Wednesday, 10th of December

Chrissy: Today we moved into a different room within this Hotel. It's a bigger room and has an ensuite bathroom, which means we don't have to use the communal toilet and shower or go to the public baths. They were scary. Everything about this room is nicer: nicer curtains, nicer cups, nicer saucers, nicer kettle, nicer futons, nicer table, nicer cupboard, nicer light. However, Chucky noted with disappointment that the toilet is not heated and doesn't have a bidet. He says he's going to use the communal toilet anyway. I think he should start a blog about Bidets of Japan.
We took a bus around 9:30 to get to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion. It's woderful to enter this temple's grounds to see such a visage. Up close it was beautiful too. It has a rooster weather vein on top of the roof, and the thatched roof was steaming in the sun.
The gardens were not as amazing as Ginkakuji, but I really enjoyed looking at the pond and the little islands in it. It was a clear still morning, just perfect for viewing reflections in the water.
Next we thought we'd go to Ryoanji, which is supposed to be famous for its Zen garden. We walked about 500m in A Direction when we realised it was also the Wrong Direction. Then we decided to go somewhere else instead.
We went to a bakery and got some Meron bread and a pastry called a Curry France. I liked it mostly because it sounds more like our percussion teacher than a food. It was curry. The meron bread was delicious. It is a bun-shaped bread with a crisp layer of sugar on the outside.
We took the bus to Nijo-jo (Nijo Castle). At the bus stop, some schoolgirls wanted photos with us for some reason, and they had to take one with each of their 3 cameras. They could only say "Excuse me! Camera!" and gesticulate. So we posed with them in our usual punch pose which they enjoyed a lot.
Nijo Castle is most famous for its Nightingale squeaking floors. These were made so that ninjas couldn't creep up on the Shogun. I tried sneaking and I ended up squeaking. It's amazing! It's done by putting metal wedges under the floorboards so that they rub together. Then we walked the grournds of the castle. It has two moats! And a garden with 300 Special Rocks from All Over Japan!
We were pretty tired then. So we took the bus back to our hotel, bought some foods from the 7-11 and ate and rested.
Later, we went out again and I finally got to see my shop, Metamorphose. The first and second nights we couldn't find it, and then yesterday we found it but it was closed. It was a great shop! Pretty big for a Lolita shop. It had a couple of beautiful dresses and some lovely accessories and socks and things. The petticoats were... 10,100 yen... so I didn't buy one. I didn't buy anything actually, but I had a great time looking.
Then we went down a road with lots of electronics shops for Charles. We found a shop with lots of cool headphones so he was happy for a while.

Charles: The electronics shop was great, but they had the most headphones I've ever seen ANYWHERE. Sony, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Denon, Bose and even Stax. They had some Stax electrostatic earspeakers on display which I tried out. Ridiculously cool.

Chrissy: We ate dinner at an Okonomiyaki shop which was amazingly delicious. We walked all the way home, which was quite a way. At a convenience store I bought a dessert which was creamy and cakey and chocolatey yum.
Tomorrow we're going to go to the Kyoto Costume institute, despite its website saying that it has 3 dresses and 4 undergarments on display. I'm hoping that it's more like 400 dresses and it was lost in translation.