So, after an absurdly busy first few days (featuring what could be the greatest highs and lows of my life to date), we took our time in Kyoto to relax more than anything else. We left our hostel after getting some sleep to recover from the AJIKAN show the night before and took the next available shinkansen to Kyoto Station, where we transferred to a local line and got off in the Uzumasa area, where our next hostel would be. Having been told by Haru, the very kind gentleman who ran the guest house, that everything to see in Kyoto was pretty much closed after 17:00, we decided to take advantage of our time to not take advantage of our time. That is, we utilized the quiet neighborhood in which we were staying to just enjoy a nice, relaxing night, which we haven’t quite had since this trip started.

We also finally got to try real ramen! I ordered a standard “mini” since I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it, and Talone wanted me to ask the kind behind the bar which ramen had a lot of meat, and I was able to phrase his request in such a way that when our bowls were brought out, his bowl essentially looked like a pie; there was so much meat on top of the broth. His was nothing like what we get in our bricks back home, but mine wasn’t too far off, since I asked for the light broth and a very standard kind. I can see what our instant ramen is based on, but it doesn’t honestly come close to the real deal.

The next morning, we got up nice and early to go visit Nara, which we swore we would do after passing through it on the way to Yagyu, and it was an excellent choice. We met some really nice women on the train over, one from London, and the other an older Jewish woman from NYC. Imagine that! After chatting with them on the train, we went our separate ways and walked around the area, taking in a few temples and shrines before really settling into the heart of Nara Koen, the big park in the city. Think Central Park with thousands of deer just hanging out. You could even buy these deer biscuits (a type of senbei, rice crackers baked with soy sauce) and chill around and feed the deer. It was a really laid-back day.

Anecdote:
So, it turns out that the area around Nara Koen is a major tourist trap, with lots of souvenir shops and some really neat places to check out. While browsing through one of the shops, I was shown a deck of famous samurai playing cards, with each one featuring a famous samurai or battle. While shuffling through the deck (and leaving the kindly old woman running the shop seriously impressed with my knowledge of Japanese history), I stopped on the card of Yagyu Jubei. In the upper corner of the picture was the nigasa which, for those of you who don’t know or have forgotten, is the two-hats crest of the Yagyu family. So, we stopped on the card of Jubei and the woman’s eyes got real wide when she realized that I wore the same crest on my necklace. When I explained who I was and where I was from, her only reply was “wow, that’s pretty scary.” So, for my fellow Yagyu-shi, rest assured that we can successfully impress little old ladies in souvenir shops in Nara. Well done.

After chilling in the park and seeing some of the sights for a little while, we made our way back to the train station so that we could see a bit more of Kyoto, since I was stupid and didn’t really allot much time in the city. We got back and walked in the area around Nijo castle, but we couldn’t go in since it was already closed to the public. No matter. We made our way back to the hostel and enjoyed our second really relaxing night.

So ended our short, but very relaxing time in Kyoto! To anyone planning a trip to Japan like this one, definitely allot more time for this city; there was so much we wanted to see and never actually got the chance. We do not regret anything we did get to do however, only those which we did not do. Now it’s back to Tokyo and the insanity that may follow. Tomorrow morning we’ll be checking out a bit more of Kyoto than we got to orignially before hopping on our shinkansen back to Tokyo. That’s all for now folks, but you’ll be hearing from me soon!