rose_of_pain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rose_of_pain) wrote2006-06-12 10:11 pm
rose_of_pain) wrote2006-06-12 10:11 pm
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Japan: Day 5 and 6
Oh man! I totally forgot that I hadn't finished the Japan trip reports yet. ^^;; And still have the rest of the pictures to show too. So here's the next one. (trying to get them done before AN) There are some pictures but not til near the end.
Day 5: Kyoto
Traveling: from Mt. Koya-san bus to cable car to train to another train to Kyoto subway to the hotel
So we once again woke up extremly early in order to be packed up before the morning ceremony. We went to that and it was basically the same as the previous one except with their dog (they had a golden lab in the monastary) barking a lot in the background. We decided he was trying to chant too. XP And then we had breakfast and said our farewell to Kurto-san. Then we headed out back down the mountain. And man, while the train to Koya-san had been almost empty, the trains we passed on our way out were PACKED full of japanese. o_o; 'Cause apprantly it was Kobai Daichi Day. ^^; So they were all making their way up their to pay their respects I guess. But yeah, good timing on our part. ^^; If we had stayed that day, it would've been really crowded.
So then it was yet another long day of train and subway traveling. We were rushing too 'cause the Noh play was at 3:30pm and because of the ceremony, we were behind schedule. Brad hadn't really told Holly he was planning for us to stay so Holly had thought we'd be out earlier. And well, even after leaving later, we thought we were doing ok but somehow it just didn't work well. 'Cause by the time we got to Kyoto, it was already 20 minutes into the play. So we went to the theater and unfortunantly that day was just a bad day. 'Cause normally they could've just gotten us to our seats alright but that day they were filming it for live TV so the camera crew was in the way of the path to our seats and so they couldn't get us to our seats and said if we wouldn't mind, they could check seats in the back area and they did but couldn't find any and said we could stand but we would be standing for over an hour and I knew I couldn't manage that as we had been walking around a lot that day and my back was tired from carrying the backpack around. And all of us were just tired. So they said we could wait til the break and they could ask the camera men to move so we could get to our seats then but at this point Holly is stressed out and feeling horrible about this and tells us she doesn't want to trouble them so decides we should just skip out on it. They gave us a refund but in all honesty, I was really disapointed. I would've prefered having waited til the break and at least getting in that way. Because it was one of the things I was really looking forward to. So ah well. I still think I should've demanded she take us to Takarazuka to make up for it but that didn't happen either. XP
So we went to the hotel and pondered what to do. Got into our rooms, which were a little bit bigger than the ones in Tokyo and overall nicer and I absolutely loved the rooms but then again, it might've just been me happy to be back in civilization after Koya-san, lol. The hotel was also right across the street from the old imperial palace of Kyoto which was pretty cool. And all the hotel people spoke perfect english so it was easier to get around. lol This is also where we spent the entire rest of the trip at. We decided to explore the surrounding area of Kyoto for a bit. On the way out we stopped at a vending machine that had Pocari Sweat and I decided to be the brave soul that would finally try the drink! It was pretty good actually. Tasted like watered-down Fresca. And the guys all had to get pictures of me taking my first sip. XP Still didn't have my camera yet. So as we walked we made up a story about the Pocari and decided that it can grow to be Godzilla size and so Ichiban Gaijin-sama (the name we kept giving Brennan and decided we had to make a comic about with him as the super hero) would have to fight him. And then the demon Noh ladies or "Noh no Oni Onna" XP (we started to refer to the ladies of the Noh theater that 'cause we saw them on the streets at one point and Holly was too embarrased to go by them) were also villains in the story. So anyways, we went to this place Brad knew of where they had vegetarian stuff since he's a vegetarian so we have to make sure there's something for him at each place. It was a very nice place with a little buffet and they had the japanese garden behind the glass too so that was cool. Then afterwards we went on an adventure to find this bookstore place, which ended up in a lot of moments of the two teachers talking about where to go, oblivious to the rest of us, as we just sat or stood there. And often they would start taking off without really paying attention to whether we followed or not. So we joked that we should hide behind something and see how long it would take them to notice but we also feared they wouldn't and we would lose them. ^^;
