Kyoto!

 Early train ride to Kyoto this morning meant that we got one more hotel breakfast followed by rushing through Tokyo station's food court. We got some donuts and inari. Both things were delicious!

 When we arrived in Kyoto, we found our hotel RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from Kyoto station which has been the most convenient thing ever. I bought some banana flavored oreos which were not good but I still ate them. Weird flavors over here.

 We went to Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple on a hill. Before checking out the temple itself, we went into a basement for 100 yen where you were in complete darkness and and had to rely solely on your sense of touch with the handrails provided. The girls behind Aaron were very obnoxious in their yelling and laughing but we liked it nonetheless.

 This temple was much more opulent than yesterday's but still no where near as over the top as China's temples. I really enjoyed how these towers were among the trees, popping out of the forest.

 Getting panos in areas with tons of tourists is a hard feat as everyone moves whenever they want. I think this one was great though. Yeah me!

 The view of Kyoto was a nice change. Rather than a concrete jungle like in Tokyo, Kyoto has a lot more trees and green. It was very peaceful and I could see how being zen in this temple could be achieved.

 We lit some incense and I burned myself on the pinkie! OUCH!

 It's hard to see but the temple is on stilts. Amazing!

 Around the temple, there were also some rocks dressed with aprons. We didn't have a guide or even a pamphlet to tell us what we were looking at, but it reminded me of scenes from Princess Mononoke.

 We saw another tower, less popular than the one attached to the main temple....probably because you had to walk a longer distance and up a ton of stairs....but I got a photo with it.

I stopped for a snack in the neighboring area. Soft serve with melon soda. I wonder why "melon" flavor is Asia is honeydew, while "melon" flavor in America is cantaloupe. 

 After the temple, we decided to walk to to Nishiki Market. On the way there, we ran into another Temple....the Kenin-Ji temple. It had lots of zen gardens....filled with white rocks. Very tranquil and peaceful. Tons of people were just laying on the ground in each room.

 The big pull was a modern ceiling painting called the twin dragons. It was huge. I did a sideways pano shot to get it all in to show the sheer size of it all.

 Finally at Nishiki market, we sampled mochi, and Aaron tried many dried fish products.  Ick! The market was filled with people and it was 45 minutes before closing, so it wasn't even during peak hours.

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 Here were some mini fish that were salty and according to Aaron, very tasty.

 To waste some time out, we went to an arcade. Aaron tried pachinko. Meh. I felt like we wasted 1000 yen. We ducked into another arcade called Game Panic and found a quarter machine where we had many bonuses, earned tokens, and at the end, our fingers were black from the grime on the tokens. We spent over 2 hours in this place.

 We then walked home around midnight in a very sexy neighborhood. All the restaurants on this block looked expensive, super Japanese, and trendy. I'm sure we'll check it out again.

We ended the night with ice cream treats at the hotel. My delicious watermelon popsicle had chocolate seeds and was so refreshing!

Shibuya, Electric, Sunshine!

 Japanese Breakfast! Or as I like to call it, any meal other than breakfast! We had hotel breakfast after a HARD sleep and I was grossed out by natto, miso soup, and hamburger covered in what tasted like ketchup. I think I'm going to be living off bread and butter for a few days! I can however, get behind rice at every meal!

 I love vending machines here! They're crazy! Not only do you not always know what you're purchasing, but the flavors are just catered to a Japanese audience. I went with the safe route and chose a nectar that had a peach on it, called MOMO! Delish!

 First stop was Shibuya Crossing, aka the scramble. I didn't get a shot because it was 8 AM and no business person was out crossing the street. I did however get a shot of the dog shrine from the 20's. Sad story really....about a man and his dog, and when the man died, the dog returned to the same spot for 10 years to mourn his owner.

 We then walked briefly through Yoyogi Park and saw all the crows flying around and cawing. We found the entrance to Meiji-Jingu Shrine. BTW, Japan is SO hot and we're going through yen in vending machines like it's going out of style. The entrance gate was really gorgeous in how tall it was.

 Aaron and I played around with panoramic photos and you can see in the shot where we bumped the camera a bit in the pass off.

 On the way to the shrine was also an entire wall of sake barrels with beautiful designs. I really liked looking at every color and animal.

 Before entering the temple, we came upon a washing station where you wash your hands and your mouth. We did the hands. Not the mouth. That's just gross. The shrine was understated and not opulent like the Chinese shrines we've seen in the past. Colors were muted and there there was very little detailing on the roof tops, but it was stunning.  I didn't take nearly enough pictures.

