Baffled Abroad: The Little Engine That Decided Not To (But Totally Could Have if He'd Wanted)

Today we are in Kyoto, and we've been here several days now. The recent theme of our travels is "being tired." However, we push on and do outings every day to see new things. The outings tend to run out of gas early though, and then we go watch anime movies in the hotel. But let's travel back in time to Hiroshima and catch up:

Miyajima

It was a bit drizzly out as we headed to the island, which isn't recommended weather for an outing when you are already suffering a cold (which I guess we both were to varying degrees).

To reach the island we simply boarded the ferry that was literally 100 feet from our hostel. It was a JR ferry so our passes meant we didn't have to pay. After the short trip across the water, we wandered around and eventually took a lot of pictures of this:

I'm only gonna put up that one though. We did wander out there to stand around under it. When the water level rises is a more popular time for photos because everything appears to float on the water,rather than standing on the seaweed covered mud.

On Miyajima there are deer that will walk up to you and try to eat your stuff. A lady had a map sticking up out of her purse,andthe map got snatched. I tried to retrieve it but the deer wouldn't let go until the map tore in half...so I gave the recovered half back to the lady, who obviously hadn't read all the signs about tucking in your belongings because these deer were ravenous. They were also very docile and you could just walk up and pat them on the head if you liked.

Also important to our adventure there was the largest rice spoon in the world. I guess they are the proud inventors of the rice scoop...like that's a thing that really requires inventing.

Kyoto

We packed up and left Hiroshima. After a warm goodbye from the staff, we set out on a series of trains that would take us to Kyoto. We arrived in the afternoon and checked into a hotel, then headed out to walk into town and see what's there. We are right next to Nijo Castle, but we can't seem to walk past it while it is open, so we haven't been in to see it yet.

The next day we went to Nara, and walked to Nara park which is full of shrines and temples and deer. But upon arrival, I was too sick and tired to be excited about any of those things. So we sat on a bench for like an hour and enjoyed the natural surroundings. For example:

A bit more skittish than Miyajima-brand deer, but still comfortable with humans and probably just as hungry for maps.

And then we left and went back to the hotel for the day. I went to a mexican place that was really good, and now Christian wants to try it so we're going again....in fact we should start walking now so...I'm gonna hurry