'A Weekend Away' or 'A Much Needed Break'

This past weekend in Kyoto turned out to be just what I needed to pull myself out of my low. I've come to realize that the majority of my frustrations stem from work - when I'm sitting at my desk with nothing to do, it's so easy to think about what I COULD be doing. That said, I've reached a new peak of self-motivation to try and avoid this.

But back to the topic at hand! It was refreshing to walk around the big city and, of course, to hang out with Taka, Hillary, and Taka's family. The main event of the weekend was the Plum Blossom festival. Taka's father had purchased tickets for us in advance, so we took the tram downtown and got in line.

After waiting in line for about half an hour, we were finally seated in an open-air tent. It was time for a tea ceremony that was, crazily enough, served by real-life geisha! Geisha are so mysterious in the western world as to be something of an enigma, but they're a fairly standard feature in hyper-traditional Kyoto. That said, tourists (Japanese and foreign) crowded the tent to take pictures and videotape the geisha at work. They wore beautiful kimono and had white-painted faces. Being served by such a gorgeous personage, I felt slovenly and gross. I stumbled through my 'thanks,' executed a sloppy bow and glanced over to make sure that my foreign friends felt the same – they did.

After finishing our 'macha' with the three required slurps, my friends and I left the tent and the geisha to wander the temple and museum. I bought some Buddhist prayer-charms for my friends back at home and took what seemed like hundreds of pictures. However, my attempts at artistic photos are very, very sad; maybe I should take a photography class when I get back to Seattle so that my experiences aren't wasted on poor digital photos.