Kyoto

So, this weekend we went to Kyoto and the first day was nice and we walked around some temples up in the mountains where our inn was located. Our inn had a hotspring, which wasn't nearly as nice as the one I got to go to last summer, but it was nice anyway, although slightly too hot for me. Friday was very rainy, so it wasn't too fun. Saturday, I went to Nara and fed deer ricecrackers. I was kind of attacked and it was a little scary. They were everywhere, like squirrels.

My favorite part of the trip was the fact that I stayed an extra day in Kyoto (in a youth hostel, which I don't think I'll be doing again, and I didn't have a guide book with me, so I kind of hapharzdly went around on buses following the bus map for important things to see. Plus, figuring out buses was a bit of a chore. Subways I get easy, but buses took one try where I wanted to go back to Kyoto Station, but I ended up going to the Golden Pavilion instead. Anyway, I still really enjoyed going around the city by myself and figuring things out. The Golden Pavilion was a bit of a let down, but Nijo Castle was pretty interesting. At least, the sound everyone made as all the tourists walked around on nightingale floorboards iss something that I probably won't be hearing again anytime soon. If finally ended up on the outskirts of town, just because there was a picture of a mountain with monkeys on it. I placed all my hope in that picture that there would be monkeys, and I was right. (I probably could have asked someone and saved myself the trouble.) But, I got to see monkeys, one of my goals being in Japan.