J³ (James, Joel, Japan)

Yesterday’s post now has photos.

I confess sometimes I wonder why I blog my travels. Don’t get me wrong, I like having the blog to read over later and reminisce on my travels (regardless of all of my screaming fans). The issue is that it takes me so long to blog that I’m either truncating my sightseeing plans, or staying up too late, and neither is really a good thing to be doing. But on the other hand, I want to get it down while it’s fresh too. I mean, even when I write it that night, I keep discovering how many little things I’ve forgotten about that I wanted to mention. I have to keep taking photos of them during the day to remind me that night…

As I mentioned yesterday, today I checked out of my ryokan in Kyoto right after breakfast, and headed for Kyoto station once more. I kinda still feel like I haven’t properly enjoyed the place, though this time it may have more to do with the fact that it was freezing cold. It occurred to me that I started each full day in Kyoto riding on a different company’s trains – Hankyu on Sunday, Keihan on Monday, and Kyoto City Subway yesterday. In fact, in contrast to our last trip when we did most of our commuting in Kyoto on the buses, I did not catch a single bus the whole time on this trip.

But anyway, back at Kyoto Station once more (after taking the wrong exit from the subway and winding up on the other side of the road) I reserved a seat on the Kuroshio limited express heading for the Kii Peninsula. Most Kuroshio trains actually start at Shin-Osaka Station, but two of them start from Kyoto Station instead. However, I could have sworn the one that started in the morning from Kyoto was a later one, and I’d have to get to Shin-Osaka to get the earlier one, but when I checked again last night, it was the other way around, which simplified my plans somewhat.

The Kuroshio is a pretty nice train. Slightly disturbingly, there was a safety instruction card in the seat-back pocket specifically with instructions for what to do in the event of a tsunami. Named after the Kuroshio Current (which is basically the North Pacific version of the Gulf Stream), the Kuroshio runs from (or in my case, through) Osaka and around the bottom of the Kii Peninsula, Honshu’s largest peninsula. James and I have been on the peninsula before, when we visited Koya-san, but I was heading to a different part.

Fun fact, the Kii Peninsula is named after the old Kii Province that used to be located here, or in Japanese, Kii no Kuni. I’m pretty sure that’ll be ringing bells for some of my readers. Yep, this place is where the name of Japanese bookstore chain Kinokuniya comes from. It was originally founded as a charcoal dealer in Shinjuku, Tokyo, though. Go figure.

But getting back to me, after about two hours on the train, I hopped off the train at Kii-Tanabe Station to change to a bus. Not right away, though – I had about half an hour to wander around Tanabe, or basically time enough to circle one largish block. The last photo is of a temple noticeboard – it reads, in appropriately somber calligraphy, “today is the first day of the rest of your life”.

Bought lunch from a bento box seller. They actually sit on the shelves without any rice in them, and when you buy the box, they add in the rice fresh. I ate sitting at the bus stop, but the wind was so strong and so frigid that the rice was ice-cold by the time I was done.

I hopped on the bus when it arrived, settling in for another two hour trip. It too was a lovely trip, running through mountain valleys along a river, occasionally passing through a tunnel. There were never more than a few people on board, and for a fair portion of the trip, it was just me and one school girl. She got off, and later a hiker got on. For a brief span between two tunnels, it actually started snowing, but sadly it stopped again.

Eventually, the bus arrived at my destination: Yunomine Onsen. The last little stretch of road heading into town was a little hair-raising, especially in a bus. Yunomine Onsen is a hot spring town thought to be one of the oldest in Japan, having been founded about 1800 years ago. Like, the Roman Empire still ruled Europe when this place was founded. It basically consists of a whole lot of minshuku (= Japanese-style B&Bs… &D) and ryokan, each with their own hot spring baths, running down both sides of a mountain stream. It’s quite a nice little town, aside from the occasional whiff of rotten egg gas strong enough to make your eyes water.

So, I hopped off the bus, and so did the hiker. I strolled towards my accommodation, Minshuku Adumayaso, and so did the hiker. Turns out we’re staying in the same place. It’s quite a nice place, though it’s kinda showing its age a little bit. It is, to be honest, actually my fourth preference – no idea if the first three were full, or if they don’t offer single occupancy, or if they just didn’t want a foreigner. In any case, the rooms here are named after trees, as is common practice in ryokans and the like – my room is named Momo, the peach tree. On the plus side, this room has a much more effective heater than the one in my room in Kyoto, and it’s much better at holding the heat in. Today’s welcome snack is a mikan (mandarin) cake.

It was quite a long trip for what was basically a regular old city bus, but I’d finally arrived. But here’s the deal, see: Yunomine Onsen is closer to the east coast of the peninsula than the west. Kii-Tanabe is on the west (though, the official bounds of the City of Tanabe include Yunomine Onsen), while Shingu is the major station on the east coast. The Kuroshio actually terminates at Shingu. But, and here’s the but, for some odd reason, buses from Kii-Tanabe to Yunomine are strangely more frequent than buses from Shingu to Yunomine. I could have opted for a longer train ride (covered by my JR pass) then a shorter bus ride, but I would have had to arrive at either 11am or 5pm, there were no other buses in between. On the other hand, coming from Kii-Tanabe gave me options of 1:30, 2:30 and 4:30.

Anyway, I arrived on the 2:30 bus, so I explored the town for a bit taking photos, then headed back to my room to rest until dinner. As well as all the minshuku, there’s also a public bath, and a bath called “tsuboyu” where pilgrims have washed themselves for centuries. As well as this, there’s also a pool where the water is about 90°C where you can boil eggs – they sell them at nearby shops for this purpose. I tested the stream, incidentally, and it’s quite warm, however, that’s with the caveat that the only place I can reach the stream to feel it is downstream of the egg-cooking pool’s outflow, so results are inconclusive.

Dinner was in the dining room (unlike the ryokan in Kyoto, where they serve you in your room). It was quite an impressive spread – sashimi, tempura, nabe, chawanmushi, rice (of course). One pointer, though, for those who (like me) are a bit picky about fish bones: Japanese cuisine, as a whole, is not at all picky about fish bones. On a side note, I have, so far, twice stepped up onto tatami mats with my indoor slippers still on (a big no-no), and both times right in front of the innkeeper. Ouch.

Had a bath after dinner in the minshuku’s onsen. Quite lovely. Faint smell of sulphur, mind. Can’t seem to find the towels, so I dried myself with what I’m fairly sure is a washcloth.

