Thu 21/6
The bus dropped us off at the Kyoto station, by the time we had breakfast and got lockers for our bags it had started raining! Spoilt wur plans to explore for the day so instead we hung around the station hoping it would clear up! It never did! Luckily nearly every station in Japan, bus-train-metro etc are all pretty much big shopping centres! There was plenty to keep us going, they even had a rooftop garden and a sky walk so we got views over the city for free. Cam was chuffed to bits wae buying his first brolly! He wanted to go out in the rain just to use it!lol. We didnt meet our host Fumie until 9pm. She was much nicer than our last one! She had other couchsurfers staying with her too so felt more like a hostel! She took us to a Japanese restaurant for dinner (unfortunately the sushi place was shut!) got to try a variety of nice dishes! A much better couchsurfing experience than our last! :)

Fri 22/6
Today we went out for the day with Rob and Maddie the other couple staying with Fumie. We headed to the Imperial Palace first for a walk round the gardens, if you get too close to the palace an alarm goes off, Rob found out the hard way!lol. Next we went to the Manga Museum which was very interesting! Not only do they have an exhibition of Manga history and an amazing Manga artwork exhibition, it is also a huge library with all the manga you could ever think of! They even had an english section. We left the museum to have a late lunch and headed back to the Imperial Palace hoping to do the free tour which was on at 5pm but unfortunately we were a couple of minutes late and missed it! Instead we took the scenic walk home. We had a sushi party with Fumie as it was Gill's birthday (another couchsurfer) it was an amazing spread but I have decided that I don't like the seaweed and prefer my seafood cooked! Cam thought it was ok but couldn't eat a lot of it cause it got a bit sickly!

Sat 23/6
Again we had a day out with Rob and Maddie this time we went to Kinkaku-ji the Golden Pavilion which is a beautiful building covered in gold foil. There was lots of school kids there who as part of their school work had to stop and ask us questions to practice their english. It was cute to begin with but there was so many of them that it got a bit tiresome! Next on to the Tenryu-ji 14th century zen garden and bamboo groove! Bamboo groove was just as beautiful as the pictures! We relaxed by the river for a bit watching the locals trying to skim stones even though there wasn't the best selection of stones. On the way home some stepping stones had appeared in the river and they were just asking to be crossed so we got some food and had dinner on the island in the middle. We spent the evening having a few beers and playing cards.

Sun 24/6
Bit of a later start today, spent a few hours making plans, decided to go to Osaka tomorrow after all. We had been thinking to go back to Tokyo. Headed to the Imperial palace again hoping to catch the tour since we missed it the other day but we have no luck! The place was all closed off today. Had a picnic and beers in the park instead, played scrabble with some letter shaped biscuits Rob bought, think we did quite well considering the limited letters and the fact english is Rob and Maddies second language! After a few hands of cards it was dark so headed to find some pubs! Followed lonely planets recommendation which was good as always. Not quite ready for home when the pub shut so stopped off for some karaoke!! In Japan you pay by the hour for a private room and you can sing your socks off till your ready for home! We stayed for two hours which was long enough because by the time we walked home it was 6:30am :/