Day 9: Kyoto

Easy day today. Walked less than 10 miles.
We decided to try a "hamburger" place we had seen from the bus previously called The Surprised Donkey. Red flag #1. The Japanese word for hamburger and hamburg are the same, which Daniel had neglected to mention previously. Red flag #2. What we ended up eating was called Hamburg steak. It was basically a hamburger with no bun in elongated form looking kind of like Salisbury steak, served with hot potato salad and flavorless, nugget-type fried things. Daniel ordered his with a side of fried chicken. Not surprisingly, it was the worst meal we've had this entire trip.
Post-meat coma, we went to Kinkakuji, a golden temple (literally gold. It's a 3 story building and the top 2 floors are gold lacquered) and walked around the grounds for a bit. Very pretty, but then it's shiny and gold so of course I think it's pretty.  After Kinkakuji we visited another shrine (side note: how many shrines does one city need?!) called Ryoan-ji. It's famous for it's dry garden. Rocks in islands surrounded by white gravel. It's a zen garden and oddly pretty.
We came back to the hotel before dark for possibly the first time all trip. There was much cleaning up done it was decided that we should try the Kyoto nightlife. Oh my God y'all, we found shopping and a dessert place that sold parfaits and waffles and pancakes with fruit and whip cream and ice cream and ooooh it was tasty. Then we decided to try out a bar. They were lots to choose from, so we kind of followed the crowd until we found one that we liked. It was an Irish pub. Only yours truly would go to Japan and have drinks at an Irish pub. On the plus side, it was the second best Guinness I've ever had. The bartender even had a certificate (displayed in the bathroom) from Guinness declaring him a Best Pour Winner of 2013. So our night was going really well, and then they got amazingly better. You know those jokes that say a rabbi, a priest, etc. walk into a bar? Well mine starts like this: So I was at an Irish pub in the middle of Kyoto when a geisha walks into the bar. Hand on a Bible serious here. A-maaaaa-zing. We hunng out, stared at the geisha for little while, had a couple drinks, then toddled home and went to sleep. Good night.

Love,

Leah Murphy, pub-loving explorer