snarp | First full day in Kyoto.

I'm still bad at being a tourist.

I tried to do this Kyoto itinerary today, but I didn't leave the guest house until about noon? And then I needed to get to Kyoto station, and then I had lunch before heading off, and so it was about 1:00 when I got to the first site. And I'm a slow walker, and everything closes at 5:30 at the latest, so I only got about halfway through. And half of the sites were under renovation.

(Kiyomizu-dera was still gorgeous, but I'm pretty sure it's nicer when there aren't scaffolds and nets over half the buildings.)

I was a few blocks from Gion when I gave up for the day, so I went over there and walked around the shopping street. There's a Hello Kitty store there. It's not a Sanrio store, like the one in Ikebukuro - it sells only items with Hello Kitty's face on them. Keroppi is not permitted. I went in there and looked for the pen drive

elongated_tito wants, but they didn't have one.

Is it weird that I feel like it's not especially weird to find a Hello Kitty store in Gion? Gion is for distorted idealized femininity. The presence of this shop is natural and expected, like that of a stalactite in a limestone cavern.

I decided to try to take the bus back to the guest house - I knew there was a bus station out front - but having forgotten to look up what bus(es) I needed to take, I ended up having to take one back to Kyoto Station and get on the JR instead. I'm pretty sure this wasted a lot of time, but I cannot find any bus maps, and thus cannot figure out how much.

Also, I had planned to go to Kokedera, but had somehow failed to realize you need to make a reservation several weeks in advance, though this is stated clearly on every website about the place.

I did have some very good nishin soba at Gion, though.

First full day in Kyoto.

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