When I last left you, Ken and I were preparing to sleep before making the long voyage to Kyoto.

It was, well, LONG!

Things were pretty easy at the airport except we had crappy seats. Well, not completely awful but we ended up on the middle and window when we wanted middle and aisle so we could get up and move around but the guy we were sitting with ended up being pretty kewl.  He was a 31 year old Canadian named Michael who was heading to Japan to teach English.

We were on the plane for close to 12 hours and, while it is survivable, the last few hours, especially are extrememly difficult. We left San Francisco around Noon on Friday 3/19 and we arrived in Japan on Saturday 3/20 at about 4 pm.

After the flight we managed to easily find the train to Kyoto station but that is where the easy part so of fell away. We tried to figure out how to get to the hotel using either rail or subway but it just wasn’t meant to be. 1 because I read a piece of our map wrong and 2 because there actually wasn’t a subway that went near. But we had a $10 taxi take us

By the time we finally got to our room it was almost like 7 pm if I remember correctly and dark and we were having trouble getting the key out of the lock box (we are staying in an apartment kind of place). So tired and frustrated we made it in and passed out at like 8:30.  The only other thing we did was run up to a 7-11 to get some water and some juice for Sunday morning breakfast.

Sleep. Ah sleep. But typical me I can’t seem to sleep past about 6 hours so I was awake by about 3am and finally just got up at 4. We watched some crazy Japanese TV before making plans for what to do for the day.  We decided to first go back to Kyoto station to get information on the bus service (the thing I was dreading) and then we did manage to take a bus to Kiyomizu Temple which means “Pure Water”.

As part of our visit we drank from a spring there that is supposed to cure your ills.  Can it cure up annoying sinusitus? We shall see.

After that temple we followed a path that lead us through homes that have been restored to the traditional look.  There were a lot of great shops along the way, and I couldn’t help it…I bought a bag..but seriously I needed something to carry stuff in because the bag Ken was carrying was just way too full.

We enjoyed the walk but I’m afraid we got turned around somewhere and we missed some of the temples I thought we were going to see.  We did wander into another one where there was a wedding going on.  Not sure what it was called but I took some video so when I compile my video I’ll be able to share!

We were able to find a bus and made our way back to Kyoto station to grab some lunch.  We ended up stopping at a local fast food place.  Some quick burgers and fries was a nice treat.  Funny that I was satisfied with what, here, was essentially the size of a kids meal. Note to self on return when ordering at fast food establishments.

We wandered some more around the station.  There is a lot to see in an 11 story shopping area and other stores near by, especially the electronis store BIC camera where we saw this:

For those of you who can’t see, it says Hot Sand Maker. Yep. Love me some hot sand paninis.

This was about 3 and we were getting pretty tired.  We’d been up since at least 4:30am and had been walking off and on since 8:30. I’m figuring we had at least 10 miles today and there were some SERIOUS stairs that I managed to conquer.  Feelign pretty good about me eating and ability to walk on this trip!

We decided to head back to the hotel to rest before maybe going out later to get something to eat or check more of our neighborhood in the evening.  It had been raining off and on all day but really started pouring after we were dealing with the buses at Kyoto Station, getting on the wrong side of the street and then on the wrong bus.  I was worried about the buses and I was not wrong.  They are frustrating!! I wonder if there are even easy for the locals to use?

But we made it back. I’ve uploaded some pics and now we are just going to relax for a while.  Not sure what we are doing tomorrow but it looks like it will be sunny so we might do some more temple hopping in the morning before heading into Osaka.

P.S. Reason for my delay? The room we are staying in only had 2 prong wall units and we have a 3 prong charger for the laptop. ARGH! But at the camera store we got an adaper for like $5!!!