Kyoto has been a mind blowing city for me. It is a little less polite and a little more hectic than Tokyo (which I never would have guessed) but I love it. In Ireland you see thousand year old castles every half hour as you just drive down the road. Here you see thousand year old shrines and temples every fifty feet as you walk to the bus. It's insane! Kudos to the city for preserving it all. Unfortunately, I finally understand what the guidebooks meant when they talked about "temple fatigue". While each and every one is unique and ornate in its own way, they all start to blur together when seen one after the other. There is one glaring exception though: the Golden Pavilion. It has a much more fancy sounding name in Japanese but I can't even remember how to say something as simple as "thank you" more than fifty percent of the time, so let's not go crazy here. We set out into the cold and rain this morning ready to see something spectacular, and we were not disappointed. The best way to the Pavilion was by bus, and I was definitely apprehensive about using the system. Trying to figure out the when, where, how much and how to do it of bus travel in any country makes my brain sweat. Trying to figure it out in Japan where everything is covered in squiggly lines instead of letters makes my brain jump off a cranial cliff and splatter into tiny pieces. Fortunately, Google saved the day yet again. It was actually surprisingly simple and after using it just once we knew we'd be hopping on and off the buses for the rest of the day. The Pavilion grounds are fairly small, but it wasn't completely overrun by tourists so we were able to walk slowly and really soak it in. The compound was originally just a private residence but was later turned into a Zen temple per the owner's wishes. The main golden building was several hundred years old but a psycho monk burned it down in the 50's and it was then rebuilt. The colors from the temple and surrounding trees create a calmly waving reflection on the water. I honestly could have stayed there for hours, but Brittany was bored after 15 minutes. I'm kind of glad that I'm learning how little this kind of thing interests her now though because I may need to re-think a planned trip to Myanmar... Back on the bus, we watched a light but freezing rain drizzle down on hundreds of people walking from shop to shop. Brittany was the first to notice that all the women in Kimonos were wearing beautiful dresses with perfect hair, curiously complemented by grungy sneakers. I guess the two-toed socks and sandals don't hold up well in the rain! From the bus we got onto the train, and Brittany was again convinced that she never actually needs a ticket. We paid some big bucks for all-access train passes that let you go nearly anywhere at any time. We're supposed to show these passes to a guard at every station who should then meticulously scrutinize them for the date and validity. What actually happens is this: I casually walk past the guard with my pass half out of my pocket. He pretends (for half a second) to have examined it and waves me through. Brittany, standing close behind with her pass in hand, is not even acknowledged. We're both downright convinced that we could have saved a pile of money and just bought some pieces of pink paper to flash at the guard as we walk onto the train :) It was getting near lunch time so we headed for the Nishiki Market, which is known for offering some the full spectrum of Japanese street food, including the fun weird stuff. I was tempted to try an octopus pop but it really didn't even look good. Are you surprised? Haha We did try a few less interesting things here and there and had a lot of fun walking through the stalls and seeing the action. This was one of the first food markets we've visited that didn't make Brittany want to hurl! Ugh, I'm having flashbacks of Colombia. Beautiful country but if you think octopus and squid pops sound gross you do NOT want to go to a rural Colombian street market, where your nose hairs will undoubtedly be burned away in traumatic fashion. Anyhoo...I got a Japanese version of a pig in a blanket, and the little old lady at the stall walks up to me to say "make hot microwave". Believe it or not (in our limited experience) this is actually a lot of English for a Japanese person to know and we were really surprised that it was coming out of this sweet little grandma. We're always surprised by who speaks English and who doesn't; there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. After the market we jumped back onto a bus (and paid the "stupid tourist" tax by buying multiple single-use tickets instead of a much cheaper day-pass) bound for the Kyoto handicraft store. It is a really great idea: local craftsmen make every imaginable souvenir and sell them in one place, all at prices that are lower than anywhere else we'd seen. We spent a couple of hours there, agonizing over tough choices. There is so much we want to bring back and so many people we want to get things for! Unfortunately our packs are super small and we still have a week of trekking left to do. Somehow we still ended up splurging on a beautiful cast iron tea kettle (for all that tea we don't drink) so I now have a 15 pound block of iron at the bottom of my backpack. It is really neat though and I'm sure it will bring back great memories for many years. When we went to check out, the clerks were astoundingly sweet. They put on clean white gloves before handling our pile of kitsch (code for **** that seems like a great idea when you buy it), carefully removed the price stickers from each item, and then beautifully and painstakingly wrapped everything for the journey home. Talk about service! Now carrying the equivalent of a box of rocks we walked a block away to another temple. This one was huge! I have no idea what it was or what it was for but it was beautiful and fun to walk through. We saw two more just on our way back to the bus. They are all open to the public and free to visit. I'm telling you, these things are EVERYWHERE! Walking in this town is like going on a treasure hunt where everyone forgot to bury the treasure. I've just never experienced anything like it. A fun treat for Brittany was a "3D latte" on the way. We saw a sign advertising them just outside of a tiny store that looked closed. What in the world is a 3D latte? We zealously knocked on the door and the Owner came out to let us in. It took about 10 minutes for him to make our drinks, but the adorable concoctions were worth the wait! I have no idea how, but he sculpted the foam on the tops of our latte's into tiny animals. I had three cute little rabbit heads with whiskers and all, and Brittany had two tiny bears. They truly were works of art and we felt (somewhat) guilty as we greedily slurped down our shirt-lived creatures. After battling some serious cold to get a load of laundry done (seriously, who puts the washer OUTSIDE?!?) we had to admit defeat at a nearby sushi joint. We walked in and knew about 38 seconds later that we didn't stand a chance. It was just a sushi-go-round so we thought we could handle ordering without an English menu. Wrong! This place was completely packed. Every order appeared to require the use of a computer system so complicated that I can only assume each California role was accompanied by a nuclear launch code. We threw our coats back on, walked two minutes down the road (this is Japan, after all) and got enough Omega 3's to keep the doctor happy for a decade. Well spend our last day in Kyoto at Nara, where Brittany plans to ride a deer. Don't worry, I'll take a picture.