Went for another wander to try my hand at some night photography of the town, then came back to the minshuku to blog. I’ve had the TV on in the background with a show about a school for deaf kids, and it’s quite interesting watching them interact with each other. Slightly amused to see more than one kid dry their palms on their pants before starting to sign – guess it’s the sign language equivalent of licking your lips before you start speaking. =)

Sadly, while the minshuku has wi-fi, it’s just a hair too weak to get a connection in my room, so I’m gonna have to go sit in the lobby to post this…

Today’s photo count: A mere three hundred and ninety.

Today’s pedometer count: 6664 steps, or 4.5 km

Today’s goshuin count: None

Today’s stamp count: Two, Kii-Tanabe Station, and Tanabe City Visitor Information Centre.

I swear my blogging is taking longer to do. It wasn’t all that late when I started, but it’s sure late now.

Here in Japan, all mobile phone cameras make an audible “ka-click” noise when used, and this noise cannot be silenced even by muting the phone or turning down the volume – this, supposedly, is not required by law, but is simply a voluntary agreement between all the mobile phone companies. Simply put, there’s a small subset of the Japanese male population who simply cannot be trusted to not misuse the cameras – most especially, by taking photos up the skirts of women and girls. But here’s the issue from my point of view – pretty much everyone uses their phone cameras to take photos. Actual cameras seem to be few and far between. I can be in the wilderness or a peaceful temple garden trying to enjoy the serenity and sounds of nature, but instead all I get is “ka-CLICK” from all sides…

So, today started with breakfast, as it tends to. It included a bowl of what I first thought to be chilies, but upon more research, it turned out they were okra. Don’t think I’ve ever had okra before… that I’m aware of.

Headed out right after breakfast in an attempt to fit in as much sightseeing as I could. This, incidentally, is how you tell that a place is worth eating at – it’s still only ten to nine in the morning:

I was heading out a little way east today, to Shiga Prefecture, which neighbours Kyoto (it’s just on the other side of the mountains on the eastern side of the city). With the magic of my JR Pass, I could get a shinkansen to the next stop and come back on a regular train faster than I could get there by regular train direct, so I was aiming to get to Kyoto Station in time to book a ticket on the 9:08 Kodama. And I did… except I wound up stuck behind a couple who seemed to be taking forever. By the time they were done, it was already 9:06, and the train man didn’t think I could still make it to the train in time, so he booked me for the next train, the 9:32 Hikari.

Well, on the plus side, it gave me twenty minutes to spend checking out what was on the south side of the station, because I’d never been that way. Didn’t have the time to do much more than walk around the block, though.

Soon I was on my way. And soon after that, I was at the next stop, Maibara, where I switched to the Biwako Line. Interestingly, the name “Biwako Line” is just a nickname, referring to the Tokaido Main Line between Kyoto and Maibara, then the Hokuriku Main Line from Maibara to Nagahama. Anyway, point is, just one stop back towards Kyoto, and I was at Hikone, site of today’s first activity: Hikone Castle.

On a side note, it seems that the shinkansen trains have replaced the smoking carriages with just smoking rooms in specific carriages. I can remember on our last trip seeing carriages absolutely hazy with cigarette smoke, and being in the carriage adjacent to the smoking carriage on our trip from Hiroshima to Kyoto able to smell it, so that’s rather a welcome change for me.

Also, I saw this little place on the platform at Maibara. I’ve been wanting to try eating at one of these little platform eateries, but I haven’t really seen any – mostly they’re just convenience store kiosks.

Hikone Castle is (along with Matsumoto Castle and Himeji Castle from our last trip) one of the twelve remaining original castles in Japan. It was built in 1603… or possibly “assembled” is the correct word, because it seems to be entirely comprised of buildings that were moved from other castles. The main keep comes from Otsu Castle, while other parts came from Nagahama Castle. Many of the stones came from Sawayama Castle. It’s one of the oldest original castles.

The city also has a mascot, Hikonyan (“nyan” is the onomatopoeia for a cat’s meow in Japanese) – basically he’s a white cat wearing a helmet with ridiculous horns. Turns out Ii Naomasa, the father of Ii Naokatsu (who ordered the castle built), is involved in the legend of the beckoning cat (i.e. the one you see in Chinese and Japanese shops waving at you). Ii Naomasa was once travelling in a storm, and when a temple cat beckoned at him to come in, he did so – and just as he did, lightning struck the tree he had been sheltering under. Thus the tradition of the maneki-neko was born, and thus Hikonyan is a white cat wearing Ii Naomasa’s helmet. (The temple in question, incidentally, was Gotoku-ji in Tokyo. I’d like to visit, but I don’t know if I have time.)

But anyway, as I approached the temple, a little old lady came and advised me that the usual stairway that everyone takes to get up to the temple is kinda boring, and there’s a more interesting one around the back, and would I like her to show me the way? And before I’d translated all that in my head, we were already walking together. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was nice of her to show me, but… she kinda walked slow, and I was on a bit of a timetable. At one point, we were even walking down the middle of the road (though it occurred to me in hindsight that maybe she was trying to imply that we should cross the road, but she was just too polite to shove me over). She talked my ear off the entire time – think I understood maybe ten percent of it. That’s her in the last photo.

She showed me to the back ticket gate and left me there, so I went in and headed up. It was, to be fair, fairly nice. And if I hadn’t known about the other staircase, I might have wasted time investigating it anyway. The stairs are difficult to walk up, which is the point – the heights are all different, and the spacing is all different, all intended to make it near impossible to march up to attack. At the top, the path leads under the drawbridge, then up some more stairs to a little plateau where you can access the drawbridge.

On the other side of the drawbridge was the gatehouse, and you could go inside and look at the construction. One thing I found a little curious is that the gateway in an English castle like this would be full of arrow slits and murder holes, but this gatehouse had none of that – just lots of vantage points for archers sitting inside the bailey to aim at the gate. I had to take my shoes off to go inside, but fortunately they provided slippers.

Then I went to see the main keep. It’s three storeys tall, and the steps to climb up are so incredibly steep. Nice view at the top, mind, of the town of Hikone, and also of Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest freshwater lake. Not too bad a place to live, if you can keep it heated. Lots of arrow slits and cannon ports. However, I had to take my shoes off again, and this time there were no slippers. Since the seventeenth century didn’t seem to consider under-floor heating, my feet were incredibly cold by the time I was done – I could barely feel them.

