Rain and sake: My non-temple time in Kyoto

Kyoto was a good, but odd time.

We got in much later than anticipated, since we stuck around in Hiroshima to avoid the rain. It was raining so much when we got in that we took a taxi one block to the hotel to avoid getting soaked. The taxi driver was not very happy and kept pointing to the corner.

The hotel was decent, and they had turndown (aka put together your futon) service.

We were supposed to meet Jen, who was part of our Phila-Nipponica group and also staying in Kyoto. She was supposed to come to our hotel at 7pm, so we waited around.

The pounding rain made it difficult for her to get a cab, so she never made it. K and I went to Kyoto station to hang out. Now before you think we are losers for hanging out at a train station, you have to understand that Kyoto Station is amazing. There are many floors of shopping and dining, public art displays and a large, open space that is just unlike any train station you have been in.

The images on the stairs move and change

Though with all those dining options, nothing struck our fancy. We wanted to sit around and eat and drink, so we headed to familiar territory.

Every meal should begin this way 

As we were leaving the building I jumped into a photo a bunch of kids were taking. They all laughed and squeezed me in, shouting "gaijin bomb!"

It was a great meal, but we got so soaked during the short walk back I couldn't bear the thought of going for a soak in the onsen, all I wanted to do was dry off!

The next day the rain had stopped and we had intended to move to a Zen Buddhist temple for the night. We visited this temple on our last trip for a meditation class and it was very inspiring. The priest there is the first in Japan to declare he will perform same sex unions. We were looking forward to revisiting the temple and the meditation class.

After we checked out and lugged our stuff to the train station. There were hundreds of people around and we were told that due to the weather several train lines weren't running with no anticipated time for the service to resume.  There were also some related bus problems, with looooong lines to board. It made us nervous about getting back to the train station in the morning for our train to Tokyo and K's flight back to the States.

We spoke to the temple office who understood the situation and we managed to find one of the few available rooms left that weren't too far from the train station. Our room was enormous! It was about 13 tatami mats!

We spent the rest of the day riding buses and visiting temples (see previous post)

And finally packed our bags and headed out for one last dinner.

You know the meal will be good if this is how it begins...

I figured out their touchscreen ordering system

Even though it was all in Japanese 

So we had plenty of food and drink 

It's hard to see, but the boxes are completely filled to the top. The waiter jokingly said to "tell me when" and I replied there was no when and to keep going, so he did!

While watching a weird Japanese TV show with pillow dodge ball (the blankets could block) 

Overall it was a good time, and we certainly had a lot of good food and drink. I enjoy Kyoto. It's just under Hiroshima on the list of my favorite Japanese cities.