day #3 in Japan

The plan for today was to get up early and go to 神戸市 (Kobe). However a two hour snooze on an 8.30 alarm caused us to postpone Kobe for another day, as we wouldn't have arrived early enough to make the journey worthwhile (which was a shame, because Kobe is where Jay is).

Instead we woke up at 10.30, got ready slowly, and had 弁当 (bento (essentially a posh packed lunch)) for breakfast. It was Aaron's and the intention was to share it, but after I touched it (to open it) he opted out, for fear of becoming infected with my cold.

More for me mwahahahahahaha.

A leisurely walk to 7/11 entailed, where we bought lunch to eat on the same bench we ate on yesterday. I'm going to punctuate this post heavily with pictures, the first two being of the house we stayed in whilst in Kyoto, and the view up the river near our house respectively:

Ain't it pretty? Note the mountains on the horizon: 70% of Japan is mountainous, so there's ALWAYS mountains on the horizon. The next photos are of 7/11 and some products therein:

From top to bottom, they are 7/11 from the outside, a STRAWBERRY sandwich (which I never tried in the end...), a selection of colourful juiceboxes, a selection of bento, and HOT drinks (an invention for which the inventor deserves a highly prestigious award). Foreign shops, especially Japanese ones it seems, are awesome.

Next, on the way back to the Philosopher's Walk, which we planned to continue today, we swung by 知恩院 (Chion-in temple). It was opposite the bench we ate on for the past two days, but for some reason we didn't check it out yet. It was really nice - just the kind of traditional Japanese architecture I'd craved to see! After the temple, we went to a video games shop (big contrast!) and stayed for so long that a random guy (possibly a bouncer) started following us. We then gave up on the Philosopher's Walk because of the time and so headed home via an incredibly eclectic 100円 store:

When I say eclectic, I mean eclectic by the way. Products inside ranged from food and drink, to cheap electronics, to shoehorns (suspiciously phallic ones, at that), gadgets, toys, magic tricks, clothes, rubber slippers, beauty products and pretty much everything in between. I identified the potential of the products as souvenirs, but also identified my budgetary issues. For that reason we spent around an hour selecting the best products for our money; Aaron spent a lot and I didn't. Here's what I got:

Clockwise from top left, and all at 100円 a piece, they are Fanta Melon, noodles, Nivea hand cream (these three were actually ALL more than 100円), hot chilli powder, tomato pasta sauce, pasta, Pokémon tissues (YEAH!), incense, and a 40cm ruler.

All necessary purchases, of course.

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, talking, relaxing, eating, eating, talking, feeling sick, relaxing, talking and sleeping.