Traveling: Day 12 - Kyoto, Japan

So as we started the next day in the Willer bus, we arrived in Kyoto around 6 am. Riko and her father were nice enough to pick us up at the station, heavy luggage and all.

It was so nice to see her after almost 4 years! Her dad showed us around the neighborhood as we were driven to their house. It was lovely to take in our new surroundings.

We arrived at her house where we met her mom and her younger sister, Mako. Before we even got settled down, her mom made us a wonderful breakfast. It was so Japanese-like that I couldn't even believe how much she made for us!

Afterwords, Meghan, Riko, and I took a nap till 12 cause, WOW, were we tired. She originally wanted to take us out after breakfast but we were really still tired out from the bus ride, and needed a nap ASAP.

We got dressed and took a bus to Shingyoku Market place. There were so many foreigners there; I couldn't believe my eyes. It was such a cool shopping district and I bought a lot of stuff there.

Eating some Crepes:

Ate another snack (Don't remember the name, ha) :

We didn't have much time so Riko and I went to the Shoureii temple where she works (It closes at 5), while Meghan stayed at Shingyoku to shop around more.

This was one if those deadly hot days, as I was sweating up a storm there, but it was cool to visit and learn some history of the temple as well as hang out with Riko again.

We met up with Meghan again at the Market place and took some more pictures before going to a small Japanese restaurant.

We got to eat Okonamiyaki (Japanese pancake) with some kimchi inside! It was so good, we had to order another!

The reason why Riko said we should visit on the 16th is because there is a special event where we can see fire displayed in kanji. It's to celebrate a festival where the ancestors come down from heaven and on the third final day, the Japanese honour them by having this display of fire, letting them go back to heaven.

We had to take a taxi then walk up a mountain for awhile, as the top would be the best view to see all the kanji displays on each mountainside. There were a total of 5 fires we had to see. It was so interesting! Keep in mind, we were a lot closer than these pictures can capture, and sadly they aren't good quality.