The day was another early one, starting at 7AM.

Breakfast was a nice highlight, maining avocado toast, something I would never expect to see in Japan! Was definitely a treat.

Our first activity was a trip to a nearby temple for a Zazen practice. For those not in the know, Zazen is a meditative discipline that’s central to Zen Buddhism. Despite being a tad congested, I found myself sitting in the lotus position, trying my hardest to focus on just breathing and keeping the pose right. Some people opted for the shoulder-stick whack to stay focused, but I decided my struggles were plenty enough.

Our next destination was Rengeo-in, or as it’s commonly known, Sanjusangendo. Seeing the 1001 buddhist statues in a row was quite the experience, something I just can’t put into words! It’s just so many statues that you can’t even process how much effort it took back in the day.

I particularly enjoyed the statues in the front row of a bunch of religious figures, but sadly, no photography was allowed. Instead, here’s some official photos of the inside!

We then headed back to the charming lanes of Ninenzaka where we visited Yasaka Koshindo Temple, filled with colorful ball-shaped charms. There, you write one of your hopes and attach it to a little string. In a way, it’s like people’s hopes and dreams painting a giant colorful mosaic on the shrine!

After that, we got ourselves lost among the back alleys, and stumbled upon another temple, and a delightful Pokémon manhole cover! The contrast of traditional temples and modern pop-culture references was just… Japan in a nutshell. Loved it!

Following that, we took part in a traditional sadou tea ceremony. We learned about 和敬清寂 (wakeiseijaku), the spirit of peace and harmony, respect, purity and tranquility as the principles of the ceremony. There, we were treated to kohaku (a type of sweet jelly dessert, with some yuzu peel in the center) and matcha tea. Everything was so calming and the people there were nothing short of hospitable. On top of that the sweets were so unexpectedly good, and the matcha was intensely high quality.

Nishiki market was up next, an extravagant shopping street lined with hundreds of food shops under a ceiling patterned with red, green and yellow. It was quite crowded, but an experience I definitely enjoyed! In the middle was an amazing snoopy-themed restaurant, so I went and got a snoopy-yaki (a snoopy-shaped taiyaki). Walking back, I also found some gyoza — absolutely mouth-watering!

Afterwards, a group of us aimed to try the Kyoto Pokemon center, only to be met with a cue a ticket system just to enter. I wasn’t in the mood to wait a whole hour just to get in, so I opted to head back to the hotel to get some laundry and blog post writing in.

In the evening, we joined up with some folks from KCG for a fun bowling session at Round One, a massive entertainment complex. The kid of one of the American teachers joined us, and they were a riot! Very much a kid ranting about his special interests. After a while, we ended up more wanting to have fun with it, as you can most likely see from the score sheet. I ordered some fried and chicken, which wasn’t the best quality but sure was addictive. The drink bar was also great!

The bowling alley was nothing short of futuristic and navigating the screens was an… experience in itself (somewhat hellish for even me who can speak the language). I’m used to bowling with much less tech, so it was quite novel to me. Nevertheless, there was even a floor dedicated to karaoke, and three more floors of arcade games!

After bowling, we found ourselves wandering towards the arcade games. I fruitlessly spent a bit too much on claw machines and watched some friends become rhythm game novices right next to pros shredding the SSS level difficulty tracks. Nothing brings you back to earth like that, haha.

Walking back to the hotel, we got a kick out of the amusingly mistranslated English on some signs. Can’t help but not laugh at it all.

Finally, after yet another day packed end-to-end, I got back to the hotel and crashed out.

Tomorrow? Hiroshima!