I arrived in Kyoto at like 6:30 in the morning after a really bad sleep on the bus. I just couldn't get comfortable and then because I had taken a melatonin I was all grumpy cause I was sooo tired but I couldn't sleep. Made me grumpy for all of today. That and my feet and back hurting. I must say though that I got a lot accomplished in the way of sight-seeing today.
I dumped my bag to start with at the hostel and then hoofed it north to try and find a subway station. That took me out to near Nenzo-ji or whatever the fat it's called. That was supposed to be the start of Philosopher's Walk from there, and easy to find, but it was far from it. My guide book has been pretty good in regards to all things Tokyo (although it is missing a lot of things that I think should be in there), but it's like someone came and spent like an afternoon here in Kyoto and then wrote things about it like a year later when their memory is all fuzzy. I do need to take this occasion to rant right now about maps. I think I am going to go on a world wide crusade to make sure that all maps posted are directionally situated in the reality of the area. So when you are at a station and lost and you are all excited cause you've found a map that will tell you where to go, you will actually be able to find the items on said map...as opposed to getting more lost than you were to begin with. When you look at the map and it looks like you turn right to get to where you are going, then it should actually be a right that you turn in the real world from the situation of the map. That only makes sense!!! But nooooo. And it's not just posted maps. It's tourist maps as well that have a main street as the centre of the map and then everything situated around it so that it looks like everything runs either North-South or East-West. If this is NOT the case then the maps should have a North directional indication to specify such. Okay. I'm done now.
So I set off from the Nen's Zen, G - Temple (as I have aptly named it to give homage to Nen, it's actually Nanzen-ji) and went in the direction of the crowd. Oh, before I left, there's this cool huge red-brick aqueduct thing that is STILL IN USE. It was totally cool. I thought of Granddad when I was up there and I know he would have gotten a total kick out of how they had designed it and built it way back when and all that. So I did eventually find the Walk. It runs along a beautiful canal that's lined with cherry trees that are all turning red and little shops selling fun touristy (and surprisingly, mostly well done, nothing exceptionally tacky till later on) things. There's a couple more temples along the route and I think I like a couple of them better than the big draw temples. One was a nunnery that had the most beautiful, simple garden. It wasn't very big and it cost 500 to get in but it was well worth the money. The route ends at "The Silver Shrine", Ginkaku-ji, which never did receive it's planned silver coating so it's all wood and I think it's much better that way, as fond as I am of silver and all. It was really crowded but it had a certain quality that was above par to the rest.
I made my way back to Kyoto Station on the bus, falling asleep every two minutes, I just couldn't stay awake. And by now I was really grumpy and back in the city. I decided to try and get to the hotel that I had first wanted to stay at but it was full to see about getting a Thai massage. They were available so I had this very nice lady pull me in all sorts of random directions. She was very nice and she kept telling me what I beautiful face I had. She thought I was Spanish. Ah. It's nice to be traveling again and to have people think I'm more beautiful than I am. That's the way it's supposed to be, as opposed to all these dumb ass Japanese who just look down on you for not being one of them and supposedly fat. From the massage in the hotel I walked over to the Old Imperial Palace. I will have to go back when the light is better. It was 3:30 and the sun was already going down so we were passed the good shadows stage. I got on the subway to try and find Nijo castle and had some difficulties with the maps posted and the one in my book. Grrr. Then the guide book said that the last admission was 4:00. Well, I guess I won't be going in. It was late and I was getting even more grumpy than I was before so I decided to try and make my way back to the hostel. I ended up right back at the same subway that I had had issues with the map at. Double grrr. But I made it and I'm here and I'm going to go to bed now. It's 6 pm. I don't even want to go out and walk to find some food, my feet are THAT sore. You know it's got to be bad if Michelle doesn't even think that food is worth it. That's really bad.
