G8 Online

Here's anothe r p icture, and here's a bigger version of the one above. Visitors weren't actually allowed to get into the temple, and there wasn't a great deal else to see (although here's a picture of us in the gardens). Nevertheless, the temple itself was ridiculously idyllic and beautiful, spoilt only by the fact that there were hundreds of tourists swarming around trying to take pictures of it like us.

It didn't take long to see this, anyway, which was fortunate given the time constraints (we were leaving town that very afternoon to get back for one more night in Tokyo before the morning flight). We spent a few minutes wandering round the shop selling overpriced tat at the exit. This was next to what was essentially a Japanese version of a wishing well, with "wishes" printed on wooden tablets, and DV made a fool of himself by picking up one of these and trying to buy it at a stall. I managed to spend a few of my spare yen on more family stuff, before we left for the next sight.

Nijo-jo castle was the next stop, although how it could be called a castle I'm not quite sure - it seemed more like a mansion with a few outhouses. What kind of castle looks like this, and has gardens like this? It was all very pretty, though, and quite instructive : the rooms in the castle had life-sized models of Japanese people sitting in them to show what might have gone on when the castle was in use. As we wandered round, we also made a practical demonstration of the "Nightingale Floor" - the wooden floorboards, which were designed to make irritating squeaking noises to alert sleeping Japanese warriors to intruders.

We then wandered outside to where the pictures linked above were taken. A group of Japanese children accosted us with a clipboard and some questions which they had obviously been given by their English teacher, which we answered for them. They only deviated from their written script when they asked "What country are you from?" When we replied "England", they said "Engrand? Beckham!" We'd got used to this, but it was still amusing. Obviously, we then had to pose for another photo.

By now it was lunchtime, so we wandered out to sample the local food speciality, "otsonomiya" (best described as Japanese pizza, although cooked on a hot frying plate in front of you, in such a way that it doesn't actually taste like pizza at all). This was fairly nice, although the texture made eating a whole portion a bit of a test. That was the last we would see of DV, since after this he was off to meet up with his friends across town - so we were down to the three that had arrived seventeen days previously.

With an hour or two still to spare, George and I decided to go and see one last sight; Sultoon, proclaiming himself "templed out", elected to accompany DV to the station and relax there for a little while before meeting us again. It transpired that George and I had made the right decision, since we saw one of the most impressive sites of all. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures of the "temple of 1001 statues" which we visited, since it wasn't allowed -all Japanese sacred sites are very strict in this respect. However, it was remarkable, since it was exactly as the name suggests : a very, very long room, containing six or seven rows of man-sized bronze-coloured statues of deities in warlike poses. Apparently there were 1000 of these, although obviously we couldn't be bothered to count, but seeing them all lined up was pretty awe-inspiring. In the centre was the 1001st statue, a giant version sitting on a throne which allegedly had 1000 arms. Now these we could be bothered to count, since there turned out to be only 25 of them. However, we were wrong to be cynical - apparently there were technically 1000 arms, since each of the 25 arms we could see saves 40 worlds. Obviously.

Time was now running short, so we headed back to find Sultoon. He was highly pleased with himself, having wandered into a department store in the station and found something of value. Apparently he walked onto one floor to find a life-sized model of Darth Vader. As he approached the statue, it suddenly began to speak : "Apology accepted, Captain Needer!" This kept Sultoon laughing for some time.

Sadly, it was time to get back to Tokyo, and a few hours later the bullet train had made it and we were back for one more night at the Ryokan Katsutaro. We tried to get in touch with Yuhei, but by the time we'd contacted him it was too late to meet up. The funeral had taken place, and Yuhei was back at work, so we thanked him for his efforts to find time to see us, and said our goodbyes. We then had to content ourselves with packing up our stuff (we'd left some of our things there when we'd left for Kyoto a couple of days previously) and watching Italy almost go out against Mexico. There was another early morning ahead - but nothing to get excited about. At last, it was time to go home.

Day 19 >>