now that i've rested, it's back to me getting up first. i got up at 6am to shower, packed up, and had the hostel store our luggage (they charge 100 yen per bag). you see, i booked a room tonight in another city. perhaps i should've kept it in kyoto but i wanted to see as much of japan as possible. if i hadn't book a room for the next 2 nights in osaka, then we would have never seen osaka during this trip! even though we will really only be in osaka for dinner, it's pretty criminal to pass up the chance to have dinner at somewhere on doutonbori street, (which is a street full of and famous for having so many restaurants).

overall, everyone seemed unhappy with the hostel choice of accommodation when they first saw the stairs and that again we're all in 1 room. that is why i paid for everyone to have a towel. that is why i paid for everyone's luggage to be stored while we go out and see kyoto. later we'll come back for them and head for osaka to sleep there. but now that we've actually spent 1 night in kyoto, my mom is saying that we should just stay here because it's cheap and not so bad. she's just used to it, i think. the place in osaka is 2 rooms so i think they will like that better. and again, doutonbori! plus, if we can wrap up today quickly, i might be able to record shop in america mura, hehehehe. and that is my justification, thank you! on to today's adventure...

heian-jingu: front entrance

prayers/wishes on wooden blocks

torii gate at heian jingu, the biggest in japan

we left the hostel just after 8am and took a taxi to heian-jingu. before we even started to explore, we noticed they have a machine that dispenses souvenir coin for 300 yen. they sell keychain or necklace pieces that you can put the coin in for 200 yen but i didn't want that. it's all gold and i think that's tacky. i'll just have the coin. plus, for 30 more yen, you can custom engrave it. so i put my name on it. the date is on there too by default. we walked around the front portion, which is free. you get to see the large open space and the buildings with their red trim. there are 2 very big and nice tsukubai (those water purification wash basin thing-a-ma-jiggers). to walk around the gardens costs money. these gardens are very famous and that's why we're here. even though it's raining a bit, we want to see them. also, twiddle thumbs's sister wanted to do/see everything like in "memoirs of a geisha" and since they filmed some of that movie here, i think it's a good choice. the gardens were very nice. it's too bad about the weather but it made for nice water droplet ripple pictures. there was even a pond with a bridge over it where you can feed the koi (carp) and turtles below. there was a bin with animal feed in it that one could purchase for 30 yen each on an honor system. it looked like fu (japanese dried wheat gluten). speaking of fu, here's some old japanese jokes about michael jackson for you. (say the answers in the high pitch way michael jackson sings his little song accents)

what is michael jackson's favorite color? ao! (blue, pronunced like english "ow", as in "ow, i hurt my finger")
what is michael jackson's favorite food? fu! (wheat gluten)

heian-jingu gardens

heian-jingu gardens

sanjusangen-do main hall

after heian-jingu, we took a taxi to sanjusangen-do. twiddle thumbs and i really wanted to see this place but i was disappointed when i read that no photography is permitted. knowing this ahead of time, i took a picture of the building outside and didn't dare attempt to sneak a picture inside. that's just too disrespectful. why do we want to see this place? because there are a gazillion buddhist statues here. ok, maybe not a gazillion. there are 1001 statues of kannon plus another 30 guardian statues of various buddhist gods, including the main ones you see in japan of fujin (god of wind) and raijin (god of thunder and lightning). sanjusangen-do is awe-inspiring due to having so many statues of the same thing (though there are slight variations). i mean, imagine carving out that many statues! how long it took. how many people. it's amazing. second, sanjusangen-do is unique for having a complete set of the guardian dieties. there are very few, if there are even any other, places that have a complete set.

you have to take off your shoes to walk inside the building to see the statues. the floors squeak a bit just like at nijo-jo. the lockers to put your bags in are free, awesome! inside they sell various things of course that all the other temples have, charms, amulets, whatever you want to call them. they also have candles that you can write your prayers on and the monks will burn them, something like that. also this place is supposed to be able to cure headaches or crying babies or both, i'm starting to forget which temple cures what! twiddle thumbs bought a book which can be written in inside buddhist temples. you pay for the book and then you pay 300 yen for a page to be written on inside of the book. the name of the temple, the date, and some saying about peace, love, and understanding, you know what i mean? something elegant and a level or two above what you would find in a fortune cookie. there was also an archery festival that used to be held inside the temple and i'm sure you can search online and read about it like i did. however, once you are actually in the hall and are reading about it, it just seems much more amazing. reading is one thing, but to be there is another. i believe now the festival continues but it is held outside. plus i don't think it is as strenuous and exhausting as the festival of old.

