Woke up with rather sore muscles. All that mountain climbing yesterday. I knew I should have made my sneakers fit anyway. I need to buy some here. While getting ready, Ayaka had the Japanese news on. It’s quite interesting to see the differences in the crime report. Everything was detailed, mapped, and plotted out. Any witness or person being interviewed never had anything but their upper body shown. Reminded me a lot more of a 60 minutes report. We took the train to Kyoto, about an hour, full ride, and dropped my backpack off at a locker close to my hostel. Afterward, we continued on our schedule to Gingaku-ji, the Silver Temple. We had to take a bus from the station (my first one). The street was covered in vendors, especially many selling yatsuhashi. The hard kind tastes kind of like flavored fortune cookies or waffles. The soft one has a paste filling and a rice flour covering. It comes in many flavors: strawberry, green tea with chocolate, banana with chocolate, sesame, red bean.

Inside the temple, it was rather peaceful. Such a serene atmosphere and there were less tourists. The gardens were covered in moss. A good site to begin with. I definitely want to come back in November though when all the momiji (Japanese maple) are red! We walked a bit along the philosopher’s path, also quite calming before getting lunch on the way back to the bus stop. We ate at an udon place. I had kitsune (fox) udon which had fried pieces of tofu in it, yum. Ayaka pointed out how the broth differs here in Kansai. It’s lighter than in Kanto.

Next stop via train, Fushimi-Inari Taisha (Shrine)! This was on my Japan bucket list! It featured in two of my favorite manga/anime and they actually had posters everywhere for the one. So many people again, but that’s what I get for going during Silver Week. Each tori (gate) can be sponsored, but it’ll cost you about $1500 for the smallest size! I read that turning around at the crossroads point gets you a good view without having to make the whole 2-3 hour hike up. After yesterday, my legs were not ready for anything more. This was already exhausting. The map kinda tricked us in the beginning as it was not too scale at all. Made the distance seem short, but the higher you got the longer it actually was. All the steep stairs up and then back down. Really impressive and amazing to see.

We picked up my luggage from a station and went to check in at my hostel. Ayaka acted as translator again because the family barely spoke any English. Super sweet though! Our reward for the hike today was tea time with matcha (green tea) parfaits! Kyoto is famous for all the matcha parfaits. We first tried to go to Tsujiri tea house which is the most well-known, but it was an hour wait so we went to an imitation café that Ayaka had been to before. The parfaits were amazing. I will continue to dream of it. Sometimes matcha can be too bitter or sweet for me, but this was a perfect blend of tastes and textures. Drooling right now thinking of it.

After tea, we went to Hanami-koji which is old Kyoto where you can find geisha. Really cool to see the old buildings and cobblestones. We didn’t see any Geisha, just a lot of expensive restaurants, $150 meals! Ayaka didn’t feel well so we took a break and sat by the river. Apparently this a big lover’s spot so Ayaka said she had never sat there before. Very pretty and peaceful. We wanted a small dinner since the parfait had filled us up so she recommend a Showa Era chain restaurant. It was super cool! The walls were decorated with posters and flags, and they played the coolest music. It sounded a lot like our WWII and pre-war music, but in Japanese! As ladies, we got free soup and ice cream, yes! Ayaka just ordered some things off the menu as it was huge and of course all in Japanese. My favorite thing was cheese hanpen – deep fried cheese on a stick. Sadly, we had to say our goodbyes with several hugs as she had to catch the train back to Osaka.

I headed off to my hostel which was a close 5 minute walk. I met a Chinese girl who was a Tokyo student and staying in the same room. She spoke great English and Japanese. She was very friendly and shared some peanut brittle snacks from China with me. It was off to bed with me. Two other girls from the Netherlands came in shortly before midnight.