Right, one day in Kyoto so I thought I`d make sure I had the maximum time to cover it, therefore woke at 4.30am. Actually, this wasn`t really my choice, but more the fact that the thin reed curtains of my little hostel weren`t really adequate cover for the sun waking up significantly earlier than even I consider decent. So I groaned, rolled back onto my (apparently rice-stuffed pillow) and slept until 6.30. This time I really did get myself up, made a cup of tea to wash away the cobwebs, showered and dressed. It is just as well I got up so early, as the amount of times I managed to lose myself whilst covering the city on my little rented bike more than ate up the time I did have available. As it was, by the end of the day I felt as if I had visited more than three cities: Ancient Temple Kyoto, Newfangled Kyoto, Ancient Geisha Kyoto. Which divides my descriptions/recollections up rather neatly. Ancient Temple Kyoto Although I set off on my trip indecently early, by the time I had cycled three times the distance/time I should have done in taking two slightly wrong paths twice, heading out well into the outskirts of Kyoto and passing many a cabbage-filled allotment plot. I finally found my way to the river crossing my hostel host had directed me to, and, feeling like I was back at Cambridge whizzing along the river, whizzed along the river. I then got hopelessly lost again, but finally, no less than TWO hours later (no joke), and by about 9.30, I reached my first shrine. Thankfully it merited the workout I had carried out in order to get there, as I walked through a quietly wooded glade before reaching the first of my wooden temples of the day, a beautiful courtyard surrounded by arches and shrines. I wandered through it with my bike, quite glad of the excuse to cool down and catch my breath. It was looking like it was going to be a bit of a scorcher of a day... I zoomed off once again, thankfully at a part of my map which was easier to navigate, and less likely to go wrong down various neighbourhood alleys and streets as before. By this time it was about 10am, so I bought my breakfast (a rice ball and a juice drink) from a 7/11 convenient store (something I am a big fan of here in Japan, as they really are terribly convenient), and rode onwards and upwards to my first temple. It goes without saying that each temple I visited was exquisitely detailed and beautiful, and each, surprisingly (I do sometimes tend to suffer from church/temple/shrine fatigue when abroad) having its own traits and personalities. Ginkakuji temple was a moss-carpeted garden area, a running river through it finishing in a carp-filled pool. There were bamboo paths leading upwards into the mountain, as the temple backs onto the hillsides which hug the entirety of Kyoto - this, and the all-encompassing softness of the moss makes it a very cushioned experience. You feel protected enough to be able to be peaceful and contemplate as you wish. Sadly my camera/photography skills are highly unlikely to do the place any sort of justice... Leaving the temple, I continued down the hill and along the Path of Philosophy, an ancient stone-paved, cherry tree-lined pathway which continues alongside a freshwater stream. It was at this point that it came home to me that I probably was never cut out to be a philosopher as a) I am taller they they are obviously supposed to be, the cherry trees kept hitting my head and disturbing my ponderings b) I am quite sure that philosophers would never have thought `wow COOL!!` upon seeing a carp bigger than my leg swim past in the stream c) again my thoughts were encumbered by the fact that every few steps my bike would hit the stone path and its pedals would whack the back of my legs. Ah well, I decided instead to sit on one of the stone benches and philosophically eat my very well-earned breakfast. (I was also enheartened to see that there was a Haagen Dazs machine next to the path...you see, they obviously weren`t so different from all of us!!!) Down the hill I hit the next temple spot, this time a humungous dark black wooded temple. I walked on up the hill past the temple, under a delicate little red aqueduct, and continued up into the forest for the secret shrine up the hill. The smell of incense wafted from the various shrines and temples and the sound of the waterfall`s running water made this one of the most amazing places I have been in Japan so far, not to mention the least populated! I decided that I had reached my required temple time, and went to a noodle shop for lunch. I sat next to a tiny little old Japanese man, who nodded at me and spoke a little English, and then proceeded to tuck into his enormous plateful of soba, schlurping away, smacking his lips, and then sighing and patting his belly with satisfaction. It struck me as quite amusing that so often the Japanese are terribly quiet and refined (with their toilet masking sounds, etc.) and then they seem to go out of their way to slurp their noodles as loudly as a Dyson on overdrive! I then cycled further on into town, getting myself slightly more agreeably lost, as this time I had nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do/see, and wound my way through to the Imperial Palace gardens - a huge