 After the shrine, we went to Akihabara and Electric city. We checked out some pachinko parlors which were both hilarious and frightening, smelly and deafening. Seriously. You walk in and immediately are bulldozed over with the sound. Imagine 40 teenagers playing playstation at the top volume level all in one hallway. Yeah, earplugs really should be required. We didn't understand the game so we didn't play.

 We then walked into a large department store and had lunch in the food court. Unlike America, food courts in Asia are super yummy and a great place to get tasty morsels. We got ramen. Our meal together was less than $20USD! We picked a place that was full of people but had no wait, and decided on something based on a picture....no English menu!

 After lunch, we wandered into more stores and decided that our feet were dying. We were also starting to feel the effects of jet lag again. It started to rain. This day was not going great. We decided to duck into a store complex and came upon a maid cafe. A little weirded out at first, we decided to just try it. A maid cafe is where the waitresses are dressed as maids and refer to you as Master or Princess. They bring you food and offer companionship such as a conversation, playing a game, etc. We ordered food and watched as other patrons got pictures taken with their maids, had their eggs drawn on with ketchup, or drink art. Our maid brought Aaron a coffee and told him that she was "going to put her love in his cup". I got a cute rabbit cheesecake. It was expensive but worth going once. It wasn't nearly as weird once we did it.

 After maid cafe, we headed to Sunshine City where we checked out the Sunshine Aquarium. It was a magnificent aquarium, and why not? Japan LOVES fish. The craziest things we saw....a shark in its egg sac and it was moving, and the largest spider crab I've ever seen....seriously, this thing was a monster and freaked me out!

 The jellyfish were in a tunnel you could walk under. We also checked out the sea lion feeding show. It was impressive but I also was sad that they were doing stupid circus tricks.

 At 7 PM, we finally met up with Jeff for dinner at a weird place called Namjatown, also in Sunshine city. We went specifically because there were 100 types of Gyoza there. I wasn't super impressed with any gyoza I ate, and it was a place similar to Chuckie Cheese!

 After gyoza, we got ice cream. The boys shared some weird flavors like eel and coal...why? They had a good immature laugh about their choices.

 I got a cute cat "nekko" crepe. I made an error in buying something cute rather than something that would be delicious....though, in a place like Chuckie Cheese, is ANY of the food amazing?! It was quite a day!

Konichiwa!

 Japan! I've always wanted to come to the land where sushi train and anime was invented. For years, I've wanted to check out Shibuya Crossing, the temples and shrines, and even try to stomach raw fish (eek!) We are here for a little under 2 weeks, so we limited packing down to 1 roller board and 1 carry on per person. No huge bags this trip! Makes for easier transportation and getting around. We lost a day in traveling but I slept my best on the plane.

 As soon as we got to our hotel, we zoomed off to the Mori Art Museum which is inside the Tokyo Sky Tower. It has a great view of Tokyo, though not the best I'm told as it's in the center of Tokyo. I did a few panoramic shots to show the Tokyo Sky Tree and the Tokyo Tower.

 The view was pretty clear and the weather here is very humid, more so than NYC if you can believe that! We met up with Aaron's friends Liam and Kelly for drinks in the tower, followed by dinner with them as well as Jess and Chris. This group of 6 is who will be traveling to Onsen for a spa retreat. I was so tired and jet lagged that I couldn't even eat dinner. I wanted to cry because I was so out of it.

This last photo is of Mt. Fuji in the distance! You can't always see it, I'm told. Lots of clouds still, and I'm sure it's still cold on the top.

Classes, meeting my partner, exhausted

1picture? 1 picture?! What happened? I danced ALL DAY LONG! The only photo I took was of some currants. Some girl at lunch was sharing them with everyone and they looked beautiful. I got to meet my dance partner Jordi finally. His English, though not perfect, was much better than my spanish or my catalan, so we had a tiny language barrier.

The dance was very fun with the Hot Sugar Band playing tunes (though I didn't love how most of their songs were very speedy). I stayed to see the Strictly finals but didn't stay for JnJ because I wanted to get home on the subway. I had 4 hours of dance classes today, and got to meet Patrick and Natasha (Andrew would've laughed)

Swingin' Paris is finally here!

 "Morning mom, ahem....I'm hungry so get up! Feed me! Pet me. Oh and pick up my poop!"

I love her. She's so sweet to me especially when Aaron is gone because she knows I'm the only one left.

