Once a Week: Blogging Japan

Blogging my thoughts here once a week. Currently, we are in Kyoto, Japan, and tomorrow we leave for Tokyo.


First thought:
I really, really don't want to do this. Why do I have to blog? I hate doing productive things. Why can't I just sleep and be lazy? Why did I have this terrible idea of going around the world? Why couldn't I have just let Mom and Dad do this for their retirement years? Why—


Why am I listening to this? What is this? Is this pop, or techno? No, it's not techno. Is this dance? What am I listening to?! WHY AM I LISTENING TO IT?!! Oh, it's called "Never be Alone", and yes, yes it is dance music.


Obviously this trip is a bad idea if I, the unswayable rock fan is listening to this stuff: http://www.wix.com/gabrieltapuc/modern-music-hits#!my-songs


It's actually kinda catchy....


Okay, you've seen the inside of my head and concluded there's nothing there. Moving on.


What exactly are you supposed to do when you blog...?


So, basically, as you'll have read from my parents' blogs, we've seen various temples, a few gardens, and Himeji castle. And another castle, but I've never really been good with names or important details like that. I remember one temple! It was dedicated to Inari, the god of rice and sake and merchants. Also, it was dedicated to foxes.


Oh, we've also seen a few pagodas and rock gardens. But I think the last one counts as just "gardens". I don't know about you, but I think of plants when I think "gardens".


I think I'm just going to tell you about our average day in Kyoto: we wake up, Maria and Dad are downstairs on their computers. I do... whatever it is I do. If I can, I try to use a computer. Lately, I've been working on my NaNoWriMo novel (will be explained in further detail later), which is a shock. As I've mentioned before, I... ah... dislike... *coughhatecough* doing productive things. Because we only have 2 computers, I don't always end up with one of them. One is Maria's, and she shares it with Ioan. The other is my mother's, which means I never get it. Because it's Mom's, and what's hers is Dad's (and vice versa), her computer is in constant use, and the worst part is, it's being used for something important, so my NaNoWriMo novel has to be worked on either in my head, on my iTouch, or on paper.


On an unrelated note, notice that before, when you first saw me change from the Courier font to Times, the latter seemed super-thin, while now it looks relatively normal-sized. Back to relevant things:


NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November every year, and was discovered by Maria in 2007. However, she forgot about it, so 2008 is her first year as a NaNoWriter. Basically, what you do is you write 50,000 words in 30 days. You can write more if you want, but if you write less, then you "lose" (nothing happens if you lose). If you reach the word goal, then YAY! YOU WIN (nothing happens if you win)! If you write 50,000 words, but you started before November, then the guilt monkeys will get you (nothing happens if the guilt monkeys get you).


As I was saying before, morning program. Maria and Dad are downstairs on their computers, I'll come and do my Facebook, deviantArt, eMail, YouTube, edit pictures, etc. If she hasn't come down already, then Mom comes down. Last to come is Ioan. Then Mom gets breakfast ready, and when it is, we eat. After eating, we figure out what's going on for the day. Where we're going, how long we're going, and all that. Later, we're going to ask the same questions, but it doesn't hurt to have at least a vague idea of what's going on.


When we get ready to go, we fill our water bottles, check our day packs, put on our Scott Vests, put on our shoes and go outside, where Mom sprays our arms with bugspray. This is unhelpful, as the bugs just bite our legs instead. Then we go on our way to whichever temple we're visiting that day.


On the way: Maria and Ioan goof off and do I-don't-exactly-know-what-because-1.-I-am-not-invited-2.-I-do-not-want-to-be-invited-because-it's-annoying-me. Mom and Dad walk and then...discuss...which way to take. This involves asking, "Which way? Left? Okay, let's go left." Then we kids go left and the parents turn right. We then hear, "Why are you going that way? We just said, 'No, wait, to the right!'" This results in many mutinous glances and dark mutterings. Other scenarios include but are not limited to: stopping and consulting various maps for extended periods of time, going ridiculously slow, going ridiculously fast, and getting lost. I'm sure we'll look back on these times and laugh. After many years. Probably while drunk.


Eventually we'll reach a bus stop, hop on a bus, and stay for varying amounts of stations. During this time, I will be listening to my iPod. There are at least 1,200 songs on my iPod, and yet I only listen to the same ones. This is probably around 50 at a time. The reasons for the other 1,150 is because I totally used to love Natasha Bedingfield, or I loved Lady GaGa last week! What if, when I'm done with this Trapt phase, I'll want to listen to her again, but can't because I took her music off? Thus the useless music accumulates.


(You may have a lovely suggestion for my problem: Sync more often. This is the part where I die laughing, and my last words are "Yeah. Right.")


However, I have lovely playlists. Comment if you want to see what I like other than Lady GaGa.


After we get off the bus, we do a lot of walking and eventually reach the first temple for today. There we will walk around, admire the architecture and the Buddhas, and do a lot of sitting. The reason for all the sitting is because Mom and Dad will have more "discussions" on which way to take. Mom will want to go this way, Dad will want to go that way, and standing up while this is going on will be regretted later. We usually just sit down while they go in one direction, say, "Why aren't you happy? I let you win! Okay, you want me to win? Then let's go my way!" They then proceed in that direction while the current "winner" says, "No! I feel terrible now! Let's go your way!" After 5 to 10 minutes, they'll decide on a direction, and I get to tell Maria and Ioan to get off their iTouches and start walking.


After the first temple, we proceed to the next. We then do more walking, admiring, and sitting. Return to step one and repeat.


Of course, at this point, you're wondering, "And you don't eat?!!" Of course we eat. If I wasn't here, we wouldn't eat at all. It'll be 1.30 and I'll start asking "When do we eat? After this we eat? Are we eating now? Why won't we eeeeeaaaat?" Dad maintains the opinion he doesn't need to eat. Maria is the same. Mom can wait until dinner. Ioan used to join in, but he betrayed me by learning to deal with the hunger pangs. This may or may not have been due to the fact that I, unlike him, have learned that ice cream is not critical to our continued existence.


Eventually we find a restaurant and eat, and afterwards, Dad complains about how much money was spent on food. Later, when we reach the next temple and he has to pay for the entrance tickets, I try not to complain of how much food we could've bought with the money spent on said tickets.


After we've finished with all the walking and all the temples, we manage to convince our parents to bring us back home, where we go to the computers and solve various things. We have dinner, discuss tomorrow or other things, and basically enjoy ourselves.