Monday 21st April
I hadn't planned an exact itinerary for my time in Japan but had so far spent each day seeing somewhere new and I had thoroughly enjoyed it all. It is an awesome country and a very comfortable and easy place to visit as a tourist. I knew there was a lot more to see in Kyoto, despite the fact that I had spent a full day there with Pete two days before, so I made a move back there, arriving into Kyoto station a bit later than I would have liked at 12.00.
One of the most popular temples or shrines in Kyoto is the Kinkaku-ji, or 'Golden Pavilion', and I took the bus to get there. Kyoto is a very big place, much larger than you might expect on first sight. It has many sights spread all over it, and you definitely need to take public transport – and at least a couple of days – to see enough of it. The Kinkaku-ji was another stunning building, gleeming in gold in the afternoon sun, and sitting on a beautifully landscaped lake. A couple of bus loads of Japanese tourists entered at the same time as me, so getting photos was a bit more of a hassle. Anyway, it was another good place to visit.
The next place that I visited was the Arashiyama area of Kyoto and, again, it took another good bus journey to get there. It's closer to the outskirts of town and I enjoyed the peace and quiet of a stroll through the Kameyama-koen, a public park that looked great in the late afternoon sun. By this stage, everywhere was closing up for the day, so I walked back towards the train station, a fair distance, so that I was pretty tired when I got on the train to Osaka, and looking forward to relaxing back in the flat.
The train back tookonly forty five minutes and I was back in Kumi's place by 21.00, had some food and chilled out with the guys for the rest of the evening.
