While I can say now, life here is great on the balance of things, sometimes I have a bad day. Here is a recount of one such bad day...
Well, it had been a stressful week, there was lots to do and more things came up unexpectedly (as they do sometimes). So, I finally got the chance to go out somewhere by myself for the evening, maybe a little adventure. When Dave was with us, he had told me tales of interesting places he found in Kyoto. So I set out towards the North of the city and only found that Starbucks was open, maybe because it was Monday, or it was too early in the evening? Looked crowded in Starbucks and the only seats available were outside ones, too cold for that on the 1st of March in Kyoto! Didn't really want to go to Starbucks anyway.
So then I remembered how I saw some interesting restaurants above the subway line in the South of the city, so I decided to head South. The first stop I tried ended having nothing there dark streets, nothing much of interest open, so I walked one subway stop North and by then was hungry, all I could find open was McDonald's! I decided I might go for a 120yen cheese burger because at least it would keep the hunger away until I found somewhere better. While in McDonald's I figured that it must have been on the Southern part of the other subway line, so I'd have to head East via the JR train line. Headed back North on the subway up to the JR Station, caught the train one stop East and then changed on the other subway at Yamashina then headed South again for afew stops till I got to Ono.
At Ono all I found was a few closed car yards, an open convenience store, and roadside Gyudon restaurant. It was already too late in the evening by then for the shopping centres to be open. So I decided Gyudon was what I'd eat. Gyudon is basically slices of beef in a sauce served on top of a large bowl of steaming hot rice. Now against better judgement and warnings from Ritsuko about cheep Gyudon restaurants (cause they might use nasty high chemical content mad cow infested beef!!!) I went in had bowl of Gyudon for about 400yen. As I left the restaurant it started to rain quiet heavily. As I got into the subway station I made this snap with the Casio, the only photo I took that day. Then I started sneezing, it was a the beginning of a cold.
Then it was only on the way home I realised I didn't have my house keys (and I don't have a cellphone). When I finally arrived home it was after 10pm and Ritsuko was asleep up stairs, and I had to ring the door bell a few times before she came down to open the door! Yep, I had a bad day!