We were all pretty shattered after our day in Hiroshima and late return to the hotel, so we indulged and had a sleep in. No photos of that, I’m afraid. Morgan took one for the team and went on a laundry mission. When he returned we finally got our lazy selves sorted.

Successfully negotiated our first Kyoto bus (we were quite proud of ourselves) and then walked a little way to Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion).

Kikaku-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple that has been rebuilt several times over the years (after being damaged or destroyed by fire). The iteration we saw dates from 1955. And no – it isn’t gold-coloured paint. It’s actually coated in gold leaf covered in Japanese lacquer.

It is surrounded by lovely gardens and grounds (including Kyokochi – the mirror pond) – as we’ve come to expect in Japan.

Next up we took a bus to Gion – Kyoto’s most famous Geisha district. We didn’t see any real geisha though – just loads of people dressed up as geisha. This is a big thing around the popular tourist spots in Japan. You can hire a kimono and the people in the shop will do your hair and makeup and dress you up and then you can spend the rest of the day walking around in your flash get-up (right down to split-toed socks and geta). I wasn’t keen because a. it just felt a little inappropriate somehow – hard to explain – and b. I need decent walking shoes to do 15-20,000 steps a day.

So, we set off up the hill towards Kiyomezu-dera (“pure water temple”). Came across Hokanji temple (above) en route.

You walk up a very busy shopping street. Narrow and crowded (below).

We were most excited to see the Hon-Do (Main Hall) but saw these other temple buildings on the way:

Then we came around the corner and – oh no! Renovations! Kiyomizu-dera is best known for its wooden stage that juts out from the main hall – 13m above the hillside. Beautiful views. It’s supposed to look like this…

(Not my picture, obviously) but its roof is being re-done so it actually looks like this right now:

Never mind. We still saw some views.

And the walk back down through the temple gardens/forest was also lovely.

When we got back down it was around 5pm so we decided to have an early dinner. We were keen to try okonomiyaki and I had a recommendation on a place in Gion that did a gluten-free version (courtesy of the g-f eating in Japan Facebook group that has saved our asses a bunch of times since we’ve been here).

Maeve and I shared a gluten-free set menu and the boys shared a steak one (I think it only differed from ours in 1 of the 8 courses, so they must be in the habit of using g-f soy sauce). Here are some food photos:

Deep-fried tofu went down well with everyone:

Okonomiyaki!!!

A very successful night. The food was delicious and the people were lovely. We’d eaten so much we decided to walk back to the hotel. Saw some pretty sights:

Tomorrow we leave Kyoto – back to Tokyo for us.