Kyoto: Day 18

Today was wander around Kyoto day. We basically did just that, wander around Kyoto. Here are some pictures.

Random school children. The long things the girls have are actually giant Japanese bows. They are in archery club I guess.

Really big gate!

Near that gate was the museum of art that had a huge Renoir exhibit going on. We decided to go check it out. They also had an Ansel Adams gallery, which was appealing to me since he is a famous photographer. Anyway, we checked out the museum and then learned that we should not go to museums on Saturdays in Japan. They are as crowded as the trains during rush hour. The museum was still cool though, so it was worth it.

After the museum I saw this really cool building.

Then we found the temple that the big gate was attached to. The temple was huge.






There also happened to be a wedding going on at the temple. It was very cool. I assume it was a Shinto wedding since I think this was a Shinto shrine. The bridal dress was very elaborate and the groom wore a very cool traditional kimono.



We left the temple to do some more wandering. I saw some cool flowers.

Then we stumbled upon a Japanese sword shop. I had to go in, hehe.

They had all sorts of really expensive and cool swords. This place didn’t sell cheap swords; the cheapest sword that was already put together was around 800 dollars. You could also get a custom sword made with different components around the shop, but I don’t know how much that would cost. On the 2nd level they had antique armor and swords. The swords were for sale and some of them were priced at over 10,000 dollars. Wow, right? They were very coo.





As we were walking back to the hostel I took some pictures of the cool cloud formations.

We ran into another temple. They are all over Kyoto.


Who’s café? Pooh’s?… Café =P.


We went to another noodle pancake place for dinner. When we got there we had about a 15 minute wait, but the restaurant was cheap and cool looking, so we waited.

The food was simply amazing. I would totally eat there again. It must have been a popular place because when we left they had line with about a 2-hour wait going up the stairs and out along the street.

After dinner I got in touch with Graham and we decided to meet up. We met at this shopping street called Teramachi, explored that and the Graham showed us his favorite arcade. I could see why it was his favorite; the place had everything and was very cool. It also wasn’t super smoky, which is rare. We went out again after than and had a few drinks at another izakaya. We basically just caught up and compared Japan adventures. It was good to meet up with him, especially in Japan.

When we were done we parted ways and Erin and I went to bed.