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So, I woke up and realized that today was my last day in Japan.

Aaargh. ;.;

We first went to the Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle). This castle had the coolest floors biggrin They squeak when they are walked on. This is done on purpose, to keep anyone from being able to sneak in at night without the emperor's knowledge.

They also had really nice gardens around it, and we got to see the underworkings of the Nightingale floors (previously mentioned).

After that, we went to Kinkaku-ji, more commonly known as the Golden Pavilion. It's really pretty biggrin It actually got burned down in the 1950's by a mental monk, and the present one is a replacement temple.

We got to eat at a crafts center, and then we got to shop for stuff in the same place. After that, we drove downtown.

We visited a program office for the program ORIGIN, which teaches tourists about tradition in Japan. I found out that my handwriting in Japanese is kinda decent. biggrin

Then, we went to a music store.

This had been arranged at the very last minute by Maiko (didn't I tell you she was awesome?), who had been begged by the delegates to let them go to a music store. Since I didn't have much else to do, I went with them, and after much searching I found a real live AKFG CD (!!!). Was happy.

We traveled to a geisha district (and to clear one itty bitty detail up, NO THEY ARE NOT PROSTITUTES! THAT'S AN OIRAN!) and I SAW GEISHA! Well, technically, they were maiko-san, which is something like a geisha apprentice. But still biggrin

Our last dinner in Japan was a yakiniku, which is basically where they bring you raw meat and you grill it yourself. IT WAS YUMMY biggrin It had this really good sauce on it.

That's all for now...