Our second day in Kyôtô started very early (compared to the usual at least XD) since we wanted to get to Fushimi Inari shrine before the crowds. It was well worth it, being able to take some beautiful pictures undisturbed and walk up to the small mountain shrine before the midday heat wave hit. And I saw and heard ravens on the way up <3 hello Hugin and Munin! And we made excellent time compared to the last time hubby was here, 1 hour from the entrance gates to the top. We took it a bit slower on the way down, and a different route as well, conveniently ending up on a street filled with food and souvenir vendors. We bought various things for an early lunch and I bought a plushie kitsune :3
After that on via bus to Kinkakuji, which really was an amazing experience. I can really understand humans’ fascination with gold seeing that building glittering in the sunlight. Because it overlooked a lake and was generously cordoned off it was easy to get good pictures also. And there were some nice charms for luck in various things for sale there (as there are on any kind of temple ground really) so I bought a big bunch :3 but my kitsune plushie got ripped off my purse somewhere ;-; but also match-icecream <3
We continued on to Gion, the old quarters of Kyôtô afterwards (I wanted to catch a glimpse of a geisha ^///^ we didn’t). Hubby got real tired and wanted to return to the hotel in Ôsaka but I wanted to continue sight-seeing so we split up. Normally I wouldn’t really… be very comfortable with this, because hubby has a lousy sense of direction, but he could point to where the nearest subway station was and we’d made the trip between Ôsaka-Kyôtô a couple of times now so I though sure. Gotta trust in him and relax a little. So I gave him the room key card *(only hade the one) and went on my merry way in Kyôtô (apparently it is a thing to go to Gion and rent kimonos and get your hair done before strolling around..?) for a while before returning to Ôsaka, and then browsing a galleria I found for an hour or so before trying to find my way back to the hotel. I knew I was the right neighbourhood, Namba, but in the end I had to go down in the subway to check the numbered exits to be able to find my way XD And then, when I’m almost back, thinking hubby must have had a nice, calm nap by now, I see his, in Japan very distinctive, back while crossing the last road in front of the hotel! I call out to him and he turns and runs to me and hugs me tight and excluding such relief at having found me! Meanwhile I feel like a huuuge question mark.
So. Apparently, hubby has, in his cloud of sleepiness, taken a Hikari shikansen from Kyôtô, buuut… In the wrong direction. Towards Tôkyô and not Ôsaka. And the Hikari doesn’t stop all that often so he was on that train, stewing in his own, nervous sweat for 30 minutes before managing to get off. Now he tells me, he is mildly panicking, because we only hade the one key card remember, and what if I had returned to the hotel only to find it locked and empty? Sooo, to get back quickly, he took the next available train, which happened to also be the fastest, a Nozomi. Only our shinkansen passes weren’t valid on Nozomi. So to avoid the train staff checking the tickets, he locked himself for half an hour in the toilet XD crazy nervous all the while. When he got back to Kyôtô he had to switch trains and made the adrenalin-fuelled decision to take Nozomi again (he admitted to having some not very complimentary fantasies about my reactions at the time). and while this trip was shorter, he didn’t dare lock himself up again, but he daren’t sit in a seat only to rush up if he saw a ticket controller, so he stood in the compartment between the wagons and pretended to talk on his mobile, all the while “discreetly” checking around the corners now and then to see if any train staff was approaching. So at long last he’s back in Ôsaka, on the final trek to the hotel only to hear my voice calling him on the street. So he wasn’t to late back! But I find my husband a nervous wreck instead of calm and rested as I’d expected. Nothing to do but go inside and lay down for a proper nap :)