Monday (3/10)

Today it was kinda gloomy. It was raining on and off (and usually more than just a sprinkle) until around 11 when it started to let up. I wasn't going to let it keep me inside though. As soon as I came down to the hotel lobby, I saw that they were selling umbrellas for 500 yen, so I grabbed one and headed out the door.

Side note: this hotel is awesome. It's extremely inexpensive, and it's located right in the middle of town next to the imperial palace. I just have to walk a couple of blocks to be able to catch a bus to pretty much anywhere I want to go. It's not exactly in the middle of any kind of nightlife or shopping scene, but that's fine by me.

So, I headed to Gion (gee-own) this morning, and I went in search of the Chionin temple. I had no idea this place was going to be so huge.





It's kinda hard to see, but there are two people walking along the surrounding walkway, just to give you a sense of scale.





There was a service going on inside .. I tried not to be too blatant about taking a picture .. hence the suffering quality of the shot



I wandered around for a bit, and found a cemetary out behind all of it. I overcame my instinct of not belonging, and wanting to turn around to leave, and I just slowly and repectfully walked through it.





There were a couple of ladies that had come to clean off a particular grave, and pay their respects. There were buckets and cleaning supplies in a shack at the front of the cemetary for just such a purpose .. I wish I had gotten a picture of that, sorry.

The cemetary was right up next to a mountain side (Higashiyama - or east mountain, to be exact), and some of the graves were up on elevated levels. Here's the view from there back toward the rest of Kyoto.





Then I went back into the main part of Gion, had some okonomiyaki at a place where the lady said "We only have 1 thing", which meant they give you the 1 thing they make .. no customization. Which is weird, because okonomiyaki is supposed to be all about customization. Then I went to a coffee shop and had some Brandy Coffee while I read some more.

Then I walked back north from Gion to Marutamachi-dori where there's an 8 story building with a bunch of crafts, and I did some souvenir shopping. I bought a few things, and they told me "If you just spend another 150 yen ($1.50), then you can get a tax refund", so I picked up one more little knickknack. Then on my way out, they stopped me at the information desk because I had bought some stuff and said that I could participate in a door prize lottery thing. I ended up drawing 1000 yen gift certificate, so I headed right back in to find something as close to 1000 yen as I could. They really didn't want me to leave =)

Well, I'm back at the hotel now, dropping of the stuff I bought, and I'm going back out for dinner shortly. Then tomorrow it's off to Nara.