Most of the places were closed but we did go through a little shopping arcade that had some places opened and we found our very first bubble machine and so Adam, Jordan, James, and I all went right to them and tried various ones. I got a Rock Lee phone strap from the Naruto one. XP We all figured the bookstore would be closed but had at least found the street it should be on. So instead we went to...Book Off! And thus we discovered the greatness of this store. XP Manga for like 100-300 Yen and CDs for anywhere as low as 150 Yen. *_* Though I couldn't really find any of the manga I really wanted so just got a random hot looking yaoi manga. XP We returned to this place later in the week though so more purchases were eventually made. James found some more Ayu Trance mix CDs so he was happy. ^^;
Day 6: Kyoto - Several Temple Areas, and the Geisha District at night
Traveling: Bus, Bus, and walking
So we got up rather early as request of Brad to start the grand temple tour of Kyoto. ^^; Both day 6 and day 7 were full of a lot of temples, man. There are like several thousand temples in Kyoto so it makes sense. lol First one we went to I think was the rock garden one though I'm not sure which order we did them in anymore. But yeah, we went to one of the more famous rock gardens and there were lots of pretty flower gardens leading into it too. Remember seeing an awesome golden pheonix on the way through the gardens leading to the temple. There were also a lot of school children about on field trips. In fact, every temple we went to, we ran into groups of school children. They were always all wide-eyed at us too. And a lot of them used this as an opportunity to practice their english. Got a lot of "Helwo!"s everytime we went anywhere in Kyoto from kids. It was cute. Anyways, we went to the rock garden part and sat down on the ledge and everyone just relaxed and let the atmosphere absorb us. And then one student decided to interview Brennan as some homework assignment he had. XP Which was quite amusing. The boy asked what Brennan's favorite place in Japan is and Brennan said Koya-san which several of the other boys went "ooooh" in an impressed fashion though the boy doing the interview looked at them all confused going "Doko? Doko?" so I tried to explain "near Osaka" to give him an area range and he's like "ohh, ok." XP And then they asked for a picture with us. On the way out when we went to the gift shop, two girls asked Jordan and James for an interview. XP They were all giggling over the two too. No one interviewed me though. x_x; We also stopped at the end of the temple path to have some green tea and vanilla swirl ice cream. Oh my god it was so good! *_* I can never go back to the American version of green tea ice cream now. XP
Then we had an appointment at one of the Zen temples and we were a tiny bit late (I think we were getting used to being late for everything at this point ^^;) We actually did arrive at a temple on time but it turned out to be the wrong one. ^^; So by the time we found the right one, we were a little late. It didn't really matter as it was just attending a ceremony. There were a lot of people attending this one so it must be one of the more popular temples. Though I'm not sure what the name was. Then after the ceremony everyone attending was to copy the sutra. Luckily it was just a tracing otherwise we would've stood no chance with this. ^^; Since this was my first time ever trying calligraphy, it was pretty difficult. I kept running out of ink 'cause I seemed to have less than the others so I kept having to make it and it would never work and I kept getting it all over my hands. And the two drunk japanese guys in front of me kept making fun of me. x_x;; I was smudging all over the place but I was determined to do it and get to the end. Adam was the first to give up as he didn't even do it right and was copying something else by accident. Brennan and Chris only did it for a while. James and Brad were the first two to finish and I think Holly finished early too but was waiting for the rest of us. So it was basically just Jordan and I trying to finish and like no one else in the room. ^^; So the monks seemed to be a bit impatient with us and one came over to me and said "If you are tired or busy, you can stop now and the monks will do the rest for you" and I just nod and keep going. XP Though I did feel a bit rushed after that. And they apparantly kept bugging Jordan. Only bugged me once but I decided to just give up and go with Holly and Brennan (he had stayed just sitting there for a while) to turn it in but Jordan decided to stay til he was done especially after the monks bugged him. XP I would've too but he was quite a bit further than me so I would've taken forever. n_n;
After cleaning the ink off, we headed out into the GORGEOUS gardens of the temple. I think they were the best of all the temples we went to and of course, me without my camera. x_x;; But I will definitly link to the pictures of it when people get their pictures up. It was a really really nice walk in general and the green was just such a bright green that you don't really see over here in the US. We eventually left and I think this is when we went to eat lunch (My memory on this particular day isn't that great. This is what I get for waiting so long to write this.). We went to this rather nice little place with this really great waitress who had a great personality. We liked her so much we asked to get a picture with her. XP 'Cause she was just so hyper and all over the place. lol And I think after that we wandered the suburbs a little just enjoying looking at the houses. I think there might've been a third temple we looked at too but grah, can't remember. x_x And not even sure when in the day it was exactly that we ate at this place. But I do remember the night hours rather well.