After the keep, I had a look around the rear garden, and found the turret at the back could also be entered. Again, three storeys with steep steps. And again, had to take my  shoes off. They were pretty much completely numb by the time I was done there. Headed back down the ground level and back to the train station to get my next train – the Ohmi Main Line.

On the way, I saw this little copse of cherry blossom trees that  can bloom even in winter, if I was reading the sign right. They were blooming, in any case.

Taking its name from an old name for Lake Biwa, the Ohmi Line is operated by the Ohmi Railway, the oldest private railway company in Shiga Prefecture, having been founded in 1896. It runs these cute little one- and two-car trains (similar to yesterday’s Kurama Line). The nickname used by the locals for it is “gachakon train”  because of the noise it makes. It runs parallel to the shinkansen route for much of the way.

Buuut, when I arrived on the platform, I’d missed the (hourly) train by a few minutes. So instead I popped back out of the station to grab some lunch from a nearby place that had caught my eye. I had Hikone-don, a local specialty – Omi beef “gristle” (according to the English menu, but that’s gotta be a mistranslation), red konjac and an egg on rice (i.e. the –don part of the name). Most tasty.

Got back to the station for the train. Headed just a few stops up the line to my next destination, Toyosato. The Ohmi Line station at Toyosato is pretty much in the shadow of the shinkansen line, and the line runs pretty much dead straight along the tracks, so I had a bit of fun taking some photos, before heading to what I was actually here for: to go to school.

To be precise, the Old Toyosato Elementary School Building. Once an actual school, now a museum of sorts, because the actual school moved to a new building in 2004. I’d kinda wanted to look inside an actual school somehow (though possibly one with actual students too), but this one drew my interest for another reason too: the building served as the model for the school which appears in the anime K-On.

The anime is about four girls (later five) who form a light music club at school. Their club meets in the music room at the top of the school, where they write songs to play, or practice them, but more often than not, just drink tea and eat cakes and talk instead.

The school in real life bears a surprisingly close resemblance to the one in the anime… or rather, the other way around – though of course there are a few differences. Most of the old building commemorates the school, but the music room at the top of the building has been set up as a shrine to the series, with a table full of tea and snacks, a rack full of cosplay in the back room, and a whiteboard covered in goofy doodles. The town has grabbed the idea and run with it a bit, too – wooden cutouts of the characters (and a few characters from other series) appear by the side of the roads pointing the way to the school.

From photos I’ve seen, it seems fans bring gifts and tributes they’ve made – fanart and so forth – and write messages of support on the blackboard, but it looks like noone had been in a while today, because the room was pretty clean. It also seems like they come en masse for characters’ birthdays and have a party, because I saw a few posters advertising it in the town. (One thing about anime series is that character bios will always include things like birthdays, blood type, BWH sizes, favourite foods, hobbies, and so forth, even when such information is never referenced in the series itself.)

It was pretty interesting. Once again I had to take my shoes off, but fortunately they provided slippers. Completely smooth on the bottom, though – I almost slipped over several times, including one time on the stairs.

The stairwell railings have small statues (also depicted in the anime) showing the story of the tortoise and the hare – you can see them standing together at the bottom, then the hare can be seen sleeping on each landing while the tortoise makes his way up, until at last the tortoise can be found standing at the top with the hare nowhere in sight. Actually, much of the town seemed to be making a thing of the whole tortoise-and-hare theme – there were tortoise and hare silhouettes on the light poles, and the main street had stone stools shaped like tortoises and hares.

But back at the school, one thing I liked was that the top floor landing had a dial on the ceiling directly connected to the weathervane on the roof – you could tell which way the weathervane was pointing because the dial would point the same way. The floor underneath was disturbingly soft, though.

Headed back to the train line to take a few more photos, then it was time to re-board my train. My next stop, Omi-Hachiman. That’s actually on a branch line, not on the Ohmi Main Line, so I was worried I’d have to fuss about changing trains, but it turns out that some Ohmi Main Line trains terminate there instead – and conveniently, the train that left Toyosato Station exactly two hours after the one I’d arrived on was one of those trains, which gave me a nice timeframe to investigate the school and get back in time.

Sadly, by the time I arrived in Omi-Hachiman, the sun had set. My plans here were to visit the grounds of the old castle, which are on top of a mountain with a cable car and a spectacular view of Lake Biwa, but of course that wasn’t going to happen after dark. Rather than wander the town randomly in the hopes of finding something that was happening after dark, I decided to just call it a loss and move on. That was the end of my plans for today, but I realised I could resurrect one thing on my aborted plans for yesterday – specifically, my plans for dinner.

I hopped on to the Biwako Line, which also stops in Omi-Hachiman, and rode most of the way back to Kyoto until I reached Zeze Station. Zeze Station is also shared with the Keihan Sakamoto Line (which would be served by the day pass I bought yesterday, you see), and two stops down the line, just next to Zezehonmachi Station, was Mifuji Diner, a place I’d been interested in ever since I saw it on TV, in a show on NHK World.

I say it was two stops the line, but it was also just a ten minute walk, so I walked it. For the first half, I walked down the direct road connecting the two stations, but for the second half I tried walking down some of the back alleys. Many of them very small, most of them very dark, but a lot of them had the Keihan line cutting right through the middle of them, and there was a tiny little level crossing – complete with gates – every time. Might be fun to come back with more daylight (and more patience to wait for trains to take photos of).

Soon, I made it to the restaurant. It was largely as I’d seen it on TV. In fact, the walls were covered with signed cards from various TV crews, so it seems like it had been featured a few times. There was a kerosene heater keeping things warm. The menu was a huge roll of paper running across one wall, with extra additions glued to the bottom edge. It was taking me all night to try to read it, so eventually I gave up and asked for a recommendation. I had yakisoba (fried soba noodles).

One thing this place is known for is huge serving sizes, and it certainly was huge. And tasty. I was alone in the place while I was eating, but just as I was finishing up, a group of four walked in, and the things they ordered were huge too.

Soon, it was time to head back to my hotel. Just as I stepped outside, I heard the level crossing on the Keihan line start donging, so decided I’d be lazy and catch the train the two stops back to Zeze, since it was basically right there. Then when I arrived back at Zeze, the Biwako Line train back to Kyoto station was also right there. Then at Kyoto Station, once I found the right exit, when I reached the subway platform, the subway train was right there. So I basically got home in no time at all. Relatively speaking.