"In the Edo Period, a contest began based on the number of arrows hitting the target during the 24-hour period from 6 o'clock in the evening to 6 o'clock the next day. The greatest record so far achieved was by Wasa Daihachiro in 1688 when he successfully shot 8,132 arrows, achieving a hit ratio of an astounding 62%. On the pillars, you will find traces of samurai warriors' arrows which missed their target." -- japan national tourist organization

kyoto tower, across from the station

after sanjusangen-do, we walked across the street to the kyoto national museum and ate at the cafe there that's just outside of the museum. the selection was quite poor for our lot and our dietary requirements. in general, cafes in japan are not what americans think of as cafes (restaurants), they just serve drinks and snacks. we vegans had to eat vegetarian or else be hungry and very bitchy for the rest of the day so we opted for the pancakes. after that we walked back across the street and took the tourist friendly bus to kyoto station. i say tourist friendly because there is a set price and the buses go by all the major attractions in this ancient city. we took the bus to kyoto station and went to the post office so that twiddle thumbs and her sister could withdraw yen at the atm. i bought postcard stamps for the three of us to use. we also went to lawson (convenience store) for some snacks.

kinkaku-ji

after our pit stop, we took a bus to kinkaku-ji, the famous golden pavillion. by this time in the day the weather had cleared up and the sun had come out. i was so relieved because i did not want to besides the golden pavillion, this place really isn't special and you could get away with seeing it only once or twice in your life, much like the grand canyon. they did offer a tea ceremony there and even though it was cheaper than the one we already experienced, but the view was not as nice so we did not partake. there were some shops as well and one place was selling dango of various flavors. i bought a couple so we could try them out. one lady there just had to comment on how good my japanese was, (finally someone comments, i've been waiting for it). i politely said that i am japanese actually, just was raised abroad. who cares if they believe me enough. i'm not giving my whole life story and i refuse to give the answer i used to give, which is "i'm half". i'm so fucking sick and tired of the term "ha~fu". see me as whole! anyway, it was really funny when someone in tokyo made the same comment to my mother, about her japanese being good, because she is japanese you morons! although, whether or not okinawans are japanese or not is still debatable amongst some. i think it was our taxi driver after visiting yasukuni-jinja who said, "i think okinawans are japanese". hey man, we didn't even ask you! he just said that after my mom said she is from okinawa. i think it reveals his prejudice.

zen rock garden at ryoan-ji

we had time and some energy left so we decided to take a taxi to relatively close ryoan-ji (or is it ryuan-ji?). everywhere i have seen in english, it is called ryoan-ji. however, the kanji used is dragon which is read ryu, i don't know if it can ever be read ryo. my mother also called it ryuan-ji. i was trying to be aware of what other japanese call it but i didn't hear anyone else say the name. i guess i'll have to research it. perhaps it's just an old name borrowing from chinese or something so it's called ryoan-ji in the old style but the letters are ryuan-ji? anyway, this is where there is the famous 15 stone zen rock garden. if you don't know, there are 15 big stones set amongst many little rocks (white pebbles). from no matter which angle you look upon the garden, you can never see all 15 stones at once because the larger/taller ones block the view of the smaller/shorter ones. the only way to see them all at once is from overhead. hence, there is a model of the rock garden on display in the building. to see the rock garden, you must take off your shoes and enter this building which opens up into the garden. twiddle thumbs was so tired of taking off her shoes and her feet were hurting that she didn't want to take off her shoes. we didn't know the rock garden was within the grounds of the building. she took off into the regular gardens of the complex. one i entered the building and saw the garden, i told the people who take tickets that i have to go after my friend who wandered, put my shoes on and ran back after her. so if you want to go to this place, it is free, but you have to buy a ticket at the front entrance if you want to see the zen rock garden. there are many like that. it's free, but if you want to see the actual part of temple/shrine that the place is known for, you have to pay. the fee is not that much but it adds up if you visit many places.

