I wrote before that crawling into my loft to sleep has a bit of a spaceman feel to it. That's nothing compared to the capsule experience. Yes, I gave the capsule hotel thing a try. The perspective in the photo above looks a bit Picasso-ish because it's about 5 different photos stitched together. I needed a wide angle lens to take in my tiny surroundings properly. The striped part is just a light cloth screen covering the opening where you climb in and out, so sounds easily travel in and out of the capsules. I had my hand over the speaker on my camera to muffle the tell-tale click (I can't read a lot of the onscreen instructions on my camera, so I don't know how to turn the sound off). Everyone else in the place seemed like they were regular capsule dwellers and I didn't want to be noticed as the weirdo taking photos.

I really felt like I was in a place somewhere between a hotel, the spaceship from Alien, a mortuary and a hospital. You may have gathered that I didn't exactly like it. It was depressing. From the time you pay your money and get given a velcro wristband with a locker key and barcode on it you feel sub-human. Then you walk in to the locker rooms where you find your number and open the door to swap your clothes and belongings for a yukata robe to sleep in. You're surrounded by other men (no women allowed) of various ages, but many with the look and smell of having been drinking and smoking, then having had a shower and bath. These are young guys who've planned to go out together past the time of the last trains - and the young and old who've worked late, drunk late and then found themselves a place to crash. One old guy came in with dried blood on his head and clothes. I thought, man... what am I doing here?

The place I went to was right near the various Umeda stations - the northern entry point to big city Osaka - basically the hub of the city. The hotel also had a bunch of different spas on the first few levels, with a sign saying no one with body-markings allowed - to guarantee patrons they would be in a yakuza-free zone. I admit feeling a little afraid of what I was getting into! The reason I stayed there, rather than simply going home was that I met my friend Caroline just after she arrived from the airport and I knew that after finding her hotel that I would be pressed for time getting the last train. The trip is also so expensive that I knew a caspule would cost less than going home and coming back in the morning... we were going to Kyoto the next day and it's only 30 minutes from Umeda. So the capsule hotel, being right behind Caroline's hotel, made sense. But yeah... I think once was enough!

Caroline standing on the top steps of the Kyoto Station building. It's a very modern hotch-potch of styles and shapes - some love it, some hate it. I like the space but it's not exactly convenient to navigate or commute through.

We headed for the golden pavilion - Kinkakuji, to the northwest of the city. We caught it just in time to see the sun glinting of its gilded panelling. There aren't many other things around Kinkakuji so it's a bit of a pain to get to, but it's kind of compulsory viewing if spending any real length of time in Kyoto - it's beautiful.

This is Daimonji-yama just near Kinkakuji where fires are lit to form a huge character of dai (big) during the August Obon festival. Many fires and lanterns are lit to guide spirits of the dead to their homes and then back to the hereafter, but the most celebrated are this one and the bonfires on four other mountains that surround the city, forming other large characters. And guess who started this tradition... the same Kobo Daishi that lit the fire on Misen-zan on Miyajima Island (see a few posts ago). A bit of a pyro, wasn't he?

We move now to Nijo Castle. I really enjoyed this place - it was my first time here. There's no traditional-looking tower with a castle keep - it's more of a complex of single storey buildings with incredible painted screens and ceilings - with all the cool stuff - you know, dragons, pine trees, cranes, tigers, mist etc. Highlights for me were the nightingale floors, designed to sing out a warning as you step on them and the room where the shogun sat and received visitors (with a troop of samurai armed and ready, sitting on the other side of the screen next to him!).

Another highlight was this roof.

Oh, and this gate.

And this roof...

and these bits.

We had some matcha, or green tea and a sweet served to us in a garden tea house. The tea itself is quite bitter, so the sweet goes well with it.

We had a stroll around Gion and speaking of tea - this ochaya or tea house is a famous one. I'm told that should you have the right connections to be entertained here for an evening by maiko, geisha etc, it will set you back about 1 million yen (over AU$11,000).

Another ochaya.

One of Kyoto's thousands of shrines and temples. This temple was near Gion, but I don't know its name. It's tucked inbetween shops in a busy street.

Same place.

This is part of the famous Yasaka shrine of Gion. The Gion matsuri (see post with tall wagon things going through the streets) stems from here.

I like lanterns.

From temples and lights back to tea...

Caroline and I saw this amazing set used for tea ceremony in Kobe. We were on our way to the harbour, going through an underground mall when we noticed an ikebana (flower arrangement) exhibition. The lady curating quickly invited us to sit and have tea.

The whisk is used to make powdered green tea frothy. I really like the canister thing - Japanese lacquer looks so edible!

There was nothing for sale - just kindness given. It really made our day. The tea and sweet were better than the one we'd paid 700 yen for in Kyoto and we were made to feel like honoured guests. A world apart from the capsule experience which was the start of this mini-holiday (i.e. weekend!).

I'm not sure how into flower-arrangement you are, but there were some cool designs. These were my favourites...

Well, next up is my visit to Universal Studios. Somewhere I hadn't planned on going to, but it was a lot of fun!

I went back to the local shrine for the 4th time today (I walk past it on the way to work) and took yet more photos. The leaves were another shade of orange and red and a few trees were primary yellow. Tomorrow is a national holiday (I loooovvveee November in Japan) and I'm off to see some local festivities with my mate Oscar. We're then heading back to see my friend Kazuya who lives behind in the sushi restaurant to then go sing some karaoke!

When in Rome...