Day 2 - Kyoto

 Distance walked: 13 1/2 km

Today was mild but overcast and drizzly.  I decided to walk everywhere in spite of the weather.  I need to 1) burn the calories; and 2) get in some walking practice before the hike starts.  I will do the same tomorrow even though the starting point on my temple crawl is 4 1/2 km away.   Plus, I will avoid having to work out where to get off the bus.  Tomorrow's itinerary should end up around 15km but essentially on the flat so less demanding than the actual hiking holiday to come.

Breakfast wasn't included in my room rate so I went to a nearby cafe and had a toasted scrambled egg & ham sandwich with lettuce & tomato.  I also had a cup of their house blend coffee - which tastes as if it has been blended with charcoal.  Interesting.  I could get to like it.

First stop today was Nijo-jo Castle which was very impressive.  I spent all morning wandering the grounds and looking through the Ninomaru-Goten palace inside.  The "castle" has two moats - an inner & outer moat, and two palaces - only one of which is open to the public.

The complex was built at the start of the Tokugawa shogunate.  Bits of it have been rebuilt or just plain moved there from somewhere else.  The Japanese are very big on flexibility & portability.  Not only of the contents of their buildings but the the buildings themselves.  Result of living in an earthquake zone I suppose.

The palace itself was essentially lots of empty rooms with elaborately decorated walls and ceilings which were all highly symbolic.  I was crushed to learn that nightingale floors are just an unintended side effect of the construction method and not done deliberately to prevent assassinations.  I didn't need to learn that.

I had a coffee from a vending machine at the castle before heaidng back towards my hotel/what I see as the centre of the city.  I don't think it was the sort that you could heat up but I could have missed the option.  There was a lot of writing on the can but precious few pictographs.

On the way back I came across a cafe of the sort Ken had told me about.  There is a touch screen where you order and pay for your meal, which is then brought out to you.  While the menu had pictures of all the dishes, none of the characters on the menu matched any of those on the buttons.  There was a queue forming behind me so I gave up and left.

Shortly after I came across a similar cafe.  This one has machines with an English option button.  However, this selection only translated about a third of the buttons, but with the help of a waitress I got myself some lunch.  For the princely sum of 790Y (about $10) I got a bowl of miso soup, stired fried pork & vegetables, a cube of tofu and as much rice as I wanted.  Best of all were the western style tables with chairs!

On the way back I passed a sign to the Kyoto museum.  I couldn't remember why it wasn't on the planned itinerary but I though "why not?".  Since at least I'd be warm and dry inside.  I ended up going into their annex first which had an exhibition on a mad Frenchman called Jean-Paul Goude.  He is an artist and a magazine illustrator as well as having made ads for Chanel and done fashion shows.  His artworks (photos, drawings & paintings) were mostly intriguing, although often pornographic.  Occasionally they were simply pretentious.  One "display" was a woman dressed in haute coutere, with an enormous Marie Antoinette wig.  She sat in front of a mirror set up so it looked as if she was sitting in a fire.  She then sang opera to herself.  At other times, she would walk slowly about the room.  There was also an hour-long movie about his life and work - in English! - whcih was actually very interesting.

After this I finally found the entrance to the museum itself.  It had an exhibition on the history of Kyoto.  Sadly very little was in English - which is why it hadn't been on my list of places to visit.  There was also some works by a local family of silversmiths.  One piece was of a rather haughty heron princess that I would have happily taken home.  Unfortunately taking photos was forbidden and there didn't seem to be any sort of gift shop where I could get a postcard or some other copy of the piece.

After the rather disappointing museum I went back to all the shopping arcades.  I had yet another cup of "interesting" coffee and a piece of cheesecake.  My meals today have been filling at the time but lacking in fat and/or protein so I don't stay feeling full for long.  Must buy a bag of some trail mix type substance for the hike.  I'm getting low blood sugar headaches which aren't a good idea if the next meal is going to be sometime away.

Next on my shopping list was a badly needed coin purse.  They have 500Y and 100Y coins here - roughly equivalent to $6 and $3 coins - plus smaller denominations.  You end up with lots of change.  This place is almost a purely cash-based society.  I haven't seen a single EFTPOS machine.  I'm burning through my cash at an alarming rate.  I started to worry about being ore economical but had to remind myself I can just go to an ATM and get myself some more cash.  Next on the to-do list, after a brief rest/pit stop at my hotel.

When I headed out to dinner it wasn't mild and wet so much as cold and wet.  First stop was a 7-Eleven to get more cahs and then I settled on the pizza place down the road from the hotel for dinner.  I was hungry, sue me.

Every time a guest (or party of guests) was seated all the staff would call out something to greet them.  So far, so typical but ti didn't sound like what I'd been hearing elsewhere.  Finally it dawned on me.  They were all saying, in their very best Italian, "buonasera"!

I had a calabrese pizza and a beer.  The pizza was very good.  Thin, crispy base with just the right amount of topping.  A bit stingy on the the more expensive toppings but still very tasty for all that.

After dinner, I stopped off at another 7-Eleven for some random snacks and now I'm back at the hotel.  I plan to spend the rest o the evening holed up here, warm and dry, with a good book.  All in all, an enjoyable day, but I'm done now.