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.

Kyoto Day 1 - Onsen and Heian Shrine Concert

After arriving from Oooo-saka we made our way to the Hiroshin Ryoken in Central City district, just off Shijo shopping district. Our room was simple and authentic, but even better there was a Japanese bath-house (Onsen)!

This was very confusing for us...

Do you go naked? Do you wander down in you kimono thing?
When do you go? What are the little stools for? Why does the mirror only allow me to see my nether-regions aka "front bum"?

Lu took the safe option with swimwear, while I reasoned that if anyone inappropriate saw me naked it would be their loss. We headed down to the bath-house and luckily enough no-one was there. And what a cavernous, steaming room of joy it was - on my return we will be changing our study into a Onsen. During our stay I went twice daily, and only on my last trip did I have to share the Onsen, I was already in the buff and concerned I may offend a local - luckily he was also in the squids - I have never been so relieved to see a naked man in my life.

That night we strolled in-between the Takasegawa Canal and Kamo river, there is a landing with no lights that looks up at the Pontocho lane restaurants. Fire twirlers, students and dirty gypsies wander along the banks, but we were headed for a concert in the Heian Shrine.

Travelling down the poorly lit Reisen road we made it to the temple, you could hear the cello from outside and as you entered the courtyard a hundred Cherry Blossom Trees in flame were lit up with spotlights, mirrored by tranquil lakes. It was so beautiful Lu almost cried.

We then walked back to Pontocho restaurants via the Maiko district where ugly fat business men chuckled in groups, like a classy version of King Street.

I think it was our best day in Japan

Ooooo-saka!

Lu and I landed at Kansai Airport, Osaka (pronounced Ooooo-saka) late on Thursday night and headed straight out for Shin-Osaka. Yes Shin-Osaka is not the same place as Osaka, but we were none the wiser until arriving. Even more confusing was that Shin-Osaka was not near Shin-Osaka Station, but Namakgonogonishiwakaihonolooloohawaii Station... blerg!

Luckily we were on the same JR Line Train as Peter Fincke (Voice Talent), the JR Line English voice-over dude. If you catch a train in Japan, it's likely the dude speaking English is Peter, otherwise it will be Amy his friend at work. Peter dropped what he was doing at 11PM and took us all the way to Shin-Osaka, which should be renamed Shi*-Ooooosaka. Without him we'd still be walking in circles (thankyou!).

Don't go there.

Things got better from here, after leaving our shi* hotal at Shi*-Ooooosaka I unfolded my knees to the anatomically correct position, and we headed out for Himeji Castle, again meeting an lonely old man who directed us there. The only English he could speak was "yes", "no" and "Lovely". So we called himi Mr. Lovely - and he was.

Here is Mr. Lovely outside the Castle.

And the here is Mr. Lovely with Lu. And finally, here is Mr. Lovely to joining in the fun, my arm was not long enough to get us all in - but you get the idea.Despite Mr. Lovely continually wanting to go to the toilet or eat, we did not let him. The lack of shared language made things confusing at times, although I did understand his tuneful humming. Unfortunately Lu does not speak "humming", got confused by a hand signal and ran away as she "thought he said a certain area was men only". It wasn't, it was just a cafe - I enjoyed this.

Mr. Lovely stayed with us the whole time - and Mr. Lovely made sure we got our Offical Himeji stamp. ... And even though we only visited one Castle, he let us stamp all 3!

Here is a sample =)

Later that day we headed out to Kyoto, missed the rapid service and stopped at every station along the way... I miss Mr. Lovely and Oooo-saka