park in central Kyoto. By this time the sun had been beating on my arms/face/shoulders for quite a while so I sought some shade, pulled off my trainers and had a nice little relaxing kip under the maple/fir trees, before cycling all the way back to my hostel. Newfangled Kyoto My hostel host, Kozo, a very well-travelled little Japanese man, very kindly offered to drop me off at my next, distinctly more swanky (and certainly in price) hotel for the evening. So we - his wife, 10 month old son, Kozo and I - made a little pilgrimage further down into central Kyoto, which was quite a different place. I dropped my bags at my old-style Japanese ryokan (more on this later), and decided to make my way into town for a look around. By foot everything felt almost unbearably slow, and I wished I still had my little bike to fly around on! So it took me some time to arrive up at the main street of Kyoto and the Nishigiri food and general market, where I nosied around for quite a while. I then followed one of the Lonely Planet guide`s dinner advice, and ate a few pieces of sushi for a very early dinner at one of the recommended sushi restaurants. Given the early hour, I was the only customer in there, which made me more than a little self-conscious! Thankfully I have already had my chopstick skills praised, so I wasn`t under any scrutiny there...the chef plonked a great wodge of pickled ginger straight onto the marble counter in front of me, and then made up the three nigiri I ordered - ikura (salmon roe), salmon (self-explanatory), and oh darnit I`ve forgotten, mackerel - all of which were truly melt-in-the-mouth. Ancient Geisha Kyoto I then headed over the river to the Gion district, famous for hiding the teahouses and restaurants where the Geisha entertain their guests. Down the main ancient street, there are none of the garish neon lights of the modern city. Instead the buildings are mysteriously obscured by curtains, without an indication of what lies beneath, with lanterns and a few signs outside. I walked the length of the street, seeing nothing but these houses, and wondered what all the fuss was about. I then turned back to where a group of tourists appeared to be hovering hopefully in the middle of the street. Aha, Geisha-spotting! Now, no disrespect to the divine Geisha, but Geisha-spotting is a little like Whale-spotting I find. You wait for aaaages, and then quick as a flash they appear, and before you manage to get your camera apparatus to function properly, they`re gone, leaving you with only a moving silhouette on your screen as proof. So, again, my photos leave something to be desired. I may have to cheat and import them from Google images. I hung around for about 20 minutes, caught a few geisha nipping in and out of their engagements, and then decided that my career as a paparazzi/wildlife photographer was probably limited. I just feel a bit silly hanging around like a buffoon and then not succeeding in getting any sort of decent snaps! So, early though it was, I decided that my extortionate ryokan and I were destined to get better acquainted. I was by this stage, I should add, fairly warm from having caught the sun during my day`s activities, not to mention feeling like I had had an exceptionally long day. I will probably be hitting the town more in the other places on my travels. I walked back. This is where my comparison of my time in Japan to Alice in Wonderland gets truly appropriate - you know that part where Alice eats a cake and grows so large that her head and arms stick out of the windows/doors? Yeah, think me in a Japanese ryokan. So tiny and delicately built, they are certainly not put together for Westerners like me. I really haven`t felt quite so much like a giant here yet. My 4ft Japanese hostess who speaks a couple of words of English directed me to my room where I made every error it is possible to make - I wore my outside shoes onto the tatami mat, my inside shoes into my tatami-matted room, knocked my head on the lamp...oh...then onto my dolls house style room. When left to my own devices (finally, having received an explanation for absolutely every little detail - and there are many - contained in the ryokan/room itself) I then knelt on the futon. Coming down slightly too hard, I swear to god the whole hotel shook. No really. Comparisons with multiple fairy tales just kept springing to mind here (`I`ll huff and I`ll puff and I`ll blow your house down?`). I decided to rinse off my day`s adventures with a lovely straightforward shower. Straightforward, that is, until I peeped into the showerroom, which, yet again, was a complicated multi-faceted operation which required a full demonstration from the hostess. Once instructed though, I did enjoy a thorough shower, dip in the hot spring bath, rock pool, steam room etc. I was grateful for my friend Dan`s warning to keep an eye out for the ninja shadows through the paper wall of my ryokan room, so I kept my samurai sword by my side just in case...when I saw them though, I just gave them a bit of a knock and they fell off my balcony into the carp pool...easy peasy. After so much physical and mental exertion, you can probably understand why I hit the futon so early and slept like a ninja warrior...