A Stroll Round Kyoto

Day 7
(Have we been here a week already - booooo)

After the hustle and bustle of yesterday, today was going to be a nice easy day. We had a bit of a lie in and a lazy morning because today we were going to do the Higashiyama route finishing up at Kiyomizudera for the temple illuminations.

An easy day he said..... Just a stroll he said..... Last time I listen to him!!! As you may have seen from my FB today, he walked me MILES..... MILES I tell you. There isn't a back alleyway that I have not visited in Kyoto today. The things this man will do to avoid the throng of tourists.......

Anyway, the start of the route is at the Heian Shrine ......

It's at the Heian Shrine that we appeared to have stumbled across the Kyoto Annual Allotment Big Vegetable competition.  There were a lot of very proud men showing their rather large vegetables to all and sundry. Now, I like my veg, but even I struggled with what some of these veggies were.... But they were impressive!! While we were there, gold parchments were being handed out to what I assume where the winners........ These men were very proud.

We tore ourselves away from the huge veg, and continued down the path.

The next two temples are Shoren-in and Chion-in.  The Chion-in Temple is currently undergoing repairs so it's huge gate is covered in bamboo scaffolding. Shame, cos this is a lovely huge temple - but we passed by and carried on down the path.

We are now getting to the old traditional streets lined with Machiyas and more Temples. There are also a load of Buddahs lining the route which will give you good luck / fortune / love life depending on which one you rub...... I have rubbed all of them today, so I expect to be happy, lucky, fortunate and happy in love  At this point, I would have been happy for a sit down and a cup of tea!!!

We are now approaching Kiyomizudera but it's still too early for the illuminations (they don't start until 6:30). So for now, I'll just have to make do with SHOPPING!!! Yea - there are lots of shops along the route up to Kiyomizudera .... And I think I've been in every single one - especially the Ghibli shop.... New Totoro bought. Wanted to sneak this one out, but Scott wouldn't let me - bah!!!

So as we were so early, Scott told me that we could do a little detour and go to Gion to see if there were any Geisha around..... Oooh - Gion ..... Geisha - well of course - I'm there. About 10 minutes into the walk, I found the little detour was a lie!!!!  But we were going to Gion, so I wasn't going to complain.

Unfortunately it was a quiet night and we didn't see any Geisha (still have many more nights to try), so we made our way back to Kiyomizudera ........

Halfway up that so called gentle slope (gentle slope my arse.... It's like climbing up the side of Everest .... OK, small exaggeration, but it is quite steep) we noticed there was a queue of people .... These people are not queuing to get into the Temple.... Are they??? Oh yes they were.  The queue was HUGE. Aaargghhhhh........  Queues are going to be the bane of my life!!!

Quick decision made.... We are off home and we'll come back another night - this is the first night of the illuminations and a Friday, so I guess it would be busy.

We made our way back down that bloody slope to the bus stop...... Oh my life - how many people??? Another quick decision made and we walked home.... WALKED ... These poor things on the end of my legs have no idea what's going on - all told, we walked just under 12 miles today ...... 

So we are back in the apartment (resting my poor feet)  preparing for tomorrow ... We are going to Ohara.

So until next time .... Oyasumi Nasai xxx