.....so many things, in fact, that it's going to be a nightmare to get it all home. I am already sending much of it home in crates. One thing I aqcuired today that does not require a great deal of space is my new Japanese name. As given to me by my boss and two of my students. ^_____^
They were trying to think of English names to adopt, (Hinako-chan wanted to be Alice, and Manami-chan cunningly adopted the name Katy ^____^) and so the conversation progressed to what my Japanese name should be.
Apparently my Japanese name is Aya.
^______^
I was quite pleased with that. That is I was until D reminded me of Natsume Aya and not lovely lovely _other_ Aya...
In other acquisitions news, I have a figure of Felicia from Darkstalkers. GLEE! ^__________________^
I go away for three days and get blogspammed in epic quantities. >.<
Anyway, I am back from my adventure with Moo in Kyoto. It was lovely, apart from Kyoto was filled with (wuck and would you believe it! ^_-) tourists and it rained all day on Saturday.
Looking at the digital camera, I've apparently taken nearly 400 photos, so they might need a little bit of cutting down before I post them online. @_@ But I do have to because Moo wants to show them to all her friends.
Urmmm, brief summary of the highlights, which I'm sure will be familiar to them wot have been to Kyoto already. Saturday was Kinkakuji, Nijo Castle, the Imperial Palace Gardens and Gion. Nijo Castle won that one hands down, first and foremost because of the "nightingale floors" ^______^ They do actually make the best noise ever.
On Sunday we had an excursion to Nara and Byoudoin. In the opposite order, actually. Byoudoin I only wanted to visit because a) it's on the back of the 10,000 yen note b) I bought Moo a jigsaw puzzle of it for her birthday. That said, it was quite lovely and it was a nice walk through Uji to get to it, too.
Then Nara. Which deserves a paragraph all to itself because it just kicked so. much. arse. First and foremost for Toudaiji Temple. I'm not a Buddhist (no prizes for that one ^___^), but I admit it's always been one religion (belief system if you will, yes, D :p) I've found quite interesting. And visiting Toudaiji was absolutely amazing. I sincerely recommend anyone who's going to Kyoto to leave out one of their days to go to Nara, you just can't fail to be impressed by Toudaiji. If you skipped over the Wiki link and you haven't been already, Toudaiji temple has the biggest wooden structure in the world, wherein is housed one of the biggest staties of Buddha in the world. And they are big. Extraordinarily so. ^_______^ So go to Nara why don't you? Did I mention they have squillions of exceptionally tame deer in the temple grounds that you can play with and feed? ^_______^ If that doesn't make you want to go, I don't know what will!
And today we spent the morning in Kyoto watching the Aoi Matsuri which just happened to coincide with our visit. ^____^ Many many people wearing beautiful costumes...and one very unfortunate rider whose horse decided he was going to relieve himself quite spectacularly in front of where we were standing. Even the po-faced officials couldn't help but grin at the great big steaming pool of horse wee right in the middle of the processional way, and the manner in which everyone had to very carefully creep round it. ^________^
And now for the miscellania. Going on the Shinkansen was fun! It really does go quite fast. ^____^ I was hypnotised by the speed at which everything went past. This is sightseeing at the kind of pace I like! ^______^ Also they give you fabulous amounts of legroom. Which I will demonstrate in one of my pictures, if I feel brave enough to show my revolting face online again. Moo did insist on taking photos of all the trains we saw like a complete geek though. @_@;;
The ryokan we stayed in was pretty good for the amount we payed too. The accomodation itself was lovely. We had a properly furnished tatami room and huuuuge great big fluffy quilts. Which I later discovered were made of feathers. @_@ But never mind. ^___^;; The facilities were a little bit scant but we could make do for three days. One shower room between the whole place wasn't quite perfect, and neither were the loos but there was plenty to make up for that. Like the people who ran the place. There may have been more of the family there, but the people we met were a lady and her grandmother. Neither of them spoke English, but we did manage to chat a fair amount in Japanese, which pleased me hugely. ^____^ Honestly, getting thrown in as the guide for our visit to Kyoto did so much for my confidence speaking in Japanese. I would never have thought I could have and understand conversations with other people, but they seemed to understand me, and I seemed to understand them. ^_^;; So that was a nice one for the self-confidence.
Which was much the same as what Moo thought when the ryokan owner asked me if she actually was my mother because she looked far too young. ^____^ I believe her exact words were "Uooah! Young mama!" ^____^
Anyway, when I get round to it, I'll post the pictures of Kyoto, Nara, Nagasaki and Moo's adventures at school. Wherein all of my students did much the same as the ryokan owner when asked who they thought Moo was. "Katy-sensei no onee-chan desu ka?" *headdesk*
Oh how much do I love it when you do things I actually want you to, Squenix? ^__^ I may have to write to the government to propose an extra day in Golden Week, provisionally called Tetsuya Nomura day. ^______^
Must blog about what happened when small children met my mother, but not right now because I have to take said mother sightseeing. ^__^
Moo arrives in less than 24 hours! ARGH! >_<
Don't get me wrong, I love Moo absolutely dearly but I am terrified at the idea of having her as our guest for a fortnight. o_0 Needless to say, our house isn't *exactly* run like the sophisticated establishment it should be (but hey, we had chicken in white wine sauce tonight, thanks to my "cooking with wine" week :p) and it's not as organised as back home. Hence the fear.
I'm sure she wouldn't *say* anything about it, I just want it to be right. >_< Except I am so going to forget not to swear. >_< Which she will mention. And I have no idea what effect the whole situation at home will have, either. o_0
Anyway, IT'LL BE FUN. I want that written down on a piece of paper so that I can hide under the table Black Books-style in Son House and remind myself that I thought it would be.
Anyway again, it's Golden Week. Which means we have had a lovely week of sunshine and Days Off. This is what's awesome about Japan, you actually get nice weather on public holidays. And in true productive fashion, we have been Doing Stuff. Alright so that stuff was nearly exclusively watching ER, but hey. ^_____^ Dang it the early seasons of ER were so much better. And doubly so when you're watching them because you want to and not because they're the only thing Channel 4 has deemed worthy of showing for the next seven hours. @_@
And no adverts. I love dvds.
But we did go and buy lots of furniture on Monday, which was amusing. Mainly because we thought we would be able to fit two chairs, a table, an enormous roll of bubble wrap and a camp bed into our tiny rental car. Which we did, thanks to the nice man at GooDay (*actual name of a DIY store in Japan, I kid you not, and no I didn't miss one of the Ds @_@) who removed the legs from the table. The table that we hadn't even bought in the store. ^____^ I love how patient and excruciatingly helpful people are in this country, especially when faced with the horrors of two possibly braindead gaijin. ^_____^
And now I will continue worrying about how much mess the house contains and whether Moo will faint when she sees the amount of stuff I have amassed. That's the one that really bugs me. You just know it's going to be "Katy, how are you going to get all this home?" @_@
Sorry about that. The dog ate my bandwidth. @_@
For the moment you can have a "hello I am alive" post, because SOMEONE who will remain nameless has got me ADDICTED TO MAPLE STORY.
I have a catgirl outfit. It cost me real money. I feel the shame.