Believe the Path

So this morning i hopped on a plane to ishigaki island, part of the. yaeyama islands, the southernmost island chain in japan. ishigaki is the main island with an airport and a small city, it is considered the most developed. i am also planning to visit iriomote island, which is covered 90% by jungle and guidebooks keep referring to it as "Japan`s last frontier" and taketomi island which has one road, uses water buffalo for primary transportation and has generally preserved the traditional Ryuku cultre. Relatively, okinawa has not been part of Japan that long, which is why its culture and a visit here is considered so unique.

i was picked up my the owner of the guesthouse. when we arranged this i asked how i would find him at the airport. he replied saying it would really not be a problem. he must have thought this was a very funny question since the airport is tiny and i was the only white person there. ya no trouble finding me. he is korean and his wife is japanese. they met at a guesthouse in australia and ever since he has dreamed of running a guesthose in a beautiful place. now they run this guest house and live here with their two boys, 2 & 5. I told him about my family here in okinawa on our way and when we arrived he noticed the picture of VInce & Becca in my wallet. he exclaimed and looked hard at the photo chuckling,  "they are so cute............ they are cuter than my boys" he said! haha... not sure you`re allowed to say that but it WAS funny.

he kindly took me to the grocery and showed me around the area in the car and pointed me to the nearest beach. when he was showing me the way on the map he said several times "believe the path" it took me a second to realize what he meant. "it will look like jungle," he said, "but believe the path. it is the right way."  this phrase was in my head my whole walk to the beach. what a wonderful phrase! i wonder how he found that phrase. Believe the path. i won"t draw out a corny comparison to my life journey because i think we call all find the meaning of this phrase on our own but i love it: believe the path. sometimes it doesn't not look like the way you are going could possibly be the right path but believe in it, it will get you to the right place.

practically speaking i was thankful that he described it the way how he did, i was less likely to doubt the path as i passed cows and sugar cane and jungle and suddenly i popped out right on the beach. totally alone. whoa!

it was a beautiful spot even if sadly quite littered. here i am way out in the middle of NOWHERE and plastic bottles are still washing up on the shore?!?! i find a spot, strip down to my bathing suit (its SO warm!), grab my snorkel and plod into the water. i have been talking and talking about how much i want to snorkel. unfortunately i talk big, mostly for myself, hoping i can forget how terribly afraid of the ocean i am. so even in barely a few feet of water, when i get down to swim, my breath quickens to a panic, i am turning this way and that trying to see everything around me, frightened by my lack of peripheral vision, oh boy! i'm up and out of the water, trying to slow my breathing, now panicked by what i am walking on and feeling far from shore even though the water doesn't cover my knees. i'd like to think i'd do better with someone to hold my hand but talk to anyone who's been in the ocean with me---thats not an easy job. 

i am not too hard on myself tho. going under water (epecially outside a pool) has caused me to panic since i was a kid. i almost failed many a swim test for this reason. i now recal screaming when my dad tried to take me snorkeling in aruba and tried to put me down... you know in the water. being in water, oceans in particular is legitimately my worst fear and one i have to actually face pretty often. i can now look at my dad and i's surf lesson in california as not only the scariest thing i ever done but also an accomplishment i can really be proud of. not only did like 5 waves legitatmely kick my butt but i was also constantly holding back a panic attack just from being out in the ocean.

i get back to shore and decide i need to take this a little slower and maybe lower my expectations a little. i have always felt happy and safe on the coast, sifting for shells and watching little creatures in the sand. i find so many beautiful little shells and some big ones too. this is nice. i lay out my towel and decide to do some sun salutations for courage. it works. this time i put my sandals back on. i feel safer when i don:t have to touch the bottom with my bare foot. i stroll through the water for a long time, getting comfortable wherever i am, just walking. finally i see some tiny little blue fish under the water. i decide to try or maybe create a new technique. since i feel so comfortable standing in the water, i stick my butt in the area, plunge my head under and turn my head side ways to look at my little blue friends. this is nice if not uncomfortable but is satisfying enough and doesn't make my heart accelerate.  i walk around some more using my new snorkeling technique. the most swimming i did was to plop onto my stomach, knees practically to my chest but allowing my feet to float to the surface, arms at my side in chicken wing position, kinda swirling my hands like a guppies' fins. yep.

but i am happy and not scared so who cares how incredibly silly i must look. i search for and gather shells and lie on the warm beach and wak in the warm water until mid afternoon. i walk east to the bay and then west to Skuji beach (pronounced scoogie, which makes me smile every time i say it). i wish someone could have taken my picture here because it would have looked like i was walking on water. it is a beautiful sandy beach with shallow waters enabling you to walk right out in the middle of the ocean, or so it looks, in only a few inches of water. i walked around in this for a long time gathering even more shells, and enjoyed the warn late afternoon air.

tonight i treated myself to my second trip to an actual restraunt while travelling in japan. it seemed like a good place to sample local food since there are some cheap restraunts nearby and no conveinient stores to eat from. i ordered a noodle dish with vegetables and pork and it was so good (a surprise!). i sat alone (i mean the only one there) making notes in "The Gutsy Women travel guide" so it will be ready to mail to my friend Priscilla, while justin timberlake played in the background.

tomorrow i am going to explore more beaches and hit some of the main observations points on the north of the island.

hope i can keep believing the path, so far its been a good one.

"Take this time to go into any other poses your body needs"

This is what one of the yoga instructors says at the end of each of her classes.  But when she asks this though she already has us lying in corpse pose. what other pose does my body need? really? i'm already in it. my body needs corpse pose. its the one place where i feel like, hey, i could meditate like this.

I've been going to as many free yoga classes as possible while I am here. i love it. how can you not love a form of exercise that you can keep your eyes closed during the whole time if you wanted to? how can you not love a form of exercise that enourages you to find strength in your breathing and feel the energy and your body and you can ACTUALLY feel the energy go int your arms so that you can balance in Crow.

Yesterday I made my second bus trip to Naha. There is something about finding your way somewhere (and back, this is important!) that is so satisfying. I think I shocked and maybe inspired a few people on base with my getting on a bus to go to Naha. This second trip was really nice, I found a better route that got me there much faster and a little cheaper too. I got a little anxious when the bus started turning off the main highway and i could no longer be quite certain where to get off but then it turned again and i was happy to find myself on the familiar main shopping drag of Naha and got off.

