Hi all this is JK writing.
We had an amazing day, unfortunately we started off slowly as we had to leave the amazing ryokan that we were staying in the night before, due to the price, and move to a different place. The whole process started off very slowly because we ended up with a rail pass not a bus pass and kyoto only has two railway tracks and 50 odd bus routes, bummer! Then we got the hang of where we were going and what we were doing and ended up in the right vicinity, after a couple of pleas for help we found that we were staying in the grounds of the local temple "Daitojoku" (The name needs to be clarified). When I found this out I was over joyed, I don`t know about JP, and when we found it, it was a small quaint place run by one woman called Mrs Tani. For those who have heard of her she is a little like The Pink Lady from Cannes, as in, she speaks close to perfect English but refuses to speak any at all if she thinks she can get more money out of you! Once we had arrived we sorted our selves out and headed down to the place of the 10,000 (Ichi man) Torii.
The Torii (as far as I know and I may be wrong) are bought by businesses to promote prosperity in thier company. The whole of the countryside is covered with these rather elegant arches that are painted in a bright orange, whith black lettering engraved upon them. The lettering, supposedly, reads as the name of the company that paid for it.
We spent a couple of hours there before heading home. On our way back we stopped at this rather delightfull little cafe/restaurant place that was mainly an antiques store. The owner came over to us and started spewing rapid Japanese at us that could have been either:
1. "We stopped serving at 6. Get Out!!!" 2. "Would you like the starter and the main course or just the main course?", or 3. "How do you like your toast?"
We both really hoped that it was the second one. We stayed and stressed that we didn`t understand until she brought us food -- and the food we wanted, to say the least it was delicious. While we were eating people started appearing that either lived with her or were local friends because the place turned into her front room, with what looked like her son (walking around in a heavy metal T-shirt) looking completely out of place. The whole experience made it feel like we were eating in her living room.
Finally we made it home, fed and content. JP got on the internet and uploaded the photos while we sat and chatted to the other residents of this quaint little hovel... The opinon of it was we were all looking for a good time but didn't have that much cash!!! The solution was to go to a bar that sold drinks for 200yen each, what we didn't realise was that there was a service charge of 400yen, and consumption tax at 5%!
Having got over that we went to the local super market and bought a 2 litre bottle of Sake!! I feel the rest is explained the two Americans and the Dutch girl are in bed and the English are still up. GOOD TIMES.
Much Love,
James