The Great Kyoto Protocol, Starring Claire G and Tony B

THEN we went to Kyoto on Monday. I was late getting going, as is my wont, but we got there before noon, and headed directly for the temple. It was actually a bit of a temple complex, rather than a temple per se. We followed the guidebook directions to walk up a hill for ten minutes but after only a minute we saw the temple. How strange, we thought, and were about to enter when Claire suggested that we walk further up the hill because maybe that wasn't the temple. Maybe that was just someone's house. And it was. And we did. And there we were, walking up the hill, taking side-paths and running into German tourists who took good pictures of us, and Japanese tourists who took bad pictures of us. Who knew? They're both supposed to be good at photography. I think Claire was getting a little annoyed by my need to document everything in photos. I got that feeling when she threatened to kill me if I took another picture, and then started making jokes, saying I should ask the same Japanese girl to take our picture again moments after she had just done so. But she'll be glad I got them later on, especially since my camera has better resolution than hers. Heh heh. (But hers is lighter and smaller.)





We walked through a sort of village of shops on the mountain-side, very picturesque (and I've got the pictures to prove it!) with narrow uphill streets, terraced to accomodate the mountain slope. Many of them offered pickled delights, and many of those offered free taste tests. This is common in Japan. Claire started strong with the samples, but eventually the pickles won. She was bested by Japanese pickles; there were just too many. And there was also an omiyage shop with sweets on sample - usually there are many more such sweet shops as I recall from Veronica's mochi-sampling predilictions - but there was just one this time. An old man was sitting behind the counter offering cinnamon cookie shards and a bowl of mochi (a sweet rice flour pastry). As soon as he saw us he pulled away the bowl of mochi so that we couldn't have any! So later when we were coming back down the mountain I made a point of asking him directly for a mochi sample, and then took two. Ha!

At the temple we drank blessed water that has now imbued us both with eternal life. Also, Claire had a sesame ice cream cone that tasted like tahini.

Due to the size of the tahini cone, Claire wasn't that hungry for lunch. But we ate it anyway, of course. This was back down the mountain in a nice, second-floor woody atmospheric restaurant. I got some bowl of noodles and Claire got some bowl of noodles. But while my bowl had soup, Claire's was a bowl of snot. Don't worry Claire! Not all Japanese food is gelatinous!

Later we wandered through the old imperial palace grounds, but the palace was closed to the public. It was mainly dead grass and giant gravel promenades, and was about as exciting as sanding wood. LUCKILY we then decided to go to Karaoke, where I proceeded to make an off-key fool of myself and Claire proceeded to complain that her voice wasn't doing what she wanted it to even while singing like the freaking Vienna boys choir. She sings good. As Nick would say.

Check out the bizarre lyrics... apparently they're wrong. Claire likes to sing the Claire song to herself a lot.





Today morning's breakfast: Spidey-grip on pumpkin-bean-yam granola.


We got home late and took a cab from the station (thanks Claire!) and then Claire did her email and now she's in TOKYO!!!! I look forward to seeing you in Osaka on Saturday!! Or was it Sunday?!