Leif

Today I woke up from a strange dream of Karen and wrapping houses. Apparently everyone had weird dreams and we think it was the cake we bought last night. I woke up late so we got a later start than we wanted. We had breakfast in Namba and set off for Kyoto. We took a taxi to Kiyomizu-dera temple which was amazing and beautiful. We strolled around for hours then walked back through this row of a million souvenir shops.

We taxi'd back to the station and had yakiniku for dinner, which Karen treated us to (she's been treating most of our delicious meals and they are so fabulous but she's spent so much money on us). Anyway we also had green tea, traditional style, though not quite tea ceremony. We took the subway and shinkansen back to Osaka and had foot rubs in Namba walk and now I am in my room again.

A wonderful day yet again.

Today Karen woke me up early so we could try the outdoors bath in the ryokan. It was wonderful, warm and beautiful. The clouds were clearing to reveal bluer skies and it reflected in the water beautifully. There was also a little shrine with fox figures in it. The gardens around the onsen were beautiful.

We took a shuttle back to himeji and spent allll day shopping. I got some anime things from the animate, we had more tayaki, (breakfast the onsen was so fancy) and we went for Ramen for lunch. We met this amazing friendly ramen chef, Koba, who ran a ramen jazz place that was amazing.

We did more shopping, Karen and Laura won three samurai cats from some arcade games, they got me a kimono that is gorgeous, and we did more shopping and walking before heading back to Osaka. We're now hanging out in Collin's room watching bad Japanese TV.

I slept in late this morning but eventually we set off to get breakfast, which was waffle toast. It was a little weird but mine was good, Laura and Collin didn't like theirs and mom got a salad while Karen go a waffle with ice cream. We went from there to an Ozz Oneste store where we got more outfits. Then we had a break where we changed into some of the fancy outfits and then went to Osaka castle, with a stop to pick up bentos which we ate in the castle park.

Mom was not feeling great so we left her resting on the way, I felt bad she couldn't make it the whole way but she did have a nice view. We went to the castle, traversing a looong way across the grounds and up to the 8th floor. A great view but holy crap our feet were murdering us.

We headed back home and split up, Collin and Laura for more shopping, mom for the hotel, Karen and I got AMAZING foot massages and then went back to the hotel. We all met up and mom wanted to do the tea room but it was more a cocktail lounge so we went for unagi in food row instead. The eel was awesome! We wanted dessert but most places were closed, so we settled on some slim selection. Collin got a back rub and then mom went back while the rest of us went to arcades. Turns out I am pretty good at japanese arcades! Some of them. I won an evee and a basuke poster and Laura and collin won an Evee! We then played the gambling for prizes game. I got a little Caster figure which I gave to Karen and she also got one. And then between me, Karen and Laura we bought the last four Tales tickets and got some great things plus an incredible Yuri figure. It was nice of them! I failed at getting a Kyuubi.

We took a taxi back and as of right now my feet still hate me fiercely.

Tomorrow we go to Himeji? If that's how it is spelled.

We all (Karen mom and I) woke up at 4am and went back to sleep. I woke around 9 something and took a while getting dressed, before we all trekked off to this amazing french pastry shop for breakfast. Sooo good. There was this raspberry filled thing? Anyway, afterwards we went looking for an Ozz store, which we found! Karen bought Laura this beautiful black shirt and skirt and wine boots, bought herself an amazing green ensemble, this cool green gathered skirt, print green shirt and black vest. as well as a pretty black rose and feather hair ornament.

She bought me this amazing gothic red slip, dress, jabot, corset and boots set up that I am dying over. She is the most generous sweet person in the world. The boots are amazing but walking in them for half a day was killer.

After that we had to rush to get to our Kabuki performance. We were late but caught most of it. It was five hours of theatre and pretty amazing. Beautiful. The first scene we saw was this whole deal with some samurai on a beach having feelings and one had to kill his son. Next was a weird kind of... The guy had to tell this lady that he killed HER son then present his son's head to a lord and also a stone mason killed a ninja.

The final thing was a dance where a girl dances and then is ensnared by a lion spirit who takes her over and is teased by butterflies, really cool.

We headed back, had sushi for dinner, it was amazing melt in your mouth stuff, and retired to the room. I switched shoes, we took a break, and mom stayed to rest while Laura, Karen, Collin and I went on to search for an arcade. We didn't find a satisfactory one but we DID find a great parfait place and wandered around Shibuya a lot. Then we did karaoke (my first time ever! Karen and Laura are great singers!) and headed back. Where I am writing this. Going to shower and sleep. Tomorrow, Ikebukuro then Osaka!

It's hot as hell in Japan right now.

All further fanfiction will be put on the journal leif.

Lady Z has issued this writing challenge. I will endeavor to complete it.

"Select a character or a pair of characters. Write 300-500 words for each prompt, or longer if you so desire. Do this once a day. If you select a pair of characters, you must at least mention both characters in each prompt and it must star one of the characters. You don't have to do the prompts in order from 1 to 28. You can take any interpretation of the word(s) that you want but can only make two substitutions and the substitutions must have something to do with the original prompt (such as 'content' for 'well-shagged')."

The prompts will be filled in this post for now.

The character I'm writing for is original, his name is Garit, he's one of the two main protagonists of my book.

( 16. Dominant )

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( 27. Kick ass )