Kyoto

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On Tuesday, the last day of my train pass, I headed into Kyoto itself and decided to follow another lonely planet walking tour, walking up Chawa Zaka, Sannen Zaka, Ninen-Zaka, which truth be had are 3 very touristy streets, but they were very cool, full of shops selling traditional Japanese food, sandles and bags etc.

At one point I needed to go to the loo, so I asked the owner of a shop I had just bought something from. Well, I said "toilet," I didn't actually made a Japanese sentence. Anyway, she let me borrow hers, although she did warn me it was going to be a Japanese one...

Along the way I stopped along the way at Kiyomizu-dera, a large temple complex. I first went into the belly of the Buddha (I think, maybe womb), which was completely pitch black and down some steps, with just a hand rail made of big buddhist beads to guide you through the windy path! I didn't know what I was actually going to see at first, so you can understand my confusion and fear! Anyway, towards the end there is a big lit up stone on which you have to made a wish.

I then went into the main temple, drank some holy spring water and looked at the lucky charms you could buy.

After Kiyomizu-dera I walked into Gion, the traditional Geisha district. I did manage to sight some, if from a distance. I went up to another temple called Kodai-Ji. Up some stairs, everything is up a lot of stairs in Japan!

Towards the end of my walk I reached Maruyama Park, which I'm sure in Spring is beautiful, with cherry blossom falling everywhere. However, in rainy winter it looked rather sorry.

I sheltered from the drizzly rain in a temple at the end of the walk, but got kicked out as it was closing time. I then decided to leave rainy Kyoto back to Osaka, observing the Japanese constantly texting on their phones, just like us but it takes them longer as they have so many characters to choose from when writing their texts. I also saw a full grown man playing on a *pink* DS game console - ah Japan!

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