Last Day In Japan

We finally had to share the dorm with strangers (not too bad I guess after 2 nights of it just being ours) - a camp Scottish puff, an annoying yank (with stock standard large ass), an English know it all and a Japanese couple (who rustled, zipped, unzipped, snored and sniffed all night long - just blow your nose we won't be offended). So not the best night's sleep, but we'll get sniff sniff boy back tomorrow when we have to get up at 5.30am to go to Hong Kong - I've deliberately not blown my nose all day just for the purpose of snuffling and making as much noise as I can early in the morning.

Because we had stayed 4 nights at the hostel, we got some free bike hire vouchers. Seeing as it's been our last day we thought better use them or lose them.


We took a recommendation from the gay Scottish guy, hopped on our bikes and headed for Kiyomizudera Temple.


It was amazing - totally different to anything we had come across so far. Firstly we went into a cellar / basement part of the temple in total darkness (and I mean total darkness, no light at all) to touch a large boulder that revolved when you pushed it - good luck from above and all that. We then hit the temple, and wow it's amazing it's on the side of a mountain kind of built on stilts. We took some pics, mingled with the hoards of Japanese tourists (how many camera's does one Japanese tourist need ? the average seemed to be 3 - 1 huge in your face my willie is bigger than yours camera, 1 smaller portable digital camera and of course the camera phone), I drank from a spring using a really long metal stuck with a cup on the end - again good luck and all that jazz. This temple was a real highlight for the whole trip, so Scottish gay guy whose name I don't know (let's call him Alan Cumming) a big thank you from me and Jacquie.


Feeling on a high we decided that we should take full advantage of our bikes and settled upon Kinkakuji Temple (the Golden Pavilion) as our next port of call. Even though it was completely on the other side of town we felt buoyed after our encounter with the darkness boulder and this I think gave us the strength to attempt the cycle. It took us about 1.5 hours to cycle to the Golden Pavilion (mainly because it was mostly uphill and we were cycling into the wind - plus neither of us had really cycled for years - it was bloody knackering) Still we got there and what a let down the place was. There we both were, imagining this huge temple made out of gold, shimmering at the bottom of a mountain for all to see. It is gold and it does shimmer, but the gold is merely gold painted wood but as you'll see from the pictures it looks ok - just not as great as we had hoped and certainly not a gold first prize after our marathon cycle (more of a bronze). So after taking some pics, mingling with more Japanese tourists (again a gazillion cameras for each of them) we hopped back on the bikes and headed for home. Both are arses are now saddle sore and our legs are killing us so sleeping tonight shouldn’t be a problem – well until mr sniff sniff turns up again.

So that's the first part of the world tour over, it's Hong Kong tomorrow. Jacquie's gonna write up a summary of Japan in more detail that I can really be bothered doing at this moment in time. All I will say, the last 10 days for me have been superb, very very few lows, mainly all highs and I’m so glad we chose Japan as the starting point, the people have been so friendly, the country is beautiful and I would recommend this as a destination to everyone.