Last Day in Kyoto

Today we took the correct bus in the correct direction. About two classrooms worth of schoolchildren filled the bus to capacity. This would only be the beginning. After getting off the bus, we walked up the hill to Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. It was by far the most packed with tourists and schoolchildren of anywhere we've been the whole trip. It was so crowded, it became unpleasant. Every second, I had to duck under a selfie stick or weave my way through a group of schoolgirls. Twice Nicole and I were asked to pose with schoolchildren. Why? We have no idea. After peering from behind the crowds to take a few pics of our own, we fled the area.

We began walking to the north through the neighborhood of Gion, which is where many of the geishas (or geikos as they are known in Kyoto) are known to be seen. We stopped off at a few shops in the back alleys where Nicole made some purchases. I too made a purchase at one point, but it was ice cream and it was promptly eaten. After navigating the Kyoto subway lines back to Kyoto Station, we felt winded from the stress of the morning and went back to the hotel to regroup for a bit. For a while we debated our next move. Should we take the train to Nara? In the end, we both felt too lazy for that and instead walked back toward the train station and into a place called Yodabashi camera, a massive electronics store. It is difficult to explain just how expansive it is. Take for example an online store where you can find anything you're looking for -- then take all those items and put them on display. Lenses, camera bodies, accessories, cell phone cases and so on. If it exists, it was on display. Still getting used to my new camera, I have found that I would like my video framing to be just a bit wider in my shots from this trip and did some research.

I spoke with a sales associate in Englanese, priced a couple lenses, did the currency conversions, double checked the math, and an hour later was the proud owner of a wide-angle converter and 16mm lens kit. It was $120 cheaper than if I would have bought it online in the U.S. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening around the train station, which is like a city in its own right. From a garden/park area at the top, we worked our way back down the 12 different levels of the station. We ate pizza at an Italian restaurant that had a view of the Kyoto Tower and the sunset.

While it may seem silly to be eating pizza in Japan, keep in mind that we were the only non-Japanese people in the whole restaurant. Every lunch on this trip, I have eaten something Japanese and today it was another bento box. By dinner, I was fully prepared to not eat something Japanese. It was a very hearty meal. After dinner, we did some more walking around the station before finally calling it a night. "I had a very nice dinner at the train station," is not something you would hear in the U.S., but you could really eat or buy anything at the Kyoto Station. It is too massive even for my new wide-angle lens.