Kyoto Thanksgiving: Day 1

Was planning to write about Thanksgiving earlier, but then I got sick, which was quite a bummer. Still not completely well so these might be shorter than usual.

Went to Kyoto from Tokyo on a night bus. Few things I noticed, the bus is segregated between genders. Guys in the front, girls in the back. Therefore, seats are assigned (which I didn't know earlier, so May, who was traveling with me, and I could not sit together). The reason is most probably because of chikan (perverts). You never know what might happen in the dark. I was able to sleep relatively well (seats tilt back ~25 degrees) but the fact that the bus stopped every 1.5 hours at a rest stop and turned on bright lights was annoying.

Arrived in Kyoto, meet up with Reed (who skipped lab), Andrew, and Tori. Basically, we spent the rest of the day meeting up with everyone else and shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. Sadly, we did not have a turkey. We really tried, but with no oven, there was nothing we could do. Japan, why are there no full-sized ovens in your country!? In the end, we settled for nabe (basically hotpot) and sukiyaki, while Chiara brought Mac and Cheese and Courtney and Matt brought stuffing, mashed potatoes, and a green bean casserole. Food was delicious and afterward, surprise surprise, we had drinking batsu-gemu (punishment games). There was this clapping/name game that was fun (but too hard to describe) and this acting game. Basically, you had a director who could pick people to act in any kind of scene. Whoever laughed first lost and drank, but would also be the director for the next round. What we learned, May is hilarious and Reed is either a great actor or good at keeping a straight face. We did go out afterward but there was nothing that memorable. Oh, but Sake bombs do have a nice taste.

Highlight of the night was no doubt when Rebbecca took out Toku while cleaning up. I can't do the scene justice so I won't even attempt to describe it (and to be fair a lot of background information is needed to totally understand the situation as well) but it is fair to say that among this years Japan Fulbrighters we all know what "Rebbecca-ing" someone means now.