We started at the Kyoto Railroad Museum. It was very interesting. The very 1st Shinkansen (bullet train) from 1964, is there. Isn't it great they let me drive it. 😁 Tom loves trains but really it was very interesting. I think we could have spent the whole day here.
Next a bus ride north to visit the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest. It was very crowded.
Next we visited the Golden Pavilion or Kinkakuji, a Zen temple in Kyoto. Originally the retirement villa of the shogun Ashikago Yoshimitsu. It became a temple after his death in 1408. The grounds are beautiful.
On to the tea ceremony. It was hosted at Ryozen Kannon which is a war memorial. The tour guides didn't tell us about this temple but I saw the sign and was intrigued. I looked it up and statue is of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvar (Kannon), "the lord who looks down". The names of 2 million Japanese who died in WWII reside here, and they hold memorial services.
The tea ceremony is a friendly thing. You could sit on the floor or on a chair. It's green tea of which I'm not a big fan (give me black tea any day). You eat a sweet rice cracker then you drink the tea. After the original tea ceremony they wanted a volunteer to make tea. So I volunteered. Then I had to serve it to somebody. My friend Connie was right in front of me. Lucky Connie got a second cup of weed water.
We visited Gion, the area of Kyoto where the geisha (aka Maiko & Geiko) study. Tom & I did get to see a geisha but there are not many of them. No, they are not prostitutes, it's an involved history.
The bus took everybody back to the hotel but Tom and I stayed downtown. We found a Hard Rock and wanted to get a pin. Then we had dinner; ramen, gyoza and a giant beer then walked back to our hotel. It was our wedding anniversary.
Along the way we visited the Nidec Kyoto Tower. In 1964 the Tokaido Shinkansen opened, the Tokyo Olympics were held and the Kyoto Tower was complete! The tower is the tallest structure in Kyoto. It is 131 meters (430') tall, the observation deck is at 100 meters (328').
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