My goal was to find the pottery village that was not far from where I was. I found the road that would take me there according to my map but the road only went right and i needed to go left, so i turned down one of the covered shopping streets. i found myself in an expanisve indoor public market. some of the streets were wide but i also wandered down a few smaller alleyways lined with tiny tiny shops and little restraunts that you'd hardly know were shops and restraunts they were so tiny.

on base I can completely forget I am in Japan let alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. it felt good to get out into japan.  i really liked the public market. nothing to exciting but a wonderful mix of stores selling tourist junk, antique junk (i found a nice sake cup for 50 yen), cheap everything stores, and vendors selling vegetables and fish heads, complete with little eyes staring at you. i almost stopped to take a picture of this but its harder to be the tourist when you're the only one, so i just took it all in and walked on. i marvelled how familiar all of japans strangeness and eccentricities were becoming. its really such a blessing to be here for two months. long enough for fish heads and squid balls to become common place. this made me happy.

i dipped into a store that was selling lots of inexpensive household, mainly kitchen things to look at the ceramics and other odds and ends. i walked in a started digging through some chopsticks to see if there were any nice ones. this older lady suddenly appears beside me and sits down on a little chair. i assumed she had just come off the street. i have often seen little old ladies, who carry these folding chairs, sit down and take a rest. but there was something about her manner that made me feel like she was keeping an eye on me, so i decided to test my theory, i rounded the corner casually and begin looking at some dishes. sure enough she moves her chair around so she can still see me. i immediately smile and think this is going to make a good story!

it wasn't as exciting as i hope but i certainly kept her busy, i wandered around the whole store. and each time i was out of sight, i'd soon here the creak of her chair as she plopped down on it nearby. it was making me smile so much i thought i'd burst out laughing, i was really afraid i would do this as i passed her with a nod, trying so hard to be unphased by her pursuit. but i just thought it was hysterical that she had to watch me in this way. when i finally picked something up i wanted to buy i made sure to hold it out very publically so she would know i did not intend to slip it down my pants, or whatever she must have expected. it made my shopping experience much more exciting, i loved the whole show!

at this same store i happened upon a big fat kitty, with a sign by it which i am sure said  'Do not pet' but i did anyway and he droolled and i smiled. we shared about 10mins of pure happiness before i moved on. didn't want the lady to think i would snatch the cat.

I really cannot believe i found the pottery village so easily, i had really stopped trying to find it. i took a few random turns and though i would ask someone eventually how to get there. but then i found a sign pointing to a pottery museum and there i found the little pottery street. it was a picturesque street with litterally house after house that had been converted into a shop or studio or both. at first i wasn't sure i really liked the Okinawan pottery, the colors and designs, the ever present Shi Shi Dogs:

I went into shop after shop, everyone uses the same styles and colors and patterns but it is not like in a tourist area where you see that repitition and realize these are mass produced tourist items, they are all handmade and painted, it is simply the style used. but seeing so much of the same things is still somewhat unappealing if you don't like the styles. But soon I found some patterns that I really loved and picked a few pieces. in one shop, and this happens to me often here, my interaction with the shop owner tickled me so much i was just smiling like an idiot about my purchase or maybe just being there, who knows, but i was happy and i hoped i wasn't weirding him out. i love pottery and it was a good thing because after about the 15th shop i just couldn't go into one more. 

i wandered slowly back down the street and through the market and back to the main street looking for bus stop that would take me back to Kadena. while i was waiting for the bus, satisfied by the day, i really took in the change in my mood. Richard from Texas in Eat Pray Love often talks with Elizabeth Gilbert (the author) about how she has the power to determine her feelings. she is kind of shocked and awed by this notion, and i think it is easy to forget. i am reminded when i see a little kid having a melt down. and i remember what that felt like when I was upset about something and I just wanted the whole world (or at least my parents) to know that I was sad. and i'd cry as long as possible, trying to drag it out. i didn't understand then but i made the choice to feel sad and i did so powerfully. so now sometimes i find myself in a bad mood and its right there where I have the choice to embrace the bad mood because i want the whole world to know or to smile and shake it off. and its a really great feeling when i choose to smile.

i had been in a bit of a funk off and on most of the week for no particular reason, which is always so irritating because then I start searching for a reason and well that just pushes me deeper into the funk. but this funk lifted so easily yesterday, which felt good. i hopped on the bus and settled comfortably in for the ride. i even pulled out my ipod to listen to music for the first time since i've been in japan. i was all smiles on the bus, it had been a really really nice day. i was filled up with smiley happiness and the music lifted me up even higher.

on my way home, i picked up Vince (3yrs)  and he "helped" me walk the bike i had ridden all the way back. we went home and enjoyed a lovely hour. this is the time he likes me around the most and i love it. i was sitting behind him at the computer while he had a snack and we started playing a game. he does this all the time where he'll say "Cousin megan i can't see you" (like if i'm in the bathroom or the kitchen or something) so we played this for awhile and i said i love you, and he said i love you too and i said thanks (because he says this sometimes) and he said your welcome. and i just felt happy.

then we went and hid under a blanket so the monsters wouldn't see us. definitely a good day.

"Damn you for going to Okinawa!"

So the morning i left Osaka for the airport the guy who worked at my guesthouse remarked that it was getting colder in Osaka and recalled I was heading to Okinawa and actually said, "Damn you for going to Okinawa." i thought this was funny, hearing him curse about the warmer weather i would be enjoying. and i am, thank you very much for those pleasant words of sending.

So i have retaken up my reading of Eat Pray Love since i got here. I will say it was the blessing I expected to have lost the book on my way to Kyoto because I read instead "Kokoro," a Japanese novel by  Natsume Sōseki that was first published in 1914, as I just found out, thank you very much Wikipedia, in serial form in the Japanese newspaper, which would be a neat way of reading it. The book doesn't have chapters and is divided into 3 parts so I had to abandon the traditional way of putting down the book after reading a few chapters. Eat Pray Love is like this really, even if each part is divided into 36 stories, they certianly aren't chapters or neccesarily stopping points. SOOOO anyway, the title of the novel can be translated to mean "The heart of things." Kokoro was a really enjoyable read (even if it was about lonliness, solitude, and suicide) and it was very satisfying to read a Japanese novel while travelling in Japan, i really loved it and also without planning it this way i finished the final pages while landing right on the ground in Okinawa.

So. Having been gone from my blog for a week, with no updates except finally using Google Language Tools to more accurately write my blog title in Japanese, I decided I needed to get back to writing.

I think I am also glad that I took a break from Eat Pray Love one) so i could go about my own adventure without comparing mine to hers constantly and two) so i can enjoy the book now, which i am.

I finished the section on Italy and I am now on to India. While i am aware that her transition from Italy to India was obviously a gazillion times more intense, I have found the shift quite abrubt as well. I went from my own "Italy" (Kyoto) where I could revel in my own desire to enjoy life in the present, give into to pleasure and little indulgences to "India" (the base on Okinawa), where I suddenly feel challenged to, well, be disciplined, create my own habits and rituals that will bring me closer to God, and really put them into practice right now! Which brings me back to thinking about what I will do next in my life that is meaninful and then I am like whoa whoa whoa, "YOU are still in Italy, maybe we don't have to worry about India quuuuiiitee yet." This took the pressure off a little because its true. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, revelled in travel and life in Rome and the indulgence of eating and eating and eating and enjoying life in the present for 3 whole months before she committed to staying in an Ashram. So I will continue to enjoy the aspirations this part of the book is bringing back to me but I will also keep in mind I am still on my trip to "Italy."

