Kyoto: day one

After my parents left I headed to Kyoto for a few days. I took the shinkansen and it was shockingly fast (only about 2.5 hours). I met Bren and Chris at the train station and we headed to our hostel to drop a few things off. We stayed at Kyoto's Cheapest Inn which was fairly nice and pretty cheap. Although I basically slept in a hallway for 4 nights. Really makes you appreciate privacy. After that we headed to Gion for the night. We checked out things around there, saw a Maiko (geisha in training) and had a bite to eat. After that we were walking home and looking in shops when we came across a place that said 'Live Music' on the door. Chris peaked her head in the door and saw a bunch of Japanese men wearing cowboy hats and holding banjos and fiddles. They called us in and told us it was country western/ bluegrass night. It was quite possibly one of the most bizarre experiences I have had in Japan. They played really well! There was a man there called 'Tom' who just fell in love with Bren. He was saying something along the lines of that he manufactures lingere and he was going to send us some. His friend told us that Bren has 'made his life'. They had us up on stage singing with them (even though we didn't know any of the songs). I had to sing 'Down by the Ohio'. Really great night.

I am going to quit now because I can hear them talking about me and the computer so I will write more next time.