I awoke at 6:15. The sunrise was at 5:00.. no wonder.

I immediately felt itchy all over from multiple bug bites acquired at Fushimi Inari, and my legs were sore from all the step climbing. Like the end of my time in Bali, I was feeling pretty beat up.

I keep thinking early awakening is time to edit photos or write here, but instead I just open Facebook and Instagram. I might be tired of my trip 😳

After social media distraction, I messaged my host in Osaka to remind her to please respond to my reimbursement request. This led to reviewing some work emails…

I showered and got dressed and walked to breakfast, stopping at a convenience store along the way. I’d really hoped my 5-week trip would only include one period, but instead I got one in the first few days, during which I used up my supplies, and I was due for another as my trip was wrapping up.

For my last leisurely morning in Japan, I’d found a restaurant, Iyemon Salon Kyoto, that serves authentic Japanese breakfast. I ordered the breakfast set, which I unfortunately needed to eat quickly. Though I’d woken up early and didn’t need to be anywhere until 11:30, I didn’t arrive at the restaurant until 10:15. I wondered how I manage to pass so much time doing not much of anything. While I would have liked to take more time to savor the elaborate tray served to me, I thoroughly enjoyed the fish and mushrooms; rice; tsukemono; miso; and tea.

At 10:50, I embarked on 40 minutes of walking, first back to the listing to drop off my convenience store purchase and then across the river to Ami Kyoto, an 80-year-old townhouse where two women, Mari and Kimi, share traditional Japanese culture by giving demonstrations of and educating guests about the tea ceremony, calligraphy, and ikebana (flower arrangement).

I found my way there via “Tea ceremony in Kyoto Townhouse”, my final Airbnb Experience of the trip. The four of us were seated along the back windows of a small room with tatami mats, tea making equipment in the center. Mari was our guide for the next hour.

She introduced us to the four principles in the Way of Tea: peace/harmony/balance (和 wa); respect, including that for nature (敬 kei); purity (清 sei); and serenity/tranquility/rest (寂 jaku). We learned about the etiquette of the traditional tea ceremony for both host and guests. There is a proper way for guests to enter the teahouse. Once inside, they admire both the tea-making setup and the arrangement of scroll, simple flower and vase, and incense that the host has assembled. After this educational piece, we each had an opportunity to practice entering the teahouse and showing our respect for the arrangements.

At this point, Mari requested we put our cameras away in order to be immersed as she performed a demonstration of making the tea. Her ritual movements as she made tea were perfectly precise and choreographed. She passed the freshly prepared tea bowl to the first guest, who raises the tea toward the host in respect, rotates the bowl so as not to drink from the front, sips, wipes the rim of the bowl, and passes it to the next guest and so on. At the conclusion of the demonstration, Mari entertained our questions, which was great as I had many!

Lastly, we made our own matcha. First, a rinsing of the bowl with hot water. Then two small scoops of powder and more water, which we whisked together briskly until foaming. Mari took photos of us sipping from our tea bowls. I enjoyed the whole experience and only wished it were 90 minutes. I would have liked some time to sip on my bowl of matcha.

At 12:30, I stepped outside, feeling ambivalent about pushing forward with one last day of sightseeing. I decided to walk the Philosopher’s Path in addition to visiting Kiyomizu-dera, though they were in opposite directions. I needed a top-up on my ICOCA card.

I checked for a nearby station and found Higashiyama just a couple blocks away. By the time I arrived, I already needed to use the restroom again, though I’d done so just before leaving Ami Kyoto. The station’s restrooms were behind the gates to the trains, whereas I was going to be taking a bus from outside. I used the Google Translate app to ask the station agent politely if I may use the restroom without entry fare, and she allowed it. Whew!

Back out at the fare machines, I used Google Maps to figure out how much fare I would need for the bus and train trips I’d be taking for the remainder of my stay. I added ¥590 JPY to my ICOCA card. Ack! And then I was in danger of falling just short of needed cash for the remainder of my stay! Perhaps I should have withdrawn ¥5,000 instead of ¥4,000 yesterday? I had about ¥2,100 left, or approximately $19 USD. I would need to find a restaurant that takes credit cards for dinner, which had been a challenge.

