Kyoto and Austin Powers

This post has the potential to be lengthy since I haven't blogged in a few days. 

Our weekend was packed full of fun! On Friday night, we celebrated the 4th with several other Americans by going to an unagi restaurant in Osu Kannon. Unagi is one of the cuisines for which Nagoya is famous. It's a dish of grilled eel. Osu Kannon is a famous Buddhist temple surrounded by lots of shopping and dining. It reminds me a little of New York City's Chinatown but with less annoyance. The meal was pretty tasty, but it wasn't spectacular in my opinion. I still would have preferred a grilled cheeseburger, but I realize I no longer live in America. I'm ok with that.

This is part of the group that went with us. It was traditional Japanese style so we all had to sit on the floor. I got a kick out of watching Travis struggle to sit cross-legged for that long. 

It's also worth noting that we were served miso soup along with our meal. The soup contained the eel's heart. While Travis gobbled it up in stride, I chose to sit out on that one. Apparently the eel's heart is great for women's skin, but then again, the Japanese also recommend raw chicken for pregnant women.

On Saturday, we met up with some friends to head to Kyoto by shinkansen (bullet train). It only took us about 30-45 min. to get there, and we had a great time.

This photo was taken in front of the Golden Pavilion, Rokuon-Ji Temple. It is quite a pretty site.

This is a photo of the rock garden at Royoanji Temple. I was pretty excited to find out the symbolism behind this arrangement of gravel and rocks but was pretty disappointed when I read this from the brochure, "It is up to each visitor to find out for himself what this unique garden signifies." What?! You've got to be kidding me! I've been staring at this photo for hours, and still nothing. 

We also spotted what at first seemed like a romantic little rickshaw ride. Wait, but that's a person. These people were actually being carted around by a person. What this picture doesn't show you is that it had to have been over 90 degrees and the humidity was about 300%. It was soo hot. It grosses me out to even see these people with a blanket on their legs. Plus, the guy pulling this cart had to go up a ginormous hill. It was pretty incredible. 

And, we saw real geishas. This was a highlight for me since I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha right now. I should have finished it a month ago, but I'm slow.

Here we are in front of the Ginkakuji Temple. This temple was the prettiest, but also the creepiest. I sang "Jesus Loves Me" through parts of this one.

As we were walking up the hill to visit the last temple, my new friend, Beth, said, "Hey, there's Mike Myers." So, I glanced back, but couldn't get a good look and just carried along thinking what she really meant was that she saw a guy who looked just like him. About a half hour or so later she mentioned that he was right next to us again. So, I tried to get a good look, and bam! he looked right at me. My mouth dropped because, it WAS Mike Myers!!! Sweet! Of course, I planned to get a great shot to sell to People Magazine for thousands. We all stood staring for a second, and then his bodyguard sternly said to us, "He's on vacation." And, I felt like a big jerk for not respecting his relaxation rights and moved on. We continued to see him a half a dozen or so times, and it never got old. I'm not afraid to admit that I was completely star-struck! I can't help but wonder if he called a restaurant while he was in Japan to order cremofsumyungai. In the picture, he's on the one wearing the white t-shirt with khaki shorts. He has a goofy-looking straw hat on.