Kyoto - Attempt #2

I'm in the hostel in Hiroshima. Its 100 degrees outisde. I'm also waiting for Romi because her and some of her friends are coming here tonight!

Kyoto was awesome. Everyone told me that it was beautiful and it absolutly was. I walked everywhere, saw the palace, walked around the touristy areas, and lucked out by seeing 4 geisha. Some people I met said they have been in Kyoto a few times or for a few days and have never seen one. Lucky me! Kyoto is one of the only places in Japan that really has a Geisha scene today.

I walked and walked some more. I developed a blister on my foot and some unpleasant chaffing in some unpleasant places. It was so hot there, about 35. Some people said it was cooler that day than the day before.

The other thing about Kyoto that I loved was the architecture. The best part of walking everywhere was seeing people's houses with the little gardens in front. Then rounding a corner and there is a huge shrine or temple, all original. One temple, I took off my shoes and walked around for a while, then lay down on the tatami mats and let my mind go blank while looking out at a small pond. When I decide to build a house, I want one from Japan.

The next day I had to check out so I got all my stuff and left my bag in a locker at the station. I headed to the Golden Pavillion which is one of the most popular places to visit in Japan. It was so beautiful. I got there early enough to avoid the crowds, becuase when I was leaving, it was packed around the main area.

Then I went to a shrine/temple are where there is an amazing bamboo grove. Then the rains began. Monsoon rains, with thunder and lightning for hours. Not a passing storm but hours of it. I hid in a temple for as long as I could but then I realized I was wasting valuable time and risked getting soaked. I was also starving, so I went to first restaurant I could find, deciding I could handle whatever food they served.

As an aside, Japan cuisine is amazing. Its not just the sashimi and sushi, but all the veggies they have too. I ordered a pot of tofu and I got all this crazy stuff with it. Onions, rice, sesame seeds, wasabi, soy sauce. Actually not that amazing but put all together it was really good. The other thing about Japanese food is that there are no mystery meats or mystery fish. Korean, Chinese food, if I get a plate of meat or fish, I can never be certain what animal it has come from. But Japanese food (so far) has been mystery free.

After eating, I wandered around the bamboo grove and took lots of photos in the rain then decided it was time to go. I was cold, and I had to catch the train to Hiroshima. The train ride was about an hour and a half. The top speed of the train is about 300KM.

I got to my hostel, dumped my stuff and then went for a walk around the A-Bomb Dome Peace Park. It was really nice at night, everything was lit up. It was hard to grasp the magnitude of what I was looking at in the moment however.

I went to a sushi restaurant and gorged myself on sashimi, came back to the hostel and went to bed.