December 12th!

Chrissy:Today we got up and caught a bus to Kiyomiz-dera, which is a shrine in the East of Kyoto.
On the way to the bus stop, we saw a old lady who had dropped a bag and was struggling with something. Chucky asked if she was ok, and I helped her with her dropped bag. She said thankyou and we went on our way. Then she called after us "Are you French?" and we went back and explained that we were Australian. "Oh, Australian" she said. We went on our way. Then she called to us again and ran up to us as quick as an old lady burdened with a million bags can run. She pushed two little packages into our hands and said they were "From Tokyo". We thanked her and finally actually went on our way. We were really touched that she gave us a gift when all we did was pick up her bag and see if she was ok.
The bus was packed, so I pushed my way to the front of the bus when our stop was approaching. Then almost everyone on the bus got out after me, including Chucky. I felt a little silly.
Then everyone who had been in the bus, as well as a hoarde of other people started walking up a very steep hill on a very narrow road. We followed and were soon forced along up this hill. I just love crowds and traffic, especially when there are no footpaths. So I was overjoyed when about 20 huge buses drove past, clearly having dropped scores of people off at the top of the hill, where we were headed. Along the narrow street were lots of pottery shops. We stopped and looked in a couple in an attempt to find someone a wedding gift. To no avail!
We finally reached the top of the mountain and I had a sit down. I thought it was particularly mean that there was a sign saying "No Eating or Drinking" at the entrance to the shrine. I was so thirsty after the trek! I snuck a sip from my waterbottle.
One of the pagodas was really tall. There was a multitude of little buildings and things to do. The best building was a huge structure with a famously brilliant view of the city and of the coloured leaves. I fell over and hurt my hand and shin. I was so embarrassed I went and had a discreet little cry.
Next, we went down some steps to the sacred water-drinking thing. A sacred spring up in the hills is directed down to this structure with three streams of water. People take sticks with cups at the end and wash their hands and drink the sacred water. It's supposed to grant your wishes or give you long life. Chucky did it, and I watched and took photos. He brought me back some sacred water. I felt much happier after that.
We walked around the complex for a while and looked at all the good luck merchandise. I bought a phone dangly with a little bell in it that I thought was cute. AS SOON AS I put it on my bag, it became exceedingly annoying and I had to remove it.
There is an attraction at this particular shrine that is an underground tunnel of darkness. The Lonely Planet guide says "This subterranean walk through the darkness easily qualifies as Kyoto's most unusual attraction. We won't say too much about Tainai-meguri - just try it". So we did. We paid 100 yen each to a man and were told that it is "very dark - use your left hand". There was a rail on the left that you're supposed to hold to guide you. Chucky made me go first. We descended a flight of stairs and then turned a corner and went through some curtains and were in total darkness. It was the kind of darkness that makes you feel as though there's a wall right in front of you, stopping you from continuing. Feeling the handrail and listening to the people ahead of me, I went along slowly, getting more and more freaked out the whole way. Towards the end, I saw this weird glowing rock that you're supposed to turn clockwise. I took my hand off the rail to turn it and then couldn't find the rail, and panicked until Chucky guided my hand back to it. Then we were out and I needed a good sit down. We were down there for less than 5 minutes, I think. When my breathing returned to normal, we left and followed a walk suggested in Lonely Planet. We bought crepes from a crepe shop. What I thought was ice-cream in the picture turned out to be normal cream, so they were incredibly rich and were hard for Chucky to digest. It was ok though. At the end of the walk we took a bus back to our hotel. We had a late lunch of tempura from the lady over the road. It was so filling! I also ate the little gift the old lady gave me this morning. It was a little package of Hello Kitty sweet soft rice snacks, covered in that yummy powder they use so your fingers don't get sticky. Yum! Thanks old lady!
Went out again later to visit a department store we read about in the book. It turned out to be only dumb clothes for girls, but the boys clothes were pretty good and Chucky bought some amazing shoes. Yay! Ate a late dinner at our mystery restaurant and now home. I've had the same dessert 3 days in a row and I AM getting fatter.

Charles:
The walk today was great. We got to go down lots of amazing streets and saw some really nice traditional japanese craft shops. We also saw a giant faux-traditional japanese crafts shop which spanned three or four of the old buildings. Bizarre.