That night Holly said she was going to take us around to see the evening and night life of Kyoto. We went back to the hotel first and dude, my camera had arrived! Yay! So the first picture I took? One of James modeling off Pocari Sweat...
I think we went in search of the bookstore again only to find out it doesn't exist anymore. So instead we ventured through the streets looking for stores. Though Holly seemed disapointed that the area had changed a lot since she had last been there. And mostly it seemed to be a lot of the younger generation taking over and such. Kinda sad as most of them were just into hip-hop fashion and whatnot. Also just wasn't as fun as Tokyo's night life was. We did find a few stores to look into though. Then we decided to have Chinese food. lol But it was actual Chinese food and not like Americanized so it was pretty good and actual Chinese working there too. We sat outside over the water too which was nice and relaxing.
Holly asked me to take this picture of her 'cause in the background across the water is the site of the first big kabuki play house. Though this one is of course a reconstructed one. Picture didn't come out that great though but she still wanted it.
Random picture I took of Brennan. I think I was testing out the lighting. The picture was funny so I decided to keep it. XP
Afterwards we wandered around visiting various sites of the city. We went up to this nice center area that I think is used for a lot of festivals and was primarily Shinto in design.
The gate to it. ^^
A lot of lanterns! o_o
An old Noh stage. ^_^ Though there was like no lighting so this was the best I could get. Holly said she used to do some work for this one too.
We kinda started rushing through though after several guards kept popping out of nowhere. We figured they were watching us 'cause of us being gaijin and all. And gaijin at night nonetheless. ^^;; So we decided against ringing the Shinto bell like we all kinda wanted to. So then we left that area and wandered through the streets again with Holly as our guide.
I forgot if this person was fictional or real but Holly said she was this woman who dressed up as samurai so I thought it was cool even if I wasn't paying too much attention at the time so didn't catch all the info. ^^;
So then we went into the geisha district and went right by this one place that is apparantly like THE pleasure court area in Kyoto and is really famous and is in Memoirs of a Geisha. Though I wouldn't know as I haven't read the book or seen the movie. And then we went through the area where they have all the lanterns up indicating its the geisha area. Since I was the only one that brought my camera, Jordan was all "You HAVE to get pictures of geishas for us." And we saw a few just go right by us and we were like "O_O;" and Jordan kept being like "Picture!" and I was all "but but...I feel nervous asking..." and missed the first few as a result. Though then two Miko apprentices came out of a building right behind us and so Jordan, Brennan, and I are like "Duuude." and I got way too nervous so gave Jordan the camera and told him to ask them for a picture. So he did and they were all like battering their eyes and were like "Sure!" and so they had the older geisha (who wasn't in make-up) who I assume was their teacher take the camera and they kept motioning for the three of us to join in (the rest of the crew didn't even notice any of this and kept walking XP) so we did. ^^; Though we were all nervous and Jordan ended up blocking part of one of the girls.
Oh man, I look so terrible. XP 'Cause I got sun burned from earlier in the day. It wasn't that bad though. Just looks bad. My face was fine by the next day but my neck was pretty red for a while.
Back to our wandering, we came across two figures that seemed familiar to us. And lo and behold they were indeed the characters from The Road to Kyoto, the kabuki play Holly put on 2nd semester of my freshman year in which Jordan played one of the two main characters. So he spazzed and I of course had to get a picture of him in front of his character. XP
After that we were getting pretty tired and my knee was starting to hurt so we all wandered back onto the subway and went back to the hotel. I think Adam stayed out with Brad though and they went to a few bars. Adam went just to observe though. lol They had interesting stories about the drunk guys they met while out. XP
Wow, I'm starting to really realize we did A LOT in each day. 'Cause I didn't realize we did so much on day 6 til I wrote this. XP Ok, going to try to somehow get the last 2 reports up before I go to AN. ^^;;
I'm in a big Takarazuka mood at the moment since I found a lot of clips on youtube that I hadn't seen before. ^_^ And they also had a lot of Elisabeth scenes including my favorite song. Eee!
