13 March 2014
The unrelenting downpour
The rain did indeed come as predicted. I think its only supposed to last today. It never stopped raining, but then never rained hard either. Still my feet are soaked through.
Despite the rain, I travelled to the golden temple, more on that below.
I also broke one of my own mantras for better life and bought an umbrella. Theres a first time for everything. I prefer to get wet than carry an umbrella, but I decided my camera was worth more than the inconvenience of lugging around a plastic and metal eye poking catastrophe.
At least Japan is smart enough to use clear plastic on theres, something thats still a rarity in Australia.
For lunch I went to a cafe under a station and had the sandwich set, which was mainly various creamy substances. You can buy strawberry and cream sandwhiches at convenience stores if you want.
In this cafe, theres plenty of smoking business men asleep in their suits, in the middle of the day. Mostly older men. Perhaps they are so respected they dont need to work anymore, just smoke, sleep and eat delicate sandwhiches.
And now the rain is a perfect opportunity for me to use the washing machines and dryers, total cost of this is 300 yen, so less than $4.
Before buying the umbrella I took a bus. It didnt go very far and I walked back once I had made my umbrella purchase.
People complain its very far from transport to the main sites of Kyoto. People need to harden up. Its a 15 minute walk at the most from the subway.
This is the golden temple. I must say I am underwhelmed. You pay your $5, step through a gate, there it is, then walk about 200 metres and leave.
You dont get to go in it, up it, or up the mountain behind it or anything.
They try to keep you far away from it and I know why....
I jumped a fence and snuck around the back and got up close. Passing whatever this is along the way.
Around the back of it having to flee whilst pursued by old men in plastic covered hats, I can tell you its made of chip board and sprayed with gold paint from a rattle can. I saw some of the cans in a little shed.
You can of course buy an officially licensed hello kitty featuring the gold spray paint fake temple. They should probably turn the actual temple into a hello kitty shop, and golden kit kats.
The treachorous walk down the wet steps was nerve wracking.
Back where I was last night now for the ancient streets. Mainly these are pubs and cafes and crepe shops, but they look good.
Behind many shops are impressive gardens, they are happy to let you roam about it seems.
A different street looks the same as the last. I think a lot of people have paid to play dress up as a Geisha today, only to find that wooden sandals and toe socks and a long dressing gown in the rain is a stupid idea.
Dont presume its limited to teenagers or people who to my eye pass as teenagers doing peace signs. I saw some 80+ year olds giggling away taking selfies and posing with parking attendants to embarrass them.
Once you negotiate about a kilometre of alleyways you get to another temple, just like the one at the other end, only this ancient temple is under construction.
Plenty of concrete with steel reenforcement going on before a veneer of ancient looking cladding is added at the end.
Note these are red cherry blossoms. Everyone hyperventilate with excitement now.
Final photo of the day is the nearby pagoda. You cant climb up it. If you want to see pagodas and climb up them, Suzhou is a better bet.