Day five

9:00 am: It is freezing outside!! Burr

10:45am: Bought our day bus pass and took no. 26 to Kyoto Station.

11:00am: Decided to have an early lunch in one of the restaurants at Isetan. Mel ordered tempura don, and I, cold soba with tempura. yummm

12:15pm: Boarded bus 205 to our first temple destination - Kinkakuji – 500 yen / pple

Better known as the “Golden Pavilion”. This is perhaps one of the most visited temples in Japan. The original building was constructed in 1397 as a retirement villa for shogun Ashikaga Yoshimotsu which was later transformed into a temple by his son.

The 3-storey pavilion is covered in bright gold leaf [foil] and features a bronze phoenix on the roof.

It is fascinating looking at the rich Chinese influence this ancient architect of Japan holds. Some parts of my ancestral heritage contributed to that. Cool!

This is an insanely popular temple so we literally had to fight for a spot to take a picture of the pavilion.

2:30pm: Departed Kinkajuji and made our way to Ryoanji Shrine (on bus no 12). – 500 yen / pple

In my opinion. This is by far a more majestic sight that Kinkakuji.

The focal point of this temple is the karesansui style [what we now know as Zen] garden. An oblong sand with an austere collection of 15 rocks placed strategically to reveal the simplicity and harmony of the principles of Zen mediation.

We sat down amongst the silent crowd and stared into the reeked stones desperately trying to feel the yin and the yang. Took us barely 5mins before we were bored out of our brains!! I blame it on the cured short attention span syndrome of the "W" generation.

Oh! Did I mention I spotted an early blooming cherry blossom tree! It’s sooo pretty I could just cry…. !!!

4:00pm: Shortly after departing the temple, we wondering in the back alleyways of the neighbouring suburbs and got absolutely lost.

We wondered through streets after streets of narrow houses, primary schools, local barba shops, and grocery stores. It was such an enduring experience.

I saw mothers picking their toddlers from pre-school in bicycles. All very impeccably dressed of course. How they manage to peddle with those high heels are beyond me. Little old men playing chess so deep in concentration they barely move. Kids kicking soccer ball along the back streets. And in the corner, a group of young men firing up for a local game of baseball.

It was a perfect day.

4:45pm: We finally found a main street and took bus 91 home. I was SO grateful as my feet were killing me!

5:20pm: Arrived home just in time for the Sakura celebration dinner.

We were to have a Japanese style steamboat feast dozed with plenty of my favourite shitake mushroom, tofu, kobe beef, udon and Saka!

My gf had her whole extended family-in-law over so the night was filled with lots of true blue Kyoto born and breed locals. Everyone wanted to practise his or her English on us it was hilarious! We had SO. Much. Fun. AND. So much Japanese karaoke inspired performances!

11:30pm: Drown with Sake and Sapporo. We unfolded our futons and slumbered into the night feeling absolutely certain today has given us a culture exchange experience of a lifetime.