~Lyn
Day 5: Kyoto
Traveling: from Mt. Koya-san bus to cable car to train to another train to Kyoto subway to the hotel
So we once again woke up extremly early in order to be packed up before the morning ceremony. We went to that and it was basically the same as the previous one except with their dog (they had a golden lab in the monastary) barking a lot in the background. We decided he was trying to chant too. XP And then we had breakfast and said our farewell to Kurto-san. Then we headed out back down the mountain. And man, while the train to Koya-san had been almost empty, the trains we passed on our way out were PACKED full of japanese. o_o; 'Cause apprantly it was Kobai Daichi Day. ^^; So they were all making their way up their to pay their respects I guess. But yeah, good timing on our part. ^^; If we had stayed that day, it would've been really crowded.
So then it was yet another long day of train and subway traveling. We were rushing too 'cause the Noh play was at 3:30pm and because of the ceremony, we were behind schedule. Brad hadn't really told Holly he was planning for us to stay so Holly had thought we'd be out earlier. And well, even after leaving later, we thought we were doing ok but somehow it just didn't work well. 'Cause by the time we got to Kyoto, it was already 20 minutes into the play. So we went to the theater and unfortunantly that day was just a bad day. 'Cause normally they could've just gotten us to our seats alright but that day they were filming it for live TV so the camera crew was in the way of the path to our seats and so they couldn't get us to our seats and said if we wouldn't mind, they could check seats in the back area and they did but couldn't find any and said we could stand but we would be standing for over an hour and I knew I couldn't manage that as we had been walking around a lot that day and my back was tired from carrying the backpack around. And all of us were just tired. So they said we could wait til the break and they could ask the camera men to move so we could get to our seats then but at this point Holly is stressed out and feeling horrible about this and tells us she doesn't want to trouble them so decides we should just skip out on it. They gave us a refund but in all honesty, I was really disapointed. I would've prefered having waited til the break and at least getting in that way. Because it was one of the things I was really looking forward to. So ah well. I still think I should've demanded she take us to Takarazuka to make up for it but that didn't happen either. XP
So we went to the hotel and pondered what to do. Got into our rooms, which were a little bit bigger than the ones in Tokyo and overall nicer and I absolutely loved the rooms but then again, it might've just been me happy to be back in civilization after Koya-san, lol. The hotel was also right across the street from the old imperial palace of Kyoto which was pretty cool. And all the hotel people spoke perfect english so it was easier to get around. lol This is also where we spent the entire rest of the trip at. We decided to explore the surrounding area of Kyoto for a bit. On the way out we stopped at a vending machine that had Pocari Sweat and I decided to be the brave soul that would finally try the drink! It was pretty good actually. Tasted like watered-down Fresca. And the guys all had to get pictures of me taking my first sip. XP Still didn't have my camera yet. So as we walked we made up a story about the Pocari and decided that it can grow to be Godzilla size and so Ichiban Gaijin-sama (the name we kept giving Brennan and decided we had to make a comic about with him as the super hero) would have to fight him. And then the demon Noh ladies or "Noh no Oni Onna" XP (we started to refer to the ladies of the Noh theater that 'cause we saw them on the streets at one point and Holly was too embarrased to go by them) were also villains in the story. So anyways, we went to this place Brad knew of where they had vegetarian stuff since he's a vegetarian so we have to make sure there's something for him at each place. It was a very nice place with a little buffet and they had the japanese garden behind the glass too so that was cool. Then afterwards we went on an adventure to find this bookstore place, which ended up in a lot of moments of the two teachers talking about where to go, oblivious to the rest of us, as we just sat or stood there. And often they would start taking off without really paying attention to whether we followed or not. So we joked that we should hide behind something and see how long it would take them to notice but we also feared they wouldn't and we would lose them. ^^;
Most of the places were closed but we did go through a little shopping arcade that had some places opened and we found our very first bubble machine and so Adam, Jordan, James, and I all went right to them and tried various ones. I got a Rock Lee phone strap from the Naruto one. XP We all figured the bookstore would be closed but had at least found the street it should be on. So instead we went to...Book Off! And thus we discovered the greatness of this store. XP Manga for like 100-300 Yen and CDs for anywhere as low as 150 Yen. *_* Though I couldn't really find any of the manga I really wanted so just got a random hot looking yaoi manga. XP We returned to this place later in the week though so more purchases were eventually made. James found some more Ayu Trance mix CDs so he was happy. ^^;
