Excellent weather in Kyoto today, except for a few brief moments.
Auch. I think I'll burn rather than tan :-)
Today we walked all over eastern Kyoto, and visited four or five temples / shrines. Awesome stuff. Very peaceful gardens, very interesting history and legends behind everything. The Heisan garden was nifty, but it was waaay overcrowded - pictures will be coming in a couple of weeks to prove this. But as luck would have it, a Shinto wedding was in progress, and it was very interesting to see (no pictures, sorry).
I finally tried real okonomiyaki - and yes, it's pretty good. The table had a heated metal plate were the food was served to be kept hot - not just warm. Very yummy, although I imagine it has an insane amount of cholesterol - it's essentially the Japanese version of an omelette.
Another highlight: I tried a public bath. It was, how shall I put this... let's say it was interesting. Contrary to what I was led to believe, towels, soap and shampoo were not provided - I had to buy or rent everything. Yes, the hot tub is really, really hot. They're not kidding when they say it's a hot tub.
My feet are hurting already but they'll still be useful for a few more days. Tomorrow will be much more relaxed (supposedly), as I will be walking around central and western Kyoto and there will be more bus riding and less walking.
My webmail is super-slow, so I'm kind of disconnected with the rest of the world except through this blog.
Miss everyone (K)
