In Kyoto, post 2

As I mentioned, I felt wretched coming over on the plane. I was appalled at what I:d done and at the thought of it being a WHOLE YEAR... and realised how much I love all my friends... and now I was sentenced to a year by myself... but when I finally left the plane into the Osaka airport it was with a smile on my face, looking forward to getting started. Since then I have mostly felt just fine with the occasional slightly down feeling. I think the main thing is to think of each day at a time, not think :aaagggh a whole year: but :cool, today I:m in Japan, what can I do today?:

I love my ryokan. (A ryokan is a traditional japanese inn. With a futon on the floor, a chair with no legs, sliding doors, and you get green tea and sweets brought to you every time you come in at the end of the day :)) It just has a nice vibe. The only thing I can:t handle is the breakfasts!

I can eat a big breakfast, OR an early breakfast, OR a Japanese breakfast. But I can:t eat all three. For example, yesterday:s breakfast consisted of the following:
a big piece of blackened fish, a nearly raw egg, a big wobbly slab of tofu with soy sauce, a bowl of miso soup, ham and lettuce, fruit pieces, fermented soybeans (natto), pickles, some unidentifiable orange jellied stuff, a bowl of sticky rice, some green unidentifiable stuff, and green tea.

This is enough food for four people and I had no hope. I could eat the miso soup, which I like, and maybe the fruit, and that on its own would satisfy me at 7:30am. Sadly I:ve devised a cunning strategy of eating some and hiding some in a plastic bag to throw out later. Luckily my breakfast is brought to me in my room so I can eat (and disguise my failure to eat enough for politeness). My major motivation to come on the Internet today - otherwise I might have waited another day or two - was to email the ryokan website to cancel my breakfasts in Nikko, the next town I:m visiting!

To compensate I have been eating things like bread and cheese scrolls, toasties, etc. There are many great bakeries and patisseries. I haven:t seen a lot of food like pasta or curries or anything, but a few.

I:m in Kyoto for a week. I spent yesterday sightseeing. I walked a lot. I went around near my ryokan. It:s just as you:d imagine Kyoto. Full of little houses with Japanese-style rooves and sliding doors, and vending machines, and it:s quieter than I thought, much quieter than Tokyo. I saw the Fushimi Inari shrine, which has hundreds of torii (red gates). I walked quite a lot around the city centre and the Kyoto train station building. I went to Arashiyama, which is a pretty place with mountains, a river, and loads more shrines and temples. You can:t seem to walk for fifteen minutes anywhere without stumbling over a shrine or temple. Since I don:t understand anything I:m seeing...

It poured with rain overnight but seems to have tentatively cleared up at the moment.

It:s funny, in Japan even looking at shops is interesting. There are so many food items where I can:t even determine a base ingredient. Is it vegetable, mineral? You go into a book store and there are about fifty people all standing reading magazines, :cos people commonly read in book stores, it:s acceptable...

Okay, I:ll post this then add a little more.