Our last "full"day in Japan. We fly out tomorrow night at 9:50pm. This will probably also be the last blog entry I write for this trip while on Japanese soil. I'm guessing that my next entry will be written on the plane tomorrow night. We started out the day early by heading to the Toji Temple markets (http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php? cID=374&pID=792). All of the reviews of the market say to get there early, so we decided to get there a little after 7am when it opened. We caught the subway to the Kyoto station, and found our way to the South exit. The Toji temple grounds were then about a 15 minute walk to the South West. We got there at about 7:30am, and the markets were already in full swing. The weather was already hot and very humid. The weather seemed to return to the hot humid temperatures we had a month ago. There was some cloud cover when we got there, but it didn't look too threatening. We took an initial leisurely stroll through the markets. To be honest, the markets were not as impressive as I expected from all of the reviews. I would say that at least 50% of the stalls that I saw were some kind of produce, be it vegetables and fruit, or some kind of very smelly seafood. There were also many stalls selling wood carvings and a lot of buddah statues (unsurprisingly). The stalls that I expected to see everywhere, such as kimono sales, geisha dolls and other tourist targeted items, were actually quite rare. We did find a few such stalls though, and ended up with 3 kimonos for around $50, including a brand new one for Charlotte. We walked around the rest of the markets, mainly looking for ornamental geisha dolls which Veronica would have loved to have bought, but to no avail. The skies started to look a little bit more threatening, almost like we may get some light rain. Due to the lack of crowds we had just about covered all stalls in the market, when we walked through the gateway to the final sector of the temple grounds, and to the last few stalls. As we walked through the gate, a light sprinkling of rain started to fall. As Veronica didn't want to see the last few stalls and this section of the temple grounds, she stayed with Charlotte and Angela under the shelter of the temple gates, and I walked around to take a few photos. Absorbed in taking photos, I didn't notice everyone scrambling for cover. In the space of less than a minute the weather went from no rain, to a light sprinkling, to rain, to heavy rain, to a downpour, to a monsoonal dumping of water the likes of which I haven't seen too many times in my life. My umbrella was useless, as the water was not only falling down, but also coming up a foot off the ground as it was coming down that hard, so I made my way to the nearest tent I could find. The tent I had picked, unfortunately, was the worshiping tent. Behind me stood a young monk with a very, very loud bell which he insisted on ringing every 5 minutes or so by hitting it with a very solid stick. Also in this tent, much to my delight was an incence urn, and in typical Japanese fashion there was no wind. None. So my noisy monk filled tent was also billowing with incence smoke. Due to the incence smoke there would have been no evil spirits in the tent, but unfortunately there was also no fresh air. My monk filled and smoke filled tent was also periodically filled with worshippers. Hardcore worshippers brandishing very dangerous pointy tipped umbrellas would occasionally make a mad dash through the downpour toward the tent. There were a few instances were I was sure I was going to be impaled on the shiny spike of an umbrella tip. Once the mad dashing worshippers got to my tent, they would light more damn incense, and tip water on the buddah statue at the back of the tent, which caused my monk to chant and ring his noisy bell again. After 45 minutes of this cycle I felt like I was going a little crazy. Then again it may have just been the smoke. Another monk with a straw broom was trying in vain to sweep the water away from the gateway that Veronica and the girls were standing in. Also, a security guard in gumboots waded into the now flooded area surrounding my tent in an attempt to locate and clear the drain. After 10 minutes of simply pushing water and gravel around, he gave up. Eventually, Veronica signaled that she was prepared to brave the rain, which had now eased to a moderate to heavy downpour. I was so sick of the smoke, the noisy monk and the umbrella jousting worshipers that I wholeheartedly agreed. With a smile and a wave I bid farewell to my noisy monk friend and the other fellow dwellers of my smokey tent and set out into the rain. We decided that there was little left to look at, and even if we wanted to, all of the stalls were now covered in plastic in a futile attempt to keep the rain out. We picked our way through the market pathways, attempting to find ground which was not six inches under water, with mixed success. As we got outside, we decided that a 15 to 20 minute walk back to the train station in the rain was a stupid idea, and we got into one of the waiting taxis. $6.50 well spent. As it was only 9am, we decided that we would return to the Kyoto shopping district to spend the rest of our money, to save us from carting it home, and having to change it over (only to take another battering at the hands of the pitiful Australian $ exchange rate. At Kyoto station, we had to decide whether we would catch a subway or a bus to the shopping distict. For a little bit of fun and something different we opted for the bus. The bus driver assured us that his bus would be going to the Teramachi shopping distict. We sat on the bus as it first headed West, then North, completely avoiding the area we needed to go. As we got to the outskirts of Kyoto we began to get concerned. When the bus driver announced that the next stop was Ginkakujui Temple, we were more than concerned, as that temple is at least 10 to 15 minutes drive from the shopping district. As the bus arrived back at the bus depot, we were the only ones still aboard. It was comforting to have the bus driver laugh at us when we told him again where we wanted to go. He was nice enough to not charge us though. We eventually got onto the correct bus, and found our way to the shops. Veronica found another 100 yen shop. I'm reasonably certain nobody in the history if 100 yen shops had ever bought as many items as we have in one visit. We bought a few more childrens kimonos, and then after lunch I went back to my favourite shoe store, ABC Mart, for another pair of Nike Air runners. I thought I might as well take advantage of it, as they are $90 here, or $200+ in Australia. The last thing we had to buy for the day was an extra bag to take all of our additional purchases home in. Reaching into the money belt, I pulled out my last $50 to pay for the bag. Aside from the coins in our coin pouch we were now officially broke, and there was still 3 meals and a shopping trip for supplies for a 10 hour flight still to come. I was willing to give it a go, but Veronica convinced me to get another $100 out of the ATM at the post office, as she thought an entire day without eating before a 10 hour flight wasn't a great idea. Dinner again, for the final time, at the 24hr vending machine restaurant next door to the hotel, and then home to pack. Not a lot of fun, but fortunately Veronica did most of it. So we have a late check-out in the morning, 11am, then we have an entire day to kill tomorrow, before boarding the shinkansen to Kansai airport, ready for departure at 9:50pm tomorrow. Not looking forward to a 10 hour flight.