Saturday I went to Kyoto, and by the time I got there it was pouring down rain. I bought a 500 yen all-day bus pass and headed to Sanjusangendo, a Buddhist temple with 1001 statues of Buddha and 28 statues of guardian dieties. Thankfully, all of these amazing statues were inside and out of the rain, but on the downside photographs were not permitted. On my way out, I bought a book with pictures and some explanations in English for only 500 yen. Alternatively, I could have gotten six or eight postcards I think for 400 yen. I thought the book would be a better way to show you what it was like!
After this it was still raining and I was getting hungry. I didn't feel like wandering around in the rain looking for food so I took the bus back to Kyoto station to eat. I ended up eating in Subway (eat fresh!). They have two new subs out right now, Indian cuisine style. I got the tandoori chicken one. The other one was hmm bean curry and something...don't remember. I got wasabi and soy sauce on it, but I probably should have gotten a more Indian type of sauce. Oh well, it was pretty good, could have been spicier. After I was finished I went across the hall to an international food shop and got some Italian wafer cookies that I had tried last weekend when I rode the Shinkansen. I remembered them being better the first time. The second time they just tasted like crackers. Boring.
Now that my tummy was happier (I still was a little hungry), I took the bus to the Gion district, more specifically to Yasaka shrine. I had planned on going to Yasaka shrine the last time I was in Kyoto, but I couldn't find it. This time the bus dropped me off right in front of it so I couldn't miss it! It was very very orange. I took lots of pictures. This is the shrine where the Gion Matsuri parade begins, which I saw the previous week. They had a couple of the portable shrines for display and there were a ton of lanterns everywhere. The grounds were fairly large, and I walked to the back where it connected to the park, Maruyama park. This is the same park that I walked through previously. And I walked into the park and ended up in the exact same spot where I was when I took the picture of the heron before. I had only been a few steps away from the shrine that I couldn't find! I felt a little stupid, but that was okay. Now I know how everything connects better in my mind.
It was getting a little later, maybe 4 pm-ish, so I decided to turn around and walk through Gion on Shijo-dori. I wanted to walk through this area when it got dark, and I only had a few hours to wait since the sunsets almost before 7 pm now. I walked down Shijo-dori until I recognized some parts where I had been when I saw the Gion Matsuri parade. I went down a side street where they were selling really crazy colored shoes. Then I ended up in a really large covered shopping area, and it was really crowded! This was totally the place to be in Kyoto on Saturday night if you're young and hip. I was hungry again so I went to First Kitchen to get a tapioca mango float (that's what they called it in katakana). It was mango juice with vanilla soft serve and tapioca balls like in bubble tea. It was amazingly delicious. I need to get another one soon.
It was getting darker, and I was getting confused on where I was. I made my way to Kawaramachi-dori where I thought there was a bookstore with an English section. All the websites I read said they closed in 2005, but I thought I'd still look. (hahaha) I did find a bookstore, a different one, and they did have two cases full of English books on the fifth floor. I sat on the floor, probably something that made the Japanese people angry, and read some of the books. I read a lot of this little Japanese culture book on salarymen. I thought it was really funny, but I don't think they were really satirizing them, they were telling the truth. Oh sad, but still funny.
Now it was dark dark-ish, and I headed back on the street. I ended up walking through a much nicer shopping district with Armani, Tiffany & Co., and Louis Vuitton, etc. Good thing too because I felt like spending money. And now I couldn't.
I took some pictures of the lanterns lit up on the streets and wandered my way back to Yasaka shrine. But first I really had to go to the bathroom, and I learned a while ago that the conbinis all have nice clean bathrooms. So I stopped first at an am/pm. It's restroom was closed to the public. Further down the street was a FamilyMart. This restroom had an unnecessarily large sign on it mentioning some sort of disaster on 12/1 last year. So I had to walk to the end of the street to the 7/11 to use their restroom, geez! I was across the street from the Yasaka shring and it had it's lanterns and torii gate lit up so I tried to take some more night pictures. I didn't do a very good job though. Then it was about 8 pm and it was time to go home.
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