Kyoto

Well, after a slightly bumpy ride out of IAD, we finally made it to Japan. We overnight in Tokyo after a quick dinner of kuri raisu. The next day we took the shinkansen to Kyoto. Since check-in was only at around 4PM, we checked out one of the large temples nearby.

The next day we decided to hit the World Expo in Aichi. After taking two trains and enduring some VERY long line-ups (pictures to come), we managed to finally enter the Expo grounds sometime a little after 10AM. We hung around there until about 5PM and barely made a dent on the grounds (I think we only covered one of the Global Commons), so that wasn't even 1/4 of the place! Good thing we bought enough tickets for 4 days!

Anyway, today we took a break and went over to the Gion. We got tickets for the Miyako Odori spring dance. We also got lucky and encountered a few Maikos in the street. Dave politely asked two to pose for a picture and they obliged. :-) The dance we went to was very nice and entertaining. Unfortunately, the battery for Dave's camera died. We figured that we might try to catch the dance again and take more pictures. The tickets we got were only 1900 yen (second class seats, but not that bad really). Afterwards, we started to walk back. We thought we could try to find a camera store where we can get Dave an extra battery. After wandering around the Teramichi-dori shopping area, we decided to head back. Unfortunately, we headed in the wrong direction! We realized this when we came to a rather large and busy intersection and Dave noticed Nijo Castle! Whoah! We were really of course! So we decided to just take the subway back. :-)

Tonight we do some laundry. Tomorrow, we hope to head back to the Expo site. Just tried to see if their reservation system was up, but it was down. So we can't reserve placed to enter some of the pavilions. I guess we have no choice but to take our chances tomorrow. The weather this weekend is also iffy on Sunday. I think we can still go to the Toji Shrine flea market sunday, but if they're closed, then I am going back to bed! ;-)

Later!