My nice shiny red bicycle
When I saw my rental bicycle for the first time I smiled. I love the film 500 Days Of Summer so felt like Summer riding along without a care in the world. Well, that was until I reached the end of the street and needed to check my map to see which direction I needed to cycle in. Fantasy now in tatters, my day dream of meeting Joseph Gordon-Levitt switched to a despairing "where the flip am I going?" Suffice it to say, I took the scenic route. It was more of a trek than I thought it would be but I made it. Hooray!
Oh the relief...
Entrance
I decided to have a rest in the shade for a bit. The view was spectacular.
I sat collapsed on to a step and rummaged for my water. I constantly feel pathetically feeble in not being able to handle the heat. I convince myself that everyone around me is either looking at me in disgust or pity, never empathy. As I regained some sort of composure, a local greeted me. I instinctively said "Hi", which means yes in Japanese. Her face lit up as she thought I could speak Japanese. I have to stop doing that! I had to stop her in her tracks as I had no idea what she was saying and apologised. After that awkward introduction, we spoke for a while about my travel plans and the temple. I explained that I really want to see the bamboo grove and she gave me directions. The lady was accompanying an Aussie guy. Both were very friendly. As I wandered around the temple grounds, we kept bumping into each other. It was quite funny at the time.
The route around the temple was sheltered. I welcomed the shade like an old friend.
Another view you'd crawl past your dying mother for (too much? I'm running out of ways to say beautiful dammit!)
I love the roof tiling which is complimented by the clear blue sky in this photo.
Oh no, I've spotted flowers. Macro alert!
Now where was I...oh yes. Now on to the big finale. The bamboo grove. Sometimes you can build things up in your mind and become thoroughly disappointed with the end result. Fortunately the bamboo grove was not one of these moments. Woooooooah...
Before that I must just shout out in glee - I got depth of field!! It is damn hard to get this kind of effect on a compact and I bloody did it. In your face (not sure whose face, Samsung's?). Oh yeah baby!
I did take a lo-ot of photos here. Unfortunately I don't have time to pick out what I think are the best ones so I'll just give you a few that I can find right now.
Because of the curvature of the bamboo trees, the area below is cool and slightly breezy. There were certain parts where the sun peeped through which looked nice but I wasn't sure if I could capture it.
Me and the bamboo! Someone kindly offered to take my picture.
No people. I thought it'd be busier than this. I'm certainly not complaining.
Well now that's just lazy...I bumped into the local and the Aussie. The lady explained that young couples come here to the shrine and bless themselves before their wedding ceremony. So the couple in the cab skipped the first part and jumped straight to the shrine. Eager or what?
I made sure I took my time looking round the temple and soaking up all there was to see. This place is definitely the highlight of my time in Kyoto.
I reluctantly walked back to my bike. I wanted to find an onsen I read about in my Lonely Planet guide but wasn't very hopeful. I cycled back and forth up the street but couldn't find it. I left my LP book back at the hostel so didn't have an address. Silly me. I asked a couple of people but they weren't sure. I wasn't prepared to hang about and hope that I'd magically find it. I decided to head back and figure out what I can do with my time. By this point I knew the way back so put some tunes on. My current shuffle mix mainly consists of compilations sent to me by my good friend Rob. I had some serious tunage going on and I loved it. I was humming away to myself and bopping to Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams Come True. It appeared in 500 Days of Summer too!
And...as if by magic...I cycled past this:
Double take...hit the breaks...there is always time for cake.
The obvious choice. Guess how much this bad boy cost me? 105 Yen. Fricking bargain! That's less than a quid folks.
This feels like the perfect day. Great sights, great cake, nice bike ride, tunage...beautiful.
I navigated my way back to the hostel I was staying at. This entailed cycling on the pavement (which is where most cycling takes place in Japan) and on the road (some streets you can't cycle on the pavement). I had the best mode of transport ever. I was weaving through traffic at great speeds and loving it. I had a rest and decided to cycle by the river and maybe take a few snaps along the way.
I found my spot.
Took a lot of "arty" type shots. Not sure which one's are the best but here's a taster.
A regular spot for couples.
The time had come to hand my baby back to it's owners. Very sad. We had some good times. Things got a bit rough at points (two massive sexy bruises) and I had a few near misses with people but it all worked out in the end.
