Day 10 June 27

Wake up to a warm morning which will soon become a very hot day and then finish cold and wet. It's like being back home. We try the bus today. After a few jitters we work it out and we're soon at Kyoto Station. From there we take the JR line to Inari to take a walk  around the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Mainly famous for it's row upon row of... actually I'm not sure what you call them. A corridor of orange posts that lead to the mountain top. It is a fantastic sight and starts off crowded then thins out as you go higher up the hill. I was not in the mood to do more steps today so while the others went ahead and returned down the mountain. Of course I went the wrong way and wandered down into an artisan village around the side. Which meant I had to start climbing back up the steps to get to where I made the wrong turn. The shrine itself is huge and teeming with tourists.
We then take a train (quick) and a bus(really really slow) to the Golden Pavilion. This is a gold plated shogun house. It takes us over a hour to get there for what is basically a photo. A nice photo indeed. We're back out in 15 minutes and get back on the bus but this time it's packed. We are crushed against the door and each stop more people get on. Elderly women kind of wish through you and into the centre of the bus. It sometimes happens on trains too but this is madness and it will last 40 minutes so we jump off at Emechi to catch a train. One stop later we're at Nijo Castle but we're too late! It's closed. Ion is too many transfers so we decide to just go for a stroll around the shopping district. I get in a few record shops and Liz gets her phone fixed (Remi dropped it the other day and it was impossible to see any of the screen through the many spider web like cracks)
For dinner we cross over the main street to an older part of town where there is a little river and a pizza truck. The pizzas are delicious and we sit outside an old museum type building as drops of rain start to fall. A light rain starts to become a heavy rain as we head for our last stop which is the Kyoto tower. Only 150 metres tall but the observation deck is very much like a space ship. And the lights of Kyoto glisten in the rain. We head down to the sky lounge for some over-priced drinks and say goodbye to Kyoto in style. Kind of.
Back home on the bus and the rain is pouring down. So we get soaked. So does our washing which was hanging on the balcony. It's after 11 and tomorrow we head for Hiroshima so we retire slightly damp.