And i am certianly having no trouble indulging myself. It is like a dream. literally a dream to puruse lonely planet, find a place i want to go and then start planning the trip. its the best feeling in the world.

i have been trying to figure out what my little Eat Pray Love quest is all about and maybe its this, trying to figure out the balance between this viral travel bug i have inside me (you see it lays dormant sometimes, but when it comes on, it comes on strong) and the beliefs i am most convicted about, the way i dream and desire and believe i should and will live my life (which have a lot more to do with service, sacrfice, and love of others than well.... indulging onself...) so maybe that is my journey and I am still on the first part.

okay off to my first Ikebana class...

Days 8 & 9: Reflections

So my energy has considerably slowed over the last few days. My enthusiasm has not; however, and really it is a very satisfying feeling to be ready to move on to Okinawa and be with my family and rest and explore there. It feels like I have been here quite some time, especially since I am a creature of many habits. I have my preferred foods and snacks. I go to the little convience stores and buy my breakfasts and have them in the fridge whereever I am for the next morning. I even seem to wake up at the same time every morning: 8:08am...strange. And it is no surprise to my friends that save two mornings I have been the last person to wake up in my room.

But still I feel like everyday I am taking in new things and understanding other things more For example, I finally learned what all the buttons on the automated western toilets mean, thanks to little notes on the toilet here at my guesthouse in Osaka-- i had wondering why there were two different buttons that looked like they would spray your butt--I learned one is a `mild cleaning` and the other a `real cleaning` thanks! I also finally came to comprehend the bus time table that is found at every bus stop in Kyoto. For this whole trip I looked at it not knowing what it was and just saw endless numbers, then i figured it out!!! wow--this must be what it is like to not know how to read. i stare at many japanese signs and maps, willing comphrehension, maybe some will actually come!

There is a particular little snack/meal item i like but it comes with a million different things inside. somehow by accident the first two times i got the same one that i really liked. since then, it has not gone well. the one i had this morning had little bits of what i could only imagine were dried fish. yuck! i kept the wrapper from the kind i like and i have been trying to learn the script so i can recongnize it. its really probably funny to see me so often just staring at something so hard. last night i was trying desperately to comprehend the map of the train & subway system in Osaka so i could figure out my fare. this truly is the benefit of having a prepaid pass, because on my travels to nara and back i used a pass and never had to think about it. once i am down on the platform i generally have no problem figuring out which way to go and where to transfer...but its just amazing to be presented with so many things so foreign and incomprehinsible and to need so much help. it is so entirely opposite from my experience in argentina, which was so defined by my ability to communicate. last night i just couldn`t figure out my fare or how to get my ticket from the machine and really wanted to ask someone for help, but there were no attendants at this station and people always seem in such a hurry in the subway station. and then a really sweet young woman finally saved me at the ticket machine and got me my ticket and walked me down. i was so grateful!

I spent the last two days just strolling the city. Yesterday, while still in Kyoto I walked lazily through Gion finding secret little galleries and shrines. Not entirely by accident I walked by my other guesthouse there, the one i really loved. I peared down the walkway a bit longingly. I really had been sad to leave. The man who worked there who spoke Australian english has walked me out and i truly wanted to hug him because i felt such affection for him and the comfort of the place...but that surely would have been quite unneccesarry....since he has lots of guests... i walked really far yesterday, all the way north to the philosophers path, when i arrived there i popped into a shop and the woman spoke some english (she has lived in north caroline 4 years!) she was really surprised i had walked so far. i had taken it very very slowly. i visited as many free places as possible, including a museum of traditional crafts, which was very cool and helped explain alot of things i had seen and bought. i visited one last Shinto shrine and one more Buddhist temple, but did not pay for any parts with exclusive entrances. i passed up a garden that was known for its maples, it was overly crowded and i had been lucky enough to have seen equisite maples on my trip down to nara where the leaves were a few weeks ahead of Kyoto.

the day passed uneventfully but i was really quite happy to walk slowly toward the western mountains, even in the rain and watch the fog roll in at dusk. i feel i have really been quite lucky with weather. i realized it must rain a lot with how green and mossy it is in Kyoto. there are areas that look almost tropical even mixed with the pines and maples.

two days in a row i had gotten stuck in terrible traffic on the bus on my way back to my guesthouse on Gojo-dori. being more tired now, this had put an unneccesarily bleak cast on the day up until that point. the first night when i finally got off the bus i started out towards my guesthouse in a rush, then laughed at myself for feeling so rushed and  grumpy--i was in japan! geez! and i slowed down and walked a little softer and consequently my feet hurt considerablly less and my mood instantly lighted. i have certainly realized that while i whole-heartedly recommend the public transit (it is impeccable except on busy tourist days, i found out i experienced the busiest weekend of the year), i have on more than one occassion found myself the only tourist on a train and felt quite happy about that. but in the end, i am happiest walking even if it has brough the end to my feet. i can walk and walk all day and never get mad at traffic or an extra toll or an unexpected change in bus route.

yesterday i was not happy about the traffic on the way back yet again but when i did get back I felt a surge of excitement about moving to a new place. i was ready for a change of scenary! when i arrived at my guesthouse there was a live band playing. the woman who checked me in apologized (maybe because i had to sneak through the small crows) but i was thrilled! i changed and brought down my dinner of dumplings and salad and listened enthusiastically. i seriously wish they had been selling their album or something. i should at least find out their name. i loved it! just a singer and his guitar accompanied by an upright bass player. he sang with the passion of a singer-songwriter and the bass was excellent! it filled me with energy after such a long long day! i closed my eyes, smiled, and tapped to the music.

i had pretty grand plans for the day but at the same time felt no pressure to accomplish them. i set out for one of the most notable shopping districts for a little taste of the city, which also happened to be conviently located near Amerika-Muri, a place I believe i have seen featured before (although maybe there is a similar district in tokyo that i am thinking about) that is a great place to catch teens dressed in incredible ridiculous fashions that are somehow thought to be `american`. these of course include blue or pink bobbed haircuts or pig tails sticking straigh out from the sides of the head, tied with furry hair ties that may even match thr even furrier boots she is wearing. these girls have incredible make up, complete with the perfect circles of blush. i honestly did see too much i hadnt seen mixed in with the crowd before. but i still enjoyed the scene. it was definitely a change from kyoto, which now seemed so traditional. but oh man did i love Kyoto, with its temples and shrines hidden in every neighborhood and the mountains just about the rooftops, everywhere you looked. i thought i was tiring of kyoto but i am not sure i could.

maybe i need to learn Japanese....this thought has truly crossed my mind a few times in the last few days. i have never ever considered learning a new language, especially feeling i am still mastering spanish. but really i can communicate if needed in spanish... maybe its worth a try...

