Kyoto-first day

Who rang me at 5.18 this morning???? huh? Huh??????? Out with it!

lol...well it's ok because I had to get up 12 minutes afterwards....because we were going on our big trip to kyoto. Fun times cycling with 2 bags. It was freezing as well. The train journey went ok, apart from Ant being a monkey and losing his shinkansen ticket somehow...so we missed that train and had to get him another ticket....apart from that though all was good! We finally found the hostel after several failed attempts of finding the right alley way. Met a nice english dude who was also a little lost and got chatting. The hostel was really nice, and we went straight off to explore. We walked up to the Emperors palace...which you couldn't get in to without some kind of pre-application. We the walked along the river down in to the Gion district which is where the Geishas supposidly live. It's a beautiful little corner. the streets are narrow lined with wooden houses that look dark inside. But it really felt like olf Japan. Kyoto is an awesome place for shopping. The amount of times we made a detour in to a cute little shop...I am glad Ant has the patience of a saint, and a slight female thinking process to be able to cope with me...I don't know what Japan is doing to me..but I enjoy shopping now!...sooo bad.

There are a heck of a lot of foreigners here too..which is odd...and makes it feel less like Japan. I felt very embarressed to be associated with them today though. When I was in this cute sock shop a family of americans came in. While I was paying for my cute socks one of the boys went up to the cashier and kept on tapping her on the shoulder with his empty plastic pot saying "Trash? Trash? Trash?". The cashier was a little confused....and took the pot off him which he was shoving under her nose...she turned around and he went on "NO can you put it in the trash for me? Thanks", then his brother came over and while she confusedly (I know that's not a word..shut up), put it in the bin, he was saying "yeah can you take this too please, and put it in the trash". I was a little shocked...and mesmerized by the pure ignorance, rudeness...and argghhhhhhh . My first impulse was to grab him and shout "what the HELL are you doing?", my second was to go over and say "for future reference; you could try " Gomi daijoubu desu ka? Sumimasen"...." or something like that. Ghosh....it baffles me...how...terribly ignorant one can be...in such a rude way...I am not suggesting they learn japanese before they come out...but at least be humble...and try and learn one or two words....

anyway...small rant finished.
Obviously they weren't all like that. So it was ok. It's weird...it kind of feels like summer when we went to spain and travelling..what with being in a hostel and all that jazz...But I feel more at home...my territory...cause I live in the country...oddness.
well I shall stop babbling now!