first backpacking trip

I just want to run around singing I'm so fricken happy!! This is only the beginning and I constantly feel on a natural high!  Today we hung out with our American friends again who are very handy with a map.  We rented bicycles for the day and cycled around Kyoto.  I almost died at first because it was all up hill but I made it and it was worth it, cause when we got to the top there was this HUGE buddah statue there that looked like it was made of sand!  Then we saw some more temples one being Kiyomizu.  They all pretty much look the same but it doesn't matter cause they are all unique in their own way and each one has a different garden special to it.  Around the first temples this morning there were markets selling more trinkets but what made this morning so special is it was in an old part of Kyoto so we saw real Geishas!  Amazing the highlight of the day!  I know it was probably rude but I couldn't help clicking away with my camera.  They were so beautiful and graceful.  I felt bad for them walking in those shoes though because it took like twenty years for them to walk a block! lol.  I read they were rare to see so I felt so lucky we got to see them.  It looked like they were getting their pictures taken for something special. Then by some crazy luck we came the one week of the year of the 20yr anniversary of the Emporers enthronement and got to see the Kyoto Imperial palace which doesn't get opened to the public and its gardens! We saw how the ceremony went for that, where it was, and what the emporer and empress wore.  In front of the temples they had gravel that was raked perfectly for the emporer. Not one foot step or anything putting a stone out of place! After that went to NIJo castle.  Which showed how all the old Shoguns used to live, we even got to walk through it!  Shoguns are like what would now be Governors and they went against the Emporer for power of Japan and it was actually ran by them for a period.  What was neat tho is the floor it's called the nightinggale floors cause when you walk on them they make these squeeking noises that used to alert the gaurdians of the Shogun if anyone entered.  After a day filled with bike riding I'm pooped and am goign to just chill at the hostel.  Which I love cause we get to meet so many interesting people from all over the world.  Just this morning we had lunch with a German guy who was telling me about couch surfing, he's been doing it for a year. Couch surfing is basically goign around the world sleeping on ppl's couch.  Its a step down from a hostel and for me sounds a bit risky but its free cause someone is just letting you crash on their couch.  Our American friends said they let someone crash their couch in Sanfran so I asked them to let me sometime lol. When we got back it was definately time to shower cause I was full of sweat and was scared someone would smell me so before I took my shower I went to the bathroom and I have to tell you people I tried the Bidet! lol I was scared not knowing when the water was going to splash me or where it was going to come from.  At first I wouldn't do it because I thought they splashed it up from where you went pee and that grossed me out but it turns out its just under the seat and its so funny cause it hits your but perfectly lmao!  These toilets are nuts they get plugged in the wall.  I figured out thats why my toilet heater wasnt working the other day!  This toilet at this hostel is even fancier though it has the bidet, a spray, a musical flush sound, etc.  How funny is that.  Oh the life of luxery I lead.  : )