day 146, kyoto

Woke up today feeling really good, decided to have the day to meself and fancied an onsen, a hot spring bath/spa thing. I read in the lonely planet about the best one, asked the bloke working at the hostel how to get there and he recommended a couple of other things for me. I got a all day bus pass and thought I’d utilise it to the fullest so took the opportunity to take a bus to the train station to see the view from the sky garden during the day, and also to get another look at the stunning station. That was very cool, I got some more cash, stopped off on my way for gyudon (beef bowl with pickled ginger radish) then took the bus in the direction I was going and making my mind up on the bus where to get off. I decided to take it to the end of the line and went in search of Ryoanji temple, where they have this zen rock garden which is really famous. I looked at it for quite a while and just didn’t get it, however I was impressed how they had an exact replica on a tiny scale with all the brail by the side of it so blind people could ’see’ the garden, though when I had a go with my eyes closed I got scowled at a bit and a women came straight over after I finished to re-rake the gravel… from there I got a bit of cake in as it were me brother’s birthday and you got to have cake on a birthday, then headed off to Kinkakuji temple, this gold temple on a lake/pond which was very pretty. By this time it had got dark so I went in search of the onsen, I found it pretty easily and to my disappointment it was like a swimming pool only it were baths, ie not outside and all tiles, no sitting in between rocks or the like. They had several small hot baths, one massage bath, a cold bath, a sauna and a warm wooden bath outside, and after about an hour in there it probably says something slightly pikey of me that my favourite part was a shower where you sit down for. After that amazing shower I got a hot chocolate from one of the numerous vending machines (in a can!) and started walking back to the bus, and I felt infinitely relaxed. I caught the bus back, put some music in and decided I didn’t want to go back to my hostel yet, so I got on another bus to see a bit of Kyoto I hadn’t seen, sat in a bus with me headphones in looking out the window, saw the Toji temple which had an impressive pagooda all lit up, then got off to have some food and back on the bus, arrived at the hostel a full 11 hours after I left. Showered again and read a bit of ‘One Day’ which I picked up at a hostel, really enjoying it though found the first couple of chapters hard going due to the style, hard to think of anything more different then shantaram though am enjoying it hugely.