Tonight’s snack waiting in my room is… not too sure. Some kind of sweetish cracker thing. There’s also been tea every night, though I’m not a huge tea drinker. I generally pour myself a cup of hot water to hold, though, because it’s nice and warm. Doesn’t taste too great, though – wonder if that’s why people drink tea; to disguise the taste. Also took some photos of the bath room.

Time to pack, now. I’m checking out of this ryokan first thing tomorrow and heading to my next destination. Where, you say? What, you thought I’d tell you just like that? =P

Today’s photo count: One thousand and fifty-one.

Today’s pedometer count: 19,830 steps or 14.9 km

Today’s  goshuin count: None, but I didn’t visit any temples or shrines

Today’s stamp count: Four, bit a bit of a mixed bag. Seems like the Biwako Line stamps have this big mechanism with a lever you can use to apply the stamps, but I feel that doesn’t give you much fine control. The one I got at Maibara Station didn’t touch the centre of the stamp to the page, and I didn’t have the time to try again. Then I got one at Hikone Station but pressed slightly too hard, and one at Omi-Hachiman Station and pressed slightly too soft. Also got one at Hikone Castle. Couldn’t find any stamps at the Oumi Line stations or Zeze Station.

Yesterday’s post now has photos.

One of the minor annoyances about planning this trip has been those little timetabling issues. I’ll have everything worked out nicely only to suddenly discover that something has a different timetable some days, requiring an excessively early start, or something is on a special timetable on this particular day. Today’s travels include one of those times – I’d intended to visit Enryaku-ji, on Mount Hiei here in Kyoto, and to that end there’s a cable car running up the mountain. Except that today is the first day that it’s closed for winter – it was open yesterday, but yesterday was already occupied by Saiho-ji…

So, once again, breakfast in the morning. While I was expecting it, fish in the morning is still a little bit… icky. Not that I’m the greatest fan of fish even at the best of times.

Headed out after breakfast to visit Gion, one of the most exclusive geisha districts in all Japan. On the way, I passed a couple of interesting shrines – Kyoto Daijingu, which didn’t seem quite so impressive as its name, and which was surrounded by office towers, and Hiyoke Tenmangu, which ran down the side of (and partially underneath) an office building.

Fun fact, though, the geisha don’t call themselves geisha, but rather geiko. Not strictly speaking a red-light district, Gion has got a whole lot of nice old buildings, and a canal named Shirakawa runs through it, which looks quite pretty. Like Pontocho, though, everything happens at night, so it was pretty quiet at the moment. Saw no less than five couples posing for wedding photos, and they were also in the middle of ripping up the asphalt on the street and replacing it with white stone pavers – apparently there’s a general beautification project going on, putting the power lines underground and so forth.

Moved on from there to the Gion-Shijo Station (hence my visit to Gion this morning), owned by Keihan, yet another of Kyoto’s private railways operators (though in actual fact, the Keihan Main Line, of which Gion-Shijo Station is a part, runs all the way to Osaka). I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do on various Keihan lines today, and they have a day-pass ticket that covers all of those perfectly… except as I mentioned earlier, the cable car up Mount Hiei isn’t running from today, and therefore the ticket I wanted wasn’t available either. I bought the next best day-pass ticket, and headed through the gates.

The Keihan trains were really quite nice, with big comfortable seats, but sadly I wasn’t on the train for long. My first stop, Demachiyanagi Station, where I changed to the Eizan Railway’s Kurama Line. Yet another private railway company. One weird thing, though, for some reason the down escalator – and only the down escalator – at the Keihan Demachiyanagi Station has the longest lead-out section. Like, ten metres long. I couldn’t figure out why.

In actual fact the Eizan Railway Company’s lines used to belong to Keifuku, who own the Randen I rode on yesterday, but they were cast adrift in 1985 to reduce the losses the lines were  taking. Today, Eizan is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keihan. One thing I found interesting about the lines is that unlike a quite a few train lines in Japan, it was originally built double-tracked, but was reduced to single-tracked to provide steel for the war effort, before later being reduplicated.

The Kurama Line, logically enough, travels to the small town of Kurama in Kyoto’s north, and the main feature of Kurama, is Kurama-dera, my next destination for the day. After hopping off the train, I happened to spot some el cheapo plastic umbrellas for sale, so I grabbed one (I’d heard you could buy them in convenience stores too, but all the ones I’d seen so far were at least twice as expensive as the one I found here) and then headed to the temple.

Like Yama-dera, Kurama-dera is built on the side of a mountain, though not quite so severe a mountain, so it doesn’t offer quite the same views over the town below. It does offer quite a nice hike, though, right over the top of the mountain and into the town of Kibune in the next valley over. But first, I visited the temple itself.

Kurama-dera was founded in the eighth century AD, quite possibly by a monk who came from Todai-ji in Nara. From the twelfth century, it was a part of the Tendai sect of Buddhism, but in 1949 actually split away from Buddhism to form its own esoteric religion, centred on worship of Mao, who came from Venus 6.5 million years ago, though it forms a trinity with Bishamonten and Kannon, its objects of worship from its Tendai days – in actual fact, a lot of the usual accoutrements of Buddhism are still present.

It takes about half an hour to walk from the Niomon Gate to the main hall – or it does if you’re not stopping and taking photos all the time. On the way, there’s actually a Shinto shrine named Yuki Jinja. The shrine has huge cedar trees in front of it that serve in place of a tori gate, and it’s actually the site of the Kurama Fire Festival on October 22nd, one of Kyoto’s three great festivals.

Eventually I reached the main hall.

I said, eventually, I reached the main hall.

There’s actually a cable car that skips the whole climb – it’s Japan’s only officially-recognised railway line that’s operated by a religious institution, and it’s also the shortest line in the country. Sadly, it was closed today for repairs or something. Not sure I’d have taken it even if it was open, though.

At the main hall, I had a look around at things. There’s a mark on the ground in front of the hall showing where Mao first touched down (and supposedly still does from time to time). If you stand there, you can get charged with spiritual power or somesuch.

Sightseeing done, it was time to start the walk over the mountain. It was a very nice walk, though the sun was struggling to shine the whole time, and it even rained for a bit. Lots of stairs, lots of trees, and here and there were small worship halls in the middle of the forest. It was quite a nice walk, though admittedly the descent was a little bit hard on the legs. Wound up using my umbrella for all of about five minutes, when it briefly rained a bit harder than I was willing to rely on my puffy jacket to handle, then it stopped raining completely.

