First Free Weekend IN JAPAN

Friday was really hot so after our PLACEMENT test, Katie, Kate and I went and oyogu-ed (swam) in the Kamogawa. Since the river's, like, a foot deep, swimming is more like wading..


Following that, as part of our mandatory "practica," we all had to go to the Kyoto Disaster Prevention Center. Instead of being super-lame it was actually super awesomeeee:

Check out my YouTube video:

Friday night, a lot of us went for dinner and then Karaoke near Shi-jo. It was my FIRST TIME EVER doing karaoke. It was super. Afterward, we went down the street and did Puri Kura (photo booths) and then took a group picture. There were lots of awesome nihonjin who jumped in with us :

Saturday morning I biked by myself to Toji Temple to check out the South of Kyoto. Toji is really pretty and the atmosphere was really nice since there weren't a ton of people.

Toji is the tallest pagoda/ tallest wooden structure in Japan :)

Later, I biked back up to the crotch of the Kamo River, around where I live, and met up with some friends for lunch. We ate at BonBon Cafe. Supposedly it was french. We had parfaits..

Later in the day, I went shopping down at Shijo and Teramachi with my friends. I had the best time ever at LOFT. I want to buy everything there. That bear, Rilakkuma.. so adorable. I always end up buying everything with its stupid face on it.


Today was ridiculously hot. I went with Kate and 'swam' in the river. We walked south and found a place that was deeper so that we could wade to our thighs instead of our shins. Such a pretty day though. I can't believe its already autumn in NY. Feels just like summer here.


We also went shopping and hit up a lot of 100 yen shops.. which are the Japanese version of the Dollar Tree. I finally bought a cellphone dangly. It's a squishy banana that I bought for 100 yen.