kyōto : part two.

I loved Kyoto. I think it is very true when people say it shows a different facet of the spirit of Japanese culture. That being said, the one thing that really marred our time there was the weather. As I have mentioned a number of times not, the heat and humidity can become quite overwhelming, in addition to which, each day we were there we had storms in the afternoon. Nonetheless, we did the best we could do get out and about! On Saturday we ventured out to Fushimi Inari, an amazing shrine within which are hundreds of shrines lining paths.

Following this, we made a valiant, yet unfortunately futile attempt to make it back to our hotel before the storm hit. Our failure was not helped by our taking a wrong turn and ending up straggling through the backstreets of Kyoto. In the evening we explored a little of Kyoto by night, catching glimpses of preparations for Gion Matsuri. We played make-believe as rockstars at karaoke and headed back.

The next day, the weather looked perhaps even more threatening, but Rebecca was determined to make it to the Arashiyama bamboo groves. It rained on us a number of times, but our spirits could not be quenched. 

Directions to the groves were seemingly non-existent, so it took us a good hour or so to simply find it. Upon our discovery, Bec was excited enough to strike a celebratory pose. The bamboo groves were worth the extensive search, they were beautiful.

Seeking relief from the heat, we headed to a cafe. I'm sure these cafes have a special name (I forget), but pretty much everything they serve is related to matcha (green tea). I played it safe with tea, and this matcha sweet that kind of tastes like green tea turkish delight, but Bec decided to go for the parfait, which upon examination ended up being everything on the menu arranged into a large cup. Don't be fooled by her excited expression, early into eating she remembered that she does not, in fact, like green tea flavoured foods. 

In the afternoon, we headed back to the district in which our hotel was, only to find the streets had been closed for cars and overtaken by people, some dressed traditionally, some not so traditionally. 

Our last stop for Kyoto was dropping into a department store to ogle at the $100 rockmelons. This is one phenomenon of Japan I still do not understand.