Eventually I arrived in Kibune. Or possibly Kifune, there’s some dispute on that subject. The town is basically one long road running up the valley along side a rushing stream – during summer, all of the restaurants along the stream put platforms across it so that you can eat over water where it’s much cooler. They don’t do that in winter, mind. The focus of Kibune is Kifune Shrine. But that came later – it was already two thirty, and though I’d had the rest of my CalorieMate on the mountain, I hadn’t had lunch yet.

It was pretty much at this point that I gave up on getting anything else done today (though it had been hovering at the back of my mind for a while), and to be honest, I’m not entirely sure why I thought in the planning stages that I could hike over the top of the mountain and still have time for something else. It did not occur to me until ten minutes after I first used my day pass ticket at the Keihan station that given my track record at keeping on time with things, buying the day-pass ticket was a stupid waste of money. The ticket cost me 1500 yen, and in total, I took rides that equated to about 420 yen in value. Not my best deal ever.

Anyway, I browsed up the main street in Kifune, but all of the places seemed to be quite expensive – some of them even costing more money than I had on me. Eventually settled on one nice-looking place offering a Yudofu Set – that’s boiled tofu, with a dipping sauce to put it in and a bunch of sides. Quite tasty.

Once done, I headed out to see Kifune Shrine. It’s actually divided into three parts, spread over about a kilometre from the first to the third. Kifune Shrine came first, and the town sprung up around it. Supposedly the goddess Tamayori-hime, mother of the first emperor of Japan, Jimmu, sailed here from Osaka in an amber-coloured boat – the shrine was built where her journey ended. Specifically, the innermost shrine, Okumiya, which I wound up seeing first. It’s got a big rock named “boat rock” which represents the boat in question.

The middle shrine is Yui-no-Yashiro, devoted to matchmaking and relationships. I was already running short on daylight, so I didn’t spend long here.

The first shrine is the main shrine, where all the people could be found, as well as the main worship hall. It’s a pretty nice looking shrine, with lanterns lining the approach stairs. You can buy a special kind of omikuji here – since the shrine enshrines the Japanese god of water, the omikuji appears blank, only to appear when you put it in water. The omikuji also includes a QR Code, which if you scan it will give you a translation… which hardly seems traditional. Actually, I saw a miko (shrine maiden) inside the shrine office using a phone and computer. I mean, I know in this day and age that probably all temples and shrines involve a computer somewhere along the line, I just found the juxtaposition a bit amusing.

However, I was running out of light, and I still had a bit to go to complete my walk – specifically, I needed to walk down the road to the mouth of the valley where I’d be able to catch the Eizan Kurama Line back to Demachiyanagi Station. It was a fairly nice walk along the river, but getting darker and darker all the time. Managed to arrive at the station just in time for the next train – though the one after, which we passed going the other way shortly after, had much nicer-looking seats.

I saw a yakiimo truck parked outside Demachiyanagi Station – kinda like an ice cream truck, except he sells roast sweet potato. Didn’t even know they still existed. I was tempted to buy something, except for the fact that I don’t really like sweet potato. The Keihan train back to Gion-Shijo station seemed to be a special one – an “Elegant Saloon” with double-decker carriages. Very nice seats. Once back in Gion-Shijo, I thought I’d see if I could get a partial refund for my ticket, but no dice – once it’s been used at all, it’s been used full stop.

Headed out for another look around Gion now that it was night time, but while there seemed to be one or two more places open, it wouldn’t really be coming to life until later. I was, however, impressed that the work crews had managed to resurface almost the entire street.

On my way back to my hotel, I finally managed to pop into Mos Burger for dinner – third time lucky. It wasn’t all that long since I’d had lunch, so I just grabbed a burger… with bacon, creamy potato, and cheese. Most tasty. Eat-in burgers are served in a basket, and the paper wrapping is kinda like a bag that’s closed only on two sides, so you can hold it more easily. Much more sense than McDonald’s burgers. This place, incidentally, had three floors of sitting space – I’ve noticed in general that while the four-floor McDonald’s I saw in Shinjuku way way back was still pretty impressive, three-floor fast-food joints… if not the norm, they’re still pretty common.

Annoyingly, I seem to have dropped my four-colour crossword-solving pen somewhere – it would have fallen out sometime when I pulled out my wallet. It’s more annoying than anything else (and I’ve got a spare), but it does raise some disturbing questions like, if it’s that easy to lose my pen, how easy is it to lose other things. Or rather, since I did lose my pen, what else might I actually have lost?

Passed a Salvation Army building on the way back to the ryokan. Little taste of home. Today’s snack seems to be a macha-flavoured Corinthian-type thing, though the flavouring wasn’t strong. Also bought a bag of Kit Kat bites from the convenienvce store for dessert – I’d heard they like releasing special Kit Kat flavours over here (largely because Kit Kat in Japanese, “Kitto Katto” sounds similar to “kitto katsu” which means “surely win), but so far I haven’t seen a single one. Had another nice bath. Now it’s time for bed.

Today’s photo count: One thousand and sixteen. Maybe what I need is someone with me to make me stop taking photos. It’s a little bit frustrating how many aren’t all that great on closer inspection, though.

Today’s step count: 16,590 steps, or 12.5km

Today’s goshuin count: Three – Yuki-jinja, Kurama-dera and Kifune-jinja.

Today’s stamp count: Not a one. Would have been nice if the Kurama Line stations had had stamps, but I couldn’t find any. I did find one in outside a shop in Gion, but it was larger than the page of my book, and it just seemed weird to use stamps in random shops.

As I’m sure many of my readers know, I still play Pokémon Go. One of the nice things about paying PoGo while on holidays, though, is the potential for impromptu sightseeing that it allows – and indeed, that was almost certainly part of the intent behind it. One of the criteria required for getting something registered as a point of interest in the game is that it should be “a location with a cool story, place in history or educational value”, particularly if it’s a hidden gem or off the beaten path. So simply by following the Pokestops in the game, it’s possible to see some pretty interesting stuff. Sponsored ones being the exception, mind – if you follow those, you’ll just wind up in McDonalds (though the 7-11 ones are handy markers for where I can find an ATM).

It’s actually pretty cold in my room – one of the downsides of staying a nice old building. The aircon in my room is really only effective at heating the air above waist-level (when I’m standing), but since I do everything in this room either sitting or lying on the floor, that’s not great. The bathroom sinks are in the the passage which is open to the central courtyard, which is open to the outside air – actually the hall outside my room is too, but there’s at least a noren curtain in between. It was actually so cold this morning I could see my toothbrush steaming once I had finished brushing. I didn’t notice so much during our last stay here – that was in summer, so all the aircon had to do was cool the air near the floor, and having the courtyard open to the air was refreshing at night. After all that, though, my bed is surprisingly warm and comfortable, especially once I’d put my socks back on, and I slept quite well.

