Kyoto

Well, I ended up not sleeping at all but on the plus side I'm all unpacked and settled in. I made it perfectly on time to meet Matt at his subway station, in fact I was early. We got on the Shinkansen and since I wanted to take some nice pictures (I actually got some of Fujisan this time) and make sure we got off at the right stop I didn't really sleep on the train. After getting our one-day bus passes we caught the bus for Kinkakuji, furthest thing from the station we were seeing. It was still absolutely breathtaking. And since it wasn't August the weather wasn't that bad. It was hot but I didn't feel like the air was drowning me in humidity. After Kinkakuji we wandered down the road to Ryoanji for the famous rock garden. It was nice and relaxing but as we walked over  we saw the rain clouds moving in. As we were finishing with the rock garden and moving back out to the rest of the gardens it began to rain. Luckily it was a passing shower and not too heavy so by the time we made our way to the bus stop for the bus to Nijo Castle it was letting up. Nijo Castle was a first for me in all my times to Japan and well worth the trip. It was beautiful preserved and I felt like any minute a daimyo would wander by me. The Nightingale floors were quite funny. They were specially built to squeak when stepped on to prevent intruders and assassins from getting it. It was fun to squeak as we walked around the castle. The art on the ceilings and in the rooms were fantastic and even though we weren't supposed to take pictures Matt snuck a few in. They came out pretty well too. We then went out into the gardens, which were lovely, saw the rest of the complex and finished just as the castle was closing for the day. After that we made our way over to Gion and after stopping into a for a quick meal at Lotteria we went and saw one last shrine and then headed back to the train station. We had a little while to wait before the train though and it seems that exhaustion finally caught up with me as I started to have micronaps while we were waiting for the Shinkansen. It finally came though and I had just enough time after arriving back at Tokyo station to catch the second to last train on the Keihen-Tohoku line for Kita-Urawa. Tomorrow we're going to Japan Sword in the morning and then I have the orientation meeting and welcome dinner so it looks like a full day. Oyasumi.