Kyoto

After breakfast at a nearby cafe, we went to a Tea Ceremony, dressing up in kimonos and drinking matcha tea with a couple of sweets to take away the bitter taste.
I walked across the river to the Gion district which had lots of old houses converted into restaurants and shops where one might hope to see geisha girls but none were to be seen. The roads were also private with guards directing the traffic. Photos weren't permitted.
I continued through the Kennin-ji Zen Buddhist temple, the oldest in Kyoto., and then up a pedestrianised uphill road with lots of tourists, many in kimonos. I passed a few shrines and the five-storied Yasaka pagoda on the way to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple with a great view over the city. I walked down Goya-dori which had a number of kimono hire shops, crossed the river, and had a vegetable noodle soup and a beer for lunch whilst planning the afternoon's walk.
This may have been the cafe where someone was making a terrible noise performing the Japanese. slurp. Perhaps there should a competition on TV. Fortunately, I was given a spoon whenever having soup, but you wonder why chopsticks are still preferred to knives and forks generally.Læs mere