Patrick: return to reality, sort of

Wow, two posts in a day, I'm on a roll. So the day after getting back from golden week travels, Brian, Daryl, and I went to Kamigamo shrine on a mandatory individual excursion for the architecture class. The shrine is located north of where the Kamigamo river splits and forms the Y shape seen on the map. It is known for the Aoi Matsuri, a festival coming up on May 15th involving a long procession from the Kyoto imperial palace up north to the shrine. Back when Kyoto was established as Japan's capital city, the shrine was set up to guard the city from harm.

When we went, they were holding horse races and I read somewhere that this shrine is where the tradition of horse racing began in Japan. Actually, Brian saw the horses race. Daryl and I were still stuck on the city bus on our way there. I missed my first train to Kyoto station and then Daryl and I went to Softbank to get him a phone. When we arrived at the shrine, the horse races were over.

The shrine itself wasn't particularly impressive. It was of course interesting to see the structures mentioned in the reading up close. Afterwards, Brian and I met up with Chris and Michael at a game center near teramachi avenue and shijo avenue. They had some great fighting games (of which Battle Fantasia was particularly impressive) and the place was crowded with both guys and girls. The girls seemed like they were only there to hold the various stuffed animals/aliens that their boyfriends caught for them playing the UFO catchers. I couldn't stand it after an hour though because the smoking was too intense. It was absolutely suffocating and I was wheezing trying not to breathe.

That night, we met up with Min who took us to A-bar. We were going to go for dinner first but all the restaurants were packed with people out on a Saturday night. A-bar itself was crowded that night. And after some more Stanford students arrived, they kicked us out. The group went searching for another bar/dance club to crash. I had originally planned to be back around 8 pm. I ended up leaving around 10 pm after barely excusing myself with the fact that I was a little sick (probably caught it from Stephanie on the trip) with a slight cough, sore throat, and sinus. Fortunately I didn't drink too much and I was able to find my way home all right without stumbling. The others on the other hand, I heard, stayed out all night. Brian forgot his key. And they found a club to dance the night away. See Brian's post for more details...

05052007

And the next day I also got a haircut.. The barber handed me a magazine and I pointed. For a lot of the styles, he said my hair was still not quite long enough. I guess I'm not suitable for long hair. It's too much of a pain to tame.

05062007