Another change of plan....

  Kyoto, Japan
Sunday, May 13, 2007

After Matsuyama, I returned to Osaka due to the complete lack of accommodation in touristy destinations. This wasn`t a problem as far as I was concerned, as I could revisit Shikoku at a later date when it was less crowded. Besides, it had been a few weeks since I`d seen Andrea, and the plan was to settle down and start looking for a job in the city - a plan that was soon to change (not for the first time).

I met up with Andrea on the Thursday, and it`s fair to say that it wasn`t one of our most successful days together. My spirits dropped within about thirty seconds of seeing her again when I found out that she was going back to Canada sooner than expected, in fact before her school term even finishes, with flight booking problems to blame. Throw in some more problems, including the fact that Osaka, not one of my favourite places (far from it), was ridiculously overcrowded due to it being a public holiday, and the end result was a frustrating day all round. Even the movie we went to see, The Queen, made for uncomfortable viewing, and I still don`t know how or why they got away with making it...

All this led to me wasting time and twiddling my thumbs for a few days which annoyed me, although I felt infinitely better when I moved back into K`s House in Kyoto, a lovely hostel in a wonderful city. Unlike Osaka, where it`s just endless concrete, Kyoto is home to many parks and general areas of peace and quiet, and it allowed me to sort my head out and clarify exactly what I wanted to do. It was a tough decision in some respects because there were so many factors in the mix, but I eventually came to the conclusion that I was going to abandon the idea of looking for a job...

I think I`ve waffled on enough about that now, and I don`t need to go on about it anymore - all it means is that I now have about six weeks left in Japan, and I can concentrate on seeing as much of the country as possible, having a good time along the way, and without having to worry about writing a CV or attending job interviews.

1. Kobe Tower

With everything crystal clear now ( if that`s ever possible with girls involved ), I could revert to tourist mode again, beginning with a day trip to Kobe, a well-known city due to the huge earthquake back in 1995 which killed more than 6000 people. It`s not a city overloaded with sights, hence the reason I didn`t stay overnight, but it was nice to stroll around somewhere new having spent so long walking the streets of Kyoto. There was some interesting architecture down by the port, including the obligatory Tower and the ultramodern Maritime Museum, and I popped into HMV to give the Arctic Monkeys` new album another listen...absolute genius.

It had been over a week since I`d visited a temple, unheard of if you are a tourist in Japan, and while saying that I had withdrawal symptoms is stretching it a bit, I did have renewed optimism for a bit of sightseeing...

5. Golden Temple

As the weather was great on Friday, I bought a one day bus pass and headed off to the three main temples that I`d not seen in Kyoto ( in fact I deliberately avoided them during the cherry blossom season due to the completely laughable queues at the respective bus stops!).

I went to Kinkaku-ji first, better known as the Golden Temple, and this was very impressive indeed, definitely one of my favourites as the sun was shining and the temple seemed to glisten as a result. Similarly, Ginkaku-ji better known as the Silver Temple despite not being silver, was also attractive in that it was set in a peaceful garden with meticulously raked white sand.

7. Silver Temple

In the afternoon, I visited Kiyomizu-dera which offered picturesque views over Kyoto since it was set up in the mountains, and once I`d escaped the bus loads of tourists at the entrance, it actually became a pleasant place to spend an hour or two, although I did get accosted by a group of schoolchildren at one point! I was just sitting on the steps listening to my music when a couple of young lads came over and asked in broken English if they could have their photo taken with me, and of course I duely obliged as they were so polite. This seemed to be the cue for three school girls to bashfully walk over, and more photographs followed - this is probably the nearest I`ll get to being treated like a Rock Star!

z11. Kiyomizu-dera

I saw Andrea again on Saturday as I was all set to scoot off to Shikoku again on the Monday, and in contrast to our previous meet up, we had a great day together hanging out down by the river, and having a few competitive bouts of Tetris. She is getting better, but she`s still got a bit of catching up to do...

It had been a strange old week, but with everything back on track, I could put my backpack on again and hit the road...