Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, no rain, no rain, then repeat. That's what the cycle over here looks like, with the no rain parts on the weekends. This sucks; I'm getting tired of riding the train to class all the time when I have an alternative that doesn't cost anything.
It turns out that there is an awful lot to Grave of the Fireflies that I never got before, not the least of which is the pun with the title. Hotaru has two kanji- one means firefly, and the other is like 'that which shines in the darkness'. The movie is based on a book a man wrote from his experiences during the firebombing. He actually had two sisters, one real and one adopted, who he watched die after all three were orphaned. Surprisingly, the book and the movie were made to examine the relationships between people during chaotic times, and weren't made with a single thought towards the morality of war, or the fighting that took place. When looking at it from a sociological perspective instead of a normal movie-viewing one, it really is well made and quite informative.
Today I went to three places in Kyoto. The first was Fushimi-Inari, so I could get that quail. And I got what I asked for; it was a complete bird, simply plucked and grilled. I had to look at its dead face the whole time, and could only think one thing: 'This would be excellent if not for the bones!' I also bought some travel chopsticks and carrying case. These chopsticks were carved especially to assist with eating ramen :)
Then I went to Kiyomizu, probably the most famous Buddhist shrine in Japan. While we have the phrase 'All roads lead to Rome' to mention how roads can always bring us back together (and why do we do that, exactly, it doesn't make a bit of sense) they have over here the phrase 'to set out from Kiyomizu/to leap from the Stage of Kiyomizu', which refers to starting a journey. I got to stand up on the Stage, which is a giant terrace about 20-30 feet above the ground. It has actually been documented that no one who has fallen from the Stage has ever died as a result. There is also a fountain with three founts. While the monks maintain that the only virtue received from drinking any of the three is longevity, urban interpretations have been around for centuries. The one I know goes longevity, wisdom, and luck in love. Of course, I drank from the middle one (I know what my priorities are). I bought a cup for 200 yen to use, and I'm bringing it back home with me. Before I left, I finally got to try some mitarashi dango, which was on my 'eat in Japan' list. I wonder if anyone remembers Smacks, a cereal from about fourteen years ago with a frog mascot. They were almost exactly like that, except with a stronger taste. They were delicious, but I found out later that they sadly don't agree with me.
My last stop was Gion. While I couldn't find the temple with the world-famous bell (maybe it was just a place with the same name), I did come across a giant statue of Kannon, the bodhisattva of mercy. Now, I've seen giant buddha statues before. I seen pictures of the biggest buddist statue in the world which is somewhere around Vietnam, I think, so in retrospect this one wasn't so big. But that biggest one is literally one piece carved out of the side of a jungle mountain. So I never would have thought that this three story statue would be able to sit on top of a one story building! Honestly, it looked like it could crush the thing at any moment. The best part about walking to and from that temple was that in a shopping district the loudspeakers were alternating between Beatles music being played on piano, and polka. What the hell?
Tonight I had my first experience with shellfish. I don't think it counts, though, since the Japanese really don't have a sense for cooking (Ever had fries with pepper on them? The Japanese think that's about as spicy as a human can tolerate).

Observations:
Senbei might be rice crackers, but they don't have to taste anything like rice. The one's I'm munching right now are more like giant fortune cookies.
When I had quail and dango, they brought out what I thought might have been barley tea. It was iced coffee flavored like bittersweet chocolate. Eww.
Japanese television is bad for your health. There are so many shows about dangerous and stupid stunts that I feel as if I need to lie down after seeing them (sitting on a pile of balancing chairs while the front two legs of the bottom one are hanging off the edge of a mile-high cliff, for example).