We arose at a reasonable hour for a tasty buffet breakfast. Following breakfast, we made our way to the bus station and purchased our all-day bus passes. Shortly, we made our way by bus up to the famous Kiyomizu Temple.
This ancient temple is still home to many Buddhist monks. We explored the temple grounds in small groups. Tom, Ben, Ollie and Alex participated in a water pouring ceremony. Axel tried to walk 18 metres from one special stone to another with his eyes closed. If a person is able to reach the second stone, he will be lucky in love. Unfortunately, it looks like Axel may have a little trouble in the romance department...
As we were leaving, Alex stopped at a prayer room. He and the boys took off their shoes and went for a prayer. Since Tom’s grandfather is a Buddhist, he was able to show everyone what to do- drop a small coin, hit a drum and then kneel for a moment of prayer.
Ms Gracia and the Year 8 boys discovered some ancient pre-Kanji characters written in the temple. Richard took some good photos. Charlie then led the group on an exploration of the dark basement of the temple.
Ms. Tebbutt, Anthony, Sam and the girls took some time out to close their eyes and imagine they were walking around back in the time when the temple was new. They, too, took a tour of the basement. They later stumbled into a procession of monks and had their photo taken with them.
The group then wandered through back alleyways on our way to lunch in the park. The park was a little wet, so we decided to eat soba and udon noodles in a cute little restaurant overlooking the park.
Following lunch, the group again split up. Richard, Jonno and Ms. Gracia headed back to the hotel, as Richard’s back was bothering him and Jonno had a pain in his ear. Richard rested while Ms. Gracia and Jonno went on a bit of an adventure through the city in search of a doctor. Along the way, they ran into an autumn festival. Fortunately, when they finally found a hospital with doctors on call, they were seen to immediately. The doctor diagnosed Jonno with an ear infection, prescribed him antibiotics and assured him everything would be cleared up in several days. Ms. Gracia was very impressed with the care and responsiveness of the hospital. By evening, both Richard and Jonno were feeling themselves again.
The rest of the group wandered back through the park, stopping for a group ice cream and a look at some of the other temple buildings. We then made our way down to the Gion district, famous to many from the book Memoirs of a Geisha. We strolled through the back streets until we stumbled across a geisha in the middle of a photo shoot- we couldn’t believe our luck! After that, we decided to split back up into small groups.
Ms. Tebbutt’s group continued to meander through back streets, taking time to join the locals sitting down by the canals. They wandered through Pontocho, “the most beautiful street in Kyoto,” according to the Lonely Planet. As they made their way down the street, they sighted three maiko (geishas in training) in full dress. After a play on some equipment in the park, the group had dinner and made their way back to the hotel.
Mr. O’Brien’s group was led by Charles. He had been looking for a very rare box of English language Magic cards all trip, and he had obtained the name of a shop and a map from the hotel in the morning. He took charge of the group, and thus began the epic Charles Quest. After close to two hours of walking, searching and asking directions, we still hadn’t found the shop. As Ollie, Axel, Alex, Ben and Mr. O’Brien were getting tired, they took a break from searching, while Tom and Charles searched in vain for another half hour. The group was getting ready to leave for dinner when suddenly Axel spotted the sign for the shop half way up a tall building. The group rushed up the stairs to find… the Magic cards! Charles was ecstatic. Tom was over the moon as well when he discovered a very rare card in his pack of Japanese Magic cards.
On a high, the group began to make its way towards dinner with the aim of making one final stop for Ollie to look in a camera shop. We found a discount Sony shop with very cool little cameras. Ollie found just the camera he had been looking for- a compact model that shot video as well as pictures- for a very reasonable price. We discussed the camera’s features with the salesman, ensured Ollie could use it in Australia, got English instructions and finally voted as a group on the colour- a very cool and flashy orange!
We then made our way again to the Gion backstreets where we found a little teppanyaki restaurant overlooking a canal. We left our shoes at the door and all sat down on cushions in front of a low counter of hot plates. We watched as the woman cooked up our meals- delicious chicken for most and a tasty omelette for Ben.
We made our way back to the bus stop, laughing and battling each other with foam num-chucks. Although by the time we returned to the hotel it was almost twelve hours since we had departed, we all agreed that we had had another wonderful day.
We are looking forward to a late start tomorrow and a leisurely day trip out to the old city of Nara.
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