Monday May 25th, 2009

Kyoto is definitely different than Tokyo. The nightlife isn't as exciting, but the cultural visits are more interesting. The cultural visits are a lot more of what I expected for traditional Japan. We went to Nijo castle. The tratitional castle housed the Tokugawa shogunate. I really liked the castle, there were places that they showed that ninjas would hide in and keep watch over the castle. The floors were also made to squeak so the intruders could be heard in the castle. After that we had a lecture on immigration policy at Kyoto universtiy, one of the best Universitys in Japan. It was very interesting, and the class rooms were amazing. Each seat had its own individual computer monitor and a microphone. It was unbelievable. After the lecture we went back to the hotel and than went and had italian for dinner. It was a nice change from the Japanese food. I love the food here, but it will be nice to go back home to sandwhiches. After we went back to the hotel and decided that we were going to go and wander around Kyoto. After searching lot of bars, many of which ended up being strip clubs, we finally found one that we decided to go in. It was basically empty, there was two people in the bar. When we arrived one left immediatly and the other stayed. As soon as we sat down four bartenders came out and each helped make the 4 gin and tonics that we ordered. We ended up talking to the bartenders for a while and they were incredibly nice guys. When we went to leave, one of the bartenders walked us to the elevator, then went up the stairs and met us and led u to the door. The people in Japan are so incredibly nice.