The day started off slower than each previous morning, which was a welcome change of pace. Not leaving the house until after 10am, the weather was already warm enough for us to decide that the jackets simply weren't going to be necessary today.

Our apartment is accessed by a small alleyway filled with merchants. Each merchant looks like they're around 90 years old. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if these merchants had been going to their stalls, and opening them up and selling the same things that they do now, since before the 2nd world war.

The most popular item in our alleyway, is fish. And every day these tireless merchants put out what appears to be the same fish, unrefrigerated, on bamboo mats in the front of their store. Our alley smells funny. We've become used to exiting our apartment's front door, and holding our breath as we walk towards the street level for fresh air. I'm not sure who is shopping in this alleyway, but whoever it is doesn't seem to be buying the fish.

Stopping in at yet another convenience store for breakfast, we refueled for what we knew was going to be a decent day's walking. Initially the crowds were light, as we made our way south past the temples of Shoren-in and Chion-in.
Anyone that has seen the last samurai will be familiar with Chion-in, as it was used in quite a few scenes, including the scene where Tom Cruise and some of the other cast climb the steep staircase to the "Imperial Palace" (which, incidentally, was photoshopped into the scene at the top of the staircase).

For the majority of the day, crowds were very manageable. I expect that the reason for this is that the sakura are still just in the early stages of bloom. Strangely though, while most other cherry blossom trees are just sticks with unopen buds on them, every so often you'll come across a tree that is in full bloom, and like the one we found today, petals already falling from its branches like pink snow when the wind blows.

As has been the case on all previous trips, and particularly in Kyoto, if you're a girl it would seem that the popular thing to do is to either buy or rent a kimono, and spend hours getting yourself dressed up to go and walk around the temples and shrines. I find it hilarious to see the Japanese guys, walking around with their girlfriends who have clearly made great efforts to get themselves dressed up like this. These poor guys, invariably walk around with their girlfriends, wearing the formal male equivalent of a kimono, quite obviously because the girl has forced him to do it. Absolutely none of the guys I’ve seen look like they have any enthusiasm in walking around in the middle of the day in public in an outfit that looks like a cross between a samurai’s casual clothes and a pair of pyjamas. All of the guys I’ve seen in this position are either going to great pains to look cool and disinterested, or alternatively, they genuinely *are* disinterested. If I were them I wouldn’t be too worried though. I actually think these guys look pretty great.

Charlotte still tries to get sneaky photos of the better dressed people though, and is getting more and more brave in taking photos, and actually asking for shots. Today, a big group of girls was wandering through the sites at roughly the same speed as us, and they’d taken a liking to Isabelle with the blonde hair, so Veronica asked them for a photo and they happily obliged, handing me a couple of their phones so I could record their moment with the tourists.

We knew that there was a mini festival happening at one of the main temples on the Eastern side of Kyoto, Kiyomizudera temple. This temple is undoubtedly one of Kyoto’s most popular tourist destinations, and today, from 2pm to 3:30pm the temple hosts Seiryū-e, or the Festival of the Blue Dragon. There is an excellent explanation of the festival here:
https://www.discoverkyoto.com/event-cal endar/march/blue-dragon-festival-kiyomi zudera/

In short, the blue dragon Seiryū is a protector of Kyoto’s Eastern border, so a few times a year this festival is held for the dragon to come out and be paraded around the temple grounds and the streets, to allow it to look upon the people and area that it is charged with protecting.

As with just about Japanese festival, especially during cherry blossom season, this meant crowds. Not unmanageable crowds, but it was massively busy nevertheless.

My gauge for overcrowded attractions in Japan has 2 parts:

• Are we in a queue that is at a standstill?
  
• And, have we been seriously contemplating giving up and going home?
  

If either or both of these questions is "Yes" then there is a good chance that whatever you’re trying to see is overcrowded. Luckily it never quite got to that point today.

We made our way through the crowded streets leading to the Kiyomizudera temple complex, and our timing was perfect. Getting shots around the other temple grounds, by the time we made our way to the ticket entry gates, it was a few minutes to 2pm. We had just enough time to walk through the temple grounds, before the drums and chanting started.

This dragon may be a great pet to have around to protect against evil spirits, but he’s got some noisy friends. We were really well positioned to witness the start of the procession, which starts in the main Kiyomizudera hall, with the sound of massive drums launching the festivities.

Warriors with swords, drummers, procession leaders with really loud conch shells, priests with very loud wooden sticks which they’d bash together, and chanting, in an enclosed wooden echo chamber made for an insanely loud spectacle. The massive drums were so loud and so deep that you could feel every beat in your chest from the deep bass these things were generating.

