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April 17

Walk in Gion / Back to Tokyo

The next morning Jen and I had planned to do some semi-real site-seeing, but the gods had other plans. It was pouring rain. So, instead we went on a little walk in the area, armed with our umbrellas.

We found a nice path that went beside a small river. It was also the path to a high school, apparently, since we were surrounded by Japanese high school students on the way. After stopping under the eve of a temple gate to temporarily escape the rain, we walked back to the Youth Hostel, got our luggage, and headed to Kyoto Station to catch a train back to Tokyo.

To pass the time we hung out at "The Cube", Kyoto's huge mall right outside the main train station. At The Cube, we ate at a Japanese chain called "Wako Tonkatsu". It is a pretty high end tonkatsu (pork cutlet) place. We also hit the Kyoto Municipal Post Office, which has probably the greatest selection of stamps I've seen in any Japanese post office.

We didn't have the key to Kyoko's dorm when we arrived back in Tokyo. We were wiiped out from riding trains, so instead of going to her school to pick up the keys, we decided to just wait for her in Shimbashi.

Since the VERITAS office, where I used to work, is only about a 10 minute walk from the station, we went there. It was already past 6:00pm, so not to many people were at the office. My friends who were there were going through some kind of problem with one of the training labs, so were pretty concentrated on their work. Since the office is located in the buildings surrounding "Hibiya City", a small underground mall of mostly restaurants, Jen and I decided to eat at an Italian place that I know has pretty yummy food.

We later walked through Hibiya Park, just next door, and then through Ginza, Tokyo's high-class, high-price shopping district. After meeting Kyoko at Shimbashi, we headed home for a nice sleep in anticipation of the next day's fun.