but anyway back to fashion. i honestly like the fashion in japan. it is very ecclectic, to say the least. but some of it is rather frumpy and i cant wuite think of the word but stereotyped.... let me explain. winter fashion for example seem to be all about flannel, puffy vests, and that winter sweater pattern seen on everything in like ll bean....aspen print or something? sorry we southerners arent too versed on winter clothing. they are also serisouly into moccasins right now. i have seen some really interesting shoes and would really like to buy some shoes here. however i am in the land of tiny feet and when i asked for a size large in a shoe i kind of liked it was still too small... oh well! heres a funny thing i noticed a few days ago. i noticed a girl wearing flats had little socklets on that looked like a pair of underwear i had, they had the little lace border on the edges. i thought this was super funny but also fun, it made feet seem a little more, you know exciting. then i noticed these little feet underwear on many women! so i purused the shops quite a bit today until i was overwhelmed by it. i did visit an H&M just to see if it H&M Japan was at all unique. Same deafening N. American music BUT also the loud & constant screams of Isshaimasse (sp?...meaning: Welcome!), from each and every attendant in the store. this made me smile quite a bit. i ended up buying a shirt i really like but just had to hope it fit alright because the line for the fitting room was COMPLETELY out of control, i mean i bet people were waiting two hours, no joke! to leave i just had to allow myself to get swept up in the swirling crowd until i reached the exit. it was seriously worse than Toji Market, which seemed quite calm in comparison.

the shouts of Isshaimasse remind me that one things really lovely in Japan is that you are always recongnized when you enter and exit a store, even a convience store. and honestly it is incredibly comforting to never go unnoticed even when i leave quite discretly. it is breaking my habit of sneaking out of places and i seriously always glance back to give an expectant nod in return for my farewell. oh japan!

hmmm i think that is about it. i really left a whole day out of my blog. it had been a very uneventful day so i wrote about my feet instead. i think that day i have my only regret of the trip, which is that i chicked out of being adveturous and did not try the fried squid balls that were being sold as a specialty at the Toji Market and again where i spent my late afternoon. EVERYONE was eating them and when i passed them the first time i knew immediately i had missed my opportunity for a great story. but i dont trust the crowds here...especially when they seem to so love balls of dough filled with red bean paste... gag.

dough balls filled with red bean paste have been the one thing i have just really truly disliked...okay well that and fermented soy beans. but really? fermented soy beans...why???? they had been featured at my traditional japanese breakfast that first morning.... i wondered why they were so sickeningly sticky....yuck. i knew better at least with the bean paste. i had been warned before i had gotten here. but that day i was desperately hungry and i forced about 2/3 down before i thought i would gag. it at least served to stave off my hunger until i reached a 7Eleven.

okay well this overwhelmingly long posts will be my last for this little solo trip, you are quite the dedicated reader if you have not only gotten to this last post but also to the bottom of it. so i hope youve enjoyed it. i plan to keep having advetures so ill keep posting.

m

Day 7: My feet

i can't believe i only have two more full days of my trip left. i definitely feeling alittle travel weary, mostly in my body. the most notable thing when i wake up yesterday morning is that my feet still hurt from the day before. thus far i have gone to bed every night with achy achy feet, but wake up feeling ready to go again. ill admit the day before yesterday, the renewed energy in my feet ran out much much earlier in the day than they had been before, maybe even before noon.

so yeterday morning my feet are hurting from the start. at the Toji market i longingly pass a booth giving foot massages: $20 for 30mins... as soon as i passed it up, i wished i had done it.

i had noticed that a japanese traveller in my dormintory had bought these sticky pads and was applying them to her legs and feet as if they had been aching as well. so yesterday while waiting for a bus i pop into a cheap looking everything type drug store. i am able to do this without worry of missing the bus because this particular bus stop (like many in japan) has a sign with each bus line stopping there listed. under each bus are three circles. when i bus is coming in the near future a little green circle with a bus on it appears in the farthest right circle. and then moves along to the left as it gets closer. when it is approacing it appears in the farthest left circle. i LOVE this!

so i pop in. mom, you would love this store, it is your favorite kind of everything drug store. i end up picking out some teeny miniature travel toothpaste, floss (yesterday i got a little concerned about my oral hygeine since a) i am travelling b) i have had oral hygience issues in the past, gross i know, but i swear i usually brush my teeth 3times a day c) i haven't been to the dentist in at least a year), AND i find those little sticky pads for your legs and feet. they promise i will wake up and feel refreshed, so i buy a pack. i can't figure out where the prices are so i am pleasantly surprised when my purchase amounts to around $3.

so the moment of truth comes when i put the pads on my feet last night. they are green and sticky with a soft pad on the bottom, so that when i stand up i feel like i am walking on pillows. mmmmm.... this is quite nice. the cooling effect begins immiately and is quite intense without making my feet feel cold. while falling alseep i begin dreams of buying mounds of these pads and putting them everywhere, on my hips, shoulders, knees, even cutting little tiny circles out for each toe.

and sure enough this morning my feet feel AMAZING! i will definitely be buying some more and cutting little circles out for each of my little aching toes.

Day 6: Back in the Neighborhood

So I completely neglected to tell y`all what i did last night. I set out in the evening on a search for a Lawson Station (i have no idea why this particular convience store has its name, but it is by far my favorite and often sells small bunch of bananas and other fruits). so i went out. shortly after finding a cluster of convience stores where i bought by dinner i found myself again at the entrance of my beloved neighborhood from Day 4. i decided to walk up the hill a bit and find a nice place to sit and eat, perhaps near one of the temples that is lit up at night. i walked and walked and found nowhere to sit until i reached the street where Totoro lives. i figured the store was certainly closed but walked that way anyway. sure enough it was open and there right next to totoro was a nice bench. and there i had my dinner with my neighbor totoro.

tonight there were many people going in and out of the store and taking pictures, which made me feel like less of a dork. after eating i was alittle hesitant to go in until i saw that a different person was working the store. if i was going to buy anything, i did not want to be remembered from the time before....

from there i decided i could not be far from the yummy yummy cream puff place and i set out quite determined. i was shocked by the throngs of people, literally packing the small streets and i suddenly remembered: it was saturday night! i pushed and walked and thought i had forgot the location of the cream puff place until i spotted a few people holding them, i pressed on (literally) through the crowds, doubting occassionally that i would find it.... and then! there it was! hurray! walking down the hill, hapily clutching my green tea cream puff i had to fight the urge to tell everyone: you must must have one!

Day 5/6: Nara & Uji

My bus trip to Nara from Fushimi Inari was very nice. I was happy to finally see a rural area as i had pictured it with rice patties settled beneath the mountains.

I will say that i was particularly proud of my travels the past two days. I had to switch train lines several times yesterday and back today. and i was quite happy to have found my own way to Uji this afternoon. I know I am my mother`s daughter because of my almost affectionate attachment to my local map whereever I am. In argentina i was mercilessly made fun of for my attachment to the Guia T, a tiny but thick guide of about 200 pages, detailing the disaster that is Buenos Aires` bus system; I had been quite determined to master it and it was common to find it clutched, with a mixture of affection and disdain, in my right hand). Maybe in part, it is being alone, but i love knowing where i am and the way i can walk with confidence when i know how to get around. i must have been showing this confidence the other night as i strolled kyotos streets because someone actually asked ME for directions. I was so proud to tell her where she was and how to get to the nearest bus station!!!

back to Nara. By the time i had left my things at my guesthouse and moved on to the city i only had about 1.5 left of sunlight, maybe. I was hungry and in need of a little break so i picked a bench in the park. Now Nara is home to what i thought the guide book said about 200 dear, but maybe it was more like 2000. almost every female was either suckling a fawn or looked pregant). i have seen photos of people with these deer and they are unnaturally `friendly`. i had naivelly been looking forward to these odd, supposedly sacred creatures and petting one. after my first encounter with one, i took an instant disliking to them. the general tourist seems to love them, everywhere you look someone is posing with a deer. i will admit i found them occassionally endearing. one woman bowed to a deer that would bow back, another just kind of sauntered by me on a walking path and i half expected to exhange a `hello`.

