The bamboo grooves in the Arashiyama district in Western Kyoto were indeed magical. The guide book says that its ambience cannot be photographed, and while I did my best to get a few good shots I think it is in fact true. The photo taken with my phone below is really poor...
We walked a bit around the hills before ending up in the groove as well and got some scenic views of the mountains and rivers. we then ended up in the small village where we grabbed something to eat and tried the Japanese version of soft ice cream for the first time. I got one with a fusion flavour of half black tea and half green tea. The ice cream itself is most likely made of soy beans and has quite similar consistency to the ice cream you get at mc donalds. I have gotten used to the green tea flavour in almost every way by now; kit kat, cakes, drinks, gum, you name it and they've probably got it!
We caught the subway to the golden pavilion, or Kinkaku-ji in Japanese, and were prepared for a 20 minute walk straight north from the station. While 30 and 40 minutes swiftly passed by as we walked and we still had not managed to spot the entrance, we started getting confused. And since I was the one who really wanted to see this place I started feeling a little guilty making the guys walk into the unknown for one hour (my sense of direction is not the best either, but it didn't initially seem all that difficult to walk straight up a pretty straight road before taking a left turn!) It was however a really pleasant walk and we ended up seeing real Japanese neighbourhoods, with modern homes fusing nicely into the natural surroundings with a nice stream of water flowing on one side of the road. As we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a forest trail we decided it was time to ask for directions and an old man indicated that we should go back for quite a while before taking a right turn. We asked again at what we imaginatively assumed was a retirement home and the elderly confirmed that we were on the right track. Finally we made it to the entrance and after raiding thriugh the vending machines for drinks and ice cream we headed in and saw the BEAUTY that is the Golden Pavilion. It is nicely located next to a pond with greenery all around and as the tourists have to wander around the pond, the photos come out nice and serene as if nobody else is there. In fact it was reasonably quiet as we were walking around and I'm so glad we were patient enough to keep looking for it.
We took a bus back to the center and decided to walk to Gion ( the old, Geisha district in Kyoto) only we ended up walking in the exact opposite direction for almost half an hour. Incidentally we found a shop selling Japanese knives and suddenly got really excited as both Trond and I wanted to buy knives to bring back home. We did not end up buying anything here though but kept the place in mind and took a taxi back to Gion instead!
Gion is mystically lit at night and kind of feels like the Crash Bandicoot game where you ride through the Asian (probably Chinese but whatever...) town at night. Lots of lanterns and small lights illuminate the trees and small wooden houses. We were on the lookout for one of the remaining ~250 Geishas (actually called maiko and geiko in Kyoto depending on their age/maturity) in Kyoto but were not lucky enough to spot any; only an abundance of "tourist geishas" who pay to get dressed and made up in pretty kimonos/yukatas and walk around town like that for a day. Unlike real Geishas they are very much up for being photographed- or so the guidebook says anyway :) I only took photos in Gion with my dslr camera so I will put these up later.
I just have to make a final mention of our last meal that night. On our way back to the guest house we went to a sushi restaurant and tried proper Japanese sushi for the first time altogether. We were seated at a table with an iPad, got the menu with photos displayed in English and sent off the order electronically. Genius! ...even for someone like me with sporadic techy handicaps :p
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