May 8,
Tuesday & May 9, Wednesday
Tuesday, I spend a good part of the day in my room organizing my stuff. In the early afternoon I head out to walk around neighborhood and get my bearings.
I head south on Karasuma from Oike down to the FedEx store where I need to print some email confirmations for my next leg of the trip and have some documents scanned. From there it is just a short walk to the Nishiki Food Market. This is a 6 block street that is covered and provides you with all your needs for dinner.
The street off which Nishiki runs
Nishiki Food Market
All sorts of things for sale.... some I can't identify
Lots of different types of fresh vegetables, already prepared and ready to eat
Some "roasted" tea ! Completely different flavour.
And it goes on and on !
Dried seafood and seaweed. Just add water and VOILA ! Soup
Baby octopus ! I think I'll pass
I have ab-so-lute-ly no idea !
At the end of Nishiki I arrive at another covered shopping area, the Teramachi Shopping Area, with clothes and shoe stores, restaurants, and a few shrines. Four long city blocks later, I reach the other end, after making a few side detours in small side streets full of shops and restaurants. I find and purchase something called “dry” sockets to wear in my new running shoes (they will act like a wick to soak up the sweat). I also purchase some insoles for my sketchers. Ever since I got that foot massage in China I’ve been having a lot of pain. Not sure what she did to the muscles, tendons or nerves under my high arches, but I’m having a lot of aches and pains during the night. Add that to the itchy lower legs and I’m not getting a good night’s sleep lately.
I’m also looking for some type of tape to fix the break in my suitcase, but no luck on that front. Where’s a Canadian Tire store when you need one!
Teramachi Shopping Area
Back on to regulard streets for a short walk down the block
Entrance to Nishiki Tenman-gu Temple.... and the water fountain
Buddha within the temple
Back on the pedestrian shopping streets of Shirkyogoku Arcade
At the other end of which I find the Honnohji Temple. It is hidden away behind a small gate, but the sign for the museum attracted my attention.
Samurai warrior armour inside the private museum. And check out the small item on the table to the right.
Looks life size right ? No, this is a miniature of a theatre setting. The standing doll is only about 4 inches tall.
The back of the samurai warrior armour.
A poster of the armour I could not photograph within the museum. It was just beautifully made.
One of the small streets and ordinary Kyoto houses
A rare view into a private courtyard
People travel a lot by bicycle in Japan. In every city. Most have baskets on them, some have children's seats. Some even have two of them (front & back). Now that's a heavy load.
Museum of Kyoto near the Hearton Hotel
Apartment buildings in the neighborhood
I end up walking a huge loop in the downtown core and end up back in the area of my hotel. I bypass it however and return to the main street “Karasuma Dori”, looking for somewhere to buy dinner. No luck; I end up going into a Fresco grocery store (Like the ones in England !) and purchase a few items (yogurt, apple, juice, OH and Dorito Nacho Chips !). I’m on my way back to the hotel when I spot a book store and manage to find something to read among their small collection of English books. I’m only a block and a half away when I spot a wine shop …. Now we’re talking….. a nice Cabernet Franc will do just fine. I can put my feet up, so to speak, and rest my sore feet.
I make some tea using green tea powder
and it even froths up !
Wow, my legs are still itchy from those bug bites during the Yangtze Cruise.20 days and no sign of them going away.
Tuesday, I spend a good part of the day in my room organizing my stuff. In the early afternoon I head out to walk around neighborhood and get my bearings.
I head south on Karasuma from Oike down to the FedEx store where I need to print some email confirmations for my next leg of the trip and have some documents scanned. From there it is just a short walk to the Nishiki Food Market. This is a 6 block street that is covered and provides you with all your needs for dinner.
The street off which Nishiki runs
Nishiki Food Market
All sorts of things for sale.... some I can't identify
Lots of different types of fresh vegetables, already prepared and ready to eat
Some "roasted" tea ! Completely different flavour.
And it goes on and on !
Dried seafood and seaweed. Just add water and VOILA ! Soup
Baby octopus ! I think I'll pass
I have ab-so-lute-ly no idea !
At the end of Nishiki I arrive at another covered shopping area, the Teramachi Shopping Area, with clothes and shoe stores, restaurants, and a few shrines. Four long city blocks later, I reach the other end, after making a few side detours in small side streets full of shops and restaurants. I find and purchase something called “dry” sockets to wear in my new running shoes (they will act like a wick to soak up the sweat). I also purchase some insoles for my sketchers. Ever since I got that foot massage in China I’ve been having a lot of pain. Not sure what she did to the muscles, tendons or nerves under my high arches, but I’m having a lot of aches and pains during the night. Add that to the itchy lower legs and I’m not getting a good night’s sleep lately.
I’m also looking for some type of tape to fix the break in my suitcase, but no luck on that front. Where’s a Canadian Tire store when you need one!
Teramachi Shopping Area
Back on to regulard streets for a short walk down the block
Entrance to Nishiki Tenman-gu Temple.... and the water fountain
Buddha within the temple
Back on the pedestrian shopping streets of Shirkyogoku Arcade
At the other end of which I find the Honnohji Temple. It is hidden away behind a small gate, but the sign for the museum attracted my attention.
Samurai warrior armour inside the private museum. And check out the small item on the table to the right.
Looks life size right ? No, this is a miniature of a theatre setting. The standing doll is only about 4 inches tall.
The back of the samurai warrior armour.
A poster of the armour I could not photograph within the museum. It was just beautifully made.
One of the small streets and ordinary Kyoto houses
A rare view into a private courtyard
People travel a lot by bicycle in Japan. In every city. Most have baskets on them, some have children's seats. Some even have two of them (front & back). Now that's a heavy load.
Museum of Kyoto near the Hearton Hotel
Apartment buildings in the neighborhood
I end up walking a huge loop in the downtown core and end up back in the area of my hotel. I bypass it however and return to the main street “Karasuma Dori”, looking for somewhere to buy dinner. No luck; I end up going into a Fresco grocery store (Like the ones in England !) and purchase a few items (yogurt, apple, juice, OH and Dorito Nacho Chips !). I’m on my way back to the hotel when I spot a book store and manage to find something to read among their small collection of English books. I’m only a block and a half away when I spot a wine shop …. Now we’re talking….. a nice Cabernet Franc will do just fine. I can put my feet up, so to speak, and rest my sore feet.
I make some tea using green tea powder
and it even froths up !
Wow, my legs are still itchy from those bug bites during the Yangtze Cruise.20 days and no sign of them going away.
Wednesday is
a very grey day with rain so I just stay in and work on my blog. At 4 pm we get a glimpse of sunshine and I
almost decide to go out, but before I can get my ass….ets in gear, it starts
pouring rain. Just a very quiet day,
which is fine by me. I go down to the lobby at some point and book a full day
Kyoto Tour for tomorrow; the weather
forecast is for sunshine !
I also spend part of the day on the phone with TD Visa
because I’ve found a couple of charges for hotels in Fiji which OBVIOUSLY
aren’t mine. I’ve checked with the
travel agent I’ve been dealing with in Toronto and she confirms that it wasn’t
them (I thought they might have made a mistake and used my card by mistake for
another client). I’ve eliminated other
possibilities as well. The Call Centre
advises (actually insist) that I cancel
my card and they will issue another one.
#*$)%&#%*%&# ! ! ! I
really don’t need this right now. It
takes three phone calls to get everything settled; they will send the new card
to the hotel where I will be staying in Hakata Japan. {THANK
YOU LOLA for suggesting that I get a second credit card; just in case. It has saved my butt at least three times
now!} 
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