.::* Living and Dreaming *::.

Kyoto with AIESEC members

Yesturday, I went to Kyoto with a group of AIESEC memebers (Mai, Miki, Shinpei, Gon-chan, Mineshi, Koichi and Aaron). It was so much fun. We left Nagoya on the JR train at 7:39am and got to Kyoto around 3 hours later. We bought bento boxes from the department store at Kyoto station for lunch and headed off to see Nijo-jo....a castle! The inside of this castle was absolutely gorgeous. We weren't allowed to take pictures which was a shame so I recommend that you go and visit if you're ever in town. This castle is about 400 years old, with some parts of it being newer as structures were added to it. Most castles in Japan were distroyed by fire and by the war so most castles are rebuilt and are not as old and authentic. The neat thing about this castle is not only its size but the floors were built to squeak when you walk on them so that no one could sneak around. Annoying? But hey, what can you do when security cameras weren't invented yet right?
After the castle, we went to a Jusco to see how they require you to pay for their plastic shopping bags to encourage people to bring their own re-usable bags. Like I said before, The Real Canadian Superstore does this in Canada and I just learned that it is already common in Finland. (Thanks Krista, I appreciate your email!). I thought this was going to be the highlight of the trip but it didn't really turn out to be that way. Some members bought the Jusco re-usable bags as souvenirs and we bought some items from the store to see how much they charged for bags. It was kind of funny. Oh and I bought some Cherry Blossom Ice cream which tastes like cinnamon ice cream.

Next we went to visit some shrines and temples. We walked towards Gion and visited a buddhist temple which is supposed to be where the origin of buddhism started in Japan...or Kyoto, or it was the head temple. I'm not sure. We went and watched a ceremony for a bit. I think there was a funeral prayer going on.

After that, we walked and passed by a shrine for beauty. Us girls stopped here to make a wish and bless ourselves from the fountain of beauty. Then we read some of the wishes hanging off the wishing posts. I read one that was in English about someone asking for a small ice age to happen in Europe. I guess they got hit with a heat wave or something. It was kind of funny.

We continued walking and went through a bigger shrine where the girls again got their love fortunes. Mine was translated by the AIESECers as something along the lines of, you are searching for love and there is a lot around, your lover is close and something something, put your faith in Gion and God and you will be blessed. Not only am I curious to know what my future is going to be, but I am also wondering how much of my forture was lost in translation.

We kept walking around some more and found a street vendor selling candied fruit. I think the girls took advantage of everything during this trip and we made out to buy ourselves some sweet indulgences. I had a mandarin orange one and I definately recommend it. I think it is my new favorite with the chocolate banana next. I've also tried the chocolate pineapple which was messy and candied grape, which had seeds!

We walked by a Starbucks and I had to hop in to check out their tumblers. The Kyoto tumbler was really pretty (it had shiny gold flecks on it too to emphasize the Golden temple I think). 5 of us walked our of Starbucks with new Kyoto tumblers and we got free coffee with them. Mmmm, white chocolate mocha. I couldn't finish mine because the next thing that we did was go to a dessert cafe. It's the second day in the same week that I overdosed on sweets. Oh well, today I shall be good.

posted by ~diana~ @ 7:44 PM