On the second morning in Kyoto I took the train to Arashiyama to Tenryji and the famous bamboo grove. The temple had a beautiful zen garden.

Next to the temple is the bamboo grove, which is absolutely gorgeous. I was lucky and the day turned really lovely and sunny. The pictures don’t really show the majesty and amazingness.

Right behind the grove is Okochi Sanso, the most amazing garden and my favourite location of all. The garden is around the house of an actor. He always wanted to have a zen garden and spent his life building it. I could have stayed there all day, especially with my laptop and written. It made me want my own garden with water features, little nooks and crannies and a couple of small buildings. *sigh* One can dream:). Unfortunately my camera batteries had started to run out and I could only take a few pictures.

I headed back to Kyoto and the Gion area. Gion is where the geishas live. In Kyoto they’re called Geiko (finished training) and Maiko (trainee). I bought a ticket for the Miyako Odori, a dance performance they do every April. I sat on the second floor on a tatami mat and had an amazing view of the stage. I could see the faces of the performers clearly. Photography was forbidden in the theatre, so here is a short clip to give you an idea.

It didn’t embed, so here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm–yxNLMFU.

It was beautiful and so amazingly colourful.

The next morning I got back to Kyoto Station and promptly got on to the wrong shinkansen, which meant it took me a little longer to get back to Tokyo. I checked into my hotel in Ginza and checked my email after 3 days without the internet:). The weather turned nasty as I went to Roppongi, so checked out the Roppongi Hills, which was mostly shopping. I then went to my favourite sushi place for dinner and attempted to go to the onsen one last time. Unfortunately the weather was so bad (typhoon winds I found out the next day), so the driverless monorail was out of service. I headed back to the hotel and had an early night. I needed it:).