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Today has been busy so far. We got up and traveled over to Fushimiinari-taisha. A shrine that has some 10,000 small torii in the woods. They seemed to go on forever - we didn't even follow them all. But it was really an incredible sight. Since it was morning, it was quiet and there were few people there.

After we took the bus up to Kinkakuji temple (the Golden Pavillion). The temple is an impressive Gold, especially when the sun would hit it. On the way we stopped and had lunch in a little place between temples. I got some teriyaki chicken and it came with a good salad.

We then walked over to Ryoan-ji Temple. It has a very famous zen rock garden. It was crowded, but nice. There are 15 rocks placed in such a way that you can only ever see 14 of them at once. It is said the longer you look at the garden the more abstract your thoughts are supposed to get.

Our last stop of the day was at Kiyomizu Temple. It's way up on hill, but worth the long, slightly painful walk up. The streets are lined with a ton of shops. The temple is built into a steep hillside and you get a nice view of the city. Very impressive. They also have a sacred spring to drink from, but the line was really long, so we didn't wait.

Walking down past all the shops, we stopped and got Adam a little sake set. Now I just need to get him some sake!

For dinner we went into Gion again, and ended up picking a place that served Kaiseki dinner (traditional multi-course dinner). We ate upstairs, Japanese style on the floor. We ordered one meal for the both of us, which turned out to be a smart idea because 10 courses later i was very full. It was fun though - I had wanted to try it. The woman who brought the food was in a kimono and the food just seemed to keep coming. Some of the dishes were:

- Cold soup with bean curd
- 3 little cups with vegetables in one, and little fish in the others
- Unagi (eel) on rice (yum!)
- Boiled tofu in sauce (we got a little fire with water over it to boil our own tofu in, then stick it in some sauce)
- Sashimi
- Tempura vegetables
- Grilled salmon (yummmm!!)
- Soup with bamboo (so good)
- Miso soup, pickles and rice
- dessert of matcha and sweets.

The food was just so good. I'm glad we got to have it.

Tomorrow we head for Takayama. It's the first of our long tain rides. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.

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