Day 7 - Kyoto

Woke up on a super sunny Sunday morning and as it was the midway point or our adventure decided to embrace and celebrate our tourist status!

Our first port of call was Kinkoku-ji (golden temple). All the guidebooks warned us that it isn always super busy, so we set off early. However, we were soon thwarted by the Kyoto bus system. The problem wasn't knowing what bus to get, rather, we had no idea where we could get on it. The numbers on the bus are written numerically, however on the bus stops, all the writing is in Kanji. Fun. In the end, we got a different bus that we could find, however it ended up taking over an hour. Mostly because the first half of the journey was in the opposite direction to the one we wanted to go in. Ah well. Lesson learnt. Do not take the number 12. Find the 59.

We whizzed round the temple because, by the time we arrived, it was super crowded. We did find the time to take our first (and hopefully last) selfie. There was a lot of V signs in today's photos, really driving home the tourist in Japan message!

From here we walked down to Ryoan-ji, grabbing a much favoured steamed Pork bun en route. This temple is famed for its Zen garden. 15 bug rocks at sea in a whole load of raked white gravel. It all makes sense if you're enlightened I'm sure.

We much preferred Ninna-ji a little further down the road. We didn't go in to the temple itself, but the whole complex is incredible. Lots of different buildings, including a 5 story pagoda. By this point the crowds had thinned to zero, so it was a really great place to while away some time just wandering through all the buildings, and also had some very informative signs. We did start to feel a bit more zen here.

Next stop was a train to Arashiyama. Strange experience as you only pay when you get off the train, and the ticket machine is by the driver. We were expecting to get another trian to a station closer to the sites, but again, were thwarted by Japanese public transport.

However, all's well that ends well as our walk to where we wanted to be took us through the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove - number 4 on our list of places to see! Woohoo!

Having made our way through that we stopped for a quick bowl of rice before heading to Okochi Sanso. This is the gardens of a house that used to belong to a famous Japanese actor, but are now open to the public. Very lovely to walk around, and quite high up, so some lovely views of Kyoto. A great way to see old and new town all at once. We are a little early for the autumn foliage, however some of the leaves are starting to turn wonderful colours, so in a couple of weeks the whole place will look completely different. You also get a cup of matcha tea and a biscuit included in the ticket price and it's a nice place to sit, overlooking the garden and drinking tea.

Final destination for the day was the "romantic train sagano" - this is a steam train that takes you through the mountains, along a river, to the middle of nowhere. Despite the name, sitting knee to knee with some strangers isn't massively romantic however the views are well worth seeing.

A quick JR rail took us to home for a shower and a beer before heading to dinner. Another random spot where we could eat Okinomiyaki as well as various other things cooked on hot plates. All VERY tasty. The food is making me never want to leave. This time we were with Alastair, Davide and their travelling buddies, so 6 of us in total. It was really nice to have a few other people to hang out with, and also meant we got to order more food so could try more things! We swung by the Yamatoya jazz bar "on our way home" (honest!) for a night cap and it was like walking in to a living room circa 1950,just with an awesome bar along one wall. The opposite side was completely full of records that the owners put on as and when they felt like a change. We were the only people in there, and the owners were a really lovely old couple... Very stereotypical mama-San/papa-San. But they gave us whiskey and played good music.

Wonderful way to round out our last night in Kyoto.

We may be half way through, but have a couple of really special places coming up, so still lots to look forward to.