tsukubai at ryoan-ji

after viewing the rock garden, we walked around the building (still the part where you have to pay to get in) and saw a tsukubai. [author's comment: i didn't think much of it at the time and snapped a picture without flash so it's a bit blurry. later i did some research and that particular tsukubai seems so much more interesting. what i learned about it i put in the description for it on flickr. many pictures towards evening during the trip are like that, taken without flash and a bit blurry as i tried to conserve battery power.] we walked around for a little bit in the regular garden, if you could call it that, as we made our way to the exit. we took a taxi again back to the hostel and rode with a very unhelpful driver. so far every cab driver has been extremely friendly and helpful. we are staying at a place none of them know about but i have the map and explain where it is and they are able to find it also their gps unit. however, this driver just dropped us off and said it's around here and took off. we weren't sure which way to go and walked down this little side street and asked a lady outside of her house. she pointed us in the right direction. we were very close but since we were coming from the other side than we are used to, we were disorientated.

shinkansen (bullet train)

we picked up our luggage and checked email quickly. we then took another cab to kyoto station to ride the shinkansen (bullet train) to osaka which is only 15 minutes away on the very fast bullet train. i think it's 40 minutes by a regular express train. the bullet train only goes to shin-osaka station ("shin" means "new"). there is also osaka station. osaka has a loop line, just like tokyo. shin-osaka is not on the loop line but osaka is on the loop line. we could take a train to osaka station then transfer to the loop line to get to our hotel for tonight, business hotel chuo shinkan AKA cheap hotel. however, everyone seemed so tired that i didn't think they could deal with lugging around their stuff so we took a taxi from shin-osaka station. there was a taxi line and the person directing people to cabs told us that we don't all fit in one regular cab (but we did in kyoto! you don't know what you're talking about) and made us take a jumbo cab, which costs more. the driver wasn't sure of tonight's hotel (again!) but i had my map and he had his gps unit and a cell phone. we got there and we weren't in the system. turns out, we're booked into the place next door. oops! they have the business hotel and the annex. we're in the annex, a separate building. we check in. it's cheap. and we learn that there is no attached bathroom, just a public bathroom, japanese style. well the shit hit the fan!

the sisters did not want to stay there. my mom did not want to stay there. then they mentioned there is a private shower, but only one. my mind was going crazy because i would've never booked a place if it didn't have a private, attached bathroom. i spoke to the manager by myself and looked over the website with him. there was nothing i could find to help me. with the private shower slightly easing their minds, we went up to our rooms. twiddle thumbs's sister and my mom did not want to leave the room to go have dinner on doutonbori street. twiddle thumbs wanted to use the free internet stations to find another place but i knew there's no way i can possibly find another place for us tonight. or to stay here and move tomorrow is just ridiculous. she was willing to just tough it out tonight, deal with it later, and wander the streets with me quickly to find some dinner. but she felt unsafe on the streets and tensions were high as we could not find a place to get some vegan-friendly food quickly. we passed by this little street vendor and ended up walking back again to get food there. we got something for everybody. i asked the workers if they had something without meat and they did so i ordered that. we took the food back to the hotel and distributed it. i opened the supposedly vegetarian noodle soup to discover that it had tiny shrimp in it. twiddle thumbs was in the bathroom and this would send her over the edge so i quickly and discreetly removed all the shrimp and threw them away. [author's comment: later her sister told on me but at least twiddle thumbs ate something that night.] after that it was a long night with doing laundry that took forever and killing time on the internet stations as we we waiting for the laundry. we met a swiss traveler staying at the hotel whose japanese abilities are very good. he loves japan and is here with his rail pass to see as much as he can.

today's expenses in yen:
¥500 luggage storage
¥600 heian-jingu gardens entrance fee
¥50 fish food
¥600 sanjusangen-do entrance fee
¥500 lunch
¥220 bus fare
¥1750 foreign postcard stamps (25 of them, my treat)
¥795 snacks
¥220 bus fare
¥400 kinkaku-ji entrance fee
¥150 snack
¥500 ryoan-ji rock garden entrance fee
¥2750 hotel
¥550 laundry
(cab fare to be paid back to my mom later)
plus a couple drinks from vending machines throughout the day to hydrate