Kyoto, Golden palace, Nijo castle and Yuzawaya.

Wednesday saw us leave Shinjuku to catch the train to Shingawya, so that we could catch the bullet train to Kyoto. The trip by train took 2 1/2 hrs and was quite enjoyable,  I managed to get half a Lucy Boston done, yay! Only 2 more to go and I will have completed 56. We arrived at 1 pm and got a cab to the hotel, checked in and then went out to explore. First stop was the  Nishijon Textile Centre, on the edge of town, here in the centre we saw, Kimono 's being modelled, silk painting, gorgeous brocades, scarves and handmade purses. A delight to see how the fabric is weaved and also a display of gold leaf applied to the finest silk. 

We then watched the sumo wrestling for 1 hour and progressed onto the Nishiki market, before we walked to our booked dinner with waygu beef, this in itself was a challenge to find the restaurant and DH was ready to give up after walking up alleys and trying to find the place, with Japanese speaking and limited english,  and our Japanese being nil, although the Japanese are very helpful, it was very hard to understand. I had the name of the restaurant written down on a piece of paper. Our booking was for 6.30 pm to 7 pm and just when DH said he was going back to the hotel, a young man from a restaurant pointed us to the restaurant , we finally arrived at 7.30 pm, shoes off and guided into the room, where we had to cook dinner ourselves, pick the price...7,000 yen ($70.00) and the best waygu beef was prepared for you cook , not the best meal so far, but at least we experienced true Japanese traditions, served by kimono dressed waitress.

Thursday we used the local buses to get around, first stop was the golden palace! an absolute must see! then onto the Nijo castle! very impressive building! what was amazing about this castle was the nightingale floor! when you walked on this floor! it did sound like nightingales singing! it bought back many memories of the early ninja movies we used to watch? the shogun lived in this castle and was guarded by the ninja's. Then what would Kyoto be without a visit to the Yazawaya store, although this store was not as big as the Shinjuku store, the range of fabrics were not as vast, I did mange to get 6 mtrs of Japanese fabric for a backing of a quilt that I am doing for $27, also lots of linen bias and other goodies. I left DH in a British pub with happy hour, so that I could have a happy hour to myself, maybe went into nearly 2 hours, but he was happy.

Our chef, preparing the waygu beef.

Our waitress

Our waygu beef.

The Golden Palace.

Nijo castle