Kyoto-Walking with folks and hot chocolate with pups

Yesterday, got up early as usual. The plan was to go to a nearby town where there are deer running around, and more temples. In the common area of the hostel, though, I ran into someone who I talked to at the hostel in Tokyo, and a girl from Argentina-they wanted to go to the Imperial Palace. I have never been there,and it would be nice to be with others. So I tagged along with them for the 50 (or so) minute walk. It was nice to walk as well. I have been taking public transportation everywhere and haven't walked that much.

After the walk past houses and building, we arrived at the Imperial Palace, which was the capital of Japan until it was moved to Tokyo in 1869. We saw large temple-like structures, and entrances for the Emperor and Empress, and different gardens and houses on the property. We viewed a house that the Empress went to when there was an earthquake.

After the tour, we decided to walk to the Philosophers Path, which I saw a few days ago. I decided to walk with them, when it started raining, where we stopped for lunch at a good place with lots of food, and many people eating who appeared to be locals.

Once we arrived at the path, I decided to walk away, since I was there before. I took a bus to the area where the market was, and finally found the market (I looked for it for the past few days). The market had lots of different foods for sale. I bought some potato on a stick with syrup, and had some noodles. i also noticed there was a puppy cafe, where for around $8.00 (including a non-alcoholic drink), you can sit with the puppies. Now back in Tokyo, there was the maid-cafe, where you would be served by maids. I didn't do this, and regretted it ever since leaving Tokyo-so i decided to try the puppy cafe.

It was fun. The dogs we're a lot of fun. One was licking my foot, which was bitten by mosquitoes from the walking the day before at the shrine, and that was quite soothing. I enjoyed a hot-chocolate while being licked my the pooch.

After 1/2 an hour, the time was up (we we're given 1/2 hour time slots-and that was enough), i wanted to use the bathroom-I found Wendys and bought a beer so i could use the bathroom. (Wendys serves beer in Japan). i then wandered around some more, and walked back to the area the hostel was. Once again, a few days before, I would have taken the train or bus, but now had confidence in walking. I looked at a used camera store for lenses, but didn't see any, and went to train station for some conveyor-belt sushi, and then walked home.