Kyoto... and Kurama!

The weather was finally sunny for our first day in Kyoto. After dumping our bags at the guest house I had found on Craiglist, we borrowed some bikes and weaved our way through the traffic to meet up with my friend, Ayana. We visited a large temple that is the mother temple for Buddhists. In the evening, we sang together in a karaoke room then went for dinner (soba and vegetable tempura).

The next day was rainy, so we borrowed umbrellas instead of bikes and spontaneously took a train ride out of town to the mountain village of Kurama. There we hiked up Kurama Mountain, from one shrine to another, up the winding forest path that turned into a river of mud on the way down. It was beautiful and so peaceful there :)

That afternoon we took a free tour of the Emperor's Palace, an impressive set of buildings with centuries of history to be told. Before catching our train to Osaka, we stuffed some suitcases in a locker at the train station and met up my past classmate and his girlfriend and sister for tea. Then we wandered around the Gion district in search of vegetarian food which ended up being bibimbap... with ground beef :(