Hello my little devils!

I thought of something and realized I haven't written a signle word about my trip to Japan, even thou it's more then a mounth since I got back... That's like... epic fail! >__>"

So, here's the short version for you guy's who're as lazy as I am;
IT WAS GREAT AND I WANT TO GO BACK RIGHT AWAY!!!! I MISS IT!!!

And for those who wants more, heer it comes;
Traveling-day:
Domi and I got a ride to the airport by my mother, where we meet up with some of the people from the group, Ankan (real name Angelica) and Jojo (real name Johanna). Our plane tock off at 9:10 am (local time), and we landed in Amsterdan, Schippol, at 11:00 am (local time) where we spent about 3 hours walking around and Domi and I grabed a hamburger to eat. I ordered a medium-size burger, and it was HUGE!! Like American-size, which in Swedish size means XXL are the same as M... But it was tasty~

We meet up with the rest of our group at our gate, Linnea, Alex (real name Alexandra), Anton, Ankan, Jojo, Karin, Bella (real name Isabella) and our teacher Johan. Karin and Linnea tock and earlier plane then us and Johan and Bella tock a later one, so it was three diffrent plans to Amsterdam but the same flight to Narita Airport, Tokyo, JAPAN.
So, the flight to Narita from Amsterdam tock 11 hours and 50 minutes. A looooong flight but who cares when you can watch movies, tv-serise, play games, listen to music a.s.o....?

I had Domi on one side and a japanese-guy on the other. The japanese guy locked like he were 40-45 or something liked that, introduced himself as Kazama-san. He spoke pretty good english (very good english for a japanese). He asked me how old I thought he were so I told him what I thought, and laughed (a nice laugh) and said that I flatterd him. i said I didn't and that I were honest and then he told me that he were 59. I swear I droped my jaw all the way to the ground like 10.000 feet under us! He told me he worked at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and as a part-time instructor at Hosei University. He asked where I come from and I said Sweden, and he told me what he knew about Sweden and that he had swedish friends and that he had had a lecture at Gothenburgs University. We talked abouth this and that and he told me he had 2 sons, 30 and 24 (if I remember correctly) and he thought that I spoke very good english for being 17. He wrote a list with things he recommended me to see in both Tokyo and Kyoto. He gave both me and Domi his bussinesscard and said that we should contact him if we needed any kind of help during our stay in Japan.

I watched 3 sections of House befor I fell asleep and slept like 8 hours... Seems like I were the only one in the group that managed to sleep during the flight and by that I escaped jet-lag! No jet-lag what-so-ever. xD But damn, it was a hot on that plane! I woke up a couple of times beause of the damn heat and thougt I was going to melt... But since I were so damn tiered I got back to sleep again.
Before we landed in Japan we had to fill in a form with questions like "how long are you staying in Japan?" "do you have any illeagal substance with you?" "where are you satying in Japan, adress and phonenumber please?" "how much money (yen) do you bring with you into Japan?" a.s.o.... We answered "no" on every question.

Once we had alnded safetly in Japan (around 10 am local time), we have to go through the safety-controll, where they tock photos and finger-prints and then - finally - we could go and get our luggage. Once everyone had their luggage me, Johan and Ankan went to the post-office on the second floor to get our hired cell-phones since most european cell-phones dosen't work in Japan.

Now, all we had to do were to get our Japanese Rail-pass so we could travle on the JR-lines (the state-owned lines, including the Shinkansen) for free. Johan tock all our pass-ports and fixed our rail-passes while we waited outside since we were to many to fit inside the little "office". Jojo started to check out the aisan guys and commented on every one of them (seriously, every one of them!!) with comments like "wow, nice hair!" "Mmm! Nice butt!" "Nice body" "cute face" "Oh, I couled marry that guy!" which we found most amusing and soon Domi, Ankan, Bella and I started to do the same xD (thank god japanese people can't speak swedish!)
So, when Johan finally had all our JR-passes we headed for the Narita Express to get from Narita to Tokyo central from where we tock the Shinkansen to Kyoto where we swithched trains again to take a local train to Kyoto Station where our hostel, bACKpAC Kyoto where located.

