KULTURE KOMEDOWN IN KYOTO

After one too many late nights (Simon's such a bad influence), we moved onto Kyoto to take it easy for a couple of nights and 1 day to briefly soak up some Japanese history. We arrived in the late afternoon and after checking into our very small room for 3, we went up the Kyoto Tower to check out the city views (which were fairly un-inspiring, aside from seeing the bullet train arriving at high speed from above). Then, after a quick bowl of ramen noodles, we went to the cinema and saw 'The Forbidden Kingdom' starring Jet Li & Jackie Chan... we highly recommend you don't bother. 

The next day, we managed a day's cycling in Arashiyama, on the north-west outskirts of the city. Following a route through the beautiful bamboo forest and stopping off at one of the most famous shrines in Japan, we finally reached the Golden Pavilion in the north before turning around and heading back to where we began. The sun was shining, we weren't hungover and we were happy to finally get some exercise. So, all feeling good, we wandered the ancient streets of Gion looking for Geishas, managed to spot a lucky 3, and then went out for an 'all you can eat & drink in 2 hours' yaki-niku barbeque meal-deal... followed by, of course, the obligatory late karaoke session. Kyoto whistle-stop tour done.