A Day in the Life of

I woke up this morning at 9:30 and got ready to go. I wore an undershirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, and a jacket with jeans and tennies. Breakfast was a ham and cheese sandwhich with orange juice. The orange juice, I should note, is only mine. I told them in the beginning that I like orange juice and they keep it constantly stocked for me. Awww. Otoosan (Dad) drove me to Kyoto Eki at 10:05. I hopped out and jumped on the train for Nara to meet my Hungarian friend for the day. They told me Nara is about 45 minutes to an hour away, but I made it in thirty by taking the super express change. I later learned that one costs about double the amount of money, but nobody told me and nobody came to collect it, so I was oblivious. I arrived at Yamato Saidiji Eki at 11:15, 15 minutes before I supposed to meet my friend. I took a little walk around the area to get a general feel for Nara and was back by thirty after. At noon, I was still sitting in the same chair, tapping my watch and looking expectantly for my friend. At 12:05, 35 minutes after I was supposed to meet Zsofie and 50 minutes after I arrived, I abandoned post and took a longer walk. I decided to find an internet cafe (which I've never seen before in Japan) where I might be able to email my friend as I didn't have her number on me. Of course I didn't find a cafe, but the real reason I took the walk, to beat the boredom and to see the town, was fulfilled and I returned to the station to wait at about 1:00. At 1:10, I decided it was a hopeless cause and bought the ticket to go home. THe following is kind of complicated so bear with me and pay attention to the details if you will. In a Japanese train station, there are the platforms where the trains come and go. And then there are usually stairs that leads to an exit of some kind. Go out the exit and you're in the part of the station where I was waiting for my friend. After you buy a ticket, you put it in the machine and the machine notes where you are at the start of your journey. At your destination, you put the ticket back into the machine and it notes how much money it costs from the start to the arrival point and whether or not you have enough money on the ticket. So I bought the ticket to go home, entered back into the station, and proceeded to find the right stairs for my train. And there was Zsofie, waiting not so patiently by the stairs. Usually people don't wait there because you have to have a ticket to get passed the machines and nobody wants to buy a ticket just to wait for a friend. So we stared dumb-foundedly at each other before embracing and heading out to start our day. Only, I had a rather expensive ticket to go home that I wasn't planning on using. I couldn't use it later either because the ticket had already marked the start of my trip and the next time I stuck it in a machine, it would be assumed as the end of my trip and thus deduct money from me. So I went to a station person and explained that I had a ticket I hadn't used and asked to get my money back for it. He gave it to me no problem. And then the problem occured. We went to leave the station, only to realize that I couldn't get passed the exit machines without a ticket showing my start point. We tried many things. We tried my all-purpose ticket that has a bunch of money on it that you can stick it anywhere, but because the start point hadn't been marked, it wouldn't let me through. We tried using Zsofie's monthly pass, where a flat rate is paid and it doesn't deduct money, but again, a start point hadn't been specified, so it wouldn't let me through. Finally, she had to send her ticket through the machine to indicate it as a start point, and then had me take it out and back through. Sorry, really complicated to explain, but hilarious.

Anyways, after a rather crazy morning, we started our day. First stop: lunch. Guess where we ate? KFC baby. It's so popular here! I hadn't eaten KFC in years and Zsofie has never eaten it, but we both wanted to, so we did, successfully and proudly reading the menu and ordering with ease. After lunch we headed towards a rather famous deer park, similar to Miyajima where the deer freely mingle with the people in hopes of food and some luvin'. We gave them both. At my request, we stopped at a museum on the way, which was the highlight of MY day, though I don't know if Zsofie enjoyed it so much. We went in, not even sure if it was a museum, but asked and got a lot of good info from the person up front. While we were talking, trying to decide if we should do it or not, the lady said in English "This museum houses some of the nation's most beautiful treasures, with artifacts dating back to thousands of years ago." I was sold. Things I especially liked about the lady was that she didn't switch to English until we asked her what a word was. And even then, she asked us if we spoke English. EVERYONE assumes we're Americans that speak English, which is one of my pet peeves (ironic seeing as I AM an American that speaks English...). I didn't have my student ID on my, but she gave me the half-off discount anyways. She acted like it was really an important thing to do to see the museum. And when she gave us brochures, she actually asked us if we wanted them in Japanese or English, which nobody has ever done before (most people just give us them in English, even if I'm with my Japanese family. In that case, they'll give everyone in my family a regular Japanese brochure and me an English one). She spoke to us in Japanese from a belief that we could understand. That feels good would people actually believe in you.

