Sumiya Ryokan, Kyoto
The shinkansen ride was nice. About 3 hours. A highlight is that i pooed in a Japanese style toilet on the train. I had a choice between floor toilet and regular. And I thought “what the heck”.
I got to the Kyoto station and navigated my way to the taxi stand and off to the inn. I dropped off my bags and was greeted with ice mugicha (barley tea) and rice crackers. Yum. I was 90% sure of my stomache, but soon would be the real test. I went to East kyoto, but first I stopped at an unagi restaurant. It was very good, and my gut survived, so I think I am all clear.
After lunch I went to Heian Jingo, which was nice, but there was some event going on at the shrine, and they were seting up lights all over. Oh well, it’s still pretty. Afterwards I hiked over to Nanzen-ji. But, arg, it started to rain. Not that hard, but I scrapped the trip to the temple, especially since I left my rain jacet in my luggage.
To be prudent, I decided to go to the post office near Kyoto station to get me some hakagi no kitte. I actualy asked for them in semi-proper japanese – niju mai hagaki no kitte o onegai shimasu. After getting the stamps and mailing some postcards, I went to the TIC at kyoto station to get some internet time. It’s a good thing, because I had a deadline for confirming my hotel for the last two nights in Japan. Hah. Anyway, by the time I was done with that it was pouring out, so I made my way back to Sumiya. The map that I had was pretty crappy (oh, did I miss the awesome Tokyo atlas) , and so it was kind of a crap shoot if I was going the right way. In my head I could see a lot of people just giving up and hiding from the rain. But I made it. A bit wet, of course, but that’s ok.
I decided to take some pictures of my room, but the rechargeable batteries in my flash were dead. I should have charged them before leaving, but oh well. I went back out to 7-11 just down the street for some AAs. When I got back I took pics, jumped in the shower, changed into the yukata and wrote postcards while waiting for dinner.