• Tea time

    May 22 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Today we rolled out of bed and headed to something we've had booked for quite a while now: A Japanese tea ceremony!

    When we arrived we were immediately sent a block away to get fitted for kimonos. This in itself was an interesting experience, how many layers does one need? Lots! And to be held together with lots of string too it seems.

    Once we donned them we walked back to the tea house (in our wooden clogs) and went upstairs to where our hostess greeted us. The building was lovely and the surrounding grounds were all carefully manicured, as it was a heritage site. Once everyone arrived she got started and explained the origins of the tea ceremony and performed a demonstration. It was very amusing seeing her go between a very bubbly and happy personality to serious and quiet whenever she was showing us the various aspects. We then got to prepare and drink our own ceremonial matcha. Where Bec was tited "Grand Tea Master" for how well she was able to mix her tea! Phill received a participation award. The tea was actually quite tasty and we were given some sweets to have with it.

    Once the ceremony has concluded, we left the tea house and while we technically were allowed to wear our kimonos around Kyoto for the entire day... It was much too warm for that so we immediately switched back to our normal clothes.

    Afterwards we still had plenty of time left in the day so we took a bus to Kinkaku-ji, a buddhist temple known for being completely gold plated on its second floor. It was originally converted to a zen temple in 1397 by a shogun. The original building was standing until 1950 when it was burnt down by a schizophrenic monk... The area was beautiful, like all of the Buddhist temples we've been to so far, and the pavilion was beautiful in its golden glory (all 20kg of gold leaf.)

    Once we were done, Phill spotted a katsu restaurant that we HAD to go to. We even waited in line, albeit briefly, which marks the first time in the trip we've decided to wait for food! The meals were great so it was well worth the wait!

    Afterwards we took the bus back to the accommodation and had a recharge and plan for what we wanted to do for the rest of the afternoon.

    We decided to trek back to a temple we've walked through a few times in the Gion district to fill in our little Goshuin book (which is a small book used to collect stamps in some temples in Japan.)

    Once we had finished walking and exploring some new areas, we grabbed some food from 7/11 and went back to our room to enjoy our Ryokan before checkout tomorrow. After eating we realised now was probably the best time to spend the evening doing some washing. So we did that too.

    Step count: 17k
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