Kyoto Expedition - begin deconstruction

My flight was the following day after Everland and I hadn't really finished packing. In part because I was using some of the things I was going to pack and in part because I confirmed what I knew about travel-sickness medications.

The box says one every four hours. Four hour is not enough time for the stuff to flush out of your system and it acts as an efficient sleeping agent instead. :C So I spend the entire tripping dozing off and waking suddenly. Yays~

Anyway, Japan. First of all, it's true. Japan is horrendously expensive. If you're not prepared for the rates you'll get a horrible fright. I knew this and still had a 'how much?!!' moment within the first day. I'm very glad I was careful to save my money though. My biggest problem was that I've been working in KRW since May so I kept having to kick myself everytime I went to spend money.

Aside from this facet, which made the Cavanwoman in me crawl, I really enjoyed myself. Kyoto is a nice city and very interesting. Yes, like  a great many other places it is blatantly westernised but it is still foreign at its core. The approach, the design, the map itself feels like it has been layered over an ancient city.

Kyoto is famously the historic capital of Japan. (Although that did reside in Nara for a time) and was considered so important that it directly led to Edo being renamed 'East Kyoto' (To-kyo)
Of course, all history and culture I reference (and flail over) is being grossly simplified so feel free to skip it if you do.

I had the same tour guide for both days of being bussed around to significant sites and she pointed out the electrical wires. The landscape is simply swarming  with electrical wires between buildings knotting them up like a web. There are simply so many that it is somewhat jarring when you glance up and notice the sheer quantity within a restricted space. This is because it is nigh-on impossible to bury electrical wires in any part of the city. When they start digging they invariably run into something that has the archaeological teams called in post-haste. One of the hazards of being a truly ancient city I suppose.

Now I arrived Friday and didn't really do anything other than find my hostel. (By the way, bus from the airport - financially painful but I wasn't in the mood to wrestling with the rail system in a foreign country after getting off the airplane). So Saturday, I had an all day tour around Kyoto and Sunday was for Nara.

Monday was for meandering around the city, which I did while discovering how uncomfortable my shoes were.

I'll admit while I was there I spent as little time as possible in the hostel itself, leaving very early and returning only when it got dark, but I would recommend it to any who would head out that way. Personally, I was vastly amused by the fact that I had to remove by shoes when I entered, this very modern westernised hostel, and was glad I'd worn sandals.

Bad for my heart

I've never actually had to arrange a visa so it was a new experience at the very least. On a scale of frustrating bureaucracies I'd rate it a 3. So, not bad at all!! (To clarify, Social Welfare merits a 12 on the 10 point scale.)

The problem I had was that I'm being sponsored for my visa by my new employers (*Hee~* I have a job!! ^_^ ) so I couldn't actually apply until I got the number from them. It wouldn't be too stressful except that the date of commencement for my contract was stealthily chasing me up the street.

Once the number came we scheduled an immediate father-daughter bonding trip and ventured forth. The weather was gorgeous, I didn't throw up, a massive success all round!! C:

Then, came the kicker. I arranged to pick it up Friday afternoon rather than have them post and have it arrive next Monday while I'm on stopover in Dubai. No problem right? Wrong

Yesterday morning they called me and told me that they'd accidentally posted it out to someone else in Cavan. My heart stopped. I nearly keeled over. Fortunately I didn't because that would have hurt - there's a lot of stuff on the floor here.  (Fearghal, you should really clear up)

So my passport (and visa) had been posted to another person while my flight is on Saturday. Saturday!! Now, to the uninitiated, I am definitely a neurotic wreck right now. My glass is half-empty, all my worst fears have come to pass and I'm out of tea!!

However, this turns out that my passport has been delivered to young master X (name concealed for privacy and safety of myself*) who lives in the same housing estate as ones family. The mother of young master X (details concealed for the privacy and safety of myself*) brought it round just as I put on my shoes to head in their direction.

So after <details excluded to protect the innocent*> I received my passport and am once again Korea-bound!

.....My heart still hasn't calmed down from the shock though.


*What you think I'm protecting others? It's all for my health and well-being. Who knows what could get you sued these days?!!