Kyōtō

From Ōsaka we went to Kyōtō, local train styles. We dropped off our luggage at a storage place in the station and headed somewhere nice. I voted for the Nintendo factory but the information guy said it was tightly secure and that we'd only see walls if we were taller than the 3 metre fence.

So, we caught the bus to Suzumushitera Temple. Here they'll give you a speech on how to pray properly, delivered with the atmosphere of chirping crickets. It's real too. There's live crickets that have a habitat that stays the perfect temperature so to be able to live all year round. In the speech the monk said that there are a lot of crickets that die, so the best thanks that we can give to them for their atmosphere is to dry them, grind their bodies and add it to the candy you all ate with your green tea. That's what the crunchy black bits were. He said he was joking, but I'm not so sure.




From there it was to the bamboo temple. This was the birthplace of Ikkyu-san. Now this place is solitude. All you can hear is the wind brushing the leaves and the swaying of the bamboo. For the short amount of time we were here I took a lot of photos so there's not actually much more to say.





A big day we had. It was time to go back to Tsukinoniwa to try and catch up with Kaori and Masaru. When we arrived Shunsuke greeted us with open arms again and invited us to dinner! This time it was Nabe and Gyōza. Absolutey awesome.