On our Fourth day in Kyoto, we had a late start to the day. The night before, after the Maiko performance, we headed to an all you can drink affair and generally had fun wandering the streets of Kyoto in our drunken mayhem and talking to random Japanese people. Hence, that is why we woke up so late. So on our fourth day, we visited two really neat places: the Golden Pavillion and the Zen Rock garden temple. The Golden Pavillion was another site drunk with tourists but it was still a really nice place. The golden pavilion was built as an emperors villa roughly 800 years ago and is now a temple. The walls are lined in gold and the pavilion sits on a lake Very picturesque. Afterwards, we headed to the even better Zen Rock Garden Temple, Ryoan-ji. It's a really peaceful place with a beautiful Japanese garden. There weren't a lot of people so we had the opportunity to bask in the serenity. The Rock garden is really cool. It's basically shaped like a rectangle and contains about 13 or 14 rocks surrounded by a sea of white pebbles neatly lined. It's supposed to represent nature and if you stare at it long enough, it's like a drug. In other words, your imagination runs wild. We also relaxed and talked on the wooden floors of the temple. It was all in good fun.
Afterwards, we headed to an Izakaya. Izakaya's are traditional Japanese pubs. They are usually marked by red lanterns and contain lots of alcohol and traditional bar food. It's a place where the locals go after work and there are quite a few in Japan. The decor is usually low key and you also usually find quite a few red-faced Japanese people. We really enjoyed eating here as we got to sample a wide variety of traditional Japanese bar food including the absolutely delicious and peppery chicken Udon soup.
By our 5th day in Kyoto, we were pooped. Sightseeing and walking all over town wears you out quickly. It's fun but you can only do so much of it. And you can only see so many temples. So after a few days, we decided to hit the beach. We asked the friendly people at our hostel for a recommendation and we were told that Biwa lake had some nice beaches. Biwa is Japan's largest lake and actually, we were surprised to find that the beach was actually really nice. The whole beach was lined with Evergreens and the water was quite clear. The beach was also surrounded by mountains on each side. So, we spent the day swimming and basking in the sun. Also, it was really interesting to watch Japanese people at the beach. They just seem so much more youthful and comfortable in their own skins compared to Koreans. The beach was full of youth and people generally having fun. Japanese people are really stylish as well and seem to actually have a semblance of a beach culture. It's fun to see. The beach was a really relaxing to way to mark the halfway point of our trip.
And once again, I'll pick up on the next few days tomorrow.
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