Day 6: Kyoto - Several Temple Areas, and the Geisha District at night
Traveling: Bus, Bus, and walking
So we got up rather early as request of Brad to start the grand temple tour of Kyoto. ^^; Both day 6 and day 7 were full of a lot of temples, man. There are like several thousand temples in Kyoto so it makes sense. lol First one we went to I think was the rock garden one though I'm not sure which order we did them in anymore. But yeah, we went to one of the more famous rock gardens and there were lots of pretty flower gardens leading into it too. Remember seeing an awesome golden pheonix on the way through the gardens leading to the temple. There were also a lot of school children about on field trips. In fact, every temple we went to, we ran into groups of school children. They were always all wide-eyed at us too. And a lot of them used this as an opportunity to practice their english. Got a lot of "Helwo!"s everytime we went anywhere in Kyoto from kids. It was cute. Anyways, we went to the rock garden part and sat down on the ledge and everyone just relaxed and let the atmosphere absorb us. And then one student decided to interview Brennan as some homework assignment he had. XP Which was quite amusing. The boy asked what Brennan's favorite place in Japan is and Brennan said Koya-san which several of the other boys went "ooooh" in an impressed fashion though the boy doing the interview looked at them all confused going "Doko? Doko?" so I tried to explain "near Osaka" to give him an area range and he's like "ohh, ok." XP And then they asked for a picture with us. On the way out when we went to the gift shop, two girls asked Jordan and James for an interview. XP They were all giggling over the two too. No one interviewed me though. x_x; We also stopped at the end of the temple path to have some green tea and vanilla swirl ice cream. Oh my god it was so good! *_* I can never go back to the American version of green tea ice cream now. XP
Then we had an appointment at one of the Zen temples and we were a tiny bit late (I think we were getting used to being late for everything at this point ^^;) We actually did arrive at a temple on time but it turned out to be the wrong one. ^^; So by the time we found the right one, we were a little late. It didn't really matter as it was just attending a ceremony. There were a lot of people attending this one so it must be one of the more popular temples. Though I'm not sure what the name was. Then after the ceremony everyone attending was to copy the sutra. Luckily it was just a tracing otherwise we would've stood no chance with this. ^^; Since this was my first time ever trying calligraphy, it was pretty difficult. I kept running out of ink 'cause I seemed to have less than the others so I kept having to make it and it would never work and I kept getting it all over my hands. And the two drunk japanese guys in front of me kept making fun of me. x_x;; I was smudging all over the place but I was determined to do it and get to the end. Adam was the first to give up as he didn't even do it right and was copying something else by accident. Brennan and Chris only did it for a while. James and Brad were the first two to finish and I think Holly finished early too but was waiting for the rest of us. So it was basically just Jordan and I trying to finish and like no one else in the room. ^^; So the monks seemed to be a bit impatient with us and one came over to me and said "If you are tired or busy, you can stop now and the monks will do the rest for you" and I just nod and keep going. XP Though I did feel a bit rushed after that. And they apparantly kept bugging Jordan. Only bugged me once but I decided to just give up and go with Holly and Brennan (he had stayed just sitting there for a while) to turn it in but Jordan decided to stay til he was done especially after the monks bugged him. XP I would've too but he was quite a bit further than me so I would've taken forever. n_n;
After cleaning the ink off, we headed out into the GORGEOUS gardens of the temple. I think they were the best of all the temples we went to and of course, me without my camera. x_x;; But I will definitly link to the pictures of it when people get their pictures up. It was a really really nice walk in general and the green was just such a bright green that you don't really see over here in the US. We eventually left and I think this is when we went to eat lunch (My memory on this particular day isn't that great. This is what I get for waiting so long to write this.). We went to this rather nice little place with this really great waitress who had a great personality. We liked her so much we asked to get a picture with her. XP 'Cause she was just so hyper and all over the place. lol And I think after that we wandered the suburbs a little just enjoying looking at the houses. I think there might've been a third temple we looked at too but grah, can't remember. x_x And not even sure when in the day it was exactly that we ate at this place. But I do remember the night hours rather well.
