Hey folks,

Yesterday morning saw torrential rainfall, but luckily by the time I was up and dressed, it was only overcast. Miyuki (host for my entire visit) had to go to university, so I went with her. We walked (because there was no way I was going to run behind while she cycled) and it took about half an hour. When we walked over the Kamogawa, the serene flow had turned into rapids.

I spent a short amount of time at her university, the Kyoto University of Art & Design. They had a gallery of work by last year's graduates, as well as a globe thing from the Aichi Expo last year. This globe was a display that one could manipulate by pushing down on the side of the hemisphere (as though you were manipulating a real globe). It would display information on the environment and other things. Pretty cool, but impossible to photograph.

The main purpose of my walk out there was to get my ass into gear to go see more of the sights. So at about 1pm I set off towards Okazaki where I stumbled upon the Heian-jingu Shrine. Seriously... I had no idea it was there until I saw this huge (really huge) tori gate about a kilometre away over Okazaki Park. The shrine itself was like a little Forbidden Palace, but apart from the obligatory photos of the buildings, architecture and other things in the grounds, there really was very little to see there.

So I continued onwards towards what I hoped would be start of my day in the Gion/Ponto-cho areas of Kyoto. I headed up to the Chioin Temple. It was a gentle climb, with lots to see up there, and on the way down I passed through Yasaka Shrine. Then it was back onto Higashioji-dori where i discovered it was about 3pm. So, not all that reluctantly (my feet were killing me), I headed back to the flat via Higashioji-dori, looking for izakaya.

After having curry for dinner, Miyuki's friend Ai came over from university. Now, she doesn't speak English, and my Japanese needs loosening up, as do I (I'm really shy, seriously). As you can imagine, it was a bit strained for a while. We headed out to a restaurant on Kitaoji-dori (I'm staying in the Northern part of Kyoto, Sakyo-ku). There I had dessert (cinnamon, bananas and vanilla ice cream) and sake, topping off with a Guinness. Things started to flow better once we got out of the flat, Ai and I talked via Miyuki's translation, and I tried to say what I could. My biggest barrier is confidence. I'm really not confident about using my Japanese, and I'm also very rusty (despite promises, Keiko didn't teach me a thing this summer... oh the cheek!).

When we got back, via the arcades again (where I was beaten on Outrun 2, failed miserably on Time Crisis 4, but finally got the knack of Guitar Freaks 2), Miyuki was feeling cold. Turns out she had a fever, so today we will have a lazy day (not that I'm complaining, it's pretty wet out there again). It will at least save the strain on my pockets and allow me to catch up with email... maybe if the rains stop and she feels better, then we can get a drink this evening, but I'm pretty pooped after yesterday.

What woke me up from my bed of matting (not tatami, more like insulation matting), and a duvet-cross-sleeping bag thing, next to the window were the binmen. You see, the binmen/recycling men drive around in a minivan-sized collector with loudspeakers, EVERY MORNING! It starts off nicely, with a sweet little jingly noise (the first time, I thought it was an ice cream truck) but then they play a horribly garbled ad-like jingle followed by instructions to get your rubbish collected. What's worse is you hear them on and off for about two hours!

The true purpose of my visit was to get an answer to the question: 'could I live here for a prolonged period?'. I could not have come for two months without so much free bed and board. Originally I was going to stay in Tokyo either side of my trip with Keiko, but that soon became impossible, but now Keiko will come to Japan, only to be on the other side of the country to me and I won't have the cash to get there. While it is cheap to travel in Japan, as I explained a few days ago, I just don't have the cash to do lots of things. Maybe if I'm still well off towards the end, then maybe I will try to get to Hokkaido to see her, but the alternative would be to save the money and use it to travel (or go towards my general living costs) when we get back to the UK! Either way, I'm missing her company, even more so because I will miss her birthday tomorrow. If any of you see her around Aber, please wish her a happy 20th birthday (or is it 19th? I'm not too sure when she started counting backwards).

Anyway, as I was saying... things here are pretty cheap, for the most part. Apartments are quite cheap (and so they should be given that the average apartment is like a halls of residence room (with ensuite and kitchen facilities), i.e. cramped. Transport is pretty cheap too. But other things are not, laptops are quite expensive (but the specs are higher, so it balances out), and particularly cars are really expensive. The problem with buying Japanese cars is the hidden costs, so I'm wondering if it's the same for a motorbike... if not, my bozozoku dreams are over.

I will try and get yesterday's (day 5's) pics up today, because I doubt I'll be going anywhere for the remainder of the day. I'm still pretty shattered (thanks to the binmen) so I'll probably just finish watching ConAir and sit down in front of some Japanese TV... Oh, I almost forgot, yesterday I saw Pitagora Suicchi (the TV programme with all those Rube-Goldstein machines on YouTube. Great fun :-D