Monday 10/8:
The next day we were woken up to nothing less than an earthquake and a typhoon at the same time! The earthquake was the biggest one so fare, 6.9 in Tokyo city. Unfortunately (I know I should say fortunately, but I can’t help thinking earthquakes are exiting, as long as no one gets hurt. Don’t have them in Norway you see), we were in Kyoto and not in Tokyo, so I only barely noticed it half asleep 5 or 6 in the morning. Just like my first earthquake in Japan I mumbled “jordskjelv” (earthquake in Norwegian) to the others and rolled over to sleep some more. Dad and Ina didn’t notice at all.
The typhoon wasn’t much either, just a normal rainstorm, without any wind. Don’t think I have ever experienced a real typhoon in Japan yet, only near misses. The rain wasn’t serious, but a big hindrance for our sightseeing plans. We ended up waiting it all out, playing bowling, shopping and taking purikuras of all things.
At last the rain stopped, and we could start our way up eastern Gion to Kiyomizu temple among others (Kyoto really has a lot of temples and shrines!).
We also stopped on the way for my last, and dad and Ina’s first green tea desert. I was delighted, not so sure about dad and Ina.
Eastern Gion was beautiful. Last time I visited was nighttime, at the yearly light festival in Gion. Daytime proved to be just as lovely.
Yasaka Pagoda
Here is a picture of Kiyomizu, an over thousand year old wooden temple in the hills of Kyoto.
There is also a small love shrine next to Kiyomizu.
After the Gion sightseeing we went and saw a small Japanese culture show with different traditional plays, tea sermonise, maiko (geisha) dance and so one.
For dinner that night we were able to find a not to expensive restaurant along Kamo River with available tables for eating outside on the pavilions over the river. The place served Kyoto dishes, something I had been looking forward to try. No one spoke English, so I got to use my Japanese but they did have English menus for us. Also, we sat on the floor, no possibility for cheating this time.
Eating outside was great and a first for me in Japan, as restaurants and cafes in Japan don’t usually have outside tables, at least not in Tokyo.