BUT on the whole i did not like them. after eating i left a small bite and offered it to a stag near by. from here he leaned down and ate a cigarette butt! oh no! this made me very sad. then he sniffed by bag and ate a kleenex sticking out, no i said and pushed his nose. he came back stronger, going for the maps sticking out of my bag. MY MAPS!!! i was not having it. i moved. and two minutes later another one came sniffing my bag and straight for the maps! i moved. again and then left when another approaced me. i felt very concerned for these scavengers and really do not know what to compare them too, but they are not friendly, they do not care to be pet, they want to eat everything. they were pretty much like a goat at the petting zoo. plus the whole place smelt like a zoo. no thanks.

i decided to walk up to a temple i heard had a beautiful view of the city at dusk. this was honesly truly priceless. when i was approaching the temple. i saw a couple trying to take their own picture, so i took the oppurtunity to offer my services and took several of them. a few minutes later, on my advice, the three of us were admiring the city as the sunset. the husband was very chatty and i was happy for this because having done no talking since morning, i get quite chatty myself and this made me less self consicous. i think the whole experience that night at the temple would probably had been more memorable alone but the rest of the evening would have had nothing to remark about had i not met them. We (myself and the british couple) talked a long while until it was completely dark and then walked together back through the park and into the city for the next few hours. i was really grateful for the company and found them both very kind and enjoyable (plus he told me about the Monkey park in Kyoto, which even after the deer park, i am so so so excited about!!!) but it was so weird to kind of yearn to be alone again. it was so strange. this whole yearn i have yearned to be around others and now suddenly enjoying this solitary-ness for the first time in so long, or maybe ever, i really yearned for it.

I have done more thinking and reflecting than i have done in probably years. this last year especially, i never did allow myself much time to just think and allow the internal dialogue to run. i disliked so much living alone that i constantly distracted myself with music, with my cell phone, with my computer, or internet tv. I think yesterday was a day where I really just felt that I had settled comfortably into my solo adventure and that was quite nice. it was yesterday as well that it first occured to me how easily this trip could not have happened alone.  it was my original intent to travel by myself, but this was a very loose idea. then it was going to be ashley and i`s trip. when she got her job, i was really sad and a little nervous to be alone. THEN my parents were coming with me, then amy, my cousin, was going to join me, then they were all unable to. And while i will say these are among the people i love most, i would not trade this last week for anything. i feel so attached to it that thinking of anyone else being on it makes me feel very very possessive. and well i just feel blessed that it turned out the way it did.

I can say I was not completely thrilled by Nara. It had been sold to me strongly, so maybe that was part of the problem. But this morning, also on the advice of my british friend, i paid to go in and see the giant Buddha in Nara (or as he pronounced Buh-duh: `we do love a giant Bud-uh, what could be better than a nice Buh-duh` he had said with a chuckle). this was quite amazing. it is housed in the largest wooden building in the world and it is among the largest Buh-duhs in the world. truly magnificent.

My energy was really low this morning. i also got hungry for lunch hours earlier than usual and was low on snacks. i had decided i would only spend half the day in Nara and on Jenny`s whole-hearted advice I decided to go to Uji on my way back to Kyoto. on my way, i bought a big lunch, downed two `expresso tea lattes`, popped some advil for my growing headache, and took a power nap on the train. i was in much better sprits by the time i arrived. Thank you thank you Jenny, i LOVED Uji and it was by far my favorite city outside of Kyoto among the three i visited. I whole-heartedly recommend it as well. And Jen i got you a postcard just as you asked! my real love of the city was the view from an beautiful orange bridge the crossed a fast flowing, wide river. the river was lined with gray stone banks where i found a group of art students making watercolors. from the otherside you could here a saxaphone player. it was lovely. the river flowed right from 4 pine covered mountains. it was a truly lovely sight and well worth the visit. before i left i watched the sun go down from the bank and thought about my lovely girlfriends from kenyon and thanked Jenny for the good advice.

More things in Uji that made me smile:

• Trying to go in the exit of the art museum (i have a talent for doing this on accident) and then getting privately ushered through a secret back way by several museum attendants because i seemed to clearly be too dumb and american to find the proper entrance. but it was really kind.
• a man selling ginger tea who stuck a toothpick covered in hunny in my mouth without warning
• discovering that these little sticks i see being sold everywhere are ear picks...
• seeing some incredibly beautiful watercolors in a small shop/exhibit
• japanese in flannel (they seem to love their flannel here, who knew?)
• disovering `expresso tea` which i think is just strong black tea with milk...

Day 5: Hump Day

Yesterday was the hump day of my 10-day trip in Japan. the end of the beginning. the real beginning of the end. it always seems that before the hump day of a trip, it seems your trip will never end, and after the days begin to pass in what feels like only a few hours.

Besides being a hump day, yesterday was a travel day, splitting my day in half between Southern Kyoto and Nara. The first half of the day I was still high from the day before but also anxous and rushed to get to Nara by the early afternoon. I visited a temple with some truly lovely maples but I could have easily skipped it and rushed through and on to my next site. After arriving in Nara for the second half of the day I felt truly homsick for Kyoto and my lovely guesthouse in Gion. I was really quite unsettled most of the day, except for my visit to Fushimi Inarii, which completely redeemed my entire day. It had become one of my top sites to visit while in Kyoto and I think the only one I actually had some tiny bit of knowledge about before I left. The Fushimi Inarri consist of 1000s of large orange Tori Gates (indiviudal Tori gates crop up quite a bit in Japan and are featured in lots of famous photos, i:ll put up a picture later on). I have been getting a little better about asking people to take my picture, and today I decided I would try to build up some karma by asking others if they wanted their picture taken. The funny thing that happened was when i stepped through the first gate, a couple from Madrid asked me if they could take my picture for me, so kind! i replied in spanish and we chatted a bit. we couldn:t find the right setting on my camera, so they took several of me with their camera and offered to email them to me. even kinder!

i will note here that much to everyone`s probable disbelief, i have used my spanish every day i have been in japan, except for the day of my arrival. crazy, huh?!?!