We checked in at our hostel around 5pm, and I, Domi, Ankan and Johan got the same room together with two americans(?) and a guy from Australia (a mixed 8-doorm). The American guys checked out the next day, but the guy from Australia called John stayed all days we were there. Pretty nice fella'. Alex, Linnea, Karin and Anton got another room in another building just like Bella and Jojo.
So, after we had checked in we started to pack up and rested for a bit, since we had been travleing for like 24 hours (more or less, from door to door). We met up with the other at 7pm and went to lock for a place to eat. When we serched for a place to eat, we saw this mini-temple which were orande and up-lighted with spot-lights and it were soo beautiful! That first thing (well, almost) we saw of Kyoto were a temple, which isn't so weird since Kyoto is famous for all the temples... but still! So beautisul! We (Johan) found a nice little resturant were all of us (10 people) could eat. I orded a nudle-dish called Sujishimi to soba, which is a nudle-dish with japanese nudles and with meat and vegetables with a raw egg taht you mix it with and a bowle of rice and mizu-soup and Japanese green tea to drink (you got a cup wheyou orded something to eat in almoest every resturant/nudle-bar). MMMMM! God, that tasted sooooo good! It were sooo delicious! (my mouth is watering just by thinking of it!) But hey, for being such a small people, japanese people can eat a lot. I coulden't finnish my bolwe of rice and my nudles without feeling like I were going to explode. Seriously, it were sooo big portions that I could hardly ever finnish it, and that not good! If you don't eat up everything its bad manners in Japan! D: After we had had our dinner we walked around a bit and headed home - everyone longing after a bed and a shower....
I think I was the only one that slept for the whole night and woke up feeling full of energi from just sleeping and not from the fact that we were in Japan, and thereby in ecstsasy.

So, Day 1.
Domi and I started the day with a nice shower! ... even thou the shower where so small that you could hardly wash your hair >_>. Seriously, the shower-cabins where smaller that 1x1 meters! But yaya...
We bought some sandwhiches and 2 gigantic apples at a family-mart called Fresco and water and ice-tea for me and straw-berry(?) milk for Domi. Ankan tagged along and bought a weird pancake-thing made of sweet douge with butter in the middle and an ice-coffe. We enjoyed our breakfast on a bench at the river just outside our hostel.
We were supposed to meet up outside the hostel (the building where Domi, Ankan, Johan I lived) at 9 am, I think, but Jojo and Bella didn't show up... After we'd waited for a looong time (well, it felt like an eternity, but it were maybe 15 min) Johan and Linnea went to check if they were at the hostel at all. They were but they had forgotten to set the clock to japanese time, so they were still sleeping in their beds.
They catched up with us after 15 min. we catched the bus and then we were on our way to the first temple - Kijomizu-ji (meaning Water-temple or the Temple of Water).
The Temple is located at a mountain, so when you're standing there, you can see all of Kyoto and some of the next region (which name I don't know) and the mountains that's surrounding Kyoto... It was sooooooooo beautiful and it really tock your breath away. *daydreaming back to that moment*
Befor we went into the temple we "cleand" ourselfs by washing our hands at a special well with "holy" water that washed away the impurement of us and cleand our soul. And on a hot day like that, the cold water felt really good! Inside, it where like a little town with a "buddist-dwell" (almoste like a shrine) and the main-building of the temple. And a lot of souvenir-shops where you could by all kinds of charms and amulets. I bought a study-charm which locks like a backpack to myself and a good wealth-charm to my mom and dad.
You could give a prayer by first cleaning yourself again, but this time with diffrent kinds of incense and then throw a small coin (like 1, 5 or 10 yen, prefferbly a 5-yen since they are suppoesd to bring luck) in a "box" and clap your hands twice, bow twice think/say your prayer and then bow once more. It was really nice in the temple, with the nature so close and the marvelous buildings... (I can't describe how it locked, you just have to check out my photos that I'll try to up-laod next weekend.)
After we've been at Kiyomizu-ji we split up and had som free-time to walk around. Domi and I went throu more or less every shop on the way down the mountain and Domi bought a samurai-swodr-key-chain, I didn't buy anything because nothing really caught my eye - it felt a bit too tourist-trap-like. Domi and I bougt creps for lunch, a new, diffrent and a bit weird taste - but still good. We went back to the hostel instead of taking the bus and on our way back another tourist asked us, two complet idiots, after directions... Seriously, a tourist asking another tourist after directions... but as it is Japan, I'm not suprised since most japanse can't speak english very good. Anyhow, we managed to help her and guess what? We showed her to the right place, no less! We rocks! xD
We rested for a while before we went out again and went to the orange temple we saw on our way to the resturant the day before (the one that where up-lighted during night). And it was more like a park with temple-like buildings then a temple, but sooo beautiful! And so many sakura-trees!!! (cherryblossom-trees) And they were almost blooming... So beautiful! There where a lot of small food- candy- souvenirpositions in this park. Ankan told us that the sakura-ki (cherryblossom-trees) were up-lighted during the dark hours, so we desided to go back during that time later on...
Under the Sakura-ki there where a lot of people having picnic on blue pressings on the gound to sit on. And a lot poeple (most youngsters) slept under the stary sky under the sakura-ki as the tradition go in Japan. In this area, it was so many old houses, statues, trees and small shrines... Domi and I desided that we were in heaven. <3
Domi bought dango, three small balls made of some douge of mostly sugar witha weird texture, like plastic yet rubbery and smudgy. The three balls had the colors red (a rose-like flavour), white (less sweet then the other 2) and green (pear-like flavour), so I can't complain about the taste. x3

