Lolita dresses!

I HAD to indulge in Harajuku street fashion -- Lolita style!

Tokyo Ice Bar

Tyler has returned to Texas, but I'm still here for another week! Unfortunately, he didn't make it to the Ice Bar with us. :( It was amazing, though. You had 45 minutes in a room made of ice. Even the cups were ice. I made the mistake of wearing sandals that day, so I was freezing! They fortunately lend you coats and gloves, but what I really needed were shoes!

Ice cups!

I was ready to leave after about 20 minutes, but we
stuck it out!

Sanrio Puroland

We went to the Hello Kitty Castle, Sanrio Puroland, last week. It was adorable! There's really not much to say other than that. So cute. We went to a dinner show afterwards and were serenaded by Kitty and Daniel (her boyfriend). It was a random weekday, so there was hardly anyone there. We basically had private dinner and a  show. <3

Part 4: Nagoya

Day 4 - Nagoya

After buying kimonos and leaving Kyoto, I headed to Nagoya and met up with a friend to go to the July Grand Sumo tournaments. We bought our tickets, but the main ceremony didn't start until 3:30ish, so we decided to explore around a bit. We tried getting Noh tickets for later that night at a theater down the street, but unfortunately, there weren't any for a while, so we headed to Nagoya Castle instead, which was just across from the sumo gym. 

Ratty looking and wet from the typhoon.

After quickly going in and around the castle, we headed back to the gym. It was actually really entertaining to watch! The wrestlers have up to four minutes to mentally prepare themselves, so they'd go to the line, stare at each other for a while, and one might have been ready, but if the other wasn't, they got up and went back to the corner for a second. Apparently they didn't used to have time restraints, so they would sometimes take forever to actually wrestle. Hilarious! It was overall very entertaining, and it was really neat watching the ceremony.

Ring ceremony!

As I was leaving, the rain really started picking up, so I took a taxi back to the station. I had zero cash on me though, and for the first time in a taxi ever, my cards magically didn't work, so I had to pour all my change out for him. He was livid. I had maybe half of the fare. I was so ashamed, but there were literally NO ATMs the whole time I was in Nagoya. Where were you 7-Eleven? It was so embarrassing, but he eventually had no choice but to let me out. I felt awful. Then, the typhoon really picked up in the station. The winds were so strong that I fell while walking on the platform. I couldn't even walk forward and was drenched in sideways rain within five seconds. Awful. Luckily my train came quickly. Fun times.

Part 3: Osaka

Day 2 - Osaka:

Finally, we headed to Osaka for the night and checked in to the ryokan (a Japanese-style hotel). It was right on the Dōtonbori canal, and pretty cute, next to all the Osaka night life. We walked around Dōtonbori, one of the main tourist spots in Osaka. It's a huge street running along the canal, lined with neon lights and a ton of restaurants.

Our half-western ryokan

Dōtonbori!

Tyler went out and ate okonomiyaki, a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients, and I found a Mexican food restaurant (I miss Tex-Mex SO MUCH). After that, the girls and I decided to go to Spa World, the most amazing onsen resort ever! There were so many different themed baths, from Ancient Rome, the Mediterranean, or Finland, to tea baths! Best birthday ever. I wish I could have taken pictures, but there were too many naked people.

Day 3 - Osaka:

We woke up early to a rainy day, but decided to head out to Osaka Castle anyways. I think it was one of my favorites so far! There was so much intricate gold on it.

Headed to the castle in the rain.

Then we headed to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. It's one of the largest public aquariums in the world! It was super crowded, though. You were lucky if you reached the glass of some of the more popular exhibits.

Check out the guy behind Tyler. LOL.

My favorite part! These fish were a part of the
"Cawaii Collection." The cartoons were so cute!

On the way back, we decided to stop by the Pokémon Center. The one in Osaka is the largest one in Japan, so I had high hopes. It didn't end up being any different than the one in Tokyo, aside from its size, so I was a bit disappointed. It was still amazing, and super crowded with children. 

We went back to our hotel to pick up our bags, and Tyler and I had okonomiyaki (Tyler loves it!) before heading to the Shinkansen station to head our separate ways (Tyler to Tokyo and Kelly back to Kyoto).

Part 2: Nara

Creepy deer man in the station on the way
to Nara.

Day 2 - Nara:

After leaving Kyoto, we headed to Nara, briefly, visited Nara Park and saw the Tōdai-ji temple, the largest wooden building in the world, which houses the largest, bronze Buddha statue in the world. It was such a beautiful city. Definitely a relief to be free of so many tall buildings for a while.

Tōdai-ji temple

The deer were so aggressive when it came to food.
I was scared!

Tyler, on the other hand, was not. He was a lover
of all deer.

Part 1: Kyoto

Last weekend, Temple University hosted a trip to Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka that we've been looking forward to since the beginning of our trip. It was the perfect time to go, as well, because the day we were in Kyoto was the Gion Matsuri (festival). It was really neat to watch the parade in the afternoon -- entirely different experience from American parades, but I'll touch on the parade a bit further down.

Day 1 - Kyoto:

We took the shinkansen to Kyoto and checked our bags in our hotel before heading to Nijō Castle, which was constructed for the Tokugawa Shoguns. Some of us had hardly gotten any sleep because of the Harry Potter midnight premiere, which had us up two days straight (doing homework the night before + the night of the movie), so day one was a little miserable coupled with how hot and humid Kyoto was. Everything was so beautiful, though, so despite the fact that we were all melting from the heat, it was enjoyable.

Ninomaru Palace in Nijō Castle

After Nijō Castle, we headed to Sanjūsangendō, a Buddhist temple and the longest wooden building in Japan, home to 1001 Buddhist statues. I was dying at that point, so there aren't any pictures. You unfortunately couldn't take any pictures inside the building anyways.

Next was Kiyomizu-dera, an amazing temple located halfway up Otowa Mountain, nestled into the mountainside and trees. There was not a nail used in the entire building construction! The view of Kyoto below was breathtaking. 

The Deva gate leading up to the temple.

View from the main temple building.

Another view from the main buidling.

Kiyomizu-dera takes its name from the waterfall within the complex, which runs off the nearby hills. Kiyomizu means clear water, or pure water. Three channels of water fall into a pond on the mountainside, and visitors can catch and drink the water, which is believed to have wish-granting powers. Tyler and I definitely joined in on the tradition!

The three channels of water.

From there, we headed to the Gion district, famous for geisha. I was pretty much dead, so a friend and I decided to call it a night, while Tyler went to the hotel to shower and head back out for the festivities. We did see real geisha and maiko (geisha in training), in the taxi behind us on the way back!

I think this is at Yasaka Shrine? Tyler
getting ready for Yoiyama, the eve of the grand parade.

We stayed at a capsule hotel that night. Tyler actually fit in his! We were worried that they wouldn't be long enough. They were surprisingly comfortable!

Day 2 - Kyoto:

After getting a good night's rest in our capsules, we headed out much refreshed to Fushimi Inari-taisha, a shrine with the long rows of torii, red gates, leading up to it that were made famous by Memoirs of a Geisha. They were beautiful, despite the red/white striped construction bars running down one side of them. There weren't very many people there because the parades had started for the Gion Matsuri!

Before heading to the parade, we decided we wanted to go the Nintendo "store" that  one of our friends had heard existed, so we hopped into a taxi and pointed to it on our map. When we got there, we knew something was wrong, but apparently the taxi driver didn't. He pulled us right through the gates of the main headquarters for Nintendo. We tried to get out and walk back out, but the guards wouldn't even let us get out of the taxi, even though the gates were literally five feet behind us. We had to convince our taxi driver to back out of the gates, but he wanted money and refused to do so at first. It was so complicated, but hilarious. A security officer even came out and almost talked to us.

Nintendo headquarters

Embarrassed, we found another taxi and headed to the parade. It was so much fun! There were so many people, and the floats were so intricate and beautiful. No drums or loud instruments like in America though, all they played were these flute-like instruments. It was all super Japanese. The floats were all rolled by people and had to be manually turned!

Finally, we made our way to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion, one of the most famous sights in Kyoto before heading to Nara.

Day 4 - Kyoto:

Tyler and the rest of the group headed back to Tokyo after day 3 in Osaka, but I headed back down to Kyoto to buy a kimono and go to the bamboo forest. I stayed in the capsule hotel again (I loved them) on the night I left Osaka, and finished up in Kyoto before heading to Nagoya for the July Grand Sumo tournaments. Unfortunately, the typhoon was heading through, but it wasn't too rainy when I went to the bamboo forest.