Awoke this morning bright and early for breakfast. Very Japanese-style breakfast. Pretty nice, though.

Headed out to start sightseeing soon after. First task: re-tread my paths from last night so I can see Nishiki and Pontocho in daylight. As I’d expected, Nishiki was still bustling, but Pontocho was almost completely empty. Nishiki has an entire shop selling nothing but rice, and several selling exclusively pickled vegetables. I bought a piece of dashimaki (kinda rolled omelette, but with dashi stock and stuff). It wasn’t bad.

With that done, I hopped onto the Hankyu line train to head for Arashiyama, on the western side of Kyoto. Or to be more precise, I hopped onto the Hankyu line, but had to change at Katsura to the Arashiyama line. Disembarking at my destination, I decided to look around for somewhere to get an earylish lunch.

I’d been meaning to try a bunch of bento boxes from convenience stores over the course of my trip, but so far, restaurants have always been more convenient. Today, though, no restaurant was in sight, so lunch was two rice balls and a piece of double-choc baumkuchen (cake) from Family Mart. Tasty, but someone’s gonna have to show me the trick of how to wrap square nori around triangular rice balls.

Lunch done, I popped over to Matsunoo Taisha, which was nearby. Matsunoo Taisha (that’s Matsu-no-o) is built at the foot of Mount Matsuo (yes, that’s Matsu-o without the no), and is a grand shrine, serving about a third of Kyoto’s population. It’s actually located at the extreme western end of Shijo Dori, the same road that runs a block from my hotel on the eastern side of the city. It was founded at about the same time that the capital was being moved from Nara to Kyoto, making it one of the oldest shrines in the city.

And today, there was a flea market going on happening in the outer grounds, and a traditional Japanese wedding happening in the inner court, so it was fairly crowded. I breezed through and took a few photos, but soon headed on, because this wasn’t the main reason I came out here.

No, my main reason was to visit Saiho-ji, colloquially known as Koke-dera, or Moss Temple, after all the moss that grows in the gardens – over 120 types of moss are present, supposedly. Entry to Saiho-ji requires that you apply at least a week in advance by sending a snail-mail letter with a stamped return envelope – they’ll send a return envelope advising you which day you’ve been given a booking for, and when the entry time is that day. Mine was today at 1pm.

Entry costs three thousand yen, making it the most expensive temple in all Kyoto, and you’re also required to perform some kind of Buddhist service before being allowed entry. I was expecting to have to copy a sutra with a calligraphy brush, but my letter said we’d be chanting a sutra instead, so I was a mite concerned when we were shown into a hall with calligraphy equipment laid out on little tables in rows and on entry we were handed a sutra on an A3 page.

Turns out it was just chanting after all. I couldn’t really follow along at all, so I just sat and listened to the sound. Then we were asked to write a wish on a wooden plaque they’d handed out to us as well – I decided to try using the calligraphy brush to write “world peace”, because (a) it’s a nice generic wish, and (b) it consists of four kanji that I already knew (though in all honesty, I looked it up to make sure). Went pretty well, though I had too much ink on the brush and my handwriting is shocking anyway. Then we got up to put them on trays before the altar, and when I put mine down, I found myself putting it down next to another one that also said “world peace”, so I guess I wasn’t alone there.

Sadly, I wasn’t permitted to take photos of any of this. Also, I had to surrender the letter that they sent me – would have been nice to keep it as a souvenir, though I did make a colour copy first. There were a fair few foreigners there in the room with me. Fairly sure the couple next to me were from Hong Kong or Singapore or similar. I tried, incidentally, to sit in the formal kneeling seiza posture, but I couldn’t even hold that long enough to make it to the start of the ceremony, much less the end, so I switched to crossed legs. I managed that ok, but I could barely stand up afterwards.

Anyway, once the ceremony was done, we were allowed out into the gardens, and the photography began. The sun was lighting everything with a lovely golden glow – not that you can really tell in most photos, with the camera handily colour-correcting everything to bland white. Guess I can fix that in post. The pond in the centre of the garden is supposed to be in the shape of the kanji for “heart”, but I couldn’t really see it – and based on a conversation I overheard between a fellow visitor and the monk looking after the gate, I wasn’t alone in that regard.

The garden was actually designed by famous Japanese gardener Muso Soseki, who also designed the gardens at Tenryu-ji – which James and I saw last time – and Jochi-ji – which (if you recall) I saw in Kamakura a few days ago – among others. The moss is actually not part of the original plan – it grew of its own accord during the Meiji period, when the temple lacked sufficient funds for upkeep. I guess they decided to keep it.

Once I was done there, I decided to wander up an interesting-looking flight of stairs, and found Jizo-in, which is colloquially known as Take-no-dera, or Bamboo Temple, after all the bamboo that grows in the gardens. Jizo-in, a temple of the Rinzai sect, takes its name from – and enshrines – Jizo, a Buddhist figure who is the guardian of children, especially those who died before their parents. Supposedly Japanese Zen monk Ikkyu spent part of his childhood here, and one website I’ve consulted says that Muso Soseki (yes, him again) was the founding monk. It’s not a very big temple, but quite nice.

Once I was done there, I decided to start heading back north towards where I started. On the way, I stopped at Kegon-ji. Kegon-ji is colloquially known as Suzumushi-dera, or Bell Cricket Temple, after all the bell crickets… no wait, there’s a story here. Seems there was a monk working at this temple who admired the bell crickets who would chirp at night, as they lived each day to their fullest potential. They’d only chirp during the summer, though, so he spent literally decades researching and training crickets to chirp all year round, in the main hall which is kept heated at all times. Now there’s supposedly six thousand crickets inhabiting cages in the main hall (though I confess I didn’t count them personally).

There was a fair queue waiting in line on the temple’s steps when I passed by on the way to Saiho-ji, so I was hoping it would have died down when I came back, but it was more than twice as long, reaching almost to the road. A bit of quick internet research revealed that they let people inside in bunches, though, so I thought I’d wait in line for the next bunch and see how close I got. Turns out the entire queue could fit inside. We were seated at long tables in the main hall with the crickets, and each given a cup of tea and a small snack (no idea what the snack was, but it was pretty tasty) while the priest gave a talk about the history of the temple – all in Japanese. I confess I didn’t get most of it. No photos allowed inside here either, but I took a couple before realising that.

