Day 11

woke up quite late (0830) by our standards. guess we must have been really exhausted at the night market plus the ultra long walk back to the hotel in our clogs. century hotel is also ultra comfortable and their thick curtains block off the sunlight entirely, making it easier for me, who is extremely light-sensitive. breakfast at their japanese restaurant. forgot to bring the camera down but it was a really nutritious breakfast. looks deceptively lacking in substance but once u polish off the yummy japanese rice (its the best) u'd be comfortably full.

rushed off to the location near city hall to catch the parade. there were already alot of pple waiting and we could see the first float in the distance. there are 32 floats altogether. yama floats depict scenes from chinese and japanese history and mythology and often bear pine trees, shrines and mannequins. hoko floats are massive 2-storied, nearly 10-ton combinations of music hall and museum tt are hauled by teams of up to 50 men.

 

the gion matsuri was held in the early Heian period (794-1185) to stop a series of devastating plagues. that morning, we saw mainly older folk and the atomsphere was rather solemn. finally found a spot on an elevated part of the pavement and decided to camp out there. there were folks standing on anything tall just so that they can get a better view. one old man even brought a mini ladder.

there were a few americans beside us too and there was this particular one who kept complaining abt how the japanese pple are mean and they hate her and whatnot. we stayed till abt the 2nd or 3rd float before going off.

it was a long train ride down to arashiyama. it was extremely hot and sunny. we went to tenryuji temple tt boasts of a great view of the mountains. but the best season to view is still spring (with sakura) or autumn (with maple leaves). the mountains would be covered in red, orange hues which looks really pretty. quickly snapped pictures before running for cover. we were both totally sweating through our tops!






went down to uji just for our mocha soft cream cone. they created a new path which made the walking slightly easier. reached there and got a cone each before starting on the path back. at the first junction, tobias had already finished his cone and was seriously contemplating getting a second one. he nearly wanted to walk away but i convinced him to go back and get another one since he liked it so much. its not every day u fly to japan to eat soft cream ok. the soft cream girl was shocked to see we were back and gave us a larger serving for the two additional cones we got. 1400Y spent on soft cream but totally worth it!



grave realisation tt we left our facial scrub at the osaka hotel. last minute decision to take shinkansen down to retrieve it and eat kamukura ramen. thank God it was still there. we went to uniqlo's flagship store and he got great tops at like 645Y each. im still contemplating a 2990Y purple dress so we'll see whether i end up buying by the end of the trip. still hoping for a sale some day. haha~

kamukura brought back fond fond memories. it was the 1st ramen we had last yr after reaching japan. it was the first thing we did too. eat. japan has the world's largest number of resturants. they are totally foodies man. so are we. no wonder we feel totally at home here. compare and contrast: then and now