Today i awoke in Kyoto. Tokyo had been fantastic, as were my hosts who were generous beyond words. They even took me to a champagne brunch - the luxurious way to backpack. Some of my highlights for Tokyo were in the Harajuku area where teenagers hang out at the weekend dressed in gothic and other weird garb and spend the whole afternoon preening, posing and taking photos of each other. Really weird. There was a crazily busy shopping street nearby where they clearly bought their stuff, along with numerous illegal items. All in all, Tokyo was buzzing and was a really exciting place to spend the weekend. It was a great introduction to Japan, but now i'm off to seek its other more zen-like face.

I took the bullet train in to Kyoto yesterday. It was so nice to sit on a train that doesn't smell of urine and runs on time. I was amused to observe the cleaners bowing at every passenger as they disembarked. I will be shortly heading off to see the Golden Temple. Its not on most itineraries but i just read a novel based on the true story of an obsessive monk who went crazy and burned it down. Obviously its been reconstructed so i'm gonna go see if i conjure up a crazed response too.

Zen-out