Day 11: Bike ride success, Nijojo-mae tour and gardens, Imperial palace tour and making chicken carbonara with one wok.

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Hello world,

(Maddie here) Well today we saw some more of Japanese cultural heritage sights. Kyoto has a staggering amount of temples, shrines, religious and Imperial significant sights, you could probably live here all your life and not be able to visit them all. So on our last full day here, we decided to visit as many as we could sustain the energy for.

When we woke we were releaved to discover that the rain had stopped and that instead of having to travel everywhere on foot with umbrellea’s overhead, we could woosh around the streets like the locals. (which I might add, can actually ride a bicycle while holding an umbrella, and have even invented a stand that attaches to their handle bars for those that still wish to control their machine with two hands! ingenious!) With the usual morning rituals out of the way, we left the apartment on our bicycles (one of which was included with the apartment and we paid an addition 1000 Yen upon check in for the second, a bargain for 3 days when we looked at renting bikes in Tokyo it was going to cost us approximately 7000 yen per day).

Having already done the Golden temple, we set off in the opposite direction today. Brad was eager to see more gardens and had read about how beautiful the Imperial Palace gardens are. While Brad has ridden mainly road bicycles and i too am now more accustomed to a road bike it was a little challenging at first to get used to the cruiser style we were using. Kyoto is excellent for cycling, there are designated paths all throughout the city of what we have seen, and when paths become narrow cars generously give you plenty of space on the road so you do not feel threatened. Another thing that differs here is that no one wears helmets, and it was a strange but invigorating feeling to be riding helmet-less for what i am certain is first time in my life on the road! By about mid morning we had found our stride (so to speak) and were ducking and diving in and around people and cars to reach the garden.

Having never been before, and all signage in Japanese we unknowingly rode straight past the information centre were we would later return to book out English speaking guided tour of inside the palace grounds. All the gardens and palace grounds are gravel, and this at first was also a challenge for the cruiser style bikes that we had, but once we figured out that going faster is much easier and less likely to have one flying over the handle bars, we were once again moving swiftly through the 27 acre grounds.

We came to another entrance/exist gate which had what appeared to be a large house with its own walled garden (still within the Imperial palace gardens) we firstly decided to walk around the exterior taking in the beautifully constructed zen garden, with bubbling water fall and stepping stones, which i adore! it was quiet... now this may not seem like such a big deal, but in Tokyo and even Kyoto these cities never shut up. With most shops opened till 9 or 10pm every night and people working extremely long hours, there is constant noise and constantly people around every where you go. We finally had found a little piece of Japan that it seemed the rest of the country had temporarly over looked. Once having explored all its garden, we ventured inside the building we then saw that it was actually a museum, which was rebuilt using some existing materials that had been excavated from the grounds. It was made in the style of a noble families home and inside we saw treasures that had been dug up from the sight. While a lot of the museum was in Japanese there were some helpful english small translated information to accompany each section and we weaved our way through the building. It was interesting to learn that the Palace and its surrounded noble households, kitchens and servant quarters had over the centuries been burnt down numerous times and therefore when they reconstructed the palace grounds they only did selected sections of importance as it is no longer used for Imperial functions. We saw the evolution of the grounds told through pictures and records, today it is used mainly by it's surrounding communities as an place to join in communal sports and activities, which we both thought was awesome.

After seeing the museum, my interest was peaked too, i asked Brad if we could ride back and see if we could find out where to get tickets to go inside and see the actual palace and it's gardens, he agreed and off we rode in search of the information desk or ticket counter. We found the main entrance, we knew we had the right place because of the western tourists showing the exact look of confusion as us asking the heavily guarded (by military police) gate. We then continued to the information office were we had to fill out a very important document showing our Drivers licenses and obtained our ticket to a guided tour at 2pm. With time to kill and our tummies grumbling we went off in search of food (again)... we were back on the main bustling streets, when we came across a what appeared to be a farmers style groceries store. We bought sushi and headed back to the park to enjoy. After having our sushi we still had over 2 hrs to wait for our tour so Brad suggested that we go see the Nijojo-mae gardens. It was a short ride but we discovered you needed to pay to enter (and also park your bikes) so we headed for a 7/11, got out the money required and headed back.

Once we entered we saw that there was an audio tour offered, so we both decided to hire one each... this was money well spent (500 yen) which lead us through the castle (no photography allowed, so no pictures of this place) it was very impressive. Had we had enough time, we could have probably spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the castle grounds and seeing the original treasures that had been moved and replaced with replicas for restoration and preservation purposed. For anyone wanting to come to Kyoto, we can strongly recommend seeing both these places, if possible try to do them on the same day... the history between the Shogun and the Imperial family of Japan is deeply intwined... In saying that, if you did the Palace first and the Shogun castle second it would probably be a more cohesive picture of their stories. Also leave yourself the entire day, you need it to be able to do both of these places justice (if you can). We quickly realised that we needed to head back to the Palace for our 2pm tour and fast... so double-timing it, we ran through the Shogun's very impressive castle hopped on the bikes and off we went.

We made it in time, when two lovely Japanese uni students approached us for a survey on what foods we had liked best in Japan so far... not wanting to be rude we helped, listing Ramen, Takoyaki, Beer and green tea ice-cream, they were ever so grateful and gave us both a green tea kitkat with a love heart shaped note saying "thank you for helping us with our survey, we hope you enjoy your time in japan"... how sweet I wished them luck for their studies and off we ran (again) to get in for the tour. We were a large group of predominately westerns, with a few asian faces thrown in. Photo's were allowed but we were told to stay with the group, the tour was very informative (some information we had already learnt on our tour of the Shogun's abode) and the guide was a lovely and very patient Japanese lady that spoke very well to such a large audience. The Palace was massive! it was certainly impressive and we learnt about the different coloured tatami matts (red trim for nobility and white for servants) and about the different gates with which you would enter, again corresponded to your rank and class within society. We learnt many other things mainly about the architecture of the buildings, and that in winter women wore multilayered Kimono's that were made of beautiful silk but could weigh up to 10kg. In the garden is were we took a hundred tourist pictures... it was breathtakingly beautiful. By the time the tour ended the cold was getting a little to brisk, so we rode for home, stopping for dinner supplies.

This is when i discovered i can make chicken carbonara with one wok and a lot of determination. Having no pot and no tongs made what usually would take me 15 minutes at home, took more like 45, cooking each ingredient almost separately and then trying to fold it all through using a spatula. It wouldn't win any awards, but it was creamy, i didn't scramble the egg and it was extremely comforting after a big day of riding in the could and eating cold sushi for breakfast/lunch. Which brings us up to date. We have packed our backpacks up again (we will be having another interesting breakfast of odds and ends tomorrow morning) for an early wakeup to hit the road from Kyoto to Osaka domestic airport to catch our flight down to Okinawa. We have learned through research that we will need to catch a bus once we reach the island to what appears to be it's last stop, to reach our next accommodation on Araha beach. Please wish us luck! tomorrow will be a big travel day.

So, it's Sayonara for now lovely people... Next time we write hopefully the climate will be a lot warmer! xo

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