Had a bit of a lie-in this morning as didn’t want to rush everyone and after breakfast we got the subway line north and went to the Grand Palace gardens. Sweltering hot (again!) and we made every effort to walk through the tree to avoid the sun.
After about 20 mins of walking in the outside of the walls I found the main entrance and quickly realised why it was all so quiet and deserted...the palace is closed every Monday!!! Bugger. So we walked through more of the park and onto a main road that would take us towards the next place we wanted to go. I say we, the kids are fed up walking I think!!
I can’t blame them, it was very warm walking along there and there wasn’t much to see, not even many shops, mostly residential area.
Anyway, we eventually made it to a dojo we wanted to get to and it was worth it. As we walked up to he entrance there was a chap getting things ready for a Kendo lesson he was going to run later in the afternoon. He gave us a bit of background about the dojo that was really interesting and offered us to stay for the lesson and watch. It was too far away in terms of time and too hot to wait around for so we politely declined and moved on
We were heading for the Path of Tranquillity which was miles away but Tash was adamant we could walk there. Eventually we jumped on a bus that took us right there and that was the correct decision as we weren’t close at all!!
Walked down some of the pathway but it wasn’t too spectacular if I’m honest, we can all imagine what it would be like in Spring with the cherry blossom on show or in Autumn with coloured leaves but as it’s summer it was just full on green leaves but it was nice. Didn’t go too far as we got the gist of it, you can walk for a couple of miles down the route with loads of shrines but we all agreed that wasn’t necessary!! Did a bit of pottering about and then got on the bus back to Kyoto station which took almost an hour with all the stops but it was interesting as it went through a part of the city that we’d not seen yet.
Grabbed some sandwiches from the station and got back to the hotel for 4.00pm to crash out for an hour and half and then back off again at 6.00pm, nice to be leaving the hotel during light!!
We walked along the main road and did some last minute shopping and continued into the Gion district which was bright lights and shops and then in a side road all traditional Japanese buildings that Walter mostly restaurants or homes.
We found an excellent restaurant and had dinner there and it was all Italian pasta that everyone had and it went down really well. Jack was loving the toilet and this one even had a dryer...this announcement meant everyone had to go and try it out. Must admit, it’s not something I’ve tried yet and I probably won’t. An added bonus to the nice meal was that we were not charged for the bottle of wine that their girls had. So it did feel like a really cheap evening.
We walked round some more of Gion in the hope of seeing a Geisha girl but we were out of luck so we made our way back along the Main Street with the intention of going back to the hotel but not before taking a detour to a bar for one more drink. It was a standing bar which meant we didn’t have a cover charge and on the bar we’re a couple of bottles of whiskey that had a snake and scorpion within then which made for some gruesome photos and Charlotte reading up about it all on Google.
That was it really, back to the hotel about 10.20pm and to bed nice and early although with the cold I’ve got I wasn’t really looking forward to another night in the air conditioning!!
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