Thank you very much :-)

man ive been in japan for almost about 7 years and still havent made it to kyoto...lol

Wow. Why???

I've actually heard the same thing from others who have been here in Japan for years and never gone to Kyoto. I think Kyoto is amazing, but I also now know it can be complicated in working out all of the details to going, if I hadn't had help from about 5 other people I probly wouldn't have made it.

Hope you get a chance to go sometime GuyInJapan :)

What could possibly be so complicated? It's a major stop on the shinkansen line. From Kyoto station you can walk to many of the famous temples and sites.

As I recall you can buy the tickets to Kyoto at the Shibuya station ticket machine. It tells you which two tickets to buy to make the transfer. Seems fairly easy

I actually took the bus and i wasn't headed directly to kyoto i was going to osaka first. I couldn't speak or understand enough Japanese to call for bus reservations and then I found an online site that was in Japanese which only helped me after I asked one of my friends to translate for me. Then the hotel part was a beast mostly because we were doing everything short notice and on a holiday weekend so everyone else was wanting to travel too. Didn't go to Kyoto till the second day of the trip. So yeah it was me that made it complicated. I still had fun I just got a small headache while planning. :-)

It is sad to say but my time in Japan is quickly coming to an end. I've had so many adventures and learned so many new things. Tokyo has become my home now and even though I will be headed stateside very soon and though it may sound cheasy Japan is where my heart will stay. I've had my bad and sometimes scary experiences but I don't think there is anywere on earth that you won't find those. It may sound like looking through rose colored glasses but Japan has a charm to it that I will always love.

I have made my self a promise to come back to Japan, and so maybe in the future I will be here or somewhere else again writing about my new adventures in Japan.

Though I won't be living in Japan any longer, all questions or comments are still welcome.

And to everyone who has been following my adventures, thank you for taking the time. :-)

Back in the US
 

Its crazy before i left and while i was gone i didn't believe people when they said i would experience reverse culture shock. it seemed like something that everyone says but it doesn't really exist. after being back for 5 weeks i realize that its all true. 1) i never realized how loud americans are, 2) food food food it is so different at first i was like i'm ok with not having any asian food but it finally hit about 2 weeks ago and all i wanted was ramen and sushi (i live in the middle of nowhere so getting anything like that even if its not the real thing is really hard to do) 3) interacting with people now is so different its hard to explain but it is... now the list goes on and on but i think its obvious that the rumors are true reverse culture shock does exist. :-P

Everyone has different experiences, but after living 3+ years essentially culture shock free, it was a month or two after coming home that I noticed the things you are talking about.