When I did get up I had a long walk ahead of me. My end targets were two temples: Kinkakuji, the golden pavillion and Ryoanji, which has the "finest" example of an abstract zen rock garden.
On my way there I'd be stopping Tenmangu Machi for another flea market. This turned out to be much larger than the Toji temple market and featured much neater stuff. While the other one had a lot of crafts, this one also had a lot of random junk. Piles of watches both working and not, antique books and toys, random Japan statues and stuff (buddhas, samurai figurines, etc). I bought a mochi matcha red bean dumpling from this cute wrinkled old lady running her booth by herself. She was cooking them fresh so I got it hot. The red bean is naturally sweet in a non sugary way, the matcha mochi (matcha is just green tea, mochi is a slightly chewy soft rice cake) was a little bitter but in a good way. Was okay, would probably get again but not anytime soon.
As I was making the final loop around the edge of the market, I was trying to find something for a souvenir for someone else or for me. Nothing quite gave me a signal. But then I saw a jar of dragon ball z pogs. For some reason my heart told me I needed this, and I asked the price. It was 9 bucks. I neglected to haggle and paid the money. Now I have a jar of dbz pogs, more on this later.
Afterwards I headed to Kinkakuji further north. There is a shrine and a smaller building but the big draw is the pavillion. Offset in a zen garden with a pond reflecting it, the wooded building is at least half covered in gold leaf. It was prett cool, but the tourist draw was amazing. People were packed around the pond taking selfies amd trying to get enough space for an instagram shot that makes it appear theyre there alone. On top of that there are more giftshops and ice cream stands there than there are buddhist buildings. Not very Zen guys.
Next was Ryoanji, and this was happily way less crowded. Both of these temples were far out of the way were people had to tale buses, and I guess compared to the "Golden Pavillion" nobody cares about rocks. Ryoanji actually had a lot more than the rock garden. It had several zen gardens and a trail going around the outside. I gave the rock garden a good 15 minute stare. Notably unlike other zen gardens this one doesnt have any trees, just rocks. Theres supposed to be some symbolism about a tiger and her cub crossing the river, but I couldn't get it. Other zen gardens had waves to represent water but not this. Idk maybe 5 more minutes might have done the trick.
After that I started heading back. It was only 3:15 or so when I was getting close to the guest house. I think Nori likes to have it alone to clean in the afternoon, so I tried to buy him some time. I went to the nearby Kyoto Internation Manga Museum. I went in and checked out the tickets, 8 bucks, ehhhh. They were only open 2 more hours and part of the draw according to google is just chilling and reading from their giant library. I looked through the giftshop for 15 minutes and headed out.
I stopped at the guest house to drop off my pogs and trash. There arent really public trash cans in Japan, so any receipts or stuff i dump there. I said hi to Nori and headed upstairs.
Now this was the real zen moment that I didnt get from the rocks. I opened up the pog jar and looked at them. Some of the foil was coming off of some of them, they weren't particularly interesting to look at. If I took out the pogs, they would just be junk, and it would cease to be "a jar of pogs". Theyd get lost and the jar would get tossed. But together, the jar is kind of interesting and has japanese art on the lid, and a label below, its basically a mason jar otherwise. And if I put on my mantle or shelf, people will ask "why do you have a jar of pogs?" and Ill be able to tell them about it.
After tucking away my treasure I googled some thrift stores since my luck was so good so far. I found 2 around Nishiki market and headed that way. The first one was more or less a bust. Im still hunting for the coveted Gameboy Light that was only sold in Japan. On my way to the 2nd store I did a double take on a sign. Which Ill post here rather than explain:
So this is my girlfriend Sarah's dream among dreams. Im ok with otters. So for her sake I went inside. It was on the 2nd floor and I had to go up these sketchy stairs through a backdoor. I went in and was greeted by one of the 2 girls working there. I found out they have at least 6 otters. 2 of them are 6 months old and are the ones I'd be playing with along with a group of otter paying customers. It was 15 bucks which was a steal for an hour of time and a coke. Im pretty sure the drink is to avoid various rules or regulations and to make it a true "cafe". Other similar cafes do that with Owls or Hedgehogs. Ive seen signs for both while here.
The two otters were named Utsuyu and Odashi, which are both types of Japanese soups/broths. Those little guys were super full of energy and I got to feed them and give them water. While playing with them they put another otter in a visible area with a water tank, and it seemed just fine sticking just its head underwater and looking around. Afterwards I got my picture taken holding the two water sausages. It was a lot of fun, and they seemed to have a good time too.
Next I made it to the other thrift store which turned out to be anime figures, dvds, memorabilia both used and new. I looked around and headed out.
What I didnt mention earlier was food. Ive been slowly but surely trying each different 7-11 chicken flavor. Top tier was their cheezu chiken and their chicken bites. At lunch I had Lawsons chicken, which is another chain convenience store and I think there's is the best so far. At any rate Id had convenient store chicken for 2 meals so on principal alone I went somewhere else for dinner.
Yataiya was recommended by Nori on the first day and they were really good at a good price. I got the tempura platter for 5 bucks which had shrimp, octopus, sand borer, sweet potato, mushroom, japanese basil, and green pepper all deep fried to perfection. It was really good and I liked it more than the previous tempura. I also ordered a highball. I'd never had one before and had to look it up, whiskey with soda. Apparently they're pretty popular here as Suntory sells them individually by can, and I've seen it on lots of menus. I liked it a lot too.
At any rate I finished my night and went back to the guest house.
I love their names!! So cute!
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