Panasonic Scholarship (PS) was celebrating their 10th anniversary last week. So for the event, Panasonic held a ceremony in Osaka and a trip to Kyoto and Nara. All the PS associates from all over the world including the current scholars, alumni and officers came over for the wonderful event. We can either chose to go to Kyoto or Nara for the trip. Kyoto for me, because i've heard of all the compliments about it but have never actually been there.

First we went to a traditional boat ride in Arashiyama (yes, there were paddlers and no engines).



I totally didnt expect to get this in Japan though.  The scenery was beautiful and the ride was about 90 minutes. It was very mesmerizing in the beginning but after 40 minutes, it started to become a pain in the ass (literally), sitting in the boat i was like "helloooo when are we suppose to reach???" our guide told us a lot of nice stories/legends of the river. A lot of couples come to ride on a private small boat paddling with loved ones. One of the myth told was, the couple who comes to the river will get the end to their relationship soon. Nevertheless, u can still see tonnes of couple there.

One funny thing. There were small boats, supposedly called moving stalls that sell food on the river. These boats approach all the passing tour boats and side-by-side-ly selling their food to the passengers. Imagine ice cream man that passes by your neighborhood, ring ring, thats how it was, it was a funny scene to me. I was fasting on the day, the food was really killing my patience.



Then to a kimono house where we learned to make handkerchiefs! I couldnt take so much pictures there though.

The next day i went to the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) which is a very famous temple (or is it a castle?) which is fully plattered with real gold. It was beautiful. like, really..







With Titis, Bo Eng and Zul, my host for the trip. He was so kind to bring us around =)



Thats the graveyard of a giant white python from the ancient.



This is a very special picture. why? Because u would rather wait for the world to end before Andrea could agree on being captured. lol!



Andrea prayed a lot on that day. Though she didnt tell what it was for, I personally think i know what, because I had the same in heart.



We wanted to go to the Bamboo Forest but there was not enough time before our Shinkansen schedule back to Tokyo. So that was teh end of the trip. Owh, the night before we went to Giyon and Shoji because Willy wanted to see geishas (real ones). we didnt get to find any, but we had a lot of fun walking around that night.





Kyoto is a very very beautiful place. The air is clean. The sceneries are breath taking, the people are kind and the food is superbly tasty. I love Kyoto.. I love the people there. Somehow I thought that Kyoto people has some kinda sweet features to their faces, something u cant see in Tokyo. I would definitely come back here again soon. one more thing, u wont see any skyscrappers in Kyoto. All the buildings have to be under certain height (around 6 floors i think?), according to local regulations, to respect the most honored temple there. The tallest building ever allowed built there is the Kyoto Tower.



and i cant go home without a camwhoring experience in the lovely city.... haha..

Okay just a quick post on some food i had in Kyoto. First my senpai brought me to an udon shop. at first i was kinda erkkk about the idea because i dont like udon. turned out to be a pleasant feast though.



Thats a special tororo udon with half boiled eggs. Yummy!



Willy and Titis.. Next is the indian cuisine near Kyoto Uni.. nothing much to brag about. we had better ones in Tokyo lol ;P



I was craving for crepe the whole time i was in Tokyo, mostly because the crepe in Tokyo sucks elephant's ass and i've had an unforgettable one on my 1st Osaka trip. So i constantly nagged my senpai to bring me to a crepe stall in Kyoto, hoping it's as good as Osaka's.
Well, it was not as good.. but i got the rare cheese in it which is good enough!





Rare cheese vanilla blueberry crepe. urghh, i got hungry writing this post. gonna go get filled now. Have a good day, guys. I miss u all.