The Count

Asian Squat Toilets vs. Maria - 3 to 6 (I win!)
Temples and Shrines: 2
Geisha: Probably will never know
Drunken Salarymen: 1

Getting a good laugh when you are exhausted: Priceless.

After the lecture, Deena and I went to Gion. We wanted real Japanese food, and since it was the evening, it was the best time to check out "The Floating World."

No Japanese food to be had - or rather, I am still too chicken sh*t to walk into a "real Japanese restuarant." We ate at a Japanese diner-ish place, with the plastic food in the window (as 90% of the restaurants do) and "Western-style food" but I can manage with the menu. I told Deena that this is Japanese food in a wierd way. Ha ha. I just had a small chef salad (though the waitress said it was big) since I wasn't that hungry - tonkatsu kept me full still.

We walked around before we ate, in oru search for Japanese food. Instead, we got to see alot of traditional architecture and little old ladies in kimono, but no geisha. Hmm. There are not too many anymore and maiko (apprentice geisha) are even rarer stil. What's more, these women that we saw weren't wearing the makeup so it's not that I didn't see any geisha or maiko, it's that I can't tell. I do plan to go to the geisha dances, however.

After dinner, while we were walking to the bus stop, we came across a group of salarymen. It was a Friday night, so everyone was out in full force. Amongst the horde of black suits, I noticed a trio of men. Or rather, two men trying to hold up someone who was so far gone. Deena and I got caught up in the mix - the trio was in front of us, while other guys were in back of us, and the drunk guy was turning his head and yelling something along the lines of "Yareru? Yareru?" (Can you do it? [Something like that]) and when he got the answer he wanted, he went bonkers. Then he collapsed to the ground in front of him.

I held it in, but when we walked away from the salarymen, I began to laugh. I then said to Deena, "It's a good thing he didn't throw up. Then it would have been gross instead of funny."