1/17

I woke up this morning to Scrilla Mayne knocking on my door at 7 am.  We were supposed to be ready and outside at 6:45 to check out of our rooms in Tokyo and head to Kyoto.  Killer.  I put together a bag and 'cleaned' my room as fast as I could, just in time for Takagi to not hate me even more.  I powered through the fact I had two hours of sleep and the onset of a serious hangover because I was excited for today.  The reason?  We were taking a bullet train to Kyoto.  Honestly, the bullet train experience was one of the top ten things I was looking forward to in Tokyo.  Not becuase I am a train nerd or anything like that, but my fondness for the bullet train dates back to November.  In the midst of 'the most important election of my life' the single most important issue on the ballot for me was the passing of the construction of a bullet train from San Diego to San Francisco.  Total time: 2 hours.  Such a thing could not be real.  I mean imagine, day trips to San Francisco.  This is the pinnacle of technology.  This is the highest point scientific and industrial advancement for personal pleasure since the iPhone, and you know coming from me that is saying a lot.  I have talked at length about the potential of this train for hours to anyone who would hear me listen.  And to anyone who voted against this magical form of transportation: shame on you, all of you should be forced to take a train to SF from SD in the current miserable conditions and recast your vote.

Anyways, the bullet train was everything I hoped it would be.   To be 100% honest, I slept the entire time (I was still drunk and running off two hours of sleep).  But even since then, every time I have rode it (3 times now) I have slept 95% of the trip.  I think this is a good thing, anytime I can sleep in anything moving 120 km/h, it's gotta be a comfortable a ride.  I dreamt of catching an afternoon out before arriving for a night of debauchery in SF and jetting home after, all while sleeping off the subsequent drunkness.  My only regret: not having iPhone there to share the experience with me, that would have completed my trip here.  

The rest of my day was spent going to a homestay in Tokyo.  After waiting for three of the girls in our group who were late getting on a train, one of which was accompanying me to my home stay, we headed out.  Ours was the furthest away, our directions were in Japanese and the guide at the international center handed us a map and told us she couldnt find it on a map.  Regardless, I navigated the Kyoto subway system like I was Ponce de Leon and got us there in a reasonable time.  Finding her house in a sea of Japanese characters and having to take pathways that made me feel as though I was trekking through an ancient cave in search of hidden treasure was mildly difficult.  But it did get better once we arrived.  We knock on the door greeted to a 17 foot dog charging around the corner (it was like The Beast from Sandlot, but with longer fur...if you don't get my Sandlot reference I don't even want to know you) barking menacingly.  Finally an old Japanese woman answers the door and shouts to us down at the gate, "You're too rate."  We attempt to apologize but that gets met with a "wait here.." and we continued to stand outside for 30 while a giant dog of mythical and epic proportions foamed at the mouth and barked incessantly.  At least the neighbors didn't stare...ohh wait.  

Finally she lets us in only to tell us how late we are (apparently she was told we would get there at 4, we left at 4 and she was the farthest away home stay household, her directions were in Japanese and even the international office couldn't find the right train layout).  She then sits us down to "talk" to us.  I use the word talk loosely because she had very little grasp on the English language, and was offended that I knew zero Japanese.  At this point I checked out and let my partner handle all the conversation while I downed green tea wishing it was spiked with anything.  After we got back we went out to dinner with Takagi who took whatever diminished spirit I had left and broke it (more on this later).  Needless to say, I spend Saturday night in Kyoto in a hostel with our 7 guys and one mustached stranger going to bed early.  Nice.