Friday, April 8th: Kyoto Imperial Palace and Ginkakuji
Another very warm day. We went to the Imperial Palace Household Agency to see about getting reservations for a visit to Katsura Villa and got both good and bad news. Katsura was booked right through next week, no chance for us to get in; but the palace itself was open to the public this weekend! We got right in and toured the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.
Erci dragged Dan and I to the Nishijin Textile Center while Jeff played with Jonathan in the park abutting the Palace. Dan and I returned and met Jeff and headed for the hotel to drop off souvenirs and books, while Erci had a blast at the textile center. We all met at the hotel then caught a bus to Ginkakuji. The garden of the Silver Pavillion in the afternoon sunlight is stunning; lots of moss and cherry blossoms and camelia. We caught another bus to go to Gion and Maruyama park, and the bus quickly filled up. At each stop the already full bus loaded between two and five more people, each time Dan bet me no one else could get on (grin). Everyone on the cramped bus cooperated though and getting off the bus at Gion was relatively easy, though we discovered that when you pay for the bus with a ¥1000 note, the machine simply gives you change, it does not extract your bus fare - you have to manually re-apply the coins to the fare box.
Maruyama was gorgeous with cherry blossoms and filling with groups already staking their claims to prime Hanama party spaces in the park. Lots of food vendors already making a mint selling yummy treats to the stakeholders. Walked a bit back to the subway and returned to the hotel for warmer clothing. Discovered another excellent Tapas-style Japanese place where we got drunk and Jonathan fell asleep.
Erci dragged Dan and I to the Nishijin Textile Center while Jeff played with Jonathan in the park abutting the Palace. Dan and I returned and met Jeff and headed for the hotel to drop off souvenirs and books, while Erci had a blast at the textile center. We all met at the hotel then caught a bus to Ginkakuji. The garden of the Silver Pavillion in the afternoon sunlight is stunning; lots of moss and cherry blossoms and camelia. We caught another bus to go to Gion and Maruyama park, and the bus quickly filled up. At each stop the already full bus loaded between two and five more people, each time Dan bet me no one else could get on (grin). Everyone on the cramped bus cooperated though and getting off the bus at Gion was relatively easy, though we discovered that when you pay for the bus with a ¥1000 note, the machine simply gives you change, it does not extract your bus fare - you have to manually re-apply the coins to the fare box.
Maruyama was gorgeous with cherry blossoms and filling with groups already staking their claims to prime Hanama party spaces in the park. Lots of food vendors already making a mint selling yummy treats to the stakeholders. Walked a bit back to the subway and returned to the hotel for warmer clothing. Discovered another excellent Tapas-style Japanese place where we got drunk and Jonathan fell asleep.
by Scott Nolan | Permalink 
