Kyoto Hello

Ok, so this is pay-to-play internet and I have 10m18s remaining, so this will be typo-ridden but I just have to say--bullet train = bliss! It has a pointy nose like a hornet, and giant windows from which you can see the countryside zooming by, and when you pass another bullet train going in the opposite direction, the combined speeds (200k/h + 200 k/h!!) makes it impossible to even discern the windows on the other train. And the ride is as smooth as silk and the weather was gleaming sun, so I just watched the ride fields and the tiered stacks of pink and grey houses and windy roads around ponds where all the cars looked the same for *two hours* and didn't even open my magazine once (and it was a good one--Exile Q).

And Kyoto, once we arrived, is also pretty impressive. Although we got lost lost lost (my fault) even that was sort of entertaining. When we were wandering around an appartment-complex parking lot (very very lost) a bemused security guard watched us walk by, and when we returned, he practically danced for the prospect of helping us. He walked us to a tiny path by the train tracks we never would have found, quite far in the heat, and left us with a map that he apparently kept around just for dumb lost westerners who strayed into his parking lot.

And then we went to the shrine of Fushimi Inari, of which I have many pictures (some with cats) which I will upload when it doesn't cost anything to do so!! But trust me, it was amazing. After the main big shrine, there are these long winding paths that go up up up in the hills, and they are covered with archway after archway, bright orange holy things called toris, hundreds and hundreds, making a hike enough for threeish hours (we did perhaps half, because I am lame).

Oh, and I finally found a pineapple bun, one of my favourite Chinese snacks that I had for some reason been craving lately. And a fun arcade (really a pachinko parlour, but who understands pachinko? I'll take Sega games any day). And and and...so much stuff!! Plus, I miss Canada. Well, parts of it. Well, you guys.

I am walking up the face of the mountain
RR