That night Holly said she was going to take us around to see the evening and night life of Kyoto. We went back to the hotel first and dude, my camera had arrived! Yay! So the first picture I took? One of James modeling off Pocari Sweat...
I think we went in search of the bookstore again only to find out it doesn't exist anymore. So instead we ventured through the streets looking for stores. Though Holly seemed disapointed that the area had changed a lot since she had last been there. And mostly it seemed to be a lot of the younger generation taking over and such. Kinda sad as most of them were just into hip-hop fashion and whatnot. Also just wasn't as fun as Tokyo's night life was. We did find a few stores to look into though. Then we decided to have Chinese food. lol But it was actual Chinese food and not like Americanized so it was pretty good and actual Chinese working there too. We sat outside over the water too which was nice and relaxing.
Holly asked me to take this picture of her 'cause in the background across the water is the site of the first big kabuki play house. Though this one is of course a reconstructed one. Picture didn't come out that great though but she still wanted it.
Random picture I took of Brennan. I think I was testing out the lighting. The picture was funny so I decided to keep it. XP
Afterwards we wandered around visiting various sites of the city. We went up to this nice center area that I think is used for a lot of festivals and was primarily Shinto in design.
The gate to it. ^^
A lot of lanterns! o_o
An old Noh stage. ^_^ Though there was like no lighting so this was the best I could get. Holly said she used to do some work for this one too.
We kinda started rushing through though after several guards kept popping out of nowhere. We figured they were watching us 'cause of us being gaijin and all. And gaijin at night nonetheless. ^^;; So we decided against ringing the Shinto bell like we all kinda wanted to. So then we left that area and wandered through the streets again with Holly as our guide.
I forgot if this person was fictional or real but Holly said she was this woman who dressed up as samurai so I thought it was cool even if I wasn't paying too much attention at the time so didn't catch all the info. ^^;
So then we went into the geisha district and went right by this one place that is apparantly like THE pleasure court area in Kyoto and is really famous and is in Memoirs of a Geisha. Though I wouldn't know as I haven't read the book or seen the movie. And then we went through the area where they have all the lanterns up indicating its the geisha area. Since I was the only one that brought my camera, Jordan was all "You HAVE to get pictures of geishas for us." And we saw a few just go right by us and we were like "O_O;" and Jordan kept being like "Picture!" and I was all "but but...I feel nervous asking..." and missed the first few as a result. Though then two Miko apprentices came out of a building right behind us and so Jordan, Brennan, and I are like "Duuude." and I got way too nervous so gave Jordan the camera and told him to ask them for a picture. So he did and they were all like battering their eyes and were like "Sure!" and so they had the older geisha (who wasn't in make-up) who I assume was their teacher take the camera and they kept motioning for the three of us to join in (the rest of the crew didn't even notice any of this and kept walking XP) so we did. ^^; Though we were all nervous and Jordan ended up blocking part of one of the girls.
Oh man, I look so terrible. XP 'Cause I got sun burned from earlier in the day. It wasn't that bad though. Just looks bad. My face was fine by the next day but my neck was pretty red for a while.
Back to our wandering, we came across two figures that seemed familiar to us. And lo and behold they were indeed the characters from The Road to Kyoto, the kabuki play Holly put on 2nd semester of my freshman year in which Jordan played one of the two main characters. So he spazzed and I of course had to get a picture of him in front of his character. XP
After that we were getting pretty tired and my knee was starting to hurt so we all wandered back onto the subway and went back to the hotel. I think Adam stayed out with Brad though and they went to a few bars. Adam went just to observe though. lol They had interesting stories about the drunk guys they met while out. XP
Wow, I'm starting to really realize we did A LOT in each day. 'Cause I didn't realize we did so much on day 6 til I wrote this. XP Ok, going to try to somehow get the last 2 reports up before I go to AN. ^^;;
I'm in a big Takarazuka mood at the moment since I found a lot of clips on youtube that I hadn't seen before. ^_^ And they also had a lot of Elisabeth scenes including my favorite song. Eee!
~Lyn
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~Lyn
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~Lyn