11/07/09 - Temple day in Kyoto
Woke up at 7.30am and had a shower, now ready for Karen where we... forgot to arraange a time to meet, so hoping she's up soon as I'm tired and could do with more sleep but we are trying to fit what takes 5 days, into one...
Didn't happen.
We headed off straight away for Nara. At least after everyone else. We arrived earlish. But then went straight off for the temples. Via a route for Karen to have KFC (I admit whilst in there I saw a white tirimisu, so tried that). Off to temples and doing the walk backwards may mean we see some areas less crowded. Worked in theory. We saw a few places and then through the deer parsk. GREAT fun. Karen bought some deer crackers and before I had teh camera out they were gone.
She wasn't alone. The shriek of girls and children was heard far and wide as the deer knew, they would panic! We saw good temples, places and the largest wooden building in the world was very impressive! Three large buddha (still none laughing, so Karen's laughing buddha fixation hasn't been satisfied!) but we realised why they walk around a certain way, with in and out set accordingly. Fish and turtles (and deer) seem happily fed and following humans when they appear in the hope of more grub. Makes some good photos!
We headed back after finding the Rikshaw a little pricey (and I'm sure I've done it before sometwhere?!) So soon back on thr train to Kyoto to see what wonders we could see there (the place is known for being as good if not better for attractions than Tokyo and people seem to reckon about a week is needed to truely appreciate it. We gave half a day. BUT as we had talked to people, you do Kyoto and you don't need to do any other shrines in Japan! We liked the shrines we'd seen (and had seen quite a few) and so were alright for Kyoto!
We went to see the palace. We never saw the palace. We saw the wall around the palace, but that was it. Everything else was closed and we chose the one thing you can't see. What a bad start to an otherwise great day. Nara is indeed worth doing!
Heading back we managed to drink the night way in the hostel making new friends and sharing stories. It was a good backpacking type adventure and soon it was all over as the curfew was down, (though I managed to convince him we were all fine and as about 80-100% of the hostel was there, he promised that if I turned the lights off we could keep drinking. We did till midnight! Great fun!
