After that it was off to Kyoto on the bullet train. We met up with my cousin Kari and her husband Andrew, who happened to be in Japan at the same time, competing in a pro Magic tournament (Andrew). We hung out together on our first day, which was their last day before heading back to the States. It was cold and raining. SO COLD. It even snowed! We went to Shimogamo Jinja to see a Girl's Day festival, taking a detour through my old campus, but by the time we got to the shrine, we were too late for the ceremony. But a funny thing happened on the way to the shrine: a man stopped us in the street and gave us his umbrella because it was raining, and he didn't need it anymore. It took me a while to figure out what he was talking about (and to remember that this kind of thing really happens here, and he's not asking us for money or to tell us about Jesus) and we gratefully accepted his gift. He even apologized for giving us only ONE umbrella, and not one for everyone! Ha ha! Anyway, ten minutes later, the same guy shows up again, and he has TWO MORE umbrellas for us! He had chased us down the whole length of the shrine to give them to us! Ah, Japan. That is the difference between Japanese and American customer service. What a nice guy. And what a difference it made for us that day because it rained all day! 
Later, as we sat in a coffee shop trying to get warm, Thomas was playing peek-a-boo with a little old lady sitting a few tables away. I was hanging onto his pants to keep him from toppling off the chair and hiding my face to hide my embarrassment at his brazen flirtatiousness, imagining him in his teens with cooing girls hanging off his arm and wondering how I'm going to prevent him from growing up to be like the Fonz or Joey on Friends, hitting on girls with
cheesy grins and cheesier pick-up lines, summoning them with a snap of the finger. And then I turn around and Thomas is staring out the window, smiling flirtatious
ly and waving at a group of Junior High school girls in their uniforms outside who had stopped, come back, and were all giggling and waving back to Thomas through the window! Oh my God! Does anyone know the name of a good monastery?
Here we all are with The Umbrellas.
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