Kyoto, Japan-Sleep, Enlightenment and Cleavage

Yesterday after leaving McDonalds, I went to look for the hostel. I had written directions which I had printed out, but I couldn't find them. Perhaps the person at Mcdonalds had thrown them away. I was sitting there for around 2 hours-and heard the same three songs played (Want Adds from Jackson Five, A Barry White song, and something else).

I was totally lost when I left. I remembered something about a Lawson's drug store and turning-I found it but still couldn't find the hostel. I found a hotel and asked in there for directions, and they gave it to me-I was in the totally wrong area. I went in the opposite directions, and using the print out the lady at the hotel gave me, I found the hostel.

I brought my stuff in, and they lady at the hostel let me take a shower, which was important since, i hadn't showered in 24 hours-i had slept on the bus. It was too early to check in though, so I left my bags there and walked back to the train station where there was a tourist information office, and received some brochures of the area.

I read through them while having a second breakfast/lunch of ramen noodles, and had more ramen later on-this time spicy and really good. I read about an overwhelming number of things to do in Kyoto (including 1200 temples). I found one temple wasn't far from the train station, and that is where I went.

The temple was huge. While I have since many many many many temples since I started travelling in Asia-the longer I stayed the more I liked this temple. The temple was called Higashi Honganji, or “Eastern Temple of the First Vow” is one of two head temples of the Jodo Shinsh. The founder of this sect of Buddhism was tired of traditional Buddhism-where only those who did certain things, such as being a vegetarian, would ever reach enlightenment. With help of his guru, he promoted the word of a new type of Buddhism where anyone can reach enlightenment by saying a few different words-and that would give the people hope.(He felt that folks fished and hunted to feed their own family-and they deserve enlightenment as well). At the temple, while there was literature, it was a cartoon video on the temple displayed on a large-screen tv that outlined all of this. I watched the cartoon twice. While at the temple, I found a nice place outside a temple to use my camera bag as a pillow, and take a long long nap, which was quite refreshing and needed since I received so little sleep the day before.

After the temple, i took a 4 minute walk to a garden called the The Shosei-en Garden, which was near the temple. This was a beautiful garden consisting of different sets of flowers, tea houses, Buddhist statues and a very picturesque pond.

After the pond, i went back to the hostel to check in. i took the last bed in my 8-person dorm, which was an upper bunk, and went to sleep (it was only about 5:00). i was sort of pissed-because someone else took the last lower bunk bed-and it was evident he only checked in a few minutes before 'i did-as his backpack was on the bed. The only advantage of the upper bunk bed was the girl in the bunk below me had stood up beside the bed, and from where I was I could see her cleavage. Besides being was younger, she had orange-bluish hair and tattoos-so she wasn't my type-but that was something.

After taking the nap and the view, I took a walk to get some dinner. I had some tuna and rice at some type of local place.