We arrived at Kyoto main station this morning a little before 6:30, so the bus made good time at least. Then tamarra and I got to enjoy trying to navigate the station while most everything was closed. Because nothing opened until about seven. Purchased tickets to get us to Osaka tonight. Thought they were Shinkansen, but unfortunately were mistaken.
The main plan today was to first visit a castle, then museum, a few shrines, then head to Osaka. Whelp, we got to the castle, but it didn't open til almost 9. So we went to the museum. Didn't open til 10. So we finally got breakfast. Found a sweet little coffee shop, awesome atmosphere, delicious food. Then we tried finding our way to the first shrine, since it wasn't even 8 yet.
First shrine of the day was Kinkakuji shrine. It was packed. Soooooo many people. I took a bunch of pics. There was this giant blonde American woman there. She was huge. Not even kidding. My persecution might be distorted by being around all these shorter people all the time, but she literally looked like she could have straddled my shoulders with no effort.
Ginkakuji is the younger brother to Kinkakuji, Thea's were the builders of each. It's more arts focused, while Kinkakuji was a political move. Also, Kinkakuji is gold, and Ginkakuji is grey and wood-colored.
The reason I go to know so much about both places is that we ran into a small group of students from Kyoto International School, from their English Speakers Society club, who had taken it upon themselves as a club to go to local shrines and castles (there's a bunch in Kyoto) and act as guides to English speaking tourist to practice their skills. It's a really cool idea. A few of them were pretty good, and they were all really sweet. Got to learn a lot about the temple, and hopefully got to teach them good things about Americans, lol.
Finished that rather quicker than I expect, and it was finally back to the castle. Nijo castle. I had visited there 11 years ago, and the nostalgia really hit me hard. Took a bunch of pictures. My favorite is of a couple who had been recently married and were doing a photoshoot on the grounds.
Next stop was the Manga museum. A little bit of a disappointment. I had expected something more museumy, but this was basically an expensive manga library. And most of the manga was in Japanese. *shock* It wasn't what I expected, but it was nice to visit anyway. Unfortunately, I spent a little too long reading interesting english manga, and we headed out late to the next stop. Inari shrine.
The shrine was one of Tamarra's big interest spots. However, because we headed out so late, everyone was pretty much packing up by the time we got there. We managed to find a man selling some stuff, and on little stall was open selling the good luck charms. Really glad. Took a lot of pictures here, too. You might not recognize the name Inari right away, but the toori gates are quite distinctive. Unfortunately, what comes hand in hand with all that wonderful nature is mosquitos, and they were out in full force tonight.
Anyway, got back to Kyoto station, all ready to take out shinkansen to Osaka. Unfortunately, it turns out they were just normal train tickets. Even though they were sold at a shinkansen ticket booth. It was very upsetting. We were able to get over it though, and when we got to Osaka, took a taxi to the hotel. I know I wouldn't have been able to walk even the 15 minutes it was supposed to take. Tired. Finally got Tamarra to watch an episode of Sherlock with me. She doesn't like Sherlock much, but I think she likes the series. Anyway, bed time.
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