Yesterday, I blogged about my first day on my first trip to Kyoto! And now, for Day 2.

In the morning, I had a big breakfast, also known as the smartest thing I did that day. Then, it was off to Toji to put the kimono on!

Teramachidori, Wagashi Making, the Show and Going Home

Teramachidori

Because I had my rehearsal on Saturday, I didn’t have any rehearsals on Sunday. But for some reason, I was in the first batch that had our hair done and kimono put on. So that left me with about… 5 or 6 hours, I think, of free time.

What to do?

Go meet friends! I mentioned that Nicholas was visiting from Tokyo, and Min lives in Kyoto, so I got to meet the two of them. I brought along one of my new friends too, from my batch. We basically had matcha in Kyoto Station. After that, we (my new friend and I) decided to go to Teramachidori, because my senior really recommended it.

Getting to Teramachidori though, was not easy. First, we made our way to Takashimaya, where there was some limited edition sweets that my friend wanted to buy. It’s basically high class pocky, and it tastes awesome. I bought two boxes too, for omiyage.

I also saw some fancy eclairs, which I think is the same as the ones I heard were in Tokyo and really wanted to eat but couldn’t. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to risk dirtying my kimono, so I settled for taking a photo.

Then, it was time to find Teramachidori!

Obviously, we got lost.

First, we got distracted by a pretty river.

And I took a few photos.

 Then we just got lost in general. But after asking for advice, we finally managed to make our way to… the next street. Where there was a shop with what looks to be an airplane. I have no idea what it sells.

And Mr. Potato.

Finally though, we found the place.

But it wasn’t quite what we were expected. We wanted traditional Japanese goods, but this has quite a lot of modern stuff. And pottery. But we decided not to buy pottery because it would have been heavy. We did, however, see a two shops which sold what we wanted. I managed to get the bestie’s belated birthday present, so all that’s left is to mail it to her!

Wagashi Making（和菓子体験）

We met two other friends at Teramachidori, and made our way to the Wagashi making! Thankfully, we had found a place that accepts same-day reservations.

But, when we got to the workshop, we found that it was 90% school kids on a trip. Talk about standing out like a sore thumb!

Our workspace

The experience was really fun, and I have a new appreciation for all the makers of wagashi. It’s really tough, and that’s no joke. You have to work very quickly, to make sure the materials don’t dry up, and moulding it into a certain shape and blending colours look easy, but aren’t.

I’m pretty sure it’s obvious, but can you tell which is mine?

The second part of the experience was to watch the teacher (a professional sweet maker, who’s also a woman – a rarity!) make a few sweets.

 She was AMAZING.

And apparently, she could tell we didn’t rent our kimonos XD

Tada.

The last section was the eating part! We were served matcha, and another type of sweet. I think it’s an award winning one. It was this baked bun, and it was really good!

I would get so fat if I lived in Kyoto

We were also encouraged to eat our sweets, because freshly made sweets taste different from those you buy. And she was right – it’s way, way softer than the normal sweets. They actually have a kit, and I wanted to buy one, but it doesn’t last very long, so I abandoned that thought.

Oh, and they also gave us a graduation certificate – one per group. So we all took photos, and it was enough for me.

Kimono Fashion Show in Toji

After we finished making our sweets, it was time to go back to Toji to prepare for the show! Thankfully, there was a direct bus.

Waiting.

When we got back, we had our faces touched up, and then we headed to the tents.

The big backdrop is the stage.

And happily, my scene had the best seats – right in front of the TV! So we got to watch the whole show, from start to finish.

And for some reason, some of the staff were wearing really cool clothes.

There was a briefing, and then we were given one last chance to go to the toilet and stuff. I went to take photos (obviously). Although I must admit, I was quite worried because I hadn’t practiced at all that day.

And the pagoda-thing:

And then it was time for the show to start! There were performances by the special guests, and when the first models came out, we all gasped and cheered. That led to the model-teachers and the director commenting that “You do know you’re all going up, right?”.

Oops.

We were like “Oh yeah. We ARE.”

Everyone trying to take a look at the show.

Since I’m Scene 6, we were to get on rather quickly. It was nerve-wrecking, especially since our song was so upbeat, and every song up to then was rather… dignified.

But, when the time came, we just went on stage, and I tried not to jump up and down or act goofy. And I think I succeeded, because the teachers said that I did well.

Thanks so much for teaching us! 😀

The rest of the show was just sitting down and watching. I was supposed to go on in the finale, but the finale started ten minutes before I wanted to leave. You see, I was very silly and placed my luggage with the hotel. That meant I had to go to the cloakroom, get to the hotel, repack the bags and then go to the station. So I needed a bit more time than the other contestants.

But everyone was very nice, and they let me leave early.

random photo of the light up

Going Home

I hadn’t really eaten since breakfast (sweets and tea don’t count, according to people I’ve asked). So I was starving! But I did receive two onigiri and some tea. Sadly, after one, I felt so full I wanted to throw up. I guess this is another reason why you don’t wear a kimono for a three hour shinkansen ride home.

It was really boring, and I basically amused myself by playing with the apps on my phone. +Turkka Hynynen can attest to how strange my selfies turned out hehe.

Because this is the last train, I arrived in Hakata at around midnight. I was tired, my luggage was heavy, but it was still a surprise that I managed to fall down an escalator. I don’t even know how that happened, since all I did was get on and stand there. But thankfully, I only fell past one person before someone caught me. And it probably helped that I was, well, I wasn’t screaming, but I was sort of going “ahhhh”. Best I could come up with was “involuntary sounds of distress”, which sounds awkward even to me.

At any rate, someone grabbed me and got me back on my seat, while two other people got my luggage. The only thing I could say was “sorry”.

Really, thank you awesome three people who helped me!

The rest of the way home was uneventful, and I quickly got out of the kimono, took a bath, and went to sleep. Then woke up for first period school.