Kyoto photo call 0.2

On Tuesday we went to Kyoto, one of Japan's most beautiful cities. It is a university town and has that cultured atmosphere of the more intelligent areas of Oxford and Cambridge, although neither of those cities has Kinkakuji, the Gold temple. It was a cold day (the investment in UniQlo thermals paid off, although the dye rubbed off on my skin and I undressed and found I had dark purple legs!), so the temple was blissfully quiet. You cannot understand the word serenity until you have been here. Our pictures do not capture the sense of being there. It was clean, calm and quite humbling. The ground was covered with a soft moss that gave it a fairy tale feeling, though we weren't convinced that it might not be fake. The Japanese are quite happy to set up trinket stalls in the temples and have had to rebuild many due to earthquakes and the general temporary nature of its architecture, so adding some pretty moss as a decoration is not beyond them.

It began to snow shortly after we arrived, which added some romanticism, as did the occasional clumps of unmelted snow from last week's snowfall. It had been too cold for it to melt, so we found lots to stamp in and leave our big gaijin footprints. It may seem wrong to play in a place of such sanctity, but I don't see it as any worse than setting up shop and there are plenty of those.

We got to experience a faux tea ceremony. Normally these are far more elaborate and drawn-out, but it was a touristy experience we couldn't miss out on. We had to go into a room and sit on tatami mats and were brought out a bowl of green tea and a small cake. The green tea served is industrially strong and far more like taking paramaceuticals than drinking tea. It perked us up and gave us the energy to walk through the Imperial Palace Gardens and back to the over-heated, but incredibly luxurious hotel.

Unfortunately for over-sensitive me, the Japanese see unnaturally hot heating as a serious indulgence, so I was unable to sleep. However, we had had a few drinks around Kyotos bars and I drifted off eventually and enjoyed the feather down pillow and duvet while I was insomniacking.

As it was a Tuesday and not in any way important to the locals (most of whom had probably gone back home for the New Year), something which initially escaped us, most of the bars were deserted. We tried out the Dog Bar, but that was unwelcoming and unenjoyable, despite the vocal Dachshund on the counter. We . tried out the Fruit Bar, a smart recommendation from Rachel who had discovered it on her first visit. It was a smart, relaxed and nicely fashionable bar in the best English style - though even better to be free of gaijin. We then finished the night in Rossa as we'd peered in previously and been put off by its emptiness, but beckoned in by its very friendly barman. We felt obliged to give him some custom and went back. It was still empty, but the barman was studying English at university and enjoyed practising on us a little - giving us a couple of free shots as a thank you. I also got an egg liqueur cocktail after expressing interest in a fried egg-shaped bottle. It tasted of creamy milkshake. Nice enough, but not worth repeating.

We headed for Tenryuji, an area just outside Kyoto which had been recommended to me by my biggest fan, Ken, before I headed off. I wanted to be able to say I had taken his advice, but now I can thank him profusely, it was by far my favourite part of Japan so far. It's a small town at the bottom of the mountains (we think, we were Rough Guideless and so not entirely sure if it was a temple or the district or town) and had a different feel to any other part of Japan I've been to so far (the architecture is boringly unadventurous and functional, so parts are generally quite similar and fairly ugly), but this had the air of a seaside town: small, bustling and often invaded by passing visitors.

After popping into a temple and being more excited by the wildlife than the Buddhist paraphenalia, we explored further. We were both running low on holiday money, but found an entrance to a shrine which seemed suitably mysterious and also very cheap, so in we went. It was stunning. We found a massive shrine and milled through the graves and headstones before reaching a bamboo wood. Apparently, the wood is featured in Sayuri, a film about Kyoto's geishas filmed mostly in America and starring a Chinese actress (controversial choices in such a nationalistic country). The entire place was incredibly eerie, particularly with the absence of almost any other visitors - fortunately, there were enough for us to be able to get some pictures of us actually together instead of taking turns with the solo shots. Rachel has become highly skilled in offering to take pictures of Japanese couples, thereby forcing them to return the gesture for us.

One of the shrines climbed the incline of the mountain. It's headdstones were in various states of disarray and disintegrated testament and a stairway led, in three crumbling heaps. I was far too scared to attempt more than three steps, but Rachel made it to the shrine at the top, something I could not even watch. Instead I found another level of the shrine, it's isolation from the inclines made it feel like a secret garden and pools of unmelted snow were far too inviting. We both made snowmen and stamped yet more sacreligious footprints in the snow.


A previously arranged date meant we had to head back, but we managed to go via the river and stopped for a while to take in yet another awesome view (not in the Bill and Ted sense, but the genuine one). My cameraphone inadequately attempted to capture it, as Rachel's camera's battery had run out.

In the evening, I got to meet Rachel's Japanese beau, Mitsohiro, who runs a juku and an English school, and his friend, Keiji. We cooked chilli con carne, though the dips confused poor Mitsuhiro, and got very drunk. Rachel and I ended up having a small falling out over a boy, although - as no one would have guessed - it was because neither of us liked him. Poor Keiji has few definable faults, but felts there are and he caused quite a stir, both with his love of Maroon 5 and Eric Clapton and his general conduct. However it was a very brief stir and once his home-made guitar had left the building we breathed a sigh of relief and laughed together at his attempts to woo a gaijin, any gaijin with his genki cuteness.