Day 10: Kyoto
7 November 2006
We have pretty much seen all of Kyoto today. Every tourist attraction is temple. Just today, we have been to three temples. We went to the Imperial Palace and Nijo Castle where the last Shogun ruler once lived and declared that he returned the power as a rule to the emperor. The Nijo Castle was the best highlight of the whole trip so far. It was an original building where everything and paintings are original. So, you could really feel the atmosphere and it was surreal!
After the morning Kyoto tour, we decided to find our own lunch. It has proven to be the most frustrating thing to do in Kyoto. Kyoto isn’t like Tokyo and therefore there isn’t many people spoke English. All the menu were written in Japanese. We had a lot of problem looking for food and finding our ways was the most frustrating thing for me. I almost tore the map apart in disgust! 
The road signs were hard to read because the direction it points is different to what I see on the map. Anyway, I went into a curry house cafe because I was so hungry and I was beyond caring at that time.
We had lunch and then we explored a bit more of Kyoto’s temples. We went to a Shindo shrine – Heian Temple. It was very beautiful. This time, I got my mom to navigate. After that, we went to Gion Corner, where it’s the geisha’s headquarter. We were very lucky to see a geisha (probably a Maiko) walking on the street. I quickly took a picture of her from behind as I didn’t want to intrude her privacy. The locals seemed to be as thrilled as us to see her too.
We were still tired from last night so we headed back to the ryokan.
*The difference between a geisha and a maiko is the former is 20 years old or older and the latter is between 16 to 18 years old. Most maiko will become geiko after they turn 20 years old. After that, when they become very skilled, they’ll be called geisha.
