I am just full of stupid, aren't I!

Here I am, last day in Kyoto before I head Kobe-wards, and what have I done? Why, lots!

And by lots, I of course mean more sightseeing, which I'm sure long ago grew dreadfully dull to read about. Perhaps before I started.

I'll be damned if that's going to stop me.

Of particular interest to me, temple-wise, is the Zen Rock Garden. I won't pretend I'm any sort of deep or spiritual human being. Probably quite the opposite, in fact. I'm shallow. I only like the zen rock gardens 'cause they look neat.

I wonder if that makes me a bad person.

Well, today I went to a temple. Ryoanji. (Ji - 寺 - is temple! Some people on the internet persist in referring to the place as Ryoan-ji Temple, but gadgarmit, that's redundant!) It certainly had a nice rock garden! And other nice things.

Unfortunately, my entire experience was ruined by the visual cacophony that is construction-at-work! All that scaffolding!

Side note: I almost died at the temple. I peeked under some scaffolding and around the corner to get a larger look at the Rocks, and felt something on my hair. I backed out and looked up and realized my hair had almost swallowed a spiderweb WITH A SPIDER ON IT.

I surprised myself because I remained perfectly calm and didn't freak out at all.

I swear.

Outside the temple, near the bus stop, there was this area that looked to be a quarry where they carved all those awesome stone lanterns and whatnots found all about the place in Japan. I almost wandered in there, but it sort of looked like I wasn't supposed to. And then I saw someone else (who appeared to be a worker) inside. Basically I chickened out. But man, there were a ton of statues in there. The pictures I took failed to capture the magnitude. Ahhhh well.

And then! I went to the Golden Temple! Forgot all about this place when making sightseeing plans! As in: I didn't even make any plans to go, I just went because I saw it on the map and it was nearby! Goes to show you that making plans ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Only my camera died mid-trip.

Oops.

Decent day, though! Next up: Himeji Castle and Kobe!

My first day in Kyoto!

The Shinkansen was an uneventful but delightfully swift experience. I did manage to snag a few shots of the quaint Japanese rurals and rice fields here and there. Most of it will turn out rather lacking in grandeur - of this I have no doubt - but the subject matter was interesting enough to me, nonetheless!

Perhaps more interesting to the casual observer: I partook in a couple Gomer Pile (hah wow has it been a long time since I heard that or what) moments after arriving.

First, I rode the bus. I knew it was the right bus, but when it arrived at my stop, I... uh... I didn't get off. The directions I'd read to the hotel prior to leaving for Kyoto said "get off at the Kiyomizu-do" stop. Up came "Kiyomizu-michi" and then I didn't get off 'cause it wasn't the same name. Oops.

Back at Kyoto Station...

This time I decided to hunt down a bus route map, to be sure. It worked; this time I exited the bus at the proper location.

THEN I looked at the map I'd drawn from-bus-stop-to-hotel. After looking around, I realized my map wasn't going to work so well. I don't know why I thought it would work. It was hastily drawn, and I had absolutely no bearings or landmarks to go by... It also looked to be a considerably longer walk than "one minute from the bus stop."

After interrogating a Family Mart clerk (who, despite his best efforts, was unable to help my stupid ass), I came to the conclusion that the map I'd drawn was for the walk from the TRAIN station and not, in fact, from the bus stop. Oops again.

Luckily, Amenity Hotel turned out to be just a little down the road. A minute, indeed.

I decided not to do any sight-seeing tonight, and instead opted to just wander up and down the street a bit - get the lay of the land, as it were. For dinner, I ate a rather large bentou consisting of fried rice, chicken, uh... other stuff? It was delicious, if that helps?

P.S., I am writing this using hijacked power from the TV in the little corner of the box in which I will later sleep! O: