I woke up at a decent hour. A quiet, good night’s sleep at the hostel, but my legs and shins hurt so much! I’m really wishing I hadn’t left my sneakers in the US. Walking in Chucks all day is hurting. I left my stuff in a locker there as it was a flexible check out time. Saved me 300 yen for a train station locker ha. I then headed off to my first stop, Tenryu-ji and the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove. Got some breakfast from a conbini and ate outside near a stream. The train station was right nearby. This was the first time I’d encountered JR machines that were only in Japanese. They had some English instructions printed out, but googled only showed me the romaji, not the kanji of my destination, eee. I decided to trust Google’s price estimate and just bought the ticket for that. Luckily when I disembarked, I got through the gates no problem with the big herd of tourists.

The walk from the train station to the temple was quite pretty! We crossed over a big river filled with birds. Saw a heron type one and several egrets. So common here. I’ve seen more in the two months here than in my whole US life, ha. While crossing the bridge, I saw some photographers with a geisha and snuck a photo. This temple is known for its gardens and their design that date back to the 1400s. I wandered the gardens first, some gorgeous landscaping with a pond.

I actually got to go inside this temple as well! You had to remove your shoes at the entrance. It was cool to see the large wooden beams, and paintings inside. I can’t imagine how people stayed warm though. Afterward, I headed to the bamboo grove. A fantastic atmosphere again: calming, with a bit of wind rustling. Bamboo grows freely around here, but I’ve never seen so much in one spot.

With a train ride, I was off to take a bus to Kingaku-ji, the golden temple. I had to wait for a second bus because the first one was so full! Luckily, I managed to by a day bus pass from the driver. You only go in the back doors so I wasn’t sure how to buy it from the driver. Asking him if he had any from outside the bus worked, and then I just walked to the front to buy one from him. I don’t know if you normally buy it at the end, but I hate holding up everyone disembarking. By the time we got there, I was pretty hungry. I ended up finding a pizza stand by the temple and had some flatbread pizza that was quite yummy. No English required, point and pay XD

There were a lot more tourists here than at Gingaku-ji. The temple itself was quite stunning. Two levels of the building wrapped in gold leaf with a gold phoenix on top. The gardens weren’t as nice though, so really it was an expensive entrance fee for just the temple. I was still on the hunt for omiyage for my co-workers and ended up buying something outside the temple from a tourist stand. But dumbly enough, I later realized I hadn’t bought enough so I had to find some more before I left that night.

I then took a bus to Nijo Castle! One of my absolute favorite parts of my trip. I really enjoy historical sites. It was interesting to compare the Japanese style castle to those I’ve visited in Europe. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside. They kept everything pretty dark and dim to preserve the paintings. Most of the original wall screens had been moved to a gallery. Almost no décor besides tatami mats, wood floors, some wall alcoves that used to hold relics, and beautiful paintings (with gold) reaching two stories. Very high ceilings. The floors made an interesting sound when you walked across them. It’s called nightingale floors: “Dry boards naturally creak under pressure, but these floors were designed so that the flooring nails rubbed against a jacket or clamp, causing chirping noises. The squeaking floors were used as a security device, assuring that none could sneak through the corridors undetected.” I love walking among places where major events in history have occurred. The rest of the gardens and adjoining buildings were interesting to see too. The castle has two moats.

Itinerary completed! I headed back to my hostel to pick up my backpack. I stopped by McD’s for early dinner as I had some time to kill before catching my bus and my feet and legs were not up for more sightseeing. They even spoke some English! I can’t get over how different big city life is ha. My cheeseburger tasted quite different than those from the US. Much less greasy, and the bun was made of better bread. Got to charge my dying phone too. Afterward, I decided to brave a French styled café for dessert. No English this time, but I got enough of what was being said. After a brief wait, I got a table with a menu all in katakana so I knew at least it was English names. I planned on just ordering in accented English, but the waitress brought me an English menu! I ended up with a cake set with lemon tea and a lemon tarte. The cake was delicious, and had a blackberry glaze. A nice dessert for me! I hung out by the banks of the river again once I was finished and did some reading.

I caught the bus to the train station and wandered around inside. Bought some more omiyage, ha, and then checked out the whole department store they had for food omiyage. The gift giving culture here is so strong! I then went to the rooftop gardens on the top floor and passed a cool light show built into the stairs. The escalators for me though. There was a pretty awesome night view and some benches amongst bamboo. So many young people making out in the dark shadows haha. No PDA here. I hung out here next before it got too cold and I descended into the station to sit on the lit stairs. Finally I decided it was time to find my bus home. I stopped by a bakery for a late dinner cutlet sandwich snack and milk tea. My bus was already there and I managed to board without problems. The ride back was rough again. I was exhausted but I’m not sure how much sleep I got. I walked the twenty minutes home at 4:30 am and fell into bed. The walk woke me up in the brisk air, but I got about an hour of sleep before I had to wake up and go to Shimonita.