Today there was an organised coach tour to Kyoto which was a bit over an hour from Osaka.
Our first stop there was the Kinkaku-ji temple with the golden pavillion set on the shore of an artificial pond. The scenery was stunning and it was also idyllic as Dan suggested. Very relaxing to just look at it.
There were other attractive buildings in this complex as well and a natural pond further up the hill that feeds the one with the pavilion.
The next was Kyoto Castle, which, like Oska Castle was protected by a moat and walls.
This did not have the tower like Osaka, since it had not been rebuilt after being burnt down but there were more residential and administrative buildings. Most of the rooms were bare of furniture with rush matting on the floor and paint scenes on the walls, Furniture was hidden away and bought out when required so rooms could be used for work, eating and sleeping. No photography was allowed inside.
Lunch was at a local restaurant which featured in one of the presentations by the Japanese chairman. (I was in the other session).
We had a Bowl of sushami, which I ate first. I then picked up was I thought was tofu but was in fact part of an omelette. When I bit it, it broke in to parts but fortunately they all landed in the bowl. I picked up a piece and after putting it my moth, quickly discovered it had landed on the wasabi and all of that was stuck to the back. Boy is that stuff hot.
After lunch we visited Heian-jingu shrine, which was modelled on the imperial palace
Our final stop was Kiyomizu-dera Temple which is build on the side of a hill. There was a long walk up a very crowded street from the bus parking area with handicraft and food shops.
The temple complex has a shrine for "good luck in finding a partner" which a lot of young couples visit.
We headed down the hill to the bus and after a head camp realised one of our party was missing. After waiting some time, some people went looking for him. Eventually he was found, he'd gone down the wrong street and missed the bus. Then we had to wait for the other searcher to turn up. IN all about 45 minutes later than we planned to leave.
There is a tradition we are trying to establish, where we have an "unofficial" party on the last night. This mimics the "Helsinki" wind up at the International Board meeting and I have been pushing for it to be the "Bali party" since it was first run there. With no space in the hotel some 30 of us headed to a restaurant which included a set multi course meal plus unlimited drinks for about $31. I started on Whisky and cokes, a bit too weak for a bar but about as strong as I mix them myself and of course if you have enough you still get the effect. As you probably know, I don't drink much or often but whisky is my drink of choice and I was already affected by the end of the meal.
We then headed to a Karaoke Bar which also had a package of unlimited drinks so by 3 or 4 in the morning I was pretty far gone. It was great fun although the singing varied quite a lot in quality, if not enthusiasm. It was when I went to pay for the Karaoke that I seemed to be missing a couple of 10,000 yen (~$100) notes. It seemed that I had counted out 1 x 1000 and thought the next 2 were the same. They dinner organiser had realised the overpayment but didn't know who did it. I still think I was a bit short on the catch up but not as bad as if I hadn't noticed.
It was after 5 when Therese, another Aussie and I (above) staggered back to the hotel, although to be fair it was mostly me that was doing the staggering.
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