Time for actual Kyoto! In three days we managed to hit most of the tourist spots and eat a good amount of ice cream 🙂
Our first destination was Ginkakuji; a big old temple I hadn’t managed to get to before. The scenery was really pretty, with sand sculptures and moss and praying mantis…
View from our place; we had a great balcony
Pill popping pharmacy logo…
Concrete slide!
Ready to hop on a train to our first Kyoto adventure!
Our first Kakigouri of the year; we really needed it after walking about half an hour in the heat to the temple!
We made it!
Sand Fuji
More sand! Waves this time
Peekaboo
One of my favourite pics from the trip
🙂
See? Really pretty.
Selfie!
And post temple ice cream is perfection
From there we walked down the Philosopher’s Path to the next temple, which turned out to be waaay cooler than we realised! You could go up the top of the gate in Nanzenji. It was cooler and shaded up there so we spent a good amount of time relaxing.
Black dragonflies!!
How cool is that? Like an insect night fury….
Another of my favourite pictures ❤
Man I wanted to poke this thing
This man feeds all these cats every day. It was really fun to watch
Mitch with his new friend
Mad kitty
We did a lot of walking 🙂
Taking a rest
Oh hey!
cool buildings everywhere
Daww
Off the path, on to the roads and heading to Nanzenji. Coffee from the vendy!
Japan scenery is pretty cool.
The top of the gate at Nanzenji. Very awesome.
Here we are!
Gary enjoying the height…. not so much 😛
we took out shoes off and everything!
It’s very green in Kyoto. Less so in Tokyo
seriously gorgeous
We didn’t take many photos in the temple itself, but here’s a pretty lantern thing.
After Nanzenji, we walked down the overgrown railway track thing nearby, which was pretty interesting in the middle of the city.
The end of the tracks!
We carried on walking towards the town and the next temple; which I realised with a start I had already visited in my last trip! But all I remembered from last time was the sand garden bit. I didn’t realise that there was loads of stuff to do with Tsukumogami – everyday items that have been chucked away but took offense to this, gained a spirit and cause mischief. I did a wee essay on them for a module on my year abroad! It was great to revisit and have connections from before that I didn’t even know I had. Plus there’s cool dragon stuff there.
On the way, a massive gate to another shrine we didn’t go to
This tree is amazing!
The historic bit
A wee tea house in Kodaiji
First taste of bamboo
This dragon was so cool!
The entrance is quite picturesque
Good views
This is where I suddenly recognised where I was!
Mum, I took this one for you. They said photos weren’t allowed, but it was too cool for your to miss!
Lush grounds
My zoom is pretty darn fancy
Once you climb to the top in Kodaiji you suddenly get this magnicifent view over the city. It’s pretty awesome.
I loved seeing the designs of all the discarded items with souls!
We literally stayed till close, and were walking out in this procession with a member of staff behind us like a shepherd XD We wandered back to the town and moseyed about, looking for dinner! We decided on Japanese curry, a favourite of Gary’s. He was amazed by putting cheese in it, but we swayed him pretty quickly 😀
We found a Ghibli shop!
Dinner time 🙂
I’ll end day one with a picture of all the tickets and stuff I got from the day 🙂
Maisy In Japan 