The first temple we arrived at was Kiyomizu and there were many others in the vicinity so we explored as many as we could! We took a route through the traditional streets towards Kodai ji. All the temples on the way were very beautiful! Girls dressed in kimonos filled the streets with their partners wearing the male, less colourful looking kimono.
We stopped to admire many Japanese shops with pretty little things; elaborate chocolates, beautiful paper and savory pickles. We sampled a lot of sweet things and both felt a little sick.
We decided to take a break from temple spotting and headed to downtown new Kyoto. We needed to buy our Shinkansen (bullet) train ticket to Yokohama. We tried to get a discounted ticket at a small booth but were not 100% sure how it worked. We decided to go directly to the station. We found the ticket office, handed over the credit card and parted with a lot of money. Trains are expensive here especially the 300 mph ones!
We saw a queue of people waiting outside a small restaurant, so we joined it. We had great gyoza (dumplings) when we finally got inside. Next we walked across the street to a make shift food area. On entering we were given complimentary miso soup to try followed by a glass of sake.
After we got back to the hostel it was quite late so we decided to eat in. Udon noodles once again came to the rescue. In the evening we explored the Gion area and saw a Geisha walking near the theatre. Well, we think so as the Japanese told us that there are not really Geishas any more. On the way home we collected a bottle of ice coffee from the supermarket. Not to add ice to but to heat up!
