Kyoto

March 31st
Our first day in Kyoto started with a 3 hour Shinkansen ride from Tokyo. The ride was smooth and I managed to catch a couple of zzzz's. We were expecting the weather to be similar to Tokyo, given that it's around the same level, however we were sadly mistaken. It was cold, very cold, and blustery and the rain kept coming and going. It felt like Melbourne but twice as cold. We caught the shuttle bus to the hotel, put some more clothes on and went for a walk down to the Imperial Palace.

The Sakura were out in full bloom along the river we followed, it was so pretty. Once we arrived at the Palace, we had a wander around looking at the lovely gardens. We found a beautiful weeping Sakura and another clump of Sakura but it started raining again and we rushed to get back to the hotel and get warm again. We had Yakiniku for dinner, oishii! *^_^*

April 1st
The next morning we had a 1300yen buffet breakfast with all the trimmings and I tell you what, the Japanese breakfast really keeps you going all day. After paying 500yen for an all day bus pass, we left to go temple hopping. First was Kinkaku-jinja (Golden Temple) and it really is stunning seeing it IRL. The rest of the grounds were lovely but I have to wonder about the stupidity of some people. We were given a handout as we entered and I read through it, as there was some English information and I wanted to know what I was looking at. We were at the last point of interest before the tourist shops and there were two ladies and one man in front of us and they were looking around at the structure and finally one of the ladies said, "I don't know what it is, they don't have a sign up or anything"...
There was a sign but it was in Japanese. I wanted to be helpful, so I asked her if she had one of the handouts. She asked the man and I told her, pointing at the handout, that it was the Tea House. "Oh", he said, "I got one of those, I put it in my pocket." *sigh*
So they had paid 400yen and gone the whole way through not knowing what they were looking at and probably missing some points altogether.

Next was Ginkaku-jinja (Silver Temple), which was under construction...not much to look at except around 50 species of moss :) We took the Philosopher's Path down to Nazen-jinja. We were told it was a lovely walk and we were expecting it to be quiet and peaceful. Maybe it is, just not at the height of Sakura season. The path was quaint and the Sakura were beautiful but it was so crowded, you could hardly move. We didn't go into Nazen-jinja because we were running out of daylight.

The last temple for the day was Kiyomizu-dera, which I particularly wanted to visit. It's meant to float on a sea of Sakura during Spring. Unfortunately, we were still a little early. There were a few out but not what I was expecting. Still, the smell of the wood as you enter is really rich and you get a good view of Kyoto (when it's not smoggy). We then took the bus into Gion and had a wander around before dinner before heading back to the hotel for an early night.