Day 13 Kyoto Free day

Dayne:

For the first part of our free day in Kyoto, Ryan, Cory, and I (Dayne), hopped on one of the many busses in the city. We were joined by Keith, Jack, and Zach, but our two groups split up after our stop. Our destination was the golden temple, Kinkakuji. 

We walked around the packed paths at the temple with swarms of elementary kids on field trips. It seems like the Golden Temple is a popular tourist spot. We can't go into the temple itself, but we can view it and it had a beautiful reflection in the lake. 

After finishing walking around the site we attempted to get on a bus that would take us to the Ninnaji Temple. However we got on a bus that went the wrong way, so Cory and Ryan got off at the first stop. I had a different story: I wasn't quick enough to get my pass out of my pocket, so I had to wait till the next stop to get off and walk back. I didn't know if they would wait for me and was a bit scared, but thankfully they did. We then managed to get on the right bus and visit the Ninnaji Temple. 

Cory and I went in and visited the garden which cost 500 yen while Ryan stayed behind. The garden was very beautiful and the buildings had roughly 100-year-old paintings to add to the beauty. We walked around different pathways and saw traditional Japanese gardens and a little waterfall. We walked around the rest of the temple and saw other cool buildings including a 400-year-old 5-story pagoda. Walking back to meet up with Ryan we saw more of the Temple grounds and a temple which was under renovation. 

After meeting back up with Ryan we got on yet another bus and went to the Bamboo forest where Ryan will pick up the story.

Ryan:

We visited the bamboo forest in Kyoto, it was just bamboo as far as you could see. 

They also had a lot of temples and nice japanese food places. 

Then we took a bus to downtown Kyoto and ate and looked around the shops.

Diane:

This morning Sensei gave everyone suggestions for what to do in our free day in Kyoto before we all set off. Hannah and I chose to go to Kinkakuji (the golden palace) first, but we ended up taking a different bus from everyone else going there too, because we ran back into our hotel to get a fan and sunglasses. The palace was super cool, and very shiny.

After we went to Nijo castle, which is an old one you can actually walk around in but aren't allowed to take pictures in. 

[Not sure what this guy is waiting for, but he looks ready!]

After we went to Gion, which is a district in Kyoto where you can sometimes see Geisha walking around. We were out of luck in that department today, but we spent an hour in a karaoke place where we also had lunch. 

We looked around Gion for a bit too, and then headed back to Kyoto station where we met up with some others and shopped a little in the mall nearby. 

We got dinner to go in a convenience store, and then everyone met back at the hotel to take the bullet train to Hiroshima's Hana hostel.