Then they allowed us out to the garden. It’s a fairly nice garden, but one part has a spectacular view of Kyoto, so I took a bunch of photos there.

The temple also has a Jizo statue whose claim to fame is that it’s supposedly the only Jizo statue in all Japan that’s wearing sandals – the rest have bare feet. In theory, it’s because this specific Jizo personally works to grant your wishes.

By the time I was done here, it was pretty much sunset. I decided to walk up to the main part of Arashiyama to catch the Randen line home – it’s Kyoto’s only streetcar. It’s officially named Keifuku Electric Railroad, Arashiyama Line – the colloquial name Randen comes from Arashiyama Dentetsu (the character for “arashi” can also be read as “ran”). But first I had to get there.

On the way, I passed Tsukuyomi Shrine, a shine to the god of the moon which is attached to Matsunoo Taisha, and snapped a few photos. Saw a bunch of boys playing baseball in the park across the road too. Grabbed a bottle of white peach flavoured Fanta from a vending machine to sip on. Got another look at Matsunoo Taisha, now devoid of crowds… or indeed, people at all.

I walked north through the streets in darkness, until I hit Horin-ji, and found a whole lot of people walking inside. Turns out there was a light show going on there, kinda like Vivid in Sydney, except lights were just shone on things, rather than special displays designed for specific structures like in Sydney. Fairly pretty, though.

Headed on from there to discover that it was actually a thing that was going on in a bunch of places around Arashiyama. Like Togetsu-kyo, and a bunch of temples, and even the Randen was getting into it. Part of my reason for wanting to ride the Randen is the Kimono Forest installed at the line’s Arashiyama Station – it’s a collection of six hundred illuminated pillars, each displaying a unique kimono pattern done in the traditional Kyo-yuzen style (though these are a permanent installation rather than a temporary event). I confess I was a little bit torn between riding the Randen in daylight and seeing the Kimono Forest at night, but in the end the latter won out, simply because of how long I take to go places.

I also discovered that the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest was also getting in on the event. It was already getting a bit late, and also starting to sprinkle a bit, so I considered passing on it – especially considering how I found it a little disappointing last time – but eventually decided it’d be dumb so come so far and not go the rest of the way. Almost reconsidered when I realised how far away it was, though. And also considering how long it took me to get off the Togetsu-kyo bridge, what with all the crowds waiting to cross at the lights.

I followed the crowd. Every time we passed even the smallest bamboo copse, I kept thinking that was it, and then thinking it wasn’t too bad, but not really worth adding an hour to my day for. Then I saw the real thing, and it was really quite impressive.

Still not sure it was worth adding an extra hour to my day for, though.

Stumbled back to the station and hopped on the Randen. Too dark to see anything, and too tired to look, which is a bit of a shame.

The Randen’s other terminus is a short walk from my hotel, so I walked, looking for somewhere to have dinner. Eventually I found this nice little ramen place, where I ordered their “Matured Miso Ramen” – a combination of dried sardine, chicken bone and pork bone soups, plus “eight varieties of matured miso”. Very very tasty. Very umami. Very large and filling.

Downside: carrying a cold camera into a restaurant filled with open boiling pots of water for cooking noodles? Instant foggy lens.

Headed the rest of the way back to the hotel (actually saw the nearest Toyoko Inn on the way) to find another snack waiting for me as part of the Japanese service. Some kind of red-bean-paste-filled wafer thing. Yum.

Decided to have my shower at night to save time tomorrow morning, and discovered the bath all filled and ready for a soak – I’ve never seen that bath filled before. In Japanese households, you share the one bath of water with all the inhabitants, though you wash outside of the tub – that’s the important difference, baths are for relaxing, not washing. And very relaxing it was – I don’t remember the last bath I had (in a regular tub) that I could get both my knees and my torso under the water, and in this bath I was sitting up to my neck. Part of the reason for that is that you deliberately fill the bath so full that it overflows when you get in, so that it’s full to the brim when you’re sitting in it. Japanese bath rooms are designed to cope with that. Very nice. Very warming.

Very tired, though. Time for bed.

Today’s photo count: a thousand and thirty-two. Cracked a thousand again. Also managed to roll over the 10,000 image mark for the camera. Plus a video I somehow managed to take while the camera was hanging around my neck. Maybe I thought I’d pushed the power button to turn it off, but hit record instead – the buttons feel quite similar to touch.

Today’s pedometer count: 22,367 steps, for 16km exactly.

Today’s goshuin count: Four – Matsunoo Taisha, Saiho-ji (with a double-page spread), Jizo-ji, Kegon-ji.

Today’s stamp count: Um… three-ish. Kawaramachi, Katsura and Matsuo-taisha Stations, all Hankyu stations. Trouble is, first time I applied the Matsuo-taisha stamp, I pressed so hard I turned it into a featureless blob, and soaked through the page to ruin the Katsura stamp on the other side, which is a bit sad. I re-did the Matsuo-taisha stamp on a new page, but ain’t nothing gonna fix the Katsura stamp.

Today’s thought for the day will take the form of this YouTube video. Because sometimes that’s exactly how it feels trying to get around here. =)

Woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine… followed by snow. Right in the middle of the city. Had breakfast in the meeting room for a change, since it’s open to eat breakfast in. It’s got big comfy boardroom-style chairs.

It suddenly occurred to me over breakfast that I’d intended to spend the hour between my arrival the other day and the time I could check in visiting Yamagata Castle, which was not too far from the hotel. Also, there is a Seven-Eleven that’s closer than the one I walked to. Too late for that now, I suppose.

So I checked out and headed for the station. On the way, I popped into the observation deck on the twenty-fourth floor of the Kajo Tower, which I’ve been passing every time I went to the station. Not too bad a view, though the observation “deck” was literally just a single smallish corner room. Found them setting up for some kind of event in the shopping centre at its base. Still wonder what it was.

Today I headed for my next destination – Kyoto. To get there, though, I’d have to get the Yamagata Shinkansen back to Tokyo Station, and change there for the Tokaido Shinaknsen. While I could get there on regular trains without going near Tokyo again, that would require nine changes of trains, and take so long that I’d have to stop somewhere for the night (as the trains don’t run all night). So back to Tokyo is is.

