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A very long day today. Up at 6.15, breakfast and then Japanese immigration. I joined the queue that went from Carmens past Champions, Medina, Masquerades to the shops. When it eventually started to move, it went quite fast. I sat in the theatre waiting for my tour to be called and the line went all the way to the stage!
The excursion left at about 8.15. I went to Kyoto. The drive was about an hour. There was no discernible difference between Osaka and Kyoto, they simply merged into each other. In Kyoto I visited three completely different temples. The first was a Shinto shrine, the Fushimi Imari Taisha shrine. There are over 1000 red gates at the shrine and it is guarded by foxes. The second temple I visited was a Buddhist temple, the Ginkakuji Temple. This had small stones raked into patterns and mounds. There was also a lot of water about in lakes and streams.
Then it was a typical Japanese lunch. Lots of raw fish, sushi, rice and tempura. Amazingly, I enjoyed it, despite not being a lover of fish or sushi. The final temple was the Kiyomuzi Temple. The Temple of Pure Waters. There is a huge temple building, completely built without metal. The waters here are supposed to add 10 years onto your life for every cup you drink. After that it was a drive back to the ship, on the way we drove through downtown Osaka.
Back on the dock, I went to the information centre for the slow wifi. It took ages, but I was finally able to upload all my blogs since Sydney and send/receive emails. Three of the ladies from my old dining table (Gill, Jane and Margaret) and John, also from the table, who was on the trip with me, and I had decided that we would eat in Cafe Bordeaux, which we did. It was a better meal than my last visit. The weather had been sunny and the Ferris wheel was lit up red, which apparently means tomorrow will be too. Whilst we were eating the captain came in and said that Shanghai is currently 24, so fingers crossed for our visit.
Finally, a local drumming group, the Shien Drumming Group were performing in the theatre. We watched them before I went to bed. I was in bed before we set sail.
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