First Published 24 July 2012

We meet the others (Eddie, Bridget, Saz and Jen) at around 9am and walked to the main high street of Kyoto. The procession of floats was happening between 9 and 1, and so we wanted to see these pass, thinking there might be a bit of a carnival atmosphere. In reality the progression was a sombre affair.

The floats were wooden structures on wheels that were pulled by teams of men wearing traditional clothing. Some of the floats were tall, with big pointy spikes and small house like bases to them. The pointy spikes wobbled precariously, and on the roofs of the bases there were 2 or 3 men holding ropes that steadied the tops. Or they were supposed to, mainly they just lounged around. It was hot so I don’t blame them.

Not “the” bamboo grove. But a nice shady spot instead.

After an hour or so of watching this we headed towards the river and through the district of Gion. This area is the geisha district, and its featured in the book “Memoirs of a Geisha”.

We went to some temples, wandered the small winding cobbled streets and bumped into a number of Frisbee players. It was hot, really hot. Numerous stops for water, ice lollies and just to sit in the shade were needed. We quite quickly realised that we needed a plan to get out of the sun. The bamboo groves towards the north of the city had been recommended and the hotel had marked where they were on the map. Perfect.

Disappointing Sushi

We got the Subway, hoping to be close to the groves, but it turned out that the map had been marked with a shrine that had a bamboo grove entrance, not in fact the cool shady grove we were all hoping for. Still it was a lovely and I enjoyed wandering the traditional garden.

We were in fact quite close to the golden temple so we walked here next. This was magnificent and was worth the trek up the huge hill to get there. We decided to get the bus back to our hotels to chill out before heading to the town centre for sushi later on.

We’d heard there was a good place, and although we knew it was expensive we wanted to experience proper sushi. Out turned out to be quite disappointing. But quite an experience…