 I went to french, then got lunch at the Smiths bakery, a place near the grocery store that is so cute and rustic. I got some tarte aux framboises. Delish!

 We went for a nice long walk in the park and I decided to make Trixie SIT with me, on the bench. Look at my little pup giving FACE! And she can even sit on the bench by herself. I am impressed. Girl had a big butt and still managed to make it work.

 I went to check out the "Clock" at Centre Pompidou, a movie that is in real time and is a 24 hour film with clips of real movies with clocks in the scenes. I wrote down my favorites and things I'm interested in seeing. I have a lot of movies to add to netflix now.

 Then it was off to Swingin' Paris, which was in the boonies for someone who lives in the middle of town. The equivalent is Kew Meadows perhaps. Yeah, imagine trying to get someone in Queens and the subway turns off after midnight and won't turn back on until 5 AM. Yep, that's where I was. It was a nice space and the band sounded great, but being isolated and no info on how to get back home was a little annoying. I was able to find a cab and split it with 3 others so my fare home was only 8 euros....

 The venue had a pro coiffeur. He was giving men haircuts and even massaging their necks. Pretty awesome!

They also had a jack and jill. I did NOT do well. Oh well, it's only my second one and I've been told that half of it is just continuing to compete and show your face. So I'm doing good by making my face known!

Au Revoir Aaron, enjoy Denmark!

Aaron left this morning for Copenhagen, so it's just me and Trixie for another weekend. Whatever shall we do?! First I ate some yummy Frenchy smily cookies. One even winked at me.

 I then went to Sephora to get some sale items. These cool nail art sets were super cheap so I bought them for my friends back home that I think would enjoy them. Feathers and metal beads! I also bought my sis some cheap geometric shapes that you glue to your nail and then paint over, which seems to go along great with her house music love. Hopefully she likes them.

 I've also been trying out all the eau de parfums and eau de toilettes in our apartment. Our host must be obsessed with scents because she has bottles everywhere. I've been using a little spray every day to see which scent I like the most. So far I've tried Coco by Chanel and J'adore by Christian Dior. I prefer Coco. I just learned the difference between parfum and toilette, parfum being more expensive and more concentrated. Even more so is perfume. The least of the 4 types of scents is cologne. Pretty cool. I HAVE noticed that when I spray on some coco parfum vs coco toilette, parfum lasts longer but is spicier smelling.

 Remember those macaroons? Yeah, we forgot to eat them last night so I got to enjoy them all on my own looking out the window. They were fabulous!

 I then took Trixie to Montmartre to meet up with Andrius to get lost and explore. We had no agenda. Trix was pretty beat from the walk last night but with Swingin' Paris this upcoming weekend, I want her good and tired so she won't require a lot of attention. She climbed all the way up the funicular stairs to get to Sacre Coeur. What an awesome pup!

 We found La Maison Rose. I didn't stop in for food or a drink, just walked by. It IS quite pretty but I'm still wondering how it landed on a must see list on buzz feed when all the other items were natural like cliffs, caves, and fields...

We came home, spent some time out of the sun, and then I headed to Quai Saint Bernard where they dance outdoors next to the Seine every Thursday in summer. I showed up and only got to stay for 30 minutes because it started raining. Since it takes place on slippery tiles, it was unsafe to continue. I didn't even get a good picture or even a selfie of me there, OR even sadder, a picture of the Seine with the dancers together. 

 I wrote Andrius and we decided to catch a movie....Xmen. I had no interest in seeing it before, but the idea of seeing a movie with anyone, any movie really, was exciting. And I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed myself. There was a bit of time travel as well as awesome action scenes and good humor moments. I had skipped 2 xmen movies and from what I've heard I didn't miss much, but this one was definitely a great addition to the franchise.

 When we left, we saw tons of police men and cars honking. People running up and down the street, flares, and Algerian flags. I thought "Algeria won their game in the world cup?!" There were even riot police (we were on the Champs Elysees) and everyone was carrying an Algerian flag. It was a little scary being around the police but I was happier with them there in case any ruckus happened. Andrius looked up the score and "no", they had LOST their game, but they had pulled through to the next round, a first for their country.

Since the commotion was bad, we walked to Concorde thinking we could take the subway, but they were closed, so I had to walk all the way from the Arc to Notre Dame where I could then ride a bike the remaining 5 minutes home. My legs are dying! Just looked it up on map my run....over 3 miles, aka 5K!