I consider the real day one a wash out because I didn't really do anything except fly, travel by train, eat, and attempt to sleep. The email I sent you before was the "new" day 1, and night 2. So here's the new day 2. I can't comment on the night yet, because we haven't gone to bed.
So we're still in Kyoto japan, but we've moved away from a more residential area and into the historic version. It's so beautiful out here, and the streets are incredible. There's a fair amount of shops and what not, but EVERYTHING looks very manicured. Not just the trees and what not, but even the sidewalks are carved stone with inserts and what not. It's really rather incredible. The temples are great, and tomorrow we're headed to a special one that's the tallest in Japan. It allows you a 360 degree look over all of Kyoto's surrounding area, so I'll try to grab a few pictures of there. I've tried taking a bunch, but I definitely haven't taken as many as dad likes to.
The hotel we're staying at now is very traditional Japan, and only has 26 rooms total. Our room has low doors (I've smacked my head quite a few times) and mortar / lumber construction complete with paper covering the door and window panes. that looks like it's from a Japanese movie. Very quaint, but again missing a bed. There's a girl that is our room's attendant. Her job was to bring Manami and I a welcome snack of Green Tea and this very very chewy rice creation (like gum, but didn't want to break) that had a crushed bean inside that tasted surprisingly like Peanut Butter. She also brings us our traditional dinner & breakfast and talks to us to explain what we're eating. There isn't a menu, they just bring you a meal.
I've enjoyed most of it. There was a piece of octopus that had a slimy coat on it, almost like animal fat. As I was chewing that piece, I dry heaved a few times, so I decided it was better to spit it out and continue on some other stuff.
Anyway, about today: We had rain last night and early today. That made the humidity level plummet. Today was just gorgeous and it was in the mid 80's. Just a great day. Manami's back in our room now, taking a shower or possibly a bath. They have one of those Japanese Sitting Tubs in our room (it's like a really deep bathtub with square sides, so you can sit up to your neck in water) and she was fairly excited about that. While she's doing that, I've come down to the Hotel Lobby to use their internet. I'll have a bunch of pictures of this area... it's incredible.
Well, I'll talk to you later on. We're going to call the room girl up shortly and have her set up the mats for us to sleep on. The small square room has a table in the middle that she will remove and allow us to sleep on the floor in the same place.
I'll talk to you tomorrow.