Sunday morning and we had a bus tour of various sites around Kyoto. We got up early, made our way through breakfast and outside the hotel to the bus stop. Didn't take us long to find our tour group and associated leader and we thought we'd be off in no time. Unfortunately, the tour guide had us all together but couldn't find the correct bus. So we just milled around for ten minutes or so while we waited for the rest of the buses to clear out so we could find ours.
As we waited I mentioned to Robyn that one of the people standing around looked very familiar for some reason. Couldn't think why but he must have good hearing or my voice travelled more than I thought as he came up and Rob fell into conversation with him. Seems he was an Australian from Sydney who was touring Japan in a similar manner to us and had basically been following us since Hakone. He thought he'd seen us in three or four places along the way. I figured we might catch up with later but he took another bus and we never saw him again.
The bus tour took us around the Kyoto main attractions but by this time we were becoming a little jaded with similar looking temples and castles so none of it made much of an impression. We were able to extract some vital information from the guide, so, after being dropped back to the Kyoto station we headed directly for the sushi train restaurant he'd told us about.
Robyn is spoilt for choice
Stuffed to the gills, again, Will decided he just wanted to go back to the hotel and struggle with their wi-fi and Robyn and I decided to head off for a stroll down the Philosopher's Walk, which was a short bus ride out of town. The walk starts at the top of a hill from a major shrine and meanders down alongside a small stream. The temple was packed with people so we skipped that and just set off strolling gently down hill.
Philosopher's Walk bridges
This was a truly pleasant way to spend a warm and sunny afternoon and allowed us ample time to stop for a drink at a small bar, plunk ourselves on one of the many benches set up on the walk and finally to buy Catherine a souvenir Japanese bath robe - the lady in the shop seemed to think one of her assistants had put the wrong price on it but sold it as marked anyway.
We got back to the hotel, picked up Will and strolled around the Kyoto station and a few nearby streets before bed.
Robyn was to say later that she thought she would be quite capable to coming back to Kyoto and just spending a week exploring the station. As good as it is I thought that a tad extreme.
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