We first swung by the parade for a quick glimpse. It was very crowded (although incredibly quite...) as we walked along the parade route to catch a glimpse of a few of the tall, man-powered floats. We then hopped a bus for the north side of Kyoto.
Our first stop was the Ryoanji Temple, which houses Japan's most famous Zen rock garden. It was surprisingly small (80 ft by 30 ft), but provided us with a nice setting in which to pause and contemplate. The garden with its 15 rocks is observed from a small wooden porch, and you must remove your shoes to enter. The fact that this garden has been in existence and unchanged since the 1400s is a little hard to contemplate.
We then headed for the Kinkakuji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion). The golden temple was constructed in 1390 as a retirement villa for a retired Shogun. The top two floors are covered in gold leaf and, with it's surrounding ponds and gardens, it is quite a spectacle. Because of the heat and the fact that we arrived at the same time as a large Chinese tour group, we made quick work of the temple grounds and hopped a bus back to central Kyoto.
Our next stop was Kyoto's international manga museum. This turned out to be a little disappointing since it was mostly a huge collection of manga (Japanese comic books) stacked on shelves. Nevertheless, the collection was impressive and everyone enjoyed a display of how manga is created and how it evolved.
At this point, everyone was pretty wiped out so we headed back to our rooms and spent the rest of the evening in the comfort of air conditioning, save for a quick trip out to the temple to get some noodles, fried chicken, and sausages for dinner.
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