Day 08 - Friday 3rd August

After another nice buffet breakfast, we went to the Granvia Lounge on level 15 to ask about going to the Imperial Palace. She told us there are vacancies for the 10am and 2pm tours. Since it was already 9:30am, we decided to aim for the 2pm option. She told us that we need to buy tickets at the entrance to the palace and we need to show them our passports - we never found out why they need the passports.

The first task on our outing today was to buy a one-day bus pass at the Kyoto Station bus terminal outside our hotel entrance. There are a dozen or more bus shelters at this terminal going to all directions in Kyoto. We managed to find the right bus shelter for the bus to take us to our first destination, the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji Temple).

This turned out to be a longer bus journey than we thought - about 20 or 30 minutes - but it was well worth it.

The temple is coloured gold and sits next to a pleasant lake in a Japanese garden. It's such a pretty site, it seems unreal - just like a painting. It is a World Heritage site and very popular (and therefore crowded).

To get to our next destination, Nijojo Castle (where the shoguns used to live), we had the choice of bus or train. In each case, we would need to change to a second bus or a second train. Because we'd bought an all-day bus pass, we opted for the buses.

The bus stops show typical Japanese efficiency. Three lights for each bus route on the display board at the bus stop show when a bus is approaching. As it gets closer, the circles light up from right to centre to left.

The castle contains numerous structures in a large garden setting. You need to pay for the main building. As you walk through the corridors looking at the murals, most of the floorboards squeak. They are known as nightingale floors and are intended to let you know that someone is approaching your room.

After we left the building, a fellow tourist showed us how the nightingale floorboards make their sound. The floorboards are held up by metal brackets that squeak as the floorboards are depressed. Not bad for 400 year old technology.

By the time we'd walked through the garden, we were running out of time to get to the Imperial Palace and so we caught a taxi from outside the castle. When we got to the palace entrance we let the taxi driver keep the change in our rush to get out (despite the fact that you are don't supposed to tip in Japan) - only JPY60 (about 85 cents). He was so excited you'd think he'd won Powerball.

We managed to eat a quick lunch at one of the cafes near the entrance and got to the waiting room with a few minutes to spare. There were probably more than 60 people in the group. This time they were almost all non-Japanese.

Unsurprisingly, the introductory talk for the 2pm tour started at 2:00pm exactly. The guide took us from one building to the next for about an hour. She was a very good and spoke good English.

She made it interesting by telling us stories about the emperors who lived here as well as recent visiting presidents and royalty. At one building, she explained how the buildings were constructed to ensure comfort from the hot summers and cold winters - rather like a 400 year old version of natural air conditioning.

Apparently, Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan for over 1000 years and there were two concurrent rulers - the emperor in the Imperial Palace and the shogun in the castle we'd just been to. When I get time, I must do some research on Japanese history.

We decided to use the underground metro railway to get back to Kyoto. The station was only about 300m away at the corner of the park that contains the Imperial Palace. The trains are regular and the trip only took about 10 minutes.

In the evening, we'd planned to go on an organised tour in the Gion district which is only about 10 minutes away by bus. This area is famous because of the Geisha girls - only here they are referred to as Maiko and Geiko - the Maiko is an apprentice under the tutelage of a house mother and then they become an independent Geiko.

We walked down various narrow streets for almost two hours looking at the places where Maikos and Geikos live and party. It was almost at the end of the tour before we saw a Maiko. We were not allowed to take a photo because she was with a customer.

When the tour finished, we looked for a restaurant in the Gion area to have dinner. The one we decided on was OK but nothing special. The tables here were very low - I couldn't get my knees under the table. We ordered sake again with our meal.

Just before our main course arrived, we heard dreadful noises from the other side of the restaurant as if a man was being violently ill. The noises went on for 5 or 10 minutes. We couldn't see what was going on but the staff did not seem to be alarmed. We saw them putting on gloves and collecting plastic bags - almost as if this sort of thing happens every day. I'm not sure what happened next except that the man left the restaurant and peace returned.

Being a Saturday night, the footpaths were very busy with people. We caught the bus back to our hotel after a tiring but eventful day.