Oooh, what a lovely Hangover
Well Readers, i feel i have to apologise for the lack of Logging for the last two days. For all of you worrying that i am somehow wasting my holiday writing silly letters, for the last two days i have seem to have been determined to drink the whole of japan.
On Monday we arrived at K's backpacking hostel in Kyoto. Settling into our rather comfortable dormitory, we headed though to the communal living space. In about 20 minutes we got talking to: a Welshman - Mike AKA Mapman;Two Aussies - Ell and Erin; a Finish guy called Arto, a Dutchman called KKJHDJHGWKUSMSKShsjksdkjooooksdkj, or Chris for short and two English guys - Simon and Jack. The Aussie girls introduced themselves with, "hey, you wanna look at my porn" and i could tell it would be a good night.
Beer, Beer, Beer, Whisky, Finish Vodka, and some beer was drunk that night. Lots of embarrassing photos, and complaints from the neighbors and fellow guests. Finally crawling to bed at 3am and going out like a light.
I was rudely awoken at 9.30am by my alarm, and lay they staring at it, wondering who set it, and then i remembered. We had all decided to go for a bike ride tomorrow round the city, the only way to see it.. trust me! So I staggered up and showered, and on my arrival discovered that we were actually ready to go. Everyone looked surprisingly chipper, how annoying. We were 6 and the hostel only has 4 bikes, so we were directed to the town center to hire them form Gap! Quite the done thing for stores to rent bikes, so for a 1000yen we were the owners of 6 reasonably new bicycles.
Riding a bike in Japan is unlike any two wheeled experience i have ever had. For a start, bikes are treated as pedestrians, so they go on the pavement, down one way streets, cross the road at the pedestrian crossing and just generally a good time for all! We started out a little wobbly but no one had forgotten how to ride a bicycle in the intervening years since they last had. Following our official guide Mapman we set off for an amazing tour of the city, people walking just float out of the way as your bike nears them. Not like any city i know, where they would shout and cry out to you. Touring one of the Shrines, and following the river up to the north of the town to the Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Palace is HUGE, build on such a grand scale, wide, long stretches of gravel road separating mysterious walled garden and buildings. Unable to see inside without special permissions, we were left just to imagine what i would be like behind the 30foot walls.
As our stomachs began to rumble, we headed back down into the center of town looking for food, and planning what we would do that night.
KAREOKE
We all met on the porch at the hostel at 8, so by 8.55 we were ready to leave. We headed into town, desperately seeking a Bar. I hadn't been to a bar since i got here, so i was eager to get a couple pints of Guinness down my throat, just to make me feel better. Trawling up and down the main street, we were put off by service charges and drink prices before finally, down a darkened alley way, found the Free Ball sports bar. Highly inflated drinks prices, but i was in no mood by then to care, so we paid 3.50 for Guinness, and i don't want to think what some paid for the Cosmopolitan they were drinking. Fun, laughter, loud obtrusive Manchester United TV and two drinks later we were back on the street, eager to do the Chavvy thing and get a couple of tins down the river, so we spent two hours looking out across the river onto Kyoto City at night. The locals didn't even stare, so a good time was had by all in the end.
2am came and we remembered why we had left in the first place... to hit the Karaoke bars of Kyoto! We picked the nicest and cleanest looking place, which also happened to be the only one open to 6am, and we'd need it! After some haggling by the looks of it, i think some people were moved round and we were given a room big enough for our party of 9. Rosy from the Alcohol we soon started burning up the tiny stage, dropping some pretty fly tracks, or something like that, basically we sang badly, very loudly, for a long time. Until we were told to leave actually. So Bleary eyed we staggered home in the rising sun, via McDonald's and flopped into bed. With the knowledge that we needed to be out of the hostel by 11.30 the next day heavy on my mind, i ignored it and fell asleep.
On Monday we arrived at K's backpacking hostel in Kyoto. Settling into our rather comfortable dormitory, we headed though to the communal living space. In about 20 minutes we got talking to: a Welshman - Mike AKA Mapman;Two Aussies - Ell and Erin; a Finish guy called Arto, a Dutchman called KKJHDJHGWKUSMSKShsjksdkjooooksdkj, or Chris for short and two English guys - Simon and Jack. The Aussie girls introduced themselves with, "hey, you wanna look at my porn" and i could tell it would be a good night.
Beer, Beer, Beer, Whisky, Finish Vodka, and some beer was drunk that night. Lots of embarrassing photos, and complaints from the neighbors and fellow guests. Finally crawling to bed at 3am and going out like a light.
I was rudely awoken at 9.30am by my alarm, and lay they staring at it, wondering who set it, and then i remembered. We had all decided to go for a bike ride tomorrow round the city, the only way to see it.. trust me! So I staggered up and showered, and on my arrival discovered that we were actually ready to go. Everyone looked surprisingly chipper, how annoying. We were 6 and the hostel only has 4 bikes, so we were directed to the town center to hire them form Gap! Quite the done thing for stores to rent bikes, so for a 1000yen we were the owners of 6 reasonably new bicycles.
Riding a bike in Japan is unlike any two wheeled experience i have ever had. For a start, bikes are treated as pedestrians, so they go on the pavement, down one way streets, cross the road at the pedestrian crossing and just generally a good time for all! We started out a little wobbly but no one had forgotten how to ride a bicycle in the intervening years since they last had. Following our official guide Mapman we set off for an amazing tour of the city, people walking just float out of the way as your bike nears them. Not like any city i know, where they would shout and cry out to you. Touring one of the Shrines, and following the river up to the north of the town to the Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Palace is HUGE, build on such a grand scale, wide, long stretches of gravel road separating mysterious walled garden and buildings. Unable to see inside without special permissions, we were left just to imagine what i would be like behind the 30foot walls.
As our stomachs began to rumble, we headed back down into the center of town looking for food, and planning what we would do that night.
KAREOKE
We all met on the porch at the hostel at 8, so by 8.55 we were ready to leave. We headed into town, desperately seeking a Bar. I hadn't been to a bar since i got here, so i was eager to get a couple pints of Guinness down my throat, just to make me feel better. Trawling up and down the main street, we were put off by service charges and drink prices before finally, down a darkened alley way, found the Free Ball sports bar. Highly inflated drinks prices, but i was in no mood by then to care, so we paid 3.50 for Guinness, and i don't want to think what some paid for the Cosmopolitan they were drinking. Fun, laughter, loud obtrusive Manchester United TV and two drinks later we were back on the street, eager to do the Chavvy thing and get a couple of tins down the river, so we spent two hours looking out across the river onto Kyoto City at night. The locals didn't even stare, so a good time was had by all in the end.
2am came and we remembered why we had left in the first place... to hit the Karaoke bars of Kyoto! We picked the nicest and cleanest looking place, which also happened to be the only one open to 6am, and we'd need it! After some haggling by the looks of it, i think some people were moved round and we were given a room big enough for our party of 9. Rosy from the Alcohol we soon started burning up the tiny stage, dropping some pretty fly tracks, or something like that, basically we sang badly, very loudly, for a long time. Until we were told to leave actually. So Bleary eyed we staggered home in the rising sun, via McDonald's and flopped into bed. With the knowledge that we needed to be out of the hostel by 11.30 the next day heavy on my mind, i ignored it and fell asleep.
posted by Scott Leiper at 7:24 am
2 Comments:
Let me guess... Did you sing Frank Sinatra?
or Tom Jones? By the way, your "wellwisher" was my dad...sorry! lol
xxxxxx
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