We were having the hardest time deciding what to eat last night, so I ended up walking down to the ramen shop and through broken Japanese and gestures I was able to order rice, fried chicken (really like chicken fingers but better) and gyoza (that turned out to be veggie dumplings but that is ok) which is what we had for dinner.
Ken got some good footage of this Gong show type program that was on last night. It was hysterical.
We slept in this morning and decided to do some final shopping before trying to relax tonight so we can prepare for the long Saturday or traveling and flying. So the next time I blog, it will be from the states. Our Saturday will end up being like 28 hours, I think, and we should get in about 7am on Sunday unless I can get an earlier flight out of San Francisco where we currently have an 8 hour layover. We’ll also be spending a lot of time in Kansai airport cause our flight doesn’t leave until 6pm but we are out of our room at 11. Might be buying a book in the airport!
We went back to Kyoto Station (where we catch the train for the airport tomorrow too) to base our shopping day. It is really hard to describe just how big this station is. I tried to take a picture to give you a rough idea but just think of a major train terminal with multiple subway lines, a bus hub, a hotel and an 11 story department store. Can you?
We pick up some gifts in the department store but my goal of trying to find a cool shirt was just not to be. Couldn’t find anything I really liked. We did find another Mister Donut so we could get a 2nd donuty fix for our trip even though we went through several other pastry shops without buying things. What is it about Mister Donut?
In one of the pastry shops in the Department store (yes there were pastries on more than one floor) I snapped a quick shot of some of the items. 
Oink, Oink, pastry! We also walked back down the street to Bic camera where Ken picked up a few items before we headed over to Avanti, which was — per the guide book — a department store geared more towards young people. And it was. I should have taken some photos in there, but think Spencers with maybe a 5-7-9 store thrown in or Hot Topic. And then make that like 5 or 6 different floors as well as a food court, electronics section (of course) and bookstore (alas still didn’t find any books to pick up).
We grabbed some McDonald’s for lunch cause it was already 2pm and well, we are getting back to being American right! before the long walk just to get back through Kyoto station for our train then bus back to the room. It is just after 4 now and we are trying to relax some before, hopefully, being able to check into our flight at 6pm and then figuring out what to do for dinner. I’m so tired of trying to decide between something on noodles or something on rice, not that there aren’t other choices if you want to walk further, catch a taxi or something else but I’ve had a Japanese food overload!
I took a LOT of pictures on my digital SLR (which is a great camera for anyone who might want it! ) but just not professional enough to be a professional (like in PHOTOGRAPHING WEDDINGS! cause of digital low light limitations unless you spend over a grand) and not small enough to be me friendly. Think I know what I want for my next camera though, will be released soon! But I’m working on a Facebook photo album that I can share with everyone.
The only things we didn’t get to on our list of possibles were both in the same area of the Northwest of Kyoto. For me it was the bamboo gardens and for Ken the monkey park. They both would have required a great deal of walking and/or climbing and at least an hour travel time by bus. By this point in the week, we just weren’t feeling it!
