Kyoto Day 2

In your dreams: Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) & Maruyama Park (Cherry Blossom Night Festival)

The main attraction at Kyoto is the Kinkakuji Temple - made of gold, so Lu and I bypassed this and headed straight for the Kyoto Fabric Centre (vie the Imperial Gardens). I spent a good hour trying to work out which fabrics Roberta would like, but they were all silk - not quilting fabric, expensive and potentially available at Target. So sorry Mum, I bought none but took some photo's so you can tell me I should of.
We then headed to Kinkakuji - to do the tourist thing. Mirror Lake is filled with large koi and at least one long neck tortoise, more importantly they sold meaningless trinkets. Some offered "Good Health", others were named "The Midas Touch" etc. Buying one ($5AUD) felt like both touching and Midas were involved but not in my favour. Finally we settled on "Your Dreams Will Come True" which I reasoned could cover all bases, although I think I heard Lu sneer out "in your dreams tosspot".

Ignoring her poutily I immediately shut my eyes, and daydreamed I was lucky.

And I was! We stopped to throw money in the lucky bowl and THIS time I was lucky on the first throw!!! Take that Lucky Bowl. Now that I was officially Lucky, I wished for a wondrous night for us both - and we got it.
Next! My trusty Kyoto Visitors Guide (April Edition) informed me of some ruckus that occured at Maruyama Park (Cherry Blossom Night Festival). We'd heard screaming and drinking game chants the previous night and realised it was all part of the Festival. It makes sense right, pretty flowers are a perfectly good reason to get drunk.

We stopped and visited the Onsen, and made a b-line for the Park.

Perched in the middle of the park is a massive Cherry Blossom tree, greater and more beautiful than most. We tried to take a good photo but the Kudak is not much chop at night - google images can help here. Normally reserved Japanese youths, potential generation C gather through-out this massive park and get plastered on rugs, vendors sell hot food and crap - and more importantly beer.

Lu went straight for the toffee strawberries, while I gorged beef kebabs and Asahi.
We stumbled again through the Gion district and I was observant enough to see 2 dinkum Giesha's but Lu only saw one.

Lucky me.