It took about 2 hours and 30 minutes from Tokyo to Kyoto by Shinkansen.
This is my first time riding the Shinkansen, and it’s definitely incredibly fast as it’s known.
“Oh… this is Kyoto Station.”
“It looks just like a pyramid.”
As soon as they got off at Kyoto Station, the first people in the group to exclaim were Sasha, a Russian, and Mahesu, an Egyptian.
He speaks Japanese so well that he sometimes forgets that he is a foreigner.
We took the long escalator up to the sky garden above the station during the 30-minute free time we were given before moving to our accommodation.
From the sky garden, we could see the whole view of Kyoto city thanks to the panoramic view, and in the distance we could see Kyoto Tower, one of the landmarks of Kyoto.
Rika muttered as she leaned back.
“Something small.”
“Everyone from Tokyo said that. It’s probably because it’s smaller than Tokyo Tower.”
As the class leader said that and took a picture of Kyoto Tower in the distance with his cell phone, Ayame, who was next to him, held out his hand.
“Leader, don’t do it alone, let’s take a picture together. These are all memories.”
Then Satoru, who was next to him, trembled and agreed.
“Oh! That’s good! I’m Chansung!”
“Hey, they say that the only thing left on a trip is photos.”
Let’s talk to Ryuji there too, “Huh? Huh?” And the class president was swept away by the atmosphere.
“Can you take just one picture for me?”
We asked passersby to take a group photo with Kyoto Tower in the background.
“Ahhh!”
But the class leader who was checking the picture screamed.
“What’s up?!”
When everyone looked at them in surprise, the class leader showed the phone screen with trembling hands.
“Sa, there’s a strange thing on Sakamoto’s back.”
eh?
I hurriedly looked at the picture.
Clearly, there was something flashing white on Ryuji’s back.
“……”
I looked at Ryuji.
Saya hanging behind his back… No, he gently turned his head to make an excuse to see if Chiaki was being stabbed.
“It’s not my fault! What!”
Oh my, that burn.
I shook my head as much as I could to convince her.
“It’s probably because of something like backlight. There’s no way a ghost can be seen in broad daylight.”
“Didn’t I say a word that I was a ghost?”
“Is that so?”
“…After all, Yoosung looks like a ghost to you too, doesn’t it?”
I had nothing to say, so I quietly nodded my head.
“What is it?”
Then Satoru appeared as a relief pitcher.
“Ah, there’s something like a ghost in the picture.”
Then Satoru glanced at the picture and shrugged with a grin.
“This is caused by light reflections in HDR. It’s not a big deal, so don’t be too fussy.”
“That’s right?”
When the class leader scratched the back of his head shyly, Satoru said with a scornful expression.
“You didn’t know that the class leader was afraid of ghosts?”
“Can’t it be me?”
“No, there was a surprisingly cute corner.”
The class leader then pounded Satoru with his fist with his face reddened.
“It hurts! It hurts! It really hurts!”
Thank you. Satoru, I will never forget your sacrifice.
***
Arriving on a chartered bus from Kyoto Station was an old hot spring inn built in downtown Kyoto.
Like Kyoto, where there are many old houses, you can see a lot of old wooden buildings everywhere.
It made me feel as if I had traveled back in time.
After all, it must be said that Kyoto is famous for its thousand years of history.
As a city famous as a representative tourist destination in Japan, the overall scenery is beautiful.
“Oh… pretty.”
As we were walking down the hallway to unpack our luggage at the dorm, we saw a maple tree planted in the garden and unwittingly caught our attention.
Although it is a bit far from the traditional Japanese garden with pine trees, the bright red maple leaves scattered over the stone bridge were like a painting.
Rika, who was walking ahead, asked Sasha.
“Is this the first time Sasha has been to a ryokan?”
Then Sasha quietly nodded her head.
“I’ve seen it a lot in anime, but it’s the first time I’ve been to it in person.”
“Then do you know how to wear a yukata?”
“No. The hotel staff helped me last time I went to the festival.”
“Fufu, I thought you would. Then I’ll help you change clothes in a little while.”
I’m glad they both seem to get along well.
Before summer break, there were quite a few conflicts of opinion.
After breaking up with the girls and entering our room, I was amazed at how large the room was.
“Wow, the room is spacious.”
“Isn’t that 15 pyeong?”
“When I was in middle school, I packed all the boys in one room, but there’s definitely something different about the rich school.”