At 7pm we met up with the others again to deside if/where we were to eat together. Alex said the she had heard from a shop assisstent that there where a shop that sold Swedish cakes and other kinds of food/cakes from other countries, and wondered if we wanted to tag along to that shop. Everyone thought it sounded like fun, so off we went. We found the botique but it seems like the shop assisstent miixed Sweden with Swizerland. But it was fun, and they had "hemkola orginal" (a swedish caramel-candy)!! xD
When we were done locking in that botiuqe we splited the group again and Linnea and Alex went off on their own while Domi, Ankan, Jojo, Bella, Anton, Johan and I went off on a resturant-with-enough-space-for-8-people-hunt! We found one! -Full. Another one! - Full. Third try! - A table for 8!! Yes! Finally! Food!!! So, with empty stomachs we stormed the pace - in a civil manner. It was a resturant where you order a lot of small diches that everyone shares. We ordered fried chicken, fish, nudles, some cabbage, meat, fried potato (not strips!) and something to drink. As for dessert I orederd some sort of chokolate-créme broulé-thingy with green tea-flavoured ice-cream. I really liked it, except that green tea and ice-cream tastes a lot better separately.
Anton, Jojo, Ankan and I shared the same table and Domi, Bella, Karin and Johan shared another table. Anton and Jojo are liek twin-souls! Seriously, if Jojo were a boy, she'd be Anton and vice versa! It was so fun for me and Ankan to just listen to them talk! And we laughed so much that when Anton, Jojo and Ankan went to the lady/mens room, the other table said "finally some peace and queit" and "there did our peace and quiet go" when they returned... xD

After we've finnished our meal and payed we went out again and Anton said that he'd seen an arcade that he wanted to go to. Did we want to tag along? YES! And God, it was soooo much fun! Karin won three bears and her joy really spread to everyone else! I played a car-game and that was fun! I won!! xD
Domi spent I-don't-know-how-much on a chocolate-claw-machine-thing when she, Anton, Ankan and Bella tried to get it - and they did! xD
Johan played pinball and y-know the kind of game-machine that you hit some kind of heads (like beavers) when they show up in the holes and said that he had to get rid of some of his irritation towards Anton (the one who has to "endure" being the one in all examples during class) xD

And back at our room, around 11:30-12:00 pm, everyone went straight to bed, feelign exhausted but happy. I was so tired but so excited so I couldn't sleep... Ah, well...

Day 2

I'll write more later on, have to do my pile of homework now... D:
I'll try to finnish this journal this weekend but if I don't have the time, I'll do it during next week and next weekend! Promise! C: