I've Been Guessing, but I Could Have Been Guessing Wrong

Hey guys!
Lovely weekend, and I even have pictures to go with it! 
My friend's apartment is about fifteen minutes (on foot) away from about a million different temples, all lined up for whatever reason down one specific road. 
I have no idea why they're all there, and neither does he, but that's what we went to see once I got off of work and over to where he lives. 
On Friday, I went to my Folklore class and watched the Japanese version of the Ring, and right after watching the first run-through of the infamous tape, my friend sent me a text message. Needless to say, when I felt the vibration in my pocket, my mind jumped immediately into thinking that I was receiving the phone call to alert me that I had a week left to live, and I panicked. I told him about it Saturday, while we were walking on the way to the shrines, and it proved to be very amusing to him. So, when we walked past a well in one of the temples, he told me that the girl was in there and waiting on me. After quickly panicking just slightly and walking away as fast as possible, I reminded him that, at that point, I still had six more days of life left in me. 
It was a very fun time. 

So, on to the photos, then, shall we? Some of them were taken with my phone, as the batteries for my camera were in the process of dying, and subsequently, the photos needed a little sprucing up. So, sorry about the difference in quality. I'd spruce them all up for you, but it's getting late and I'm a little tired. 

A little mailbox. 

I wanted to steal him. My aunt likes orange and eccentric things. 

It's a perfect birthday gift, I think.

The first shrine.

The next few pictures are all of this one, but I had to start getting conservative on my camera battery shortly after.

My friend explained what this was to me, but I've forgotten.

Sorry about that.

I made him read off that top line--it's strictly in the Chinese characters, and seemed pretty difficult even for him.

He being native Japanese, it was very silly to watch him jokingly wipe imaginary sweat from his brow once he finished reading that line.

But it was admirable, his effort. And he was able to do it, thereby earning a lot of respect from me.

Buddha in various stages or something, I believe. 

I could be wrong.

Oh, it was this well. 

Where he made the joke about Sadako/Samara coming to get me, the girl from the Ring.

I found this temple pretty interesting, as it's...

Rather differently designed than the rest of them.

"Something something something TOKYO something something SHO ["place."]"

"Haha, that's right." 

Thought this was really pretty.

One of my friend's favourite poets was buried here. 

He read me the first stanza on that plaque.

I understood... Some of it. Can't really recall any more,

but it was lovely.

It was arguably my favourite shrine out of the entire trip, too.

This was right as my camera was in the throes of death, so all of the pictures were terrrible.

But, in my favourite shrine, they had a small bamboo forest, which is something I've always wanted to walk around in.

So, whether or not we were technically permitted to, I don't know.

But we did, anyway.

This is the street we walked along. 

Counting all the temples in his area, some not featured on this map, there were 25. 

For a while, though, like I told you, I had to use my phone for a camera. Here are the pictures I was able to scrape up from that: 

The door to this one--there was someone in there, perhaps cleaning or something.

And she opened the door.

And I couldn't see anything except for the door spontaneously moving on its own.

Needless to say, I had to walk away from this pretty quickly, too, much to my friend's amusement.

I really like the entryways to shrines and temples.

So that was my shrine-time adventures with my friend.
Earlier in the week, and some other times throughout this week, I was getting spoiled rotten by one of my friends, a girl from Thailand, with food. 
Thursday, I believe, she made dinner for me and a Japanese friend of hers.

Green curry in the pot, I'm not sure about the name of whatever it is on the plate.

But it was spicy.

And it absolutely fantastic. She is a brilliant cook. Yesterday, a friend of mine and I went to the restaurant that she works at, also of the Thai cuisine variety, and she spoiled us with appetizers and drinks, and when I looked, it was she who was making our dinners, along with the help of the owner. 

I had a shrimp fried-rice dish. 

The fried egg over it, once you eat the whites--it took me a second to adjust, since it's not at all common in the states.

But if you put the yolk over the rice, it smooths out the texture and makes it taste even better than fried rice already does.

My friend's soup. It, too, was fantastic. 

Everything else that I've been doing lately has been primarily involving avoiding washing my dishes, school-work, and studying. Fewer credit hours this semester may indeed wind up paying off for me--I've learned a lot, and a lot faster than I did when I was so bogged down by English classes last semester. My exercise has gotten a little sporadic, but I'm still managing to move, and hopefully, as I've been eating a bit more traditionally/better lately, it will be all right. I'll stretch this weekend, hopefully.

So, I'll end it here for this week!
Enjoy the pictures. I'll try to have more soon, but I don't know when I'm going out and about again.
We'll see. Definitely more pictures of food; I think I'm getting fed or helping to prepare something on Friday.

Take care, loves.

-RD