Trouble is, when I went to reserve a seat, it turned out the next train was full, so I’d have to get the one after, close to an hour later. Suddenly I did have the time to visit Yamagata Castle, at least briefly. Stashed my luggage in a locker and headed off. It was a little bit annoying having to spend 600 yen on a locker for just a single hour, but it was that or lug it with me.

Yamagata Castle had never had a donjon, just a pile of gates and baileys. It was never really attacked, but just fell into disrepair over time, until eventually being used as an army base during WWII. Recently, they’ve been performing restoration works, and hope to eventually restore the whole castle. I arrived and took some photos, but it turns out it’s closed for the winter, so I couldn’t get in – which turned out to be ok, because it was basically already time to turn around and head straight back to the station.

Made it onto the train in time, and we set off. Once we were outside of Yamagata city, it started snowing in earnest, and snow was blanketing the ground everywhere. It was still quite cloudy, so there wasn’t any sun to melt the snow. Such fun. Or to be more precise, such fun to watch from inside a warm train.

In an amusing reversal of what happened the other day, we passed from a snowy landscape, through a tunnel, and arrived in Fukushima to no snow on the ground at all. It was still trying to fall from the sky a bit, but once south of Fukushima, it stopped, and the clouds cleared. Lovely.

Had another bento box from the trolley for lunch – beef sukiyaki. Again, it had the pull-string to heat it up. This came with a soft-boiled egg to mix into it (I think), but I had the most frightful trouble cracking it. I wasn’t sure if it was soft- or hard-boiled, so I didn’t want to whack it on things too hard just in case, but I couldn’t make the slightest dent with my chopsticks or the plastic spoon that came with it. Eventually I decided to just bite the bullet and cracked it on the edge of the seat-back table.

Back in sunny warm Tokyo (… relatively warm), it was time to change trains – as in, I had about a quarter hour to find my next train and get to it. Fortunately, it turned out to be literally on the adjacent platform.

I was on a Hikari Shinkansen, the second-fastest shinkansen type on the Tokaido shinkansen (the fastest, of course, is the Nozomi, which I can’t use my pass for). I’d previously booked a seat on the right side of the train, and I asked an attendant for a timetable so I could figure out exactly where we were. (it kinda looked like she gave me her personal one, which I felt a tiny bit guilty about – wish I’d remembered to pick one up in the station as I’d intended). Why did I go through all these preparations, you ask?

Fuji-san! My first time in all my Japan travels to actually see it from a distance, aside from a pretty hazy triangle visible from Tokyo Tower. Lovely.

With that bit of excitement over, it was back to the regular old excitement of zipping through the countryside at 280 km/hr. That equates to only a little over twelve seconds per kilometre, whew. Grabbed some prawn-flavoured chips for a snack from the trolley lady.

Eventually, we arrived in Kyoto. I made sure to have a look around the station this time before heading to the subway line to catch a train to my hotel.

As with my first Saturday in Tokyo, none of the four Toyoko Inns in Kyoto had availabilities tonight when I tried to book (has it only been a week? It feels so much longer). I originally thought I’d try a different type of accommodation for the Saturday night and stay in a Toyoko Inn the rest of the time, same as Tokyo – in this case, I’d try a shukubo, or temple lodging. As in, you stay in an actual temple. Trouble is, the only one I found in Kyoto that actually looked interesting was also booked out, so I went with a new plan: I’m staying in the Kawashima Ryokan, the same place that James and I stayed in on our last trip. One of my regrets was that with only two nights here, I never really got the chance to actually relax here and enjoy the place – it’s so cosy and homey. I did, however, book a breakfast-only plan, so I didn’t have to worry about getting back in time for dinner.

And speaking of dinner, I already had a reservation made at a tiny place called Kichi Kichi. It seats literally sixteen at a time – eight at the counter and eight on a table. They’re known for their omurice (rice and sauces and assorted veggies in an omelette), and you need to book in advance – but bookings are so popular that you pretty much need to snap them up the moment they become available, six weeks in advance. I had to place this booking right in the middle of doing the Seven Bridges Walk back in October, because that’s when the bookings for my time here were released. To give an idea of the popularity, I got a look at their bookings list, and it seems like every single sitting has several foreigners present, often Australians – I ate with three people from Hong Kong.

But this is seriously fancy omurice, though. Not just rice and a bit of tomato sauce or whatever – this guy uses actual demi glace sauce. And he puts on a real show for everyone. I’ve posted a bunch of photos here, but if you want to actually see him in motion, just search YouTube for “world’s best omurice”, and pretty much every single search result is him. He’ll also come out and pose for photos if you ask, and he gives everyone a handshake and a hug before you leave. It was quite a bit of fun. Not to mention tasty.

I also absolutely love the area that it’s in – the Pontocho district near the Kamo River. Actually, it was a lovely walk the entire way there – I started by walking along the Nishiki Market, a covered market place just a few blocks from my ryokan, and I hadn’t even realised it was there on our last trip. At the end of the street is Nishiki Tenman-gu shrine, which has lanterns all over it. The most interesting (and weirdest) thing is that the buildings outside the shrine were (for some reason) built too close to the tori gate, so the ends of the gate literally protrude into the interiors of the buildings.

Crossing Nishiki Market at the shrine end are Teramachi Dori and Shinkyogoku, two more covered shopping streets. I had a bit of a glance up and down those, but I was starting to run out of time and had to head for my dinner booking.

Pontocho itself is a network of tiny alleys, filled with all kinds of old shops and eateries. I took photos as best I could, but sadly it was simply too dark – I may simply have to return in daylight. If I can find the time.

Gotta say, Hello Kitty looks a little sinister when underlit…

Anyway, dinner done, I headed back to the ryokan. It’s time for bed now. I accidentally asked to be served breakfast way too early – as the innkeeper was checking me in, he asked when I’d like breakfast, and with a sudden deer-in-the-headlights moment, I hastily said “seven”… then pause, and then added, belatedly, “thirty”, so it wouldn’t be too early. Mind you, since there’s an upper window here with no curtains, it shouldn’t be too hard to wake up… with the sunrise. It’s… a little cold in here, so I’m hoping I sleep ok.

Today’s photo count: Seven hundred and thirty-four, and 8 videos, to see if I could capture the speed of the shinkansen. Almost exactly a hundred of those photos are from dinner.

Today’s pedometer count: 12,890 steps, or 9.6km.

Today’s goshuin count: Zip. There was an attendant at Nishiki Tenman-gu, but she was just going to sell me a pre-written one on a piece of paper.

Today’s stamp count: One, Kyoto Station. Seems like the subway stations here don’t have them.