Tenryu-Ji - Arashiyama

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Well up and adam this morning and off to the temple Tenryu-Ji in Arashiyama it is one of the world heritage sights. We started off by getting the metro and then a tram. We went into the first temple which was called the "Temple of the Holy Dragon". Once inside it was beautiful, the roof was painted in a blue dragon and wherever you were in the temple the dragon's eyes were on you. Anyway we sat down and then a monk came out and started to give a lecture to everyone in Japanese - it must have been good as he had the crowd a few times in laughter - shame we could not understand a word he said - we need to brush up on this Japanese language. After escaping the temple without the Monk noticing we went around the gardens. As you can imagine they were stunning. However, to be honest the Bamboo Grove was amazing it was a couple of degrees cooler than outside the grove. We have been told that the Bamboo Grove is used quite often to promote Kyoto and when you see the picture you can understand it is really serene.

After finishing in the temple we decided that it would be great to get some lunch - so tried to find a place and fell across a fantastic little place it had an old mini cooper that had been transformed into a table to eat from. Inside there were loads of eclectic things and what took Mike's attention was all the motor bike books so he was amused for a while.

Back at Kyoto train station - too be honest it is like a town there are so many shops, eating places, floors we tried to find where to book our train ticket to Hiroshima as having a green ticket you must book your seat. We intend to go there after Nara which we plan to go to tomorrow. I am trying to book us into a typical Japanese house. These are called Ryokan, where you sleep on futons and the walls are like rice paper. Let you now if we can get a room there.

We are back into Kyoto centre tonight as all this month it is festival time - so not sure what we will see tonight.

Hope everyone is well.

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