Geisha and Golden Temples

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What a strange day. Something of seemingly little consequence happened last night. I was approached by a small (very small) japanese girl last night asking if she could take a photo with me (and who can blame her...). We got talking and eventually decided to visit the Kinkaku-Ji (golden temple) together.

Kinkaku-Ji was stunning, especially as we where the first people through the gate so did not have to contend with hundreds of people. The temple itself was half coated with gold, and was a great place to be on my first sunny morning in Japan. It turned out that my friends knew Kyoto buses a lot better than me, so I let them lead me around the myriad of tourist traps I had not yet seen with the ease of a knife through butter. The Kiyomizo was a great Temple with extenisive grounds and a huge suspended platform which offered a great panormic view of the city. In the backstreets on the way to this temple I came across two geisha, and with the help of my translators (used in the loosest sense of the word)I managed to get them to post for a photo. We also visited the Sanjusangen-Do temple, in which there are 1001 statues of Kannon (the Buddhist godess of mercy) which was also absolutely amazing. Im not sure how many more temples I can take, but they have all been spectacular so far.

So I pretty much completed the Kyoto experience (except for the bamboo gardens... or was that Tokyo.. Kerry???) as far as must see tourist sights. I was then invited for a traditional Japanese lunch which was frankly dissapointing and expensive. Well it would have been expensive but I was invited my my new friends, and apparantly in Japan being invited by someone means they will pay for you no questions asked. I protested to the extreme, but in the end was left feeling very bad for accepting the gift of luncheon. After lunch I attempted to take the piss pygmalion style with "the rain in spain..." but this largely backfired since the English that we had in common was extrememly limited. Video clips may at some point be uploaded...

Ileft the two girls at the station and went for dinner, where I got talking to 2 Japanese guys despite the fact we shared no language in common, at all. Not one word. But I still managed to establish that we have more medals than Japan at 5-1? Whether this is true or not, I have no idea. After 2 bottles of hot sake I didnt care either. After about an hour of drinking an english guy turned up, but he was a bit boring compared to the Japanese. I'm becoming very convinced that travelling solo is the way to go. No one to worry about, no one to look after and no one to answer to. You can do what you want, when you want, and if you want conversation you go out and get it. Maybe I've been lucky, but its been a great experience so far, and I hope it carries on being one.

P.s. its bloody freezing. Im indoors at my Ryokan typing this, and my breath is condensing. Brrrr!

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Photos

Kinkaku-Ji
The Golden Temple. Hows that for bling?

Geisha Girls
Hmmm... not what id hoped!

Japanese Traditional Lunch
A bit boring to be honest, but it looked good

Comments

[Andrew]

Going alone
So how do you think mum will take it when tell her that you said I had to go alone on our planned tour ? Careful about accepting gifts from small Japanese you know what they say about no such thing as a frtee meal.