We visited Nijo Castle this morning, walking directly from the hotel. It's only across the road. It was used by 5 of the 50 Shoguns overall.
We next visited another local temple which was some type of golden pavilion pagoda. It was raining and I was tired.
I was tired and fell asleep on the coach. When it stopped I noticed we were back at the hotel. I was very grateful for it. Yumi said that we were slightly early for the tea ceremony so she decided to use this time leisurely at the hotel. I shoved a hair dryer down my shoes and changed from shorts to trousers. My warm shoes worked so well I felt completely refreshed at 12:50 when we left.
We drove to the tea house district. We were invited into a small house especially built in the olden times for the tea ceremony. The lady was a tea ceremony master. Yumi translated everything about the small details needed to be performed so as to appreciate the tea. In the past, tea was highly expensive so this was what they did (pretentious) to appreciate it.
We next visited Kiyomizu temple. Its rather large and even recognisable in anime and manga for the humungous drop with balcony. There was a great superstitious feature where you have to walk 10m between two stones, with eyes shut, in order to do well in love. Some people didn't walk straight so failed, however I did! WooHoo!
We next visited the Geisha district. I saw 3 of them. Apparently this is quite rare. The area was packed with tourists.
In the evening after arriving back, I followed Mike and Caroline down to the station via the shuttle bus. I only wanted to walk up the sky garden staircase. I did just that. The views from the top were great. All of us had dinner here in a kebab restaurant named Koke Kokko.
I took out money yesterday but used it all up today. :/ I went to an ATM machine in a 7/11. The system was harder to use and I came away having withdrawn a lot more than I should have. I was bummed out but I will keep it to one side until the return trip to Japan.
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