August 9 Touring Kyoto

This is a view of our hotel, the Gion Maifukan.  It is a very small hotel and some of our group stayed at another hotel nearby.  Those of us at Gion Maifukan went to a nearby cafe called Medea for breakfast. The breakfast cafe was also small, and we had to eat in two shifts.  The coffee was terrific, ( though, like at RKK in Tokyo) we had to pay extra for it.  They call it European coffee and it is good either hot or cold.  I had no idea that good coffee was available in Japan.  The breakfast was good, too.

After such a peaceful day yesterday, I think I was kind of overloaded.  The activities of this day are kind of a blur for me!    We toured around Kyoto, a beautiful city, but I didn't make notes.  We went to a large shrine that is also an active religious community today.  I don't know the name of it, and I read that there are over 1600 temples and 400 temples in Kyoto.  I can't just do a google search!  It was raining, and I didn't take any pictures.

We also toured some small shops.  I especially enjoyed Mr. Saiki the fan-maker. He is a sixth-generation business man and explained the history of the folded fan, which was invented in Japan.  It was particularly interesting to see how the wooden fan spokes are inserted into the paper fan, which has already been decorated.

We also visited a tea shop and enjoyed a tea ceremony there before touring their beautiful shop. Afterward, we had lunch at a sandwich shop.

We then had a free afternoon.  I went back to our neighborhood and explored a little around there.  I found another Shinto Shrine that was very interesting to me, but I didn't get the name of it.  I was by myself, so I don't think anyone else would know either.  I reached it by taking a little path off a main street and then saw a mound with wishes on it.  I made one of my own for peace and love.

 This is how the mound looks and I have since learned that I should have crawled through it with my wish to make my wish come true.   I did find information on this shrine on the internet.  It is called Yasui-kompira-gu.  Be careful if you type that in....an error might lead you to aJapanese pornography site!!!!

I actually went to this shrine because the approach was so pretty and the rain had stopped.  I had no idea that I would find something so interesting.

I did a little shopping, but seemed to be more focused on tourist attractions.  I saw a pedicab with a man and a woman in formal kimonos, but my picture was blurry.

Back at the hotel, we had a reflection and discussion about plans for the next day.  It was predicted to be rainy because of a typhoon. It was decided that we should buy some food for the morning breakfast and have it in our rooms in case it was too stormy to go out, but our bus trip to Nara was still "on."

Carol and I went to a Lawson's convenience store and got stuff for an evening casual meal as well as for breakfast.  We had a little time for a glass of wine and a visit, which was very nice.   I had another nice warm bath before bed.