Central Kyoto ... JR Station Building and Temples of Mammon

A beautiful day in Kyoto meant that the dogs would be barking by dinner time. A subway took us to JR Central where we booked Shinkansen tickets for Himeji. We passed a illy coffee shop so had to try their drop which proved to be an excellent espresso drawn, or should that be expressed, from a genuine Italian espresso machine - so much for my comment yesterday ...

Looking for the Kyoto Culture Office took us to the 9th floor of the Isetan store which is part of the JR building complex - and I mean complex. That done we entered the Temple of Mammon - even for a non-shop-a-holic it was mind blowing.

Having become google-eyed at the goodies on offer we decided to make for the more spiritual temples which are a couple of blocks from the JR building. Sad to say, we had the disgusting dis-pleasure of standing next to three beer swilling Ozers while we waited for a green man to light our way. Loud mouthed Neanderthals who suffered from verbal diarrhea which informed those around that they supported various footy and aussie rules teams. What excellent ambassadors. What excellence our education system produces.

Nishi Hongwanji temple has been around since 1173. It's very big and, unfortunately we couldn't visit the large garden behind the two main buildings.

A couple of blocks away, Higashi Honganji temple is equally as large.

Both of these temples have one of their main buildings inside a temporary building which we supposed was there while restoration work was being carried out. These babushka buildings were impressive in themselves.



Wandering back to the JR building so that we could get the subway back to the hotel took us, inevitably, to a cafe for afternoon tea and cake.

Back "home" it was time to rest after six and a-half hours of wandering.