). was very cool if you had actually been there to sit it through. during the "intermission" the actor who played as the villain "interviewed" our crazy Russian friend, thinking that she's some foreign tourist who can't speak japanese, who went there in the company of a few japanese people (us. who looked almost the same as japanese). he even greeted her " " (which meant "goodbye" in Russian) at the end of the show.


next we went to a museum filled with japanese superhero figures like KAMEN-RIDER, that looked like housefly at 1st glance (but if i said it loud someone would've killed me). our korean classmate was practically thrilled when she saw her beloved "Red" figures. the rest of us went around ooh-aah-ing, taking random snapshots. whereas our teacher........ he was enthralled as well. apparently he has been a huge fan of KAMEN-RIDER since young. i could sense him screaming "Oh, YOUTH!" anytime.

at last we returned to Kawaramachi, walked pass the "host spot" (where japanese hosts scattered abundantly, preparing to lay their hands on their targets *huhuhuhuhu*) and arrived at the shabby Nepalan restaurant. that was the most unique restaurant i have ever been to, probably because i have never entered a pub/bar or a dark (literally) restaurant where lighted candles are the only source of illumination. the floor and the ceiling are covered with many carpet-like cloths, and the rectangular tables were very low (no chairs. had to sit cross-legged). nevertheless, the 11-course meal was very satisfying. can't really use words like "scrumptious" or "tantalizing" to describe it, but i must say i was rather relieved that all the dishes were not spicy. well, at leat i didn't think it was. maybe my level of bearing spiciness has increased greatly, since my dear friend (whom i always eat with) declared that she's a person who can't live without hot stuff (figuratively and literally).

as expected, we made a lot of noise in the restaurant. including our teacher, who went berserk together with our crazy Russian friend (probably because he got drunk). he was reciting one of the KAMEN-RIDER theme songs while trying to put out the candle fire with the gust of wind created by his fist-blow. when he DID succeed, all of us went cheering and applauding loudly (despite knowing that we're in a restaurant with the Nepalan restaurant owner staring at us with troubled expressions). and every customer turned around. again. they were probably wondering why on earth were these weird foreigners conversing in japanese in such fluency (but with weird intonations). and why was the japanese man demonstrating different KAMEN-RIDER transformation styles so enthusiastically.


the climax came when our friend (the one who overslept) blew his katana-shaped balloon (please refer to the photo above. see a long, white balloon that's being used to strangle the poor man in the middle? i personally thought that it looked like a white-belly fish..). after paying the bills, the 2 insane people started battling outside the restaurant. swordsman vs........... i don't know. some retarded emperor??? as our crazy Russian friend grabbed hold of her big japanese fan (the one you use to hit people), the teacher began to attack her with the "katana" (or was it the other way round...). anyway, they had an interesting cat fight. almost pulled a battle royale if we joined forces with each of them at that time. the restaurant owner was so annoyed he shut the door. later, the owner of the restaurant opposite glared through his door with utter disgust. that was when our teacher finally realised he was making a fool out of himself and muttered "gomennasai........" to the owners.

that was so much fun. if i were to report everything i saw that day, my post today will be much much longer (and as you can see, it IS already damn long). ok just the last bit. we came back to the dormitory safely (?) and on the following tuesday (which was yesterday) our japanese culture class was cancelled. by inspection, i think our dear teacher is still having a hangover.