Deer dance

I apologize for the delay, however, I have been in the middle of midterms with no time to do much of anything. I will continue with where I left off on the best trip ever.

Saturday Lucas and I ventured to Nara, a city outside of Kyoto. There is a huge park that is literally full of deer. It was basically one of the coolest things ever. The deer have free range and are able to do whatever they please. I purchased some deer cracker things so I was able to feed them. Not only was I able to feed deer, but I also was able to pet them and hug them and lay with them. It was so incredible. They are such beautiful creatures....well, except for the one deer that bit me on my stomach as I was feeding it. We also went to visit one of the world's largest enclosed Buddhas, housed in the world's largest wooden building. Talk about breathtaking. It was spectacular. After wandering around the Buddha and the park, we grabbed some lunch at a cute piano themed cafe and headed back to Kyoto.

Unfortunately our Nara expedition took longer than expected so once we returned to Kyoto, the rest of the temples we were planning on visiting were closed. Instead we ate dinner at an awesome restaurant called "The Lock Up." It was another themed restaurant, this time, themed as a prison. We had to walk through a haunted hallway to get there, then our table was inside of a jail cell. The staff all wore costumes like prison stripes, police officers, and other things of that nature. The drinks were great - Lucas got a drink that he had to mix by using a syringe. I got a drink that I had to mix by using different test tubes. So creative and great.

After dinner we wandered around Gion on a mission to find Geisha. It took us a while and we ventured down many shady alleyways, but alas, we found 2 geisha. I told myself that I wouldn't believe that they actually existed until I saw one with my own eyes. Luckily I did. We spent the rest of the night fairly low key - sitting by the river and talking for hours. It was quite nice.

Sunday we checked out of the hostel and boarded the train for Osaka. Once we arrived we put our bags in a storage locker at the station and started to wander. We weren't really sure where we were in relation to everything else and, although we had quite a few hours, didn't want to stray too far. So we ended up aimlessly walking around Osaka and finding some of the shadier areas. We sat in a bookstore for a while. We went to a shopping mall called Hep 5 that had giant whales hanging from the ceiling. I still don't know what they were for. Finally around 7:30 we met up with Chisa.

Chisa led us to her uncle's car, where I then got in to a car for the first time since the taxi ride from the airport on my very first day. He drove us around to various "hot spots" in Osaka. We just made very brief stops to take a few pictures. By this point it was getting late so we went back to his apartment just outside of the main part of Osaka. It was absolutely gorgeous. He lived on the 15th floor and had an amazing view of the city. We quickly went down the to Onseen that was in the complex. It was so relaxing after walking around for miles and miles and miles and days and days. After the Onseen, Chisa, her uncle, his girlfriend, Lucas and I, all went to dinner at the really nice shopping complex across the street. I tried some bizarre foods, as usual. Chisa's uncle was absolutely hysterical. He didn't speak any English, which made communicating quite fun. I tried, of course, to practice my Japanese, but I realized I still don't know very much. Following dinner, Lucas, Chisa and I stayed up talking for quite a while.

Monday was another very long day. Chisa took us to breakfast, which was extremely nice. We then boarded a train to Himeji, about an hour outside of Osaka. It took us a while to find the bus we were supposed to get on once we arrived, but finally we found it. It drove us passed Himeji Castle, which was beautiful, but we didn't go there. We went to the Himeji Museum of Art to see a Surrealism exhibit that Lucas found out about. I am not a huge fan of surrealist art, but this exhibit was actually really good. They had Dali, Man Ray, and a lot of other artists whose names are slipping my mind at the moment. It was a lot of fun.

Following the museum, we headed back to Osaka and went to Dotonburry Street which is the most famous street in Osaka. We had briefly visited it the night before, but this time we were able to spend a little more time there. Our first, and most important stop, was to the photo booth places. This one was extremely awesome because we were able to dress up in costumes. Unfortunately they wouldn't let Lucas dress up since he is a guy, but Chisa wore a flight attendant costume and I wore a doctor's outfit. The pictures are amazing. After the pictures I tried takoyaki, meaning octopus balls. I knew I wouldn't like it, and I was right, however, I was still determined to try it. We went back to the apartment, said by to her uncle, and headed back to the area around Osaka station. We went back to Hep 5 because they have a gigantic ferris wheel that over looks the entire city. It was a spectacular way to end our trip. It was then the long 8 hour drive back to Tokyo. The bus was ridiculously uncomfortable, but by this point, Lucas and I were so exhausted that we passed out and slept for the majority of the time.

All in all, this was one of the best trips I've ever been on in my life. I planned the entire thing and everything was smooth sailing. We met some cool people, had some great adventures, saw some awesome things, and became even better friends. I took over 550 pictures that I'm sure everyone will see when I return.

Since the trip, things have calmed down a bit. As I said before, last week and this week have been midterms and papers and stress. I was able to go to all night karaoke, though, finally. I went with Lucas, Jon, Yurie, Kyle, and then a bunch of other random people. Nothing like singing karaoke until 5:00 in the morning. Nothing much else has been happening. We've celebrated some birthdays in the dorm and I went to a festival a few towns over.

I miss everyone back home though. Less than 2 months until my return. I really don't want to leave.