December 11th

Charles: Today we went to the Kyoto Costume Institute in the morning. It was only one stop down the JR Kyoto line which turned out to be a really awful area. The costume institute turned out to be on the 5th floor of a big building. This crashed through the first of Chrissy's imaginations, that the institute was a sprawling campus full of costumes. The second of Chrissy's imaginations was that the gallery was vast, in fact it was one room and, as was stated on the website, had three dresses and four undergarments, all European from the second half of the 19th century. It took me about one minute to take in the gallery, but Chrissy was determined to eximine every detail while the attended flitted conspicuously behind us.

Chrissy: In my defence, photos and sketching were not allowed, so I was trying to memorise the details about the dresses that I liked the most. Can't remember now, though.

Charles: After returning to Kyoto Station we were asked some questions by grade 6 students from a primary school in Kyoto who were doing an English project with their teacher. They thanked us and gave us a postcard and a piece of calligraphy they had done. I think they were surprised that we knew the characters - ni hon (Japan) - but these are about the only kanji that we know.

On the way back to the hotel we visited a temple called Higashi Hongan-Ji. Apparently the big hall is one of the largest wooden structures in the world, but since its being repaired its currently wrapped in the biggest corrugated iron shed I've ever seen. Luckily there was a picture so we could see what we were missing out on.

After relaxing for a while we set out again in search of a kimono shop that Chrissy had read about in the Kyoto Visitor's guide. It took us about 45 minutes to find it even though its nearby. The small streets here are basically unlabelled and the whizzing trucks, vans, cars, scooters and bikes are hazardous and distracting.

Chrissy: I hate traffic. Twice last night I nearly died of shock when trucks that were really too big for the tiny alley roared past about 3cms away from my vital organs.

Charles: When we got there, a nice young man showed us around the entire shop. He could speak quite a lot of English but when he introduced us to a lady who had very good English he was too shy to say anything. After seeing some beautiful kimonos (over 1 million yen) we decided to buy the cheapest kind of yukata (a light cotton kimono) they had which were about 2500 yen. We also bought the proper belts and had a lesson on how to tie the correct knot. Chrissy's knot was extremely difficult but we have managed to reproduce it.

Chrissy: The lady who was teaching me how to wear the yukata and belt told me lots of interesting things about how mine was different from a men's yukata.

Charles: After the kimono shop we got some late lunch / early dinner from a place called Yoshinoya's. This very simple but very cheap food was pretty satisfying. The basic meal is a beef bowl or pork bowl which is a big bowl of rice with a pile of thinly sliced meat on top. Another kind of dish is curry and rice. There are also sidedishes like soup, salad, kimchi or raw egg which you dump onto the rice. Emi assures me that this is delicious but I can't get the hang of it.

We walked across the river to Yasaka-jinja which is a shrine in Gion and was the starting point for a Lonely Planet walk. We went through little streets past old style houses and restaurants. We saw a Geisha (maybe Maiko) in a big hurry. She was absolutely stunning and we were both a bit startled as she teetered past. Our walk was lit up with lanterns and we enjoyed the atmospheric streets.

Chrissy: I've tried a different 7/11 dessert almost every day this week. My favourite is a layered cream and chocolate dessert. I'll be FAT SOON.

Also look at this link. It's an ad for Chucky's favourite kind of bum-washing toilet. Warning: features bums. Washlet. I'm sitting here cringing.