This post was recovered from an old blog that I had while studying abroad in Japan. I’ve only updated misspellings or dead links, but left any cringe worthy things or immature thoughts. I’ve decided to leave them as a snapshot of who I was and to see how far I’ve come. Any photos have been freshly edited and so are not the same as what was originally posted. Over the years I had several blogs, most lost to time, and I wanted to recover some lost memories and reflect on my life.

hen I originally decided to go to Kyoto I’d planned to stay with couch surfers and at hostels. Then around a week before I left I realized that pretty much all the hostels were full for the time I would be in Kyoto, so I would have to rely on couch surfers only. I began sending out ton’s of messages from couchsurfing.com to anyone who lived in Kyoto and had recently been active on the site. I’d bought my shinkansen ticket and was pretty much ready to, only a couple days until leaving, but still had not heard back from anyone. What to do?

I remembered the times I’d spent at McDonald’s in Shibuya before the trains had started. There had to be 24 hour McDonald’s in Kyoto, I thought. After using the Japanese McDonald’s site to search for 24hr Mac’s in Kyoto I began marking them all down on my Kyoto map. This way, wherever I was in the city, I could find a Mac somewhat nearby to stay at. Then, just a day before I left, a couch surfer let me know I could stay with him on the last two nights of my trip. Now I only had to stay at Mac for four nights. Four nights couldn’t be that bad.

On the first night after my great soak at the sento I set off for a McDonald’s only ten blocks away. Once arriving I got some fries, a burger and a water, went up to the second level and proceeded to fall asleep. There was a couple next to me talking so it was hard for me to really get to sleep. Eventually I did, but only for a short while. Around 1:30am a worker shook me awake and told me they would be cleaning the second level, so it was closed. I got my stuff and headed for the first floor, where there were only a couple of seats, both taken. I looked at my map for a close McDonald’s, there were none. I knew I couldn’t make it to the closest one, which was practically across town, so I checked my map for parks. I found one only a couple of blocks away and started putting one foot in front of another.

Ten minutes later I came to the little park. I looked around for something suitable to lie on because I didn’t want to sleep on the ground. Japanese playgrounds are always dirt and sand, I’d just taken a bath and wanted to stay somewhat clean. Then, over on one side of the small park I spotted a bench, under a light, but actually shaded from the light. Perfect. I got in position and began sleeping, only to have bugs fall on me from the above light and mosquito’s attack my legs. I pulled up my hiking socks to my knees and paid no mind to the bugs from above as a drifted to sleep. My first day in Kyoto had come to an end and it was quite the adventure already.