nihon turipu apr 15: kyoto cute cute

i'd been waiting for this day! kyoto! being the old capital of japan, it holds many attractions: UNESCO world heritage sites, castles, temples, shrines, the geisha district, the loveliest sakuras during spring, the flame-coloured leaves of trees during autumn, and handsome guys! :D the latter i discovered when i got there!

in fact, when my trip was coming to an end, i told my friends, in retrospect, that kyoto had the most number of handsome guys! osaka and tokyo came in close second and third, respectively! :p it was probably because kyoto was smaller and the guys were concentrated in the central district where tourists went around, where i roamed around. plus there are two big universities there. so there were handsome students. and handsome tourists. but i was a beautiful tourist, mind you! :p

i will only relate two handsome experiences. hehehe. they were those that lasted in my memory. the first was when kay and i boarded a bus going to kinkakuji temple. the bus was packed; but at the back was a student sitting on one seat while his bag was also sitting on the seat beside him. he was actually not friendly at all! people were standing yet he didn't offer the seat where his bag was placed to anyone. he didn't budge even if people were looking at him, even if kay and i were talking beside him about him! well, we were talking in the vernacular so he never understood our backstabbing! hehehe. but he was handsome as hell, and heaven too! hahaha. good thing kay was sitting. i was standing but i didn't allow my bitchy side to ask him if his bag paid for the seat. i was cool because i wanted to stay standing so i could talk with kay. but my bitchy side had to surface. when a lady boarded the bus and had no railing to hold on to, i finally asked the handsome-yet-inconsiderate japanese student to stuff himself into his bag! hehehe. no, i simply asked him if he could give the seat to the lady. he threw his bag to the floor without looking up at me then vacated his seat for the lady. right then and there, he fell in love with me. that i'm very sure of. i knew when kay and i got off the bus, he was thinking of me. he would be thinking of me for the entire day, seething with anger at the humiliation i caused him. then at night i'm sure he dreamt of me. i'm sure he'd remember me for eternity! weeeee!!! :D

the next handsome experience was when kay, idel, and i had our dinner in a traditional ramen stall. i was super duper tired so when we sat on the stools at the stall, i sighed the deepest sigh of relief of my life! then the ramen guy, in all his colorful slow-motion handsomeness, exclaimed with glittering eyes that spelt love and tender loving care "tsukaretta?". what else did the awestruck emman say but "hai. aruite forever" hahahaha. ramen guy just smiled while idel and kay broke into a boisterous laughter. aruite forever! :p i didn't know the japanese of forever ne! pardon me ne! at least after that, ramen guy kept stealing glances at me! oh diva? :p

here's the ramen that ramen guy gave me. oh ramen guy, you were so delicious, este ramen pala! :p


below is a UNESCO world heritage, the ginkakuji temple or silver pavilion. it wasn't as appealing as i thought it would be, actually.

and below the kinkakuji temple or gold pavilion, another UNESCO world heritage. this one blew kay and i away.

the sakuras were indeed lovely in kyoto. i loved this one. the flowers hung like pearls from above. they dangled like earrings made of pink tears from heaven. wow! enough puwetic, este, poetic already!


we just had to pass by gion. i watched and read memoirs of a geisha and i just had to be at gion! we were only able to spot a geisha from afar but we were too tired to keep our lookout or even run after one should we have spotted one. i heard they'd scurry away if foreigners tried to take pictures of them. so there was no use. i contented myself being at the street and looking at the traditional geisha tea houses.

ahhhh. but i had to have some proof that i was really in gion! this was what i first took! hahaha. the japanese passersby were laughing at me! they must have thought who would want to have a souvenir shot of a pachinko center (slot machines game center)??? well, i had to have proof you know that i was really there! :p

ahhh... we were dead tired by the time we got back to osaka. kay suffered from muscle pains the next day. but we loved our tour! the guys were cute. hehehe. what we ate tasted cute. what we saw were cute. kyoto was a cute place! hehehe.

but there was one thing i wasn't able to do there which i planned on doing: becoming a maiko or apprentice geisha for a few hours. i was willing to pay up to 6,500 yen. aside from not knowing which shop to go to, we didn't have much time. well, this would be one reason why i should go back!

ahhhh, the handsome guys will go gaga over me when i become a maiko. how much should i charge for my mizuage? probably, i'll beat sayuri! read or watch the memoirs of the geisha folks! you'll want to go to kyoto after that :)