More of Kyoto adventure again, sort of, kind of. Today we ventured out to the boonies at the very end of the rail line to visit Mr. Kurama, which is host to the Kurama Temple and a fantastic natural onsen. We climbed about a billion stairs and winding paths up the mountain, but every step was a magical corner, so it was totally worth it.
I’ll let the photos tell the story of that place.
Meanwhile, the natural onsen was amaaaaaaaazing. I feel like the onsen is the one experience that I truly can never get in the United States, so I soaked up as much of it as I could. Japanese treats can be sought out and bought if you try, but I don’t have my hopes up for the public bathhouses to ever catch on in the States. Alas!
After a busy day on the mountain, we came back to Scott’s city and played about at the arcade. Here I was introduced to purikura, which OH MY GOD WHY DO WE NOT HAVE THIS IN THE US?? It would go over SOOOOO well with the fledgling teenage girl crowd! Hells, it would go over well with the ballers.
For those who don’t know what purikura is, it’s essentially a photo booth that prints out stickers, only way elaborate. You can fit like 5 people into the booth, and you pick your backgrounds and whatever, and then you have countdowns to get into your poses. The photos are lit really well, so when you’re all done, you get to draw on them and put stamps on them and add fake eyelashes to people and change peoples’ hair colors. All kinds of fun stuff like that. The photos you get are tiny, of course, but they’re super cute and fun to stick on whatever.
After arcading, Scott, JC, Marius and I did karaoke into the wee hours (look, midnight is a wee hour for me these days). It was my first Japanese karaoke experience, and while it was fun, it really just made me miss my Rock Band sessions with Nick and Nathan. I will be full of songs upon my return, guys!