Day 7: Kyoto

Lesson 1: Flats are the worst shoes ever for walking around. Even worse than my sandals. So yeah, lots of walking done in inappropriate shoes today. My. Feet. Still. Hurt. On the plus side, the 11.15 miles we did walk were gorgeous. First stop today was the Yasaka shrine in the Gion area of Kyoto. The shrine and associated buildings were red, which was cool, but not the most impressive shrine we saw today (foreshadowing... dun dun Dun!). Gion is the geisha district and still has maiko (geisha in training) and geiko (Kyoto word for geisha) that perform at the tea houses all around the area. Daniel and I walked around Gion and actually saw a maiko! Apparently, daytime sightings are rare. We were exploring the back streets of the tea house area and I was so surprised I forgot to snap a pic. I did get a pic of some girls in kimonos (you can rent them and walk around the area wearing them) posing with a woman in full geisha make-up, but I'm not sure if she was a real geisha or just doing a photo shoot. Whatever, we saw a maiko. The rest is irrelevant.
In case you were wondering, Shrine 2, the Kodaiji Temple, was The Most Impressive Shrine of the Day. With all the shrines we've seen, I should start a contest or something. Anyway, the Kodaiji Temple's story is that a Bhuddist noble woman named Nene had it built for her dead husband, and then became a Bhuddist nun. The husband, and later Nene, were entombed in the Temple complex and one of the surviving buildings is their mausoleum. The Temple is famous for it's laquer work. It's very pretty. Even after 407 years, the maki-e gold paintings still look vibrant.
Shrine 3 was the apparently world famous Kiyomizudera Temple, where a pure spring comes out of the mountain and it's good luck to drink from it. It must've been Student Day or something crazy, because I counted no fewer than 14 different school groups there at 4 pm! What crazy hours do students keep here?! Due to ridiculous crowds and the aforementioned pained feet, we decided against waiting in line for the water. We'll have to make our own luck, I suppose.
The rest of our day was spent souvenir hunting in the Gion shops, replacing missing camera bits (Daniel) and hand-washing various pieces of wardrobe that had become scarce. I will never take a washing machine or dryer for granted ever again.

Love,

Leah Murphy, poorly-shod explorer