'Twas an easy start to our day, with our tour guide being just outside our hotel door. (Gosh we've been lucky with the the locations of our hotels). There were three buses from the Sunrise Tours leaving on the morning tour of Kyoto that we had booked on. Also on our bus were the lovely Argentinian family from yesterday, who greeted us like old friends. We also got to talking to a lovely young couple from Perth who are on their honeymoon, having married on February 29. The bride had had an undercut right up the sides of her head, and then the hair at the top, which was really thick and long, had been dreadlocked and braided. The colour was similar to mine but some dreadlocks were a deep Crimson. It was just stunning. We befriended a lovely couple from central Canada who grow produce (like carrots and potatoes) and sell at stalls in Farmers Markets. Half way through the tour the Canadian lady asked a question we've had many times before but one which we didn't expect to hear again - Tom looks like Robin Williams, and then to me "is he? Is he Robin Williams?" Our first stop on our first bus tour in Japan was the Nijo Castle, built for a shogun in 1626. We had to take our shoes off for this one, and they asked to wipe the bottom of my walking stick to ensure its cleanliness. We had an extensive tour through the building, as well as viewing a beautiful garden with an ornamental lake. The floors are built in such a way that you cannot walk on them without them squeaking, so no-one could sneak up on the shogun, not even a ninja! They had no furniture, as they slept, sat and relaxed on the tatami mats, but the rooms were decorated with beautiful paintings on their screens. The second stop was the Kinkaku-Ji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion. The wooden temple is covered in 20kg of gold leaf, and it's situated in the middle of a beautiful ornamental lake, surrounded by ornate gardens (including a 600 year old pine) and at the base of the mountains. It was really really beautiful. Our final stop on this tour was the beautiful Kyoto Imperial Palace. This was the palace for their Royal family until 1868 when the capital of Japan was relocated to Tokyo. Kyoto had been the capital for over a thousand years. We were not allowed on the inside of this palace, only touring the gardens, admiring the beautiful buildings and ornamental lakes. At the conclusion of our tour, to ensure the hotel staff had indeed finished cleaning our room, we took ourselves to the okonomiyaki restaurant for lunch, and I was very adventurous and ordered a sparkling sake, which was soooooo good!! Trivialities: I like the way the "walk" signal makes bird noises instead of the noise we have You don't hand money to a cashier, you put it in a tray. When we paid by card at lunch time, she turned the tray over .....