The thought of going back to my hostel drained the life out of me. It's such a weird environment. It's full of backpackers, yet nobody is social. Everyone keeps themselves to themselves. I couldn't face dining out alone again so got a ready meal and headed to the common room and kitchen. After heating up my meal for one I pulled up a chair and ate alone in silence. It was like being back at school. There were different clicks that I wasn't a part of and it really got me down. Not because I wanted to be a part of the clicks, but because those clicks existed. It's very sad - can't we all just get along, sheesh I'm getting all dreary again. I was about to grab my bag and hit the computers downstairs when I had a sudden thought. I've had a brilliant day and now I felt like screwing with someone (as in messing with someone's head!). I poured myself a cup of tea and discarded the leave-one-seat-empty-between-each-person rule and plonked myself down next to three people. Yeah, how do you like me now? So I sipped at my hot tea merrily and waited for my time to ease myself into conversation. I did so, and it was ok. I had a little rant about STA Travel, we each spoke about our travel plans and our experiences of Japan. Due to my lack of social interaction for days, I dominated the conversation. I was even annoying myself at one point but it was a good release and the fact that I annoyed myself a little must mean that I grated on them a bit and I chuckled inside. Take that you anti-social cretins. Yes, I think I have finally cracked and gone insane. Well, more so than usual.
I got bored fast so downed my tea and left the table. No details were swapped. I'll never see them again. I felt no better after my little game. I kept focusing on my previous experiences and how Kyoto has been lovely but lacked the spark Tokyo had. I grabbed my bag and headed to the kitchen with thoughts about tomorrow's venture to Nara in my brain. As I washed my mug out I heard a voice that seemed to be coming from my side. The kitchen was empty. Is someone trying to engage me in conversation? The room of cretins? Seriously not. I looked up to see a handsome, slightly disheveled guy peering back at me, waiting for an answer. I mumbled a response. That same noise came back at me. He answered me back in his Hugh Grant-esque British accent. What is going on? This is not right. Brain does not compute. The cynic in me deduced the following possible reasons for why this guy is talking to me:
1. It's a dare. Some dick obviously saw me trying to make conversation at the table and sees me as a prime target. For what, I'm not even sure.
2. He's crazy.
3. He's just as bored as I am and is reaching out to the nearest English person.
At that point, I really didn't care which option it was and decided to humour the guy. What's the worst that can come of this? I can't even remember what we spoke about, but he made me laugh a lot. We did the usual - where are you from? How long have you been in Kyoto/Japan? Why are you here? What are your travel plans? etc etc. I still had no idea why this guy was talking to me so I just asked him straight. He told me that he heard me from across the room and saw that I was English so came and spoke to me. I said that the people at the table were English too, why not speak to them? He responded by saying something along the lines of "they're idiots though". So some part of my ranty boring speech made him want to come over and speak to me. Is this guy for real? I still didn't believe what he was saying to me but we shared a mutual hatred of the common room so bonded instantly. We both happened to be going to Nara tomorrow. Without even thinking I blurted out whether he'd like to go together. What an idiot. This is the part where the guy looks me up and down and laughs in my face. Without hesitation he said yes. Hmm, you might regret saying that in the morning!
Alistair went off and got some beers while I went off to freshen up. I wasn't sure what this guy's game was but I was bored so just went with it. We sat outside and drank our beers. Every now and then Alistair would swear. I love it when posh people swear. I sometimes chuckled and he asked me what I was laughing at. It might sound a bit creepy and weird if I said it was his accent. We joked further and talked rubbish for a while. We saw a couple coming back from a meal out perhaps or just some drinks. They both hugged and said their goodbyes to a Japanese guy. We both looked at each other and decided that we should mess with them a bit. Similar to what I did in the common room. We wanted to test whether they would talk to us or just brush past us. Alistair starting by asking them where they are from. Canada. Before we knew it Jason and Caroline had joined us in our moan-fest about the room of despair. We had each been at the hostel for a few days and felt exactly the same way yet had not met each other sooner. It was a shame but I had a great last night in Kyoto. I finally have a reason to be thankful for my foghorn voice. Without it, I'd have never met these people.
I love your Bridget side ;-)
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