So the funny thing about my visit to the Fushimi Inarri shrine is that i only knew that there were a lot of Tori gates, some were arranged in a tunnel (these are smaller and it is like an orange tunnel), so when i got to the end of the tunnel and saw more, i thought oh! more. so i continued up the mountain. and then there were more. and more. i kept trying to look ahead to see when they would end but somehow the way they are arranged up this pine covered mountain, makes it entirely impossible to see when they will end. it seemed around every bend more appeared. they would end and begin again. i almost stopped several times, anxious to move towards Nara but something inside me, urged me to walk thru ALL the gates, and there were probably only a few more anyway.  i surely did not believe they would go ALLthe way to the top of the mountain. i arrived at what i thought was the end after about 30mins, i stayed here awhile and took many many pictures of the small stone shrines. there is no way to describe this sacred place, so i will post a picture later. around the bend i found more gates. the way from here became very steep. i gave myself a pep talk and soldiered up them at what i thought was quite a good pace until a jogger with HUGE calves passed me, JOGGING up this mountain. whoa!

by now i am sweating and huffing and puffing and determined to get to the top because it now seems they go ALL the way to the top. at the top there is a viewing area where people are sitting and looking out at the city. it is a pretty nice view, i guess. looking to the left there were maybe 50 more stairs leading up to what looked like a shrine. i was not interested in these stairs, but pearing up i saw the glimse of a red maple, i decided to go part way to get a better look. then i decided, okay here i go, all the way. what i found here at the top was truly sacred. the most beuatiful maple tree i had ever seen in my whole life, lying under it the colors were green, yellow, orange, red, deep maroon---all at once. i sat here a long while, smiling up at the tree on occasion and had a snack and rested among the moss covered shrines. i did not leave my coins at the shrine as is typical but under my tree, thanking God for this beautiful site that made my hour long accidental hike up the mountain well worth while.

going down took only about 15mins. when i got there i reached for my sunglasses and realized, ooops! i really could use those glasses but i also kind of like thinking of them sitting up there on the top of the mountain by the tree.

Day 4: I LOVE KYOTO

I lovelovelove Kyoto.

Happiness came to me today in the form of a Hayao Miyazaki Store (many of you know some of the extent of my love for these movies and their characters) and an oversized cinnamon-green tea crean puff---i seriously thought: this could be heaven.

I thought i might hyperventilate with joy i found this store today. the sheer providence of finding this store almost first things this morning, was almost too much. first i saw a little totoro in the window next to a pile of little ponyos (from his most recent movie), when i got closer i discovered two 4 foot tall and 3fee t wide totoro stuffed animals in the opposite window!!! my excitement peaked! could it be? could it be? oh my goodness! a store! i was as giddy as a small child anticipating disney world for the first time. this was probably the best part. after my first half hour of shopping for myself i just got stressed trying to choose gifts. i shall not dare tell you all how much i charged at this store but i was both embarassed and utterly satisfied. these things do not exist in the US and i honestly have never covetted material items more. as they were packing up my trinkets i was already coveting many many other things.

 i spent my whole day in one area of kyoto, walking and walking and walking some more. i had the best time. over and over again i bubbled over with  happiness and satisfation with my day. the stone streets on the side of the mountains were breathtaking. i even really enjoyed the temples i went to today (thank you very much Lonely Planet), one offered breathtaking views of the city, another in its massive glory, gave me the oppurtunity to sit and listen as the Buddhist monks chant. this is one of the incredible things about these temples, many if not all are still active temples with parishioners who attend and monks who live there. i have often thought i heard  chanting in the background when walking through or near a temple. Kyoto is truly incredible. at once brimming with life and modernity and filled with ancient history and treasures and beauty. i love this city. i want to live here. i want to visit my neighbor totoro whenever i like and eat green tea creampuffs every day.

i have seriously enjoyed my guesthouse. on one hand i probably would have met more  travellers my age in a more typical hostel, i am very happy to have found japanese style guesthouses with tatami floor-futon bed dorm rooms that are just as inexpensive. i have been gracious too that the main attendant here speaks perfect australian english and is keen to talk in the evenings.

i am also getting much better at eating. it is funny that with all the thigns that are simply outrageously expensive (a teeny tiny bunch of flowers costs $30, i saw strawberries today maybe 8 for $14), you can get a full meal or at least full for $2-$5. i have found my favorite convientient store foods (one of the best places to get yummy cheap food) and i love the vending machine restraunts where you buy tickets and get food almost instantly, complete with free tea and water. i can wat rice and seaweed and udon soup & cabbage salad for awhile and be happy. today i ate a mid afternoon lunch sitting on a little stone bridge over a small river that runs thru kyoto. lovely.

tomorrow i am leaving my bags at the guesthouse where i will staying the weekend (walking distance from here) and heading to a few sights in southern Kyoto and then onto Nara for the night with just the neccesities.

i really could not be happier and i need to give a shout out to my dad for helping me to make this trip possible. thank you thank you thank you--you`re thank you present will be that i will not let you rest until i know you will make this trip yourself.

bye for now,
megan

Day 3: Kyoto

Today I decided to get out of the city and closer to the beautiful pine covered mountains that surround Kyoto City. I wanted to be in the mountains, breathe the air, hike. So i headed to Ohara, a rural area in the northernmost part of the city. I really think i would have been plenty happy just to take the bus there and back. It was a lovely ride there. I am sure the cherry blossom season is incredible but really fall seems to be the second best time to be in japan. the maples are turning red and the crisp air is very refreshing. i enjoyed ohara but i also got the itch to return to the city pretty much as soon as i reached the temple area of the city. i had a long deabte about which temple to visit but then skipped the temples althogether and instead tried to wander as much as possible. i found a small shrine/temple away from the crowds just for me. i loved it because it was filled with around 50 small little statues of figures with little red fabric tied around each ones neck. they looked identical, but a closer looked revealed slightly different expressions.

my itch to get back to the city was satisfied when i arrived in Gion, the area where my guesthouse is located. this is the primary geisha district of Kyoto, where many people come at night hoping to catch one. Geisha are pretty much an endangered species now in Japan, with only 1000 remainingm about 100 if which reside in Kyoto. I lovelovelove this area even tho it is teaming with tourists. as much as i wanted to get closer to the beautiful mountains, here in the bustling city i recovered the energy and excitement i had my first morning in tokyo. it is no surprise that my favorite thing to do here so far is walk by shops, buy little trinkets and try different packaged snacks.  in buenos aires my very favorite weekend passtime was to visit a plaza and buy recuerdos, it seems to be the same here.

i love love love my guesthouse. i am so happy to be here two nights. this area is supposed to have some of the best sites of kyoto. i have so many places circled within walking distance that i cannot wait to get up tomorrow morning. okay thats all for now.

Day 3: Comments

Being in a new place and culture means there are endless things to take note of as i go throughout the day. Here are a few thoughts on these things:

Japanese Toilets:

I know my mom was worried about the japanese toilet. they are built right into the ground so  you squat over them. at first i thought, why? do the japanese not appreciate sitting on a  toilet seat.  but really i think i like these toilets. unlike the western style toilet that you will be forced to awkwardly squat over when it  is dirty (or lacking a seat as was the case at my university in Buenos Aires), it is much more pleasant to do this over a japanese toilet.  AND i do believe the japanese more than appreciate sitting on a toilet seat since they have decided to automate  their western style toilets. complete with heated seats---this is definitely my favorite thing about them!