Only a few rows from the front, on the closest side to the drums, I video’d while Charlotte took photos. To my delight the procession the exited the hall, and turned to come straight towards us, giving me a literal front row position with the video rolling as the whole thing kicked off and the dragon made its way into the crowd waiting outside with its band of noisy supporting crew.

The only downside to the front row seat was that one of the cast who was leading the dragon was walking along flicking holy water at the crowd to “purify” us. I guess I must have been in need of some purification, because she looked me up and down, before dipping her stick in the water and flicking it all over my face, my shirt, and my ******n camera. Thanks lady.

With the dragon performing laps around the temple grounds we moved outside to a quieter position to plan our exit from the temple, only to have the damn dragon and all of the noise follow us to our position and snake past again. Hordes of people were following the dragon, but by this stage, we just kind of hoping it would just go away before we got a headache. Fortunately, the noisy monks parted ways with the dragon and returned past us to go back into the hall.

Again, simply out of luck I ended up with a front row position for the procession to pass. Again, along came the lady with her jug of water and FLICKED IT AT ME AGAIN. Surely I’m not that impure?!

Dear water lady: That Isn’t Funny.

All I had in my pocket was a half empty bottle of grape juice, so I wouldn’t feel right about retaliation. Her clothes were nicer than mine.

We made our way down the stairs, past the water fountains producing the clear water that gives the temple its name (Kiyo = Clear, Mizu = Water). There is a queue that you can get stand in to allow you to drink from this water, but considering I’d already had enough of it thrown at me today, I decided that we were good on the sin-absolution scale, so we headed for the exit.

Until we found the damn dragon again. At the front of the temple this time, cutting its way through the crowd, and heading for the streets in front of the temple (exactly where we wanted to go to get out of there). So we too an adjacent, much less crowded street and ended up off the mountain and back at street level.

Another kilometre walk put us back to the subway station 3 or 4 stops from our hotel, so we caught the subway North, intent on visiting one of our favourite restaurants in Japan, Coco Curry. With literally thousands of different order combinations to choose from, and the best tasting curry I’ve ever had, this place is somewhere you could visit every week if you lived in Japan.

I’ve got a little tradition on the Japanese trips. Coco Curry has spice levels, with 3 being “Regular”, which is approximately as spicy as the “hot” Japanese packet curry from the supermarket, right up to level 10, which is really quite spicy. My tradition is, the first Coco Curry order of the trip has to be level 10.

I say it every time, but yep, I’m an idiot. It’s hot. ******n it is hot, but so good. I do really enjoy ordering a 10, because the staff invariably think you are making a mistake. The guy taking my order checked that I actually said “10” by saying it in Japanese, then in English, then by holding up 10 fingers with questioning look on his face, then saying “Careful” while fanning his mouth with a pained look on his face. Then he checked with Veronica to make sure I was serious.

Yes I’m serious. Bring me the 10 for crying out loud.

It was hot, but honestly not as hot as I remember it being. I know my spice tolerance has risen in recent times, but I recall the level 10 being hotter last time. This time I wasn’t sweating too much, and I only sat at the table crying for a shorter period of time than usual.

Since it was only 5pm by the time we were done with dinner, with time to kill we ventured across the road into the Teramachi and Shin Kyogoku Shopping Arcades. Not much has changed in these huge undercover shopping streets, as we wandered through checking out the shops, picking up small souvenirs and other necessities.

One such “necessity” was a “cheese tart” which had a decently long queue at it, enough to make me want to try it. You can read about these tarts here: http://bakecheesetart.com/STORY/index_e n.html

Easily the weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten, ever, in my life. My brain still isn’t sure whether I liked it or not. It was just…weird. Salty, yet sweet. Crispy base, and impossibly light filling. Smelled like toasted cheddar cheese, but tasted like light fluffy egg and cream mixture. If this all sounds a bit bizarre, that’s because it was.

So with that confusion topping off a varied and interesting day, we stopped past the convenience store to pick up tomorrow’s breakfast stuffs, and headed for home.

Tomorrow, we have the cherry blossom boat cruise at 7pm, which is already booked and paid for. I’m not expecting much from it since the cherry blossoms aren’t in full bloom, but no big deal. It will still be nice. Other than that, we’re really not sure. Maybe Arashiyama. Let’s see if I can find the monkey that attacked me last time (see the previous blog) so that I can even the score.