Day 2 - Kyoto

Overnight we realised:
- Sarah had forgotten her glasses (and had to wear contacts all week and go blind at night)
- Mike had forgotten his contact lenses (and had to wear glasses all week and therefore look geeky in all his photos)
- Mike had also forgotten his shaver. Rats.

For our first (and only) full day in Kyoto we got up early and bussed back to the station to pick up all the guide maps we should have take the day before. The Tourist Information Centre is on the 9th floor of Kyoto Station. And it's closed on Tuesdays. Fortunately there is another Tourist Information Centre that gives out Japanese information on Level 2. On Tuesdays the will also give out English maps and info ... if we went back I'd just go to the second floor ... surely they have that stuff sitting there all the time?

First stop Sanjusangen-do, about 20-30 minutes walk from the station and in the end we decided not to pay the ￥600 entry fee to go in and took photos from the gate. There would be plenty more temples to see on this trip!

From there we followed one of the tourist walks through Eastern Kyoto visiting temples, shrines and pagodas. Many of Kyoto's sites are World Heritage Listed and considered to be culturally important not just to Japan but all humanity. The best part for me was usually the view at the top of a hill, or watching Japanese tourists take part in all the good luck rituals, reading their fortunes or trying to walk from one statue to another with their eyes closed in order to find their true love.

In the afternoon we followed the Philosopher's Path to Kinkakuji, the Silver Pavilion. This was the most crowded site we visited in Kyoto and felt like we were waiting in line to leave a lot of the time! You walk in one entrance, follow the path (and the people in front of you), take a few obligatory photos and walk out the other entrance (pause to use the bathroom facilities optional). The sand garden was fairly impressive however, as was the lack of patience from the European family in front of us who pushed through the rest of the tourist hordes - pretty bad form!

Mike was determined to walk back to the station after this so we followed his directions (which, admittedly were spot on) and arrived at Kyoto Station about 2 hours later, legs exhausted and starving. Of course we had just missed a bus and since it was after 6.30pm the next one wasn't coming for 45 minutes so time for our daily dose of Starbucks!

Starbucks over here is not like home. The first thing you do here is reserve a seat, often on another floor altogether from the service counter. Generally speaking, a shopping bag or your coat is used to reserve a seat and the others around the table you wish to use. If you're lucky you'll be in a group of 2 or more so one person can organise a table while the other waits in a queue to order and then receive your coffees. Getting your coffee takes longer as well because not only do they repeat your order back to you here, but the barista really does repeat it to the service staff. And so do the other 5 staff behind the counter. Which is hilarious because you get to hear your Japan-ified order being repeated in stereo by 7 chipmunks. Priceless.

Then you take three hours to drink your one short coffee between three friends, all the while emailing another three friends on your keitai or reading a magazine, or doing your homework, or fixing your make-up but never actually talking to your companions (unless it's via your keitai of course).