Art & Design:

I  love everything about the look and feel of japan. i do not know why i never realized i HAD to come to japan because i have always always always loved the japanese style (even if it was only from miyazaki films and japan town). i love the buildings, i love the art, i love the sliding doors and tatami floors, i love the flag-like curtains that cover entry ways, i love finding little fish swimming in empty  flower pots outside doorways. i love all the stationary with little cats on it. i love how every food item is served in a different little bowl. i love eating with chopsticks and sipping soup from the bowl. i love sleeping on the floor (although i am totally over sitting on the floor and am so happy to be sitting in a chair at a table right now. even my 23 year old knees and hips and legs were tired and aching from sitting on the floor at my last guesthouse).

Breakfast:
This morning I had a traditional Japanese breakfast at my guesthouse. This was my second official breakfast on this trip. The one before occured at Kyoto Station. I entered and they handed me a menu with only american breakfast options even tho others were eating a japanese breakfast. i should  have pointed and insisted on that. instead i was served the saltiest scrambled eggs served with ketchup and the HUGEST　butteriest texas toast. while i wasn:t thrilled by this, i am thrilled they eat breakfast in japan. The Argentians DO  NOT believe in breakfast, unless you consider 2 cups of coffee a meal. I remember my host sister holding her stomach and making a sick looking face when she thought of how much food we americans like to consume at breakfast: "how can you start the day that way?!?!" she exclaimed, and said something about how terrible it would be to walk around so heavy in the morning. I would counter: "how do you go to sleep with your stomach so heavy?!?!" (we ate dinner around 10pm, many families eat later).

But back to my Japanese breakfast. About 8 different little bowls sat in front of me, i wish i had a picture. i was so happy to see a bowl of plain rice and miso soup. a small bowl had some sickeningly sticky looking soy beans..no thanks. another held cold spinach (which i ate for good measure). another  some sticky walmuts for the ricem yummm. and cooking on a little open pit fire to my right were too small fish. one for me and one for my floor-mate. i had been smelling my fish since i woke up. i gave him (the fish) a quick glane and tried not too think about having to eat him. i was afraid i would  lose my appettite for the whole meal. it reminded me of the smell of  the dried anchoves i used to buy for my neighbors cat.

finally he was served to me. i let him sit for awhile. i call this fish "him" because he had a head and a face. i went for it, very happy when i discovered this tiny  little fish really didn:t have much to eat. while eating this little fish with my chopsticks i thought: all meat should come with a head on it. if all meat came with a head on it, i would have no problem becoming a vegetarian. i will say that i have had qualms at different times in my life about eating meat. while i eat meat now and although i now aspire to be a vegetarian for reasons that have less to do with the animals themselves, i have never, never had any qualms with eating a fish until this morning. looking at my little fish, stomach empty, spinal column dangling out of its body. a sad sight...

Day 2: Funuako Onsen

this is really the only story that NEEDS to be told about today. i wish i was a better story teller. i should really give the rights of this story over to a better writer, someone with comic ability....marni, its all yours.

So the idea that i must experience a traditional public bath while here was first put into my head by my friend (no longer supervisor) tim barr who said; you must visit a public bath while you:re in japan. and i think cool, def. its on the list.

now at this point i am still imagining bathing suits or something. so when i find out no no you first enter a room where you take off all your clothes, i think what?!?! i didn:t know they were naturally segregated. i imagained open baths where people wander in and out. so okay just woman, no bathing suits. got it. you carry a towel to cover your private areas, cool. got it.

i have been looking forward to this all day and even more as the day goes on. i am still sore everywhere from sleeping on the plane, the bus, and from walking and walking. in one of the temples i can only really think that i wish i was travelling with someone i could dupe into rubbing my feet tonight....

so i read up on proper etiquette. i:ll explain so you can know just as much as i did when i enter. i know you take all your clothes off in the first room. i know that in the bath there should be an area where you sit on a bucket or bench and wash yourself before entering the bath. i know i should get a towel to cover myself and that when you get in the bath you put it on your head to stay dry.

i go up to the reception and hand her the 400JPY for the bath she also has me pay for towel and soap. as soon as i recieve this towel i wonder what exactly it will be any good for. it is clearly the size of a small hand towel. i don:t think to far ahead as not to worry about this. i walk in. lots of naked old japanese ladies. something about saggy old ladies makes me feel less modest. i undress. i look at this towel. no one else is covering themselves up. but should i? something about being the token white girl of this affair makes me want to cover up. but if i do, then i:ll have to choose what to cover up and it certaily can:t fit around me so no matter what i:m not really covering much if anything. oh well. i close the locker and take the key.  i remember wondering where do i put the key? i clearly don:t have a pocket for this.

i enter the first room. it has a sink with spigots and a stack of buckets. well i can:t sit here but this must be where i wash myself so i do a little and throw cold water on myself, standing. this feel wrong. but no one is giving me weird looks. this can:t be right. so i decide to enter the baths just to see if there is a place to sit and bathe. sure  enough there is. ooops. i sit on a bucket and bathe. i think a lot of naked butts have sat here. oh well.

i find myself alone in the one outdoor bath. no this is heaven. its a hot springs except you`re naked. what could be better? i am totally relaxed and just about to move to the indoor baths when it dawns on me....the key!!!! ohhhhh no! i left in the sink, i:ll just go get it. nope. not there. oh i left it where i bathed...nope. i:ll look in the sink again. at this point i allow myself to think i just lost the key to where alllll my clothes are. i don:t speak japanese. they don:t speak english. i am naked, and the receptionist is in the lobby. how in the world did i do this?!?!?!

i honestly don:t even allow myself to go thru the scenario more than once because i think i would have had a panic attack. in these kinds of situations i really just go with denial and imagine this didn:t happen.

well i must have looked a little panicked because an old lady gestures what i am looking for, i gesture about the key. she comes up to me and pulls at my hair, oh! i think, the key must have been in the towel and when i put it on my head it got tangled in my hair. but no, no key. all the other old japanese ladies are now interested in me and lost key. lets not forget we     are     alll    naked.  it felt like an hour had gone by since i started lookinh but it probably less than 5 minutes. finally one of the ladies shouts oh! key! and points. oh thank God! i bow and bow to all of them and the first lady shows me how to use the hairband on the key to fasten to my pony tail.

so thats where you put the key.

