May 9, 2017
Kyoto Day One: Some temples and housekeeping
We had a pretty good sleep last despite being seven hours ahead of South Africa. In bed by nine and awake at five by which stage it was already light.
Soon after seven o'clock we were on our bicycles cycling up to Kinkaku-ji, literally "Temple of the Golden Pavilion", about ten kilometers north of the guesthouse. We had intended to go to Ryōan-ji first (because it opens half an earlier) but I selected the wrong destination on my Navigator app so we ended up having half an hour to spare before Kinkaku-ji opened. We used this to pop into a Lawson's (one of the chains of convenience stores, also called konbini in Japanese) to pick up some onigiri (white rice formed into triangle with various fillings and wrapped in nori) for breakfast. I have a feeling that standard breakfast fare for the next few weeks will be a few onogiri each.
A substantial queue, including many Japanese school children, had formed by the time the gates into Kinkaku-ji had opened so I was expecting it to be too busy to be very pleasant but the tranquil atmosphere of the gardens surrounding the gold-leaf coated temple made the crowds far less noticeable. In fact the atmosphere was far more impressive than the temple itself.
After that it was a quick two kilometer ride to Ryōan-ji famous for it rock garden. This also had a lovely calmness to it despite the many tourists. Most of the visitors appear to be Japanese and it is lovely to see these temples being places that the locals want to visit.
Along with the site-seeing, we also kept our binoculars close by and picked up two lifers - Japanese Wagtail and Brown-eared Bulbul.
By the time we got back to the guesthouse it was already pushing two o'clock and we needed to get some shopping done. We decided to walk down to the shopping malls in the vicinity of the Kyoto JR Station. We got back pretty exhausted but clutching power cables and chargers with Japanese connectors, a gas cylinder for our stove and some supper.
Today's ride: 22 km (14 miles)
Total: 22 km (14 miles)
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