Advertisement
Published: April 22nd 2006
Edit Blog Post
The Golden Pavillon
Set on a gorgeous pond - filled with Koi Karp hehe... good one. 😊
Well, yesterday we went on a crazy adventure to Kyoto in search of Geisha.
This involved catching a local train to Shin-Yokahama, then catching a bullet train (or shinkansen) down to Kyoto.
The shinkansen travels at around 300km per hour, when one travels through a station without stopping, the ground shakes, and a 15 carriage train passes in like 10 seconds... very cool.
So we got off in Kyoto, then caught the Japenese subway to Shijo, where our hotel was (very nice, very central, very cool). Unfortunately, we had gotten used to the warm weather in Tokyo, and hadn't thought to bring much warm gear, and it was rainy, and quite chilly in Kyoto, so that was... interesting.
Yesterday afternoon we went and checked out the Golden Pavillon, this temple covered in gold, built on a beautiful pond in the middle of these spectacular gardens. It was amazing... except for the swarm of Australian school kids that we came across - god! was I that annoying when I was 16??? (anyone who knew me when I was 16... shut up!!!)
After that it was about 5 oclock, and we waited around
Feed Me!
Kois smiling for the camera! the bus stop outside for about 10 minutes until this really nice old Japanese dude came up and explained to us (using a mixture of mumbling, and wild hand movements) that there were no trains at that stop past 5. What a hero! He totally saved us from frostbite! We walked back along the route about 500 metres and caught another train back the the hotel.
Then we went for a night time adventure to Gion to search for Geisha. A special hello goes out to Dianne and Kate here or lending us their copy of Memoirs of a Geisha - without which we would have never felt the need to travel all the way to Kyoto! Thanks girls!
We walked along, following the hoards of Japanese businessmen until we crossed the river and found Gion. It was interesting. Half way along we found this gate structure which turned into this cobble street lane, lined with tea houses. Kristy spotted a few geisha through the curtains of one of the houses! Success! It was so cool, in the hallway there were loads of shoes and everything!
After finding geisha, we moved onto our next task - finding
The Eastern Toilet
It's just the visuals in envokes that are the hardest to deal with... a toilet. And you know what? I know that people say the globalisation is a bad thing, but McDonald's and Starbucks ROCK! If it weren't for them we would have had a very embarrassed Kristy on more than one occassion.
They are also 2 of the few places that have western style toilets thank God!
We then were kind of tired (as we had consumed most of a 530yen bottle of wine in an attempt not to feel the cold) so we headed back to the main area of town and decided to have Italian food. Whoa! I think that Kristy's magarita Pizza was quite nice, but man! DO NOT ever order the creamy spaghetti with scallops whilst in Kyoto. It was like... so bad! And Kristy discovered the wonderful japenese male tradition of lip smacking. She was this close to king hitting this guy sitting next to us.
Anyway, got home, watched SWAT. Went to sleep. Very happy!
Then, like 2 seconds later, we woke up! had a shower, got dressed, packed all our stuff, then sat on the bed and slept for another hour - it was great!
We had starbucks for breakfast,
Kristy on the Prowl
We're going on a geisha hunt... Gonna catch a big one and found that they do quite good food. their Tuna Melt is outstanding (but then, compared to the scallop spaghetti, anything is great!).
We checked out and headed out to find inner enlightenment along the philosophers path (near the silver pavillon). It was beautiful, so peaceful, and such good shopping! We got lost looking through so many gorgeous boutique stores that we didn't end up reaching the silver pavillon before we had to find our way back the the train station. But it was totally worth it - I had a great morning!
Okay! then we caught the shinkansen back to Tokyo! Along the way we got some great shots of Mount Fuji (rare to see the top - but we did! aren't we special!) and saw the beautiful japanese country side.
This evening we have been out with Meg and Cam to meet Meg's workmates (who are all very nice and cool!) Kristy played Foosball and Pool and had a great time losing at both I"m sure... (just for the record - I beleive that it should be spelt fussball as it comes from the german word for football, but Kristy thinks otherwise... what do you
Gion
A side street in Gion. think? Join our online poll... 😊 )
And I think that's it! Everything is great! We are both well, happy, looking forward to the days ahead, and sad already at the thought of ever leaving.
Love you all!
Coming next -
Trip to Harajuku to see various freaks!
Disneyland!!!
Beertowers!
100yen store!
(BTW - 'I' before 'E' except after 'C') as in believe, not beleive. - Kristy)
Peace out, spelling nazis!!!
BTW - you put an extra 'end parenthesis' in that spelling nazi - grammar nazi...
Okay goodnight!!
Bai Bai!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0493s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
charleezangelz
Kristy and Susan
Doent com home?
Der Mummeez. I hav new perrents now and I doent wont yoo to com home. I goes faw lotz of walks now and Gorg iz my gerlfrend. I luv her and we ar gowing to bi a kenel tewgether and git a stafy. Sew doent wurry abot cuming hom - I iz hapy wif Valery and Edy nd Gorg and Poochy (Our pet stafy). And I wach tellys wenever I wanna. And I havunt dun shiney poopy for a week so I iz fine now. Yorr formah pet - Charlee.