I’m back from Kyoto! It was so neat I have a total of two pictures to show you! Only because I realized just after arriving that my battery charger was two hours away in Chiba, gah! My day started early at 4:30, this is becoming a pattern. We caught the shinkansen at 7. (spell check wants to turn shinkansen into slinkiness!) I didn’t get a picture of the newer one, the ‘series 700’. All of the shinkansen were covered in big blue words ‘ambitous Japan’, it was cute. It was like taking off on a plane for a really long time except you wake up and think ‘whoo! I’ve got leg space and edible food!’ We checked into our hotel when we arrived and for the first time in 5 months I stepped on, get this, carpet WHILE wearing my shoes!! It was so weird! Other than that it was a normal western style hotel that provided yukatas to sleep in. Our day started right away by going to the kinkakuji, Golden Temple. I think it would be impossible to get lost in Kyoto, everyone kind of blobs in the same directions. Besides, if there are gaijin around, you know you’re near something old or a Starbucks. Anyway, kinkakuji was a pretty neat temple. The original that was built ages ago burned down in 1950 and then they rebuilt it 5 years later. They didn’t actually add the gold until 1987. They also have a ginkakuji, Silver Temple, but it’s kind of sad compared to the Gold one, go figure. The day continued with lot’s more old things and the increasing need for a cane. I still had blisters from the shrine festival. Kyoto is a really pretty place in the summer, everything is really green. But one thing that also comes with summer in Japan are the cicadas! There were places in Kyoto where they had made paths into mini bug graveyards. You’d see a wing here and a head there, very attractive. When the sun finally set we walked over to a river side from where we could see the daimonji. It translates to something like ‘big character’, as in the Chinese kanji characters, not cartoon. Once a year in the summer on five mountains in Kyoto they set fires in the shape of kanji characters. There were people everywhere along the bank. Since it was dark you could see all their cell phones lit up. We crossed the river to a piece of land in the middle. The stepping stones were large and made for crossing, but apparently not for seven year olds and their grandmas. There were at least two wet people watching that night. We ended up sitting next to a group of people from Spain who were talking about going ‘see sighting’, they were practicing their English. On the way back to the hotel I saw this western store from the bus and there was an old Denver Broncos football helmet hanging from one of the clothing racks, random! Well, I’ve once again convinced my host sister that I’m writing my life’s story down and I've put off my hot springs story. What hot springs?? I never went ;P