We each started to unpack our belongings after giving out a few words of appreciation.
“Fufu, I have a treasury fashion item that I brought for today.”
Satoru said so, and what he took out of his backpack were black sunglasses.
“With this one, masculine beauty is said to be overflowing.”
“Oh oh….”
“That’s cool.”
Every man has a romance with sunglasses.
Perhaps it is because of the influence of all kinds of video media that I have been exposed to since childhood, but for some reason, I looked cool when I saw a person wearing sunglasses.
Seeing Satoru wearing sunglasses, Ryuji gently stretched out his hand.
“I’ll use it only once.”
“Uh-huh! This is mine.”
Saying that, he patted the back of his hand, and Ryuji grunted as he grabbed the back of his hand that had turned red.
“Desperately.”
“I know how to say that, Ryuji and Yoosung, so don’t worry.”
Satoru said that and brought out sunglasses with a slightly different design from his own.
These are slightly round-shaped Boeing sunglasses that the main character wears in a movie featuring a fighter.
“Damn I believed it!”
When Ryuji reached out for the sunglasses he was holding, Satoru suddenly pulled his hand back and asked.
“Have you forgotten the promise we made at the beach last time?”
“Promise? What promise?”
“The next time there’s something to hunt, the promise is that we’ll do it together unconditionally.”
“ah….”
After all, it seemed that he had made such a promise.
To be honest, I completely forgot about it.
But for Satoru, he asked with a serious expression whether it was the most important promise in the world.
“Aren’t you supposed to say you forgot?”
“No, of course.”
As Ryuji nodded with a forced smile, Satoru just smiled and held out his sunglasses.
“So that’s my friend.”
“Ryuji hey?”
The condition of Chiaki clinging to Ryuji was unusual, but it’s not my business, so it doesn’t matter.
“Then it’s Yooseong’s turn this time.”
Satoru said that and brought out a pair of classic sunglasses that were slightly angled.
To be specific, it’s a guy that a machine man from the future would wear.
Let’s try it, Satoru was silent.
“Why? Is something strange?”
“I wonder if it’s weird, it looks like they’re about to run into sashimi right away.”
In short, it sounded like a yakuza.
“I’m not going to write it.”
I promptly returned it.
“Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it with bad intentions!”
Satoru hurriedly tried to pick up what he had said, but it was already too late.
From https://noblemtl.com
My glass heart already had a big crack.
In the midst of cuddling like that, the free time allotted was over, so we headed to the meeting place that the homeroom teacher had pre-arranged.
We were going to visit the tourist attractions near the inn, and we were going to come back at night.
***
Kiyomizu-dera Temple.
Cheongsusa in Korean.
In terms of popularity among tourist attractions in Kyoto, it is a place that competes for towers along with the Golden Pavilion and the Silver Pavilion.
Its historical value is so high that it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it was a building loved by the Japanese.
It is one of the places you must visit when you go on a school trip to Kyoto, and if you compare it to Gyeongju, it was like Bulguksa.
“Huh… huh… high…”
At first, Satoru, who was arrogant, arguing that this was clearly not a big deal, took a deep breath as he continued up the endless uphill road.
“Look, you said you’d better adjust your pace.”
“Heh… I didn’t know it would be like this…”
Seeing Satoru taking a rough breath as if he was about to run out of breath, I shook my head and handed the water bottle I was holding in my hand.
gulp! gulp! gulp!
Satoru, who shot the water in a plastic bottle at once, as if it was the water of life, was fuha! ‘ he asked, taking his mouth off the water bottle.
“But where have all the girls gone?”
“I heard you’re going to take a look at the tea house on the way up. We’re here because we’ve been chasing you.”
“If it’s really hard, why don’t we go somewhere to rest and go? There’s still plenty of free time.”
At Ryuji’s suggestion, who looked at him with a worried expression, Satoru said in a brazen voice.
“If you’re going to say that… I can’t help it.”
I watched the scene quietly and asked Ryuji who was next to me.
“Do you want to just throw this guy away?”
Ryuji then nodded with a serious expression.
“Not bad.”
Satoru carefully stretched out his hand, perhaps having grasped the uneasy atmosphere at that time.
“Huh? Over there? Guys?”
“We’ll go first, so come up when you’re all rested.”
But we had already decided to play around, so we started running up the steep uphill without looking back.
Abandoned alone, Satoru shouted from behind.
“Hey! You bad bastards!!”
Oh, the Doppler effect.