Gaelec's Blog: October 24th (in Tokyo !!!)

This morning, we decided to visit 2 temples before leaving Kyoto. That's mostly what Kyoto is famed for. Unlike churches, the cool thing about temples is that the surrounding gardens and settings are often different and interesting (the temple itself is still "more of the same").

On the bus to the shrines, I saw a drugstore franchise that I had also seen on the shinkansen. I was happy to be able to take a picture. It just seems so wrong, hehe.

From Trip to Japan

The first temple we saw was Ryoanji. It's known for it's zen rock garden. I had seen it many times in picture and that place was, for me, very representative of Japan. I was super happy to be able to see it live and I let myself get absorbed in the sight a bit but it was hard because there was a lot of tourists and students. I think I took good pictures.

From Trip to Japan

The rock garden

From Trip to Japan

Tsukubai is a stone-wash basin for the tea room. The inscription says "I learn only to be contented".

From Trip to Japan

The other temple we saw is called Kankaku-ji and that temple is famed for being covered in gold on the 2 top stories of the 3 story temple. With the reflection on the water, it was a beautiful sight.

From Trip to Japan

We went back to the hotel to grab our bags, ate at a local restaurant and went to Kyoto-eki to finally go to the city I was really looking forward to: Tokyo :D

Before we entered the train station though, Nath and I realized that we hadn't seen any beggars or street performers ever since we've been in Japan. Maybe it's against the law or something.

We took the train, found our way through the Tokyo train lines to get to our hotel without too much difficulty.

Our room is really big, japanese style. The funny thing is that I couldn't find a hotel that was free for the full week we're here so we're staying at the same hotel but we're changing rooms 4 times :P At least we have 4 nights in the same room and we don't have to worry about transferring our bags from one room to the other.

Our first room

From Trip to Japan

Because we're staying there more than 5 nights, we had a complimentary supper that we ate tonight. Nothing to blow our minds (or taste buds) but it was free so hey !

Now we're in an internet cafe in Akihabara, the biggest electronics district in the world and also the spot for anything related to games and anime/manga. Geek city if you prefer. I think that's what we'll visit tomorrow. I intend to do some serious shopping :P

Japanese phone booth