Friday 5th August - arrived in Kyoto.

Saturday 6th August - Shosei-en garden, Higashi Hongan-ji temple and the Manga Museum. The garden and temple were just round the corner from our hostel. The garden was nice, very peaceful. The temple, on the other hand, was very busy! It features the largest wooden building in the world, though this was mostly under scaffolding when we went so you couldn't really get a feel for it. Whilst we were there they seemed to be having some kind of special service. A section in the temple had been roped off and lots of people were sitting in front of it. A monk talked and periodically people got up and prayed at the front before returning to their seat. It's the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb today so it could have been something to do with that, but that's a guess. 

The manga museum for the most part is a library of manga books stretching back decades. People are welcome to sit and read the books all day long, and many people did. Unfortunately there were all in Japanese. There was a very small section featuring manga in other languages though. The interesting thing was the range of people reading books. They ranged from high school kids to middle aged people and pensioners. There was an interesting section detailing the history of manga, and opportunity to watch a kamishibai performance. A story-teller narrates a story accompanied by pictures of the action. Though our story-teller only spoke Japanese the pictures were subtitled in English. The story-teller was great though, putting a lot of energy into it and everyone, children, grown-ups and foreigners alike, really enjoyed it.

In the evening we stumbled across a fair. It turns out this week is the celebration of Tanabata - a festival celebrating two lovers in the stars who are separated by the Milky Way and only get to meet once a year. Along the river in Kyoto were stall after stall of food, drinks and games. The place was heaving. There was a stage featuring local bands and traditional music, and in the river itself some men demonstrated traditional cloth dying by hauling in long stretches of patterns cloth and then throwing it out into the river in sweeping arcs. It was really fun to walk through and it went on for miles! Though towards the end it seemed as if most of the food and drinks stall owners had given up on serving paying customers and were consuming their goods themselves! 

Sunday 7th August - Kiyomizu shrine and Nijo temple. We didn't intend to go to this temple. We were heading to a pottery fair but when we got off the bus there seemed to be loads of people heading in one direction so we thought we'd follow them and see what was going on. This led us through a street lined with pottery shops to Kiyomizu Shrine. This wasn't on our to-see list, but we're glad we found it. It is a pretty temple and as it is up on a hill there were views across the city.

Afterwards we went to Nijo temple. This temple has a special feature - nightingale floorboards. These floorboards squeak, or 'sing' when stepped on so that no ninjas can sneak in and kill the emperor. Unfortunately it was too busy for us to test this out and see if we could sneak along a corridor without setting off the boards. Outside of the temple is a lovely garden with a pretty pond. 

We returned at night because part of the Tanabata celebrations were happening here. They were projecting all kinds of abstract images into the temple itself, and in the grounds they'd set up a little fair with a few stalls selling various knickknacks. When we came out we stumbled upon another installation set up for the festival. Along an artificial canal running down the middle of the road they had set up several different light installations. It looked really good but we only got a peek before it shut for the night.

Monday 8th August - Imperial Palace and Geisha experience. Tours of the Palace have to be booked in advance so turned up for our pre-booked tour in the morning. The Palace grounds are huge and the Palace itself spans several buildings. In order to preserve them, visitors are not allowed inside. we were going to wander around the grounds of the Palace afterwards, but there didn't seem a lot to see. As big as they are, they just consisted of great swathes gravel with chunks of woodland dotted about. 

In the afternoon we played dress-up! We went to a specialist shop and got dolled up - Chris as a Samurai and Lindsay as a Geisha. This was brilliant fun! Lindsay was fully kitted out in a kimono, with a massive wig and full make-up. Chris was in traditional Samurai robes and, for some reason, had been padded out to give him a bit of a belly! They took some professional photos of us and then left us to our own devices. So we took the opportunity to strike some poses with various props. At the end one of the staff asked if she could take our photos in front of the shop for their website, to which we agreed. Afterwards she took some photos for us in our camera, which was good as we would have had to pay extra to go outside in the outfits!

In the evening we went back to the canal so we could see the light walk properly. It was very pleasant. Down the canal itself they floated little glowing blue balls. At one point the canal was lined with trees decorated with tinsel. At the end was a tunnel of little starry lights, representing the Milky Way. It was very pretty. At the end we got to drop a glowing ball each into the stream.

Tuesday 9th August - Nara. We had no plans to visit this city but it was recommended to us by the Chinese guy we met in Fukuoka. It turned out to be a lovely day trip. There are loads of shrines and parkland and cute shopping streets. In the parks there are deer roaming around and little old ladies selling packs of wafers to feed them with. Lindsay had a go at this but got mobbed by greedy deer! They butted her with their horns and nipped at her t-shirt! Chris had a more enjoyable time when he did it as we'd moved away from the entrance a bit to the lazier deer who couldn't be bothered to walk all the way down there.

We had a nice time at the tourist information centre. The old guards there seemed keen to talk to us and tell us all about the earthquake-related displays they had. When they found out Chris was an engineer they got very excited and started digging out all kinds of brochures about the company that manufacture tremor-dampening foundations for buildings. They also had a chair that simulated sitting through an earthquake, which was weird to experience. At a flick of a switch they simulate the same tremors but experienced in an earthquake-proof building. The difference was astonishing. Instead of getting shaken abruptly from side to side, you felt more like you were gently swaying on a rocking boat.