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Hello boys and girls, chris here. Hope your all well. So weve been in Kyoto now for 10 days and all settled in. Its an amazing city, and when people say theres temmples and shrines eveywhere, they mean everywhere. Walking down the street its sushi restaurant, starbucks, noddle bar, shrine, mcdonalds, temple, etc etc. Were staying in a cool part of town called Demachiyanagi, by the river, and its full of funky bars and restuarants. We got our own apartment now too, with our own kitchen and bathroom and everything. Its nice to have our own space for a while, (although we both secretly miss the noise and mayehm of sakura house in tokyo).
So what have we done so far? Lots. After a few days of wondering around, we made the best buy of out trip so far.......bicyles! Kyoto is kinda like amsterdam in that eveyone cycles eveywhere, so we managed to pick some up for £20 each. bargain. we both got baskets too, but i only got one gear. made our money back on buses in 4 days and getting fit too. The strange thing about it though is that your treated like a pedestrian, but on wheels. So always cycle on the pavement, no matter how many other bikes and pedestrains there are. And park anywhere you want, even though its illegal. i dont get it.
Ofcourse we done temples and shrines too. There some really nice ones here, and Jun came over from Kobe for the day and showed us some of his favorites. (see the pics). They really are a spectacular sight and each one has its own distinct character. That day turned into a drinking session in a british pub we found, which was awesome to finally get a proper pint (£7 each ...eeek). Another shrine had a flea market on when we went, so got to look at lots of japanese junk, eat some japanese fast food and even got to see taiko drummers for the first time. amazing!
We both finally got some work too! Teaching english. well holly got a ton more than me cus shes a girl (sexist, but then its japan) We both done a bit of work for an english cafe, where we basically get paid for sitting down, drinking tea, and talking english. Thats it. easy money, well it pays for a few meals out.
Well the hightlight so far in kyoto for me has been going SNOWBOARDING! We finally got to go, after much failed attempts. Its not an easy thing to sort out in japan, because all the resorts are in the mountains, miles from any town, and theres no info in english on how to get there/how much it is/if theres hire stuff/ etc etc. But today we got up at 6am and got on the train and headed to a place, called Shiga, thats pretty close to kyoto to see what we could find.
*First id like to thank all freinds that gave us money for our trip and told us to spend it on something fun, cause this was it! THANKS!!! *
......When we got there, luckily we bumped into a girl in the train station carrying a snowboard, and she showed us which bus to get upto the small resort nearby. It turned out to be exactly what we waanted. the slopes were pretty mellow, and we got to hire some boards and even managed to get a private lesson, in english! couldnt believe our luck. It was really sunny too, and by the end of the day we were both zooming down the slope for at least 5 seconds before falling over. hah. fun.
So yeah thats so far for us. Been a busy ten days, and alot of fun. Dont forget to check the pics and vids ill start updating that soon too.
bye bye
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