Luckily we were blessed once again with the finest weather. We arrived in Kyoto and the sun was beaming. The station itself is quite cool in Kyoto, it is really tall, and a bit of a maze. It has quite an intricate metal and glass frame and apparently it has 15 floors. I was really surprised to see a huge decorated Christmas tree too! We headed out of the station and found our hostel with surprising ease. Ks hostel was clean, modern and seemed really foreigner orientated.
We then bought our 500\ all day bus tickets and caught a bus to the north east of the city. The problem with Kyoto is that it is incredibly large and there is a limited train and subway system, so buses are the only real option, and of course we happened to be there on one of the busiest weekends of the year because it is a long weekend and the leaves are turning color. After nearly dying of being squashed in the bus, we arrived at Ginkaku-ji. This is known as the silver temple. However the temple is wooden. This isn’t just a mistranslation. In 1482 shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa built the villa as retreat from the civil war. However he died before he ever plated it in silver. The villa was turned into a villa and left in its original state. It is a beautiful small two storey wooden structure surrounded by lush gardens and water features. There are also clever patterns of sand around the garden, which although seemed a little odd, was pretty cool. The changing leaves around the temple looked fabulous. A fiery garden. I particularly like the maple leaves when they are orange and red.
(wow this girl looks amazing..)
After wandering along the paths of the temple’s garden, we followed ‘the path of enlightenment’ by the canal. We came to Honen-in another temple which is situated in the middle of a forest on the hillside. Cute little temple, with sculpted sand, Buddha statues and carp swimming in the water. 
(I'm being enlightened obviously....)
Back on our enlightening path we walked to Nanzen-ji. This temple had huge grounds and many different separated gardens and buildings. The first building visible is the San-mon a huge entrance way. We waltzed around a unspectacular garden and then we went into the Hojo which was a residence with a lovely enclosed garden and beautifully painted screens.
We had lunch in a random café and then continued our mad sightseeing tour by foot. We wandered into Gion, the area of the city known for its famous residents Geisha and their apprentices- Maikos. This is the area where geisha perform tea ceremonies and entertain their rich and famous guests. There are also many kabukis in the area which I have yet to visit…but its on the list….as we walked around the cute tiny streets with wooden buildings like those we saw in kanazawa. Just as we were admiring the lovely scenery alongside the river, we saw a geisha coming towards us! Well I thought jordana was about to wet herself with excitement!! She ran up and asked for us to have a photo with her. To be honest I didn’t think she was beautiful, but a little scary in fact. The immaculate appearance of her clothing, accessories and her white paint was incredible though. We never thought we would actually see one! You have to be invited to watch geisha entertain, by people who already attend a particular tea house. This is very difficult and can set you back a fortune.
(I'm the one on the right incase you had trouble distinguishing)
With big smiles on our faces we went to Chion-in. This is a temple with the largest temple gate in Japan. Its un-missable- due to its size and the fact its luminous orange. Apparently this is where a famous priest called Honen lived, taught and died. There is a big temple building which was very lively and gold. There were swarms of people around as there was some sort of festival occurring. There were also martial arts performers standing by the temple looking like they were about to perform. But by this stage jordana and I were tired and a bit templed out. We had a quick look in a few windows- mostly sweet shops selling flat triangular mochi with different fillings and cinnamon biscuits- on our way back to the hostel. We had walked for over 6hrs30, but the day wasn’t over yet!
Jordana had arranged for us to meet one of her father’s friends who lived in Kyoto for dinner. So we walked back to the station, and after getting lost we met her and her husband. We jumped in their car and eventually found somewhere to eat. It was a really nice yakitori. We ate soooo much food, which was all cooked for us by a young lady on some heated black stones in the middle of the table. once again I tried new and bizarre things. I cant say I’m a chicken gizzard fan, but chicken neck and hip was quite nice. They brought a bowl of raw cabbage, which had a sweet vinaigrette with our drinks. Both of which were amazing. I had a drink called umeshu (ume=plum). It was so sweet and yummy. The evening was fantastic. It was good to have in-depth conversations with very intelligent Japanese people who spoke good English (both are professors). We were extremely lucky to have this gorgeously expensive meal bought for us too, and we were driven home! An amazingly amazing day!
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