April 5

Today is a big temple day with a lot of temple viewing and walking all over Kyoto. Matt and I were up early again and decided to walk to a coffee shop that was a bit of a walk. It ended up being almost a mile but the morning was beautiful and the coffee was good. We met some people from Palo Alto there, kind of interesting. Half way across the world and the only other people in this coffee shop were from the same part of the world as us. We exchanged some conversation and it was fun. 

Headed back for our 9 am rendezvous with Dan and Mohan. We all headed out to Soto, the coffee shop close to our house. The coffee there is very good and Matt and I shared a grilled cheese. The guys got these crazy drinks called choco nut lattes - I took a picture! And they of course ate sweet stuff.

Our first stop is Tenryn-ji, one of Kyoto’s top ranked Zen temples. We took the long walk to the train station. It was a nice walk and it was good to see the city. The temple is beautiful and the gardens are really nice. I like the gardens better than the buildings but that isn’t a news flash. We walked through the grove of Bamboo trees with several other thousand people. Oh my. Just people everywhere. So many people. 

Now we headed to Kinkaku-ji - known as the Golden Pavilion. This is a Zen temple whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf, reflecting beautifully in its pond. Along the way, we stopped and bough a roasted sweet potato from a street vendor. Matt and I shared a plain one which was wonderful. Dan got one with all the sweet stuff. Wow. We also shared matcha mochi, which I loved. Matt is not so sure about mochi. He isn’t in love with all the jelly substances. We finished walking to Kinkaku-ji. The temple was extraordinarily beautiful and we got a lovely day in which to see it. After the cold and rain, it is a beautiful spring day today. 

Our next stop will be the To-ji Temple. We have tickets for this one and plan to stay until dark since the lighting of the garden is one of the key elements. We decided to stop and have some lunch and Mohan found us a curry place. We are all starving and we all got our own food, something we haven’t done much of on this trip. My favorite? They gave us unlimited shredded cabbage. I ate piles of it. I am desperate for some vegetables. I had a fried tuna dish which was good, but definitely not my favorite thing I’ve eaten here. We finished dinner before it was our time to enter the Temple grounds so we stopped at another place and got coffee and of course, the guys got sweet stuff. I’ve had a lot of coffee!

The To-ji Temple has a five story Pagoda, the tallest in Kyoto. Our tickets got us in before the crowds and we were actually able to enter some of the buildings. Buddhas everywhere. It has a strange calming effect on me. We had some interesting conversation about the religions of the world. We hung out here until it got dark and enjoyed the grounds with all the garden lit up. It was beautiful and we got some amazing pictures.

There is no easy way to get home at this point. We tried to take a bus to the train but the buses here are absolutely mad with people. It is really hard to get on one without a long wait. We finally decided to take a taxi home. The taxi driver was a woman who literally talked the entire 25 minute ride in Japanese to Daniel. Dan would translate for us and it was interesting. She had been a tour guide previously and knew a lot about the city. 

We decided we didn’t need to go out again to eat. We stopped at the Family Mart and picked up a few snacks. Matt and I bought some popcorn and ice cream. The guys bought some real food. We ate at our place and it felt good to be in for the night.

We played a bunch of Taboo and Matt and I actually won a couple of games. Went to bed. Wonderful day but once again, I am so tired.