The continental breakfast at the beautiful Sasarindou Hotel is delicious, but has more cabbage than I was prepared for. I am not complaining, just learning to enjoy cabbage in this country.
The bus ride from Kyoto train station to Takoa is 50 minutes, with plenty of opportunity to catch views of daily life and cultural heritage in Kyoto. I don't know which is more interesting, the temples stashed away in so many corners of Kyoto or all the little differences between the day-to-day life in Japanese society compared to my own.
You know what makes old, historic temples more interesting? A soothing layer of fuzzy green moss over everything. The grounds of the temples are well-tended. They look natural, but stray leaves are brushed away from paths and moss beds regularly.
We climb forever to the top of a mountain for an extraordinarily beautiful temple complex with all the trees starting to turn into their fall colors. You know what's prettier than a deciduous forest in the fall? Nothing.
Mochi dongo for a snack (the path to the temple is easy, but the elevation change is steep, so: fuel) and a little restaurant on the way down. We eat outdoors on wide benches with tiny pillows and tiny tables. You take your shoes off to be polite. It is comfortable and I love it. Oyakudon again, because I love that too.
We are approached for the second time tin two days for a TV interview. We accept this time instead of decline, but fail to find words they're interested in. To be fair, the interviewer asked terrible questions that went nowhere. Still, we are apparently candy to TV interviewers. Please boys, one at at a time!
We walk from the top of the mountsin, 4km down one of the prettiest hiking trails I've ever been on next to the clearest mountain stream, marred only by the occasional orange leaf scouting the way for its fellows. Just gorgeous. Eventually we hit little villages, one of which has a preserved traditional district, which eventually bleeds into Kyoto proper, a large bamboo grove, and another huge temple. It is an amazing day, brought to us by our well-prepared friends.
I have a lost track of which of my aches and pains and infirmities are the result of age or being so out of shape. I had to stop repeatedly on the hike to stretch my legs to loosen up my lower back, which had joined my feet in a chorus of pain. At the very least, I think I would like to get in shape purely to delineate which discomforts can be laid at the feet of mortality and which point to a lack of discipline.
Our friends, who have been to Japan many times, were well-prepared and planned an excellent day. We never would have stumbled on that trail on our own and we were grateful both to see them and to join them in their adventures.
There is a koi feeder at the last temple we visit who tends the giant koi fish at incredible koi pond in the garden there. He feeds some by hand and gives them a friendly pet down the back. Kyoto is an incredible city. It is well worth your time to visit, should you ever get the opportunity.
Yak & Yeti was our final destination. Nepalese food in the heart of one of Kyoto's bustling shopping districts. Our server is a tiny woman who has tapped energy sources I can only dream of at this point. The service is top notch, the food affordable, the flavors unbelievable.
I swear to god we saw tiny crabs in the forest.
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