So we went in and looked at the pictures. I was immediately in love with the intricate and beautiful swirls, bold colors, and creative scenery. Zsofie said she missed Monet and that she didn't think Japanese art had much feeling in it. I agreed a little. We found a man sitting at a desk with a sign that said "Free English Guide. Ask Anything About This Museum!" At first we passed it up not thinking anything of it, but then it occured to me that we could actually utilize him, so we did. It completely enhanced our experience. He was obviously some kind of art expert and handled any questions I had with ease. I've never had such personal attention before at a museum. We also asked a few questions about some of the traditions we didn't understand and he explained them with ease. We both came out with a deeper respect for Japanese art. It was really cool having a real live expert at my disposal.

After our little detour, we continued the walk through the deer park, stopping to buy deer food and presents to bring back to Kyoto, as is customary when you go on a trip. I bought food famous in Nara. We entered a beautiful temple that was pretty overpriced and I saw the biggest statue of Buddha in the world. I'm not exaggerating. It was amazing. Our Abe Lincoln could fit in his hand. I bought a pin for my Rotary blazer and we paid 100 yen (about 87 cents) for a fortune from God. Mine was the absolute best I could get.

It reads: (General Explanation) It is a time for you to win honor. Do not be silly enough to shoot an arrow into air for nothing, or your honor will come down to earth. Try to be even more pious. (In case you are ill) See a good doctor, then you will recover completely. (A legal case) Things will come your way. (trade) Profitable. (Travel) It is recommendable that you take a travel. (A person whom you wait for) The prson will come soon. (A thing you have lost) It will be found soon. (Competition) You will win.

Zsofie's reads almost the exact opposite, for the record. Yeah, I know, I'm cool. After this we went for coffee at a cafe where her host sister works, than went shopping a little. As we were almost out of time, neither of us bought anything, though we had fun looking. And then, at 6:30, I hopped on the train back to Kyoto. I got on the really fast train again, and this time someone came to collect money from all the passengers. Eh, what?! You mean this costs more than just the ticket? "Yeah, stupid foreigner, this is the Expres." Eh, no money. Seriously, I was completely wiped out of money after the day's excursions. Buying the fairly expensive ticket home used the last bit of money I had on me. Poor guy. I sympathized with him as he had figure out what to do with stow-away. I was not nervous at all. I was not upset. I was only a tad sorry (why didn't they have it posted that it would cost more, for goodness gracious!) about ripping off the train line. But mostly, I was fascinated. What can he possibly do now? Will he kick me off? After some consideration and a consultation with the people on the other end of his radio, he made me follow him. As we neared the doors of the train, I was sure for one nasty second that he was going to kick me out of the train and I'd be stranded in the middle of the tracks in between two very far towns and in such a mess of railroads that I'd probably die in a second if the jump from the speeding train didn't kill me first. Fortunately, we passed the doors without such an incident happening. Instead, he took me to the "first floor" of the train, where there was a little cubby of like 5 or 6 seats. Actually, I almost sat there in the first place when I saw it because I thought it looked cute and homey. I guess I should have. Either way, I spent the remainder of the ride in the Seats of Shame, wondering if they'd make me wash windows or something to pay my fare. They didn't. In fact, I didn't even get off at the next stop and change to the train I was supposed to be on. I stayed on for the whole short ride.

Otoosan came and picked me up from Mukomachi Eki, a station about two stops from the big Kyoto Station. I had dinner of sushi, rice, miso soup (tofu, seaweed, and miso), salad, an over medium egg, and two fairly big grape tomatos along with juice. I ate with Okaasan (Mom), then went upstairs to my room and rested for about an hour. At 9:50 or so, I took my shower/bath and now, at 11:52, I'm wondering how I'll possibly be able to get up in time for school tomorrow.

And there's a sample of my life, complete with miscommunications, deer-petting, temples, English guides, train errors, sushi, and the conclusive ohudo, or bath.