Having gone to bed extremely early the night before to regain some of our missing hours of rest, we awoke refreshed and alert the next morning. My first experiment with Tani-san's shower was interesting and the Tani House appears to keep the same seemingly cannabis-laced tea ("tea and coffee free") as our nameless fish restaurant of the night before.
Our sightseeing began in earnest today. We started by bussing into town to get bus passes at the station. Then we travelled east to see the national museum, but before going in decided first to get some lunch. We strolled past a host of Japanese restaurants trying to pick one out until we finally ended up at... MacDonalds!
After a swift taste of cultural imperialism (Teriyaki ba-ga-! 180¥!!), we walked back to the museum, but didn't really give it the time it no doubt deserved on account of the twin facts that few of the descriptions were in english, and we had, notwithstanding our good night's sleep the night before, creeping museumitis - symptoms: lethargy, muscular ache and a (unvoiced) tendency to ask in a whiny voice whether we can go yet. A shame, since the exhibits that were labelled in english were extremely impressive and varied from pottery and bronze spearheads to lacquerware, clothing and tapestry. However, without doubt the most impressive exhibits were the massive (in its most literal sense) statues which were made from either bronze or painted or gilded wood.
After we left the museum we simply crossed the road to get to the marvellous Sanjusangen-do temple (the temple of the 33 bays). The temple itself is 120m long by about, we reckon, 40m wide. Inside it, a walkway loops around the central area which is filled with serried ranks of 1042 kannon (Buddhist 1000-armed minor gods - that's over a million arms, all told!), 28 more major gods standing in dramatic poses, and a huge statue of Buddha in the middle of the room. We bought a candle from the monks that watch over this temple that Fiona wrote a wish on. This will get burned in front of Buddha.
Another interesting fact about the temple is that it is/was used for archery competitions. In one, a 17 year old shot more than 13,000 arrows in 24 hours or an average of more than nine a minute!
After doing the cultural thing we decided to try some Japanese cinema, but they were only showing films we had already seen. All the same, we had a very nice wander through the Shijo arcade for a while before hunger pangs took us and we succumbed to our first MisDo experience...
We wandered fairly aimlessly after our doughnuts, looking for the cinema Fiona remembered from five years ago to no avail. Eventually we hungered again and our ditherinq meant we were in Kyoto no-man's land, so we decided to walk back to the station, however, on the way we were accosted by a franchised kare raisu place and literally forced to eat there...
Our sightseeing began in earnest today. We started by bussing into town to get bus passes at the station. Then we travelled east to see the national museum, but before going in decided first to get some lunch. We strolled past a host of Japanese restaurants trying to pick one out until we finally ended up at... MacDonalds!
After a swift taste of cultural imperialism (Teriyaki ba-ga-! 180¥!!), we walked back to the museum, but didn't really give it the time it no doubt deserved on account of the twin facts that few of the descriptions were in english, and we had, notwithstanding our good night's sleep the night before, creeping museumitis - symptoms: lethargy, muscular ache and a (unvoiced) tendency to ask in a whiny voice whether we can go yet. A shame, since the exhibits that were labelled in english were extremely impressive and varied from pottery and bronze spearheads to lacquerware, clothing and tapestry. However, without doubt the most impressive exhibits were the massive (in its most literal sense) statues which were made from either bronze or painted or gilded wood.
After we left the museum we simply crossed the road to get to the marvellous Sanjusangen-do temple (the temple of the 33 bays). The temple itself is 120m long by about, we reckon, 40m wide. Inside it, a walkway loops around the central area which is filled with serried ranks of 1042 kannon (Buddhist 1000-armed minor gods - that's over a million arms, all told!), 28 more major gods standing in dramatic poses, and a huge statue of Buddha in the middle of the room. We bought a candle from the monks that watch over this temple that Fiona wrote a wish on. This will get burned in front of Buddha.
Another interesting fact about the temple is that it is/was used for archery competitions. In one, a 17 year old shot more than 13,000 arrows in 24 hours or an average of more than nine a minute!
After doing the cultural thing we decided to try some Japanese cinema, but they were only showing films we had already seen. All the same, we had a very nice wander through the Shijo arcade for a while before hunger pangs took us and we succumbed to our first MisDo experience...
We wandered fairly aimlessly after our doughnuts, looking for the cinema Fiona remembered from five years ago to no avail. Eventually we hungered again and our ditherinq meant we were in Kyoto no-man's land, so we decided to walk back to the station, however, on the way we were accosted by a franchised kare raisu place and literally forced to eat there...
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