Day 2: Kyoto--Disaster at 5:30am

I must sound dramatic but it was such a disaster to step off a bus at 5:30am having just barely been alert for 2 mins when i realize i left eat, pray, love on the bus. i know mom, i am so sorry, you said don`t lose it and smartly i responded: "how would i lose it?" in my defense no english was being spoken on the bus. it would just stop every few hours (i swore every few minutes), lights on, lots of japanese, bus stalls, then we go again, lights off and the cycle repeated. so how would i know when we got to kyoto? we were supposed to arrive around 6am, at 5:30am i think i hear the word KYOTO and sure enough we:re here. i frantically try to gather my things now that the seat in front of me is leaning back and blocking everything. i see the bag with a left over sandwhich and say oh well its gonna have to stay what if the bus starts to leave?!?!?! i am off the bus when i realize oh no! i left my travel companion on the bus.... truly that is what it felt like. i left her and now i am truly solo. i am really missing her tonight. alas we will have to reunite in Okinawa where i already have another copy being sent.

today i visited the Golden Temple and another temple whose name i don:t have handy. they were both very beautiful but i was generally underwhelmed by my first temple visits today. the walks i took were very nice but i also felt like i was getting hearded thru like cattle, signs marked the way said "usual path", everytime i tried to get of the "usual" path i was dead ended or found out i was trying to enter thru the exit, so i had to turn back to th usual path. i guess they did not want me to miss the vendors selling gourmet sweets and snacks right outside the exits. the highlight of my temple visits happened just inside the gates of the Golden Temple. I really wanted to ask someone to take my picture. but who to ask? i hesitated....then! heard spanish!!! i asked the man behind me: puede tomar mi foto? it was incredibly satisfying to use my spanish in japan.

on that note i met a woman from Colombia last night. she was waiting for a bus to KYOTO in the same cafe as me. i thought how unfortunate that her bus was leaving an hour after mine. i was kind of hoping to meet a friend on my bus to KYOTO. i walked away wishing we could have spoken more in spanish. i had been wishing to meet someone who spoke spanish, a wish i thought was a little silly and impracticle but a wish all the same. i thought maybe we`ll run into each other tomorrow.....and sure enough we did! by chance in KYOTO station. wow! now that is karma or something. so we blundered around this morning in the station trying to figure out where to go so early in the morning. i took her email so we could connect late and we went our separate ways. she has a friend from studying in london who is from Kyoto, so i hope i:ll be able to get together with them. it would be nice to have a group to spend time with in the evenings when i am not too keen on venturing out on my own.

it was so funny that yesterday after the whole day alone i decided tomorrow i make a friend and then i did and the funny thing is while i really really hope we are able to meet up again, i also felt like i am not sure i want to sightsee together. it dawned on me when i was reading the Gutsy Woman travel guide (which i admit i am finally getting too, sorry girls, mostly because i lost eat, pray, love) she talks about how indulgent it is to solo travel because you get to make all the decisions. and i realized this is so nice. there is not pressure about it. you only have to worry about yourself. if you:re disapointed oh well. if you get on the bus oh well. if you decide to just wonder you can, hungry? stop and eat. i do like this and i am not to keen to give that up quite yet. esp with someone i don:t even know.

a few other highlights of the day:

• wandering up "flower road" in a local neighborhood
• having a security guard run after me when he sees i did not understand the universal symbol for do not enter (hands making a X) oops... and he caught me just as i layed my hand on the door
• making a print at a tiny little woodblock print museum/store
• restraunt where you use a machine to pay and order food by pressing the picture and getting tickets!!! yummy yummy udon, cheap and fast
• Kyoto Musuem for World Peace. the museum wasnt AMAZING but i loved their moto and just the fact that they have a museum for world peace. in chronicled japan:s 15 year war to the atomic bombings to the holocaust up to the gulf and iraq war. they even talking about poverty as social violence.
• somehow not being tired even tho i did not sleep enough last night
• my first visit to a public bath.... (this warrants its own post)

Day 1 Tokyo

Things that have made me smile so much I almost laughed out loud:

• Seeing the enourmous plane i took from Houston to Tokyo
• My Ritz sandwhich cracker packaging in Japanese (from the taste and photo on the box i can only guess that they are filled with mozarella and basil, yumm)
• Walking down the street this morning and saying to myself ¨You´re in Tokyo! You´re in Japan!¨

Now that I am here I would not trade this for many things. I woke up this morning a little worried about getting lonely. I do not like to know I will be alone all day BUT I got up, got ready, connected with family and friends on the internet for a moment and took to the streets. If you are looking for me in Tokyo I am the frumpy American traveller with a goofy grin breaking over her face.

K´s House where I stayed last night happens to be walking distane to maybe the most famouse temple in Tokyo--Senso'ji. I am awed by how quiet it is the on the streets as I walk there. Bikes line the sidewalk and really there is now traffic. Businessmen hop on bikes, carrying their briefcases in a front basket. Japan has definitely figured a few things out.

I finally find all the tourists when i near Senso'ji however post of them I pressume are Japanses. I like the way young people dress here---Ash do you remember wanting to wear shorts with tights underneath once? I am pretty sure I told you not too. Well thats quite the fashion here.

I watch Japanese tourists wave smoking insense on their bodies as they walk toward the temple. I get a fortune outside the gates---it is for bad luck but I am suppose to accept that and I like it all the same. Although I think it said something about this not being a time for trips, oh well! too late :)

I rest for a moment by a father and son. The little boy and I move out heads side to side in rythm and laugh! Japanese children are the cutest I have ever seen and it makes me wonder if many or any are in need of adoption...hmmmm...

I rest later near the National Gardens near the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo, waiting for a second wind. My whole body still aches from the long flight and all the walking I´ve done today. It was so lovely to sleep in a bed last night and i really do feel rested and adjusted today. I am really itching to talk to someone, ANYONE at this point, spending the whole day mute is going to drive me craaaaaazzzzzyyyyy!!! Tomorrow I think i will be ready to make friends.

Oh here´s a funny thing I keep doing. I keep mumbling si, si (in spanish) and other little phrases. my default when the language i know best (english) is not being spoken around me is to try spanish i guess----oops! so far i think my silence is made less rude by my unabashed smiling everytime i purchase something or interact with anyone. Japanese makes me smile. I also like giving and recieving the polite little bows.

I am a little jealous of the couples and groups of friends and families. It doesn´t make me feel sad or lonely BUT just wish i was sharing this experience with someone close to me as well. But i am happy to have this nice long experiment in solo travel.

Today I have eaten:

• MilkyMilk: Peach yogurt with what i can only guess were little blocks of lychee gel
• Ice coffee and green tea chocolate chip cookies
• tempura off the street!!! which made me very happy until i ate it. cold. very cold. next time i need to take this back and heat it.
• a fish shaped waffle with cream and apples in it. this place was very crowded so i figured i´d try it. very good about half way thru, then i´d had enough.
• coldish bukwheat noodles that i can´t say i disliked but didn´t really care to finish either.
• green tea frozen yogurt!!!! YUM YUM YUM!!!
• AND my BIGGEST accomplishment of the day a full meal (rice with meat, veggies, and sauce, salad, and tea) hand prepared in a little cafe with no english menu by the sweetest lady who kept bringing me little treats like  her homemade yogurt with blueberry puree on top. YUM! my first complete meal and veggies in japan. whew!

I think it is so funny that I am reading EAT PRAY LOVE and I am right in the middle of the EAT section. In Italy she is writing all about eating as pleasure and food as indulgence. In Japan (so far) eating is an adventure and i am seeking food as sustenance more than really wanting to indulge in it...

okay well i am heading off for my overnight bus to KYOTO. more later.