Kinkiness

The JET Recontracting conference was scheduled for Wednesday, May 24th through Friday, May 26th in Kobe, so I took Monday and Tuesday off and treated myself to a (very expensive, as it turns out) 9 day vacation that took me to Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Ise. Japan is a pretty expensive place to travel, and I didn't exactly skimp. Well, I did on hotels and food but I didn't on drinks and car-related expenses (gas, SUPER EXPENSIVE tolls, etc). I logged about 1600 km in my car over the 9 days.

Before I go any further, let me add for those of you that were wondering that Kinki refers to the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe-Nara region of Japan. It's the Japanese name. I didn't pick it. I do find it really funny, though.

I arrived in Kyoto late-ish on Saturday night after a 6 hour drive and spent the evening wandering around (barhopping would be more accurate, I suppose...). No pictures, sorry! The next 2 days were spent sightseeing in-and-around Kyoto. Tuesday I took a date to the Aquarium in Osaka (supposedly the best in Japan... It was pretty cool, I guess. the whale shark was a definite first).

Wednesday I drove myself to Kobe where I spent the next 2.5 days at a conference and the nights out on the town with some new friends. I met Sachinee (Sachinee = Sachi-neesan = Sachi (her name) + Older Sister) for lunch in Chinatown on Friday after the conference finished, which was nice. We wandered around a little bit and spent most of the afternoon sipping coffee and chatting at a Jazz cafe downtown.

Late Friday afternoon I took off again, this time for Nara. I got there pretty late (8ish?) and scrambled to find a hotel. I found one, but it had an 11 o'clock curfew so I ate a very quick dinner at Mos Burger (a not-so-tasty burger king ripoff... this was my first time eating at a japanese fast food place) and had a drink at a bar I was dragged to by a few girls whom I met at Mos Burger. The next day I wandered around with Ai Ling, Kelsey, and Lynn from Hawaii and we saw about 4 million temples, give or take a few million. Lots of deer, too. That evening I had a date with one of the girls from Mos Burger which was nice. She knew a cool spot on a mountain with great night views of the Osaka city lights. Very pretty.

Sunday morning around 6 (after a not-so-restful night in the car) I drove a couple hours to the Shinto mega-shrine at Ise. The drive was extremely pretty and passed too quickly. I was also wiped from my 3 hours of sleep, but still. I got to Ise at 7am, which was really lucky because it was raining and I shared the shrine with maybe 3 people. Rain makes everything pretty. Most of the time I was alone. when I drove by the shrine at around 10 on my way out, the place was crawling with tours and their guides were shouting through megaphones. Not pretty. In the morning it was gorgeous, though.

The drive back was long and uneventful. I was really, really tired since I averaged about 4.5 hours of sleep a night. I got back at 4:30, ate dinner, and slept from 7pm to 7am the next day.

I can't wait to do something like this again. This was the first time I've ever traveled solo - I've always been with family or friends. Traveling solo means seeing what I want, when I want, how I want, can stay up as late as I want, wake up when I want, talk with who I want, etc. Downsides include the fact that I have no money. ;) Still, it was a great experience. I met a zillion new people (16-or-so of whom are new numbers/emails in my cell phone) and saw some really great places. Enjoy the ~150 pictures.