Legends of Kyoto

(In which our protagonist joins the Shinsengumi in order to see some red leaves)

Hello folks. Sorry about the delay since my last post, but for the past few days I have been awfully sick. Not sick enough to stop working, but too sick to keep food down successfully or string more than two thoughts together without great effort

So anyway....

I went to Kyoto on the weekend. Straight after work I caught the Kodama Shinkansen to Nagoya and then caught the Nozumi to Kyoto (there were no fatalities). Its nearly Christmas, so JR Kyoto station was decked out with decorations, the centrepiece being a Christmas tree taller than the building I work at. Outside it was absolutely freezing- there must have been a 10 degree difference between Nagoya and Kyoto. I'm glad that i found Marissa quickly, because if I had stayed out there for more than 10 minutes I would have been cryogenically preserved for future generations of Japanese scientists

After a quick trip to Starbucks, I made it to my Ryokan just before curfew and managed to have a midnight bath that got some warmth back in to my pallid flesh. The next day was even colder than the night before, punctuated with bursts of rain. After meeting up with Marissa and Tsuna (She caught the morning train), we caught a bus to Jingu-ji temple, far out in the mountains. The leaves were amazing, even if the weather was horrid. The highlight were eating maple leaf tempura and then throwing clay pigeons off the mountain in order to get rid of evil spirits

Throwing Clay Pigeons: A tale 50 seconds in the making!

(staring Marissa thumb)

Afterwards we went to Ryoji temple (I think), with its rock garden full of zen-ness. It was really more of a sideshow on the way to the main attraction, Kinkikuji temple- The Gold Pavilion (See previous photo). I bought some expensive sake there that contains some actual golden flakes (and is thus too valuable to actually drink, but nevertheless...)

The next day the weather improved a lot. It was still cold, but at least it was sunny. We hired some mountain bikes and went to Kiyomizu temple on the mountain. On the way back down, we stopped at a tea house for some green tea. The weather was really pleasant at that point, which is half the reason why I enjoyed going there again so much (last time I went, it was a cold miserable day. Also, Rion tried to throw me off the temple balcony to my death)

That day we also went to the Silver Pavilion (which turned out to be false advertising. It was mostly wood and copper) as well as saw a blimp. Overall I enjoyed watching the blimp the most.

Come night time, and it was back to warm Nagoya by the Hikari Shinkansen (one could say I did all three of them. But mostly Rion) . I enjoyed Kyoto, freezing and expensive as it may be. I'll definitely be going back during festival time

Peace out all!

-Blake

Random Historical Fact: Kinkikuju Temple was burned to the ground in 1950 by a mad monk who had grown obsessed with it. He later claimed a mysterious American wearing a tricorn hat had told him to do it, but few believed him.