Japan - Kyoto (Day 2)

We've reached the second day in Kyoto! But first heres a little pic I forgot to include in the last Japan post - a couple of geisha figures in the train station!


Today we took the bus to Ryoan-ji, a Zen temple, home to what is considered to be one of the best rock gardens ever (or something along those lines)! There are 15 rocks within the garden, and they are laid in such a way that it is said you are never able to see all 15 rocks at once. We were told that people come here and stare at the rocks for hours - I suppose as a form of meditation!


I quite enjoyed a couple of pieces of artwork in the temple as well...


The surrounding gardens around this temple were also pretty interesting in themselves - and we even got to see some gardeners at work!


Next, we took another bus to the Rokuon-ji, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.


Then ANOTHER bus journey (where I photographed this cute little safety poster---->)

...to Nijo Castle. I loved the interior of this building, but unfortunately we were forbidden to take photos or even sketch any of the rooms! If you visit the Nijo Castle Website you can get a few glimpses of some of the rooms in the building.


It was then lunch time. A few of us went to this noodle bar in which you were served a dish of hot soupy noodles, and you then got a choice of a bunch of stuff (mainly tempura-fried) to add to it! It was pretty cheap, and we all gave a go at being polite and slurping our noodles!


It was then on to the Manga Museum, which was sort of like a giant library of manga books, with a couple of exhibitions going alongside it! It was pretty busy in there, as you can see...


And on the way back to our hotel, I got a couple of shots of posters/signs I liked.

(I quite liked the geishas rushing off to work with their breakfast in their mouths!)

And that was our last day in Kyoto! No Japanese delicacy for tea tonight I'm afraid - although I did have a chocolate-filled doughnut in the shape of a teddy bear. It was adorable and delicious!

The next Japan blog post will be all about our day in Hakone! We catch a glimpse of the base of Mt Fuji (d'oh!), try some eggs boiled in the Hakone hot springs (adding 7 years to our lives in the process) and have a traditional meal at the ryokan we stayed at! Wa-hey!