Kyoto

This is a continuation of my RTW diary from November 2003.

Kyoto was interesting.

It would have been a nice city to walk around if it hadn’t been raining so hard for the first day I was there. I persevered with an umbrella but it wasn’t much fun.

The second day I was able to venture further afield under gun metal grey skies. I followed the advice of Bob and Kim, an interesting American couple I met at breakfast in our Ryokan, and avoided the guided tour they had taken the day before.

Instead I made my own way around the world’s biggest wooden building (a temple), the gardens of the old Imperial Palace (palace closed without prior invitation) and the castle. The weak sun eventually broke through and provided some pale light as I wandered and took in the changing colours of the mountains surrounding Kyoto.