We had to take our shoes off to get inside the shrine. When we got inside, we saw lots of people on their knees praying to the Buddha. We took a few photos.
We then rode to the Toji Temple. It was a pagoda that was five stories high and it is the largest and most famous temple in Japan. It was beautiful walking around the gardens and talking photos of the cool buildings. We saw some amazing statues which were called Vajrayanistic statues. There was so much detail in the statues, but we weren’t allowed to take any photos of them unfortunately.
After seeing the Toji Temple, we rode to the west side of Kyoto in search of another temple that is supposedly magnificent. We didn’t end up finding it, but we did see this awesome enormous park full of small temples and beautiful gardens. We rode past this kindergarten that was amongst a beautiful forest in the most scenic surroundings. We came to a bike trail, but it was getting dark and we didn’t have time to ride on it. I can’t wait to go back and explore it though!
For tea, we went to the Asian Kitchen where we ate Thai noodles, chicken, rice and nan bread. After tea Hideo told us to go to this jazz club called ‘Bass On Top’ because his friend owned it and he told his friend that we would go. It took us ages to find it and when we finally did, we walked into this small room that was not much bigger than the size of a laundry! I was expecting to walk into a huge room with hundreds of people sitting at tables and I was horribly wrong. There was a bar the size of a 6-person table and a small couch that fit five people on it and that was it! We felt like aliens when we walked in there because we stood out as we were the only Westerners there. Then this lady was asking me what I wanted to drink and they didn’t have any drinks I knew, so I got my little phrase book out and said in Japanese “please decide for me.” Then this girl next to me knew a bit of English and ordered a bourbon and coke for Tina and I. She was really nice. Her name was Mariko.
We were uncomfortably sipping our drinks when the Japanese man next to Mariko (which we later found out was her dad) started asking us questions. When we answered them, he kept on saying ‘only speak in Japanese’. Well that was pretty much impossible seeming as we didn’t know any Japanese and we thought he was being a bit rude. Anyway, we didn’t stay for another drink because we felt a little uncomfortable (although the music was awesome and there were two really good female singers we listened to). When we left, Steve paid for the bill and it came to 90 000 Yen which is around $90! We couldn’t believe it because we had only bought three drinks. Steve went back and asked the man why it was so expensive and was told that in Gion (a suburb of Kyoto), the rent is so high that they have huge cover charges and over priced drinks just to cover the rent. Well that is the first and last time I will be going to any club in Gion! I am always going to ask what the cover charge is before entering any club!
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