At 14:00, after a 20-minute bus ride and a short walk through a Kyoto residential neighborhood, I arrived at the Philosopher’s Path, which follows a canal in Northern Higashiyama and is another spot lined by sakura in April, alas. It was still beautiful and quiet and calm in May. There were a few people here and there, including some locals, which was lovely after the crowds in Arashiyama and at Fushimi Inari. Signs pointed the way toward temples off the path, but I opted for a lazy southernly stroll, taking photos of fish in the canal and flowers lining the path. Also? Cats! Many strays live along the path and are fed by locals.

I reached the end of the Path at 15:00 and made my way through the neighborhood back to a main road to catch a bus south. I was looking for the 100, and the stop Google Maps directed me to didn’t have 100 on its sign. I tried to ask some fellow soon-to-be passengers using Google Translate, but four people read my phone and then talked to each other instead of responding to me (?). The 5 bus arrived, I poked my head in and managed to ask the driver where I should be, and he pointed me toward a stop around the corner. Not the first time that Google Maps provided the accurate bus number and route, but the stop was in a different place. Japan so hard.

The bus was crowded, and there were schoolkids riding each turn like it was an amusement park ride or a mosh pit. They all got off with me at my next stop: Kiyomizu-dera, the “Pure Water Temple”. As I’d gathered was customary for such sites, access to the temple required a walk along a street filled with shops and restaurants.

Matsubara-dori was a madhouse. So many people, so much shopping. There had been some sun on the Path, but the afternoon had turned muggy. And I was hungry. I considered bailing on the temple, but I was already there and it’s one of the most prominent Kyoto sights to see, a UNESCO World Heritage site yada yada (and also, only ¥400 to enter).

Once on the grounds, the first stop is the main hall, which, as it turned out, was under construction. Its large wooden stage, from which visitors can view Kyoto and which is arguably why people visit here, was still accessible, but the standing space and the view were limited, so I didn’t recognize until later that I had done the thing that people go there to do.

I then consulted a map of the grounds, and I was very confused as to which way to go and what to see. I took several flights of steps down to the other main attraction of the site: the Otowa Waterfall, from which this temple derives its name. The water flows in three streams that visitors can drink from with long wooden poles, each offering a type of good fortune. There was, of course, a very long line to do this and take photos doing this. I skipped it.

I walked past the waterfall along a path that didn’t seem to be going anywhere in particular. I followed some steps upward and found myself at the Koyasu Pagoda, a visit to which is said to offer a safe and easy childbirth. From the pagoda, I had a nice view of the main hall and the balcony I’d just stood on (here is where I realized I had done the thing I’d seen people doing during my tourist research). Yet, a feeling of “this is it?” persisted.

I retraced my steps along a path above the waterfall, which was lined with hydrangeas on one side and had a better view overlooking Kyoto on the other than the balcony had had. I spent some time admiring the views and also thinking how much nicer they would look if the sun were out. I just may have been sightseeing’d out, Japan’d out, and even Recharge’d out.

My last stop was up some stairs behind the main hall, where one finds the Jishu Shrine, dedicated to the god of love and matchmaking. Two stones are placed 18 meters apart. If you can find your way from one to the other with eyes closed, you will find true love. You can receive guidance, but this means you will need an intermediary in your love life as well. *My* challenge was to take photos of the stones and surrounding shrines with no people in them, which was not possible, though I came close.

On my way out of the grounds, I encountered a pond with a turtle in it and spent a few minutes there. I want to note here that as grumpy-pants as I was during my time at Kiyomizu-dera, in no way did it sour any of my experience in Japan, which I’d found to be an ancient and modern whirlwind of a country.

Japan sightseeing concluded, I took a short bus ride back to my neighborhood, arriving around 17:30 as the Nishiki Market was in the process of closing up. I passed by the street leading to my listing as I needed some food. I made a turn a couple blocks later and encountered Spring Valley Brewery, also a restaurant. Why did this not come up on Google last night?! I went in and asked if they accept credit cards, expecting a ‘no’ and got a ‘yes’!

Though I’d decided after the takoyaki in Osaka that I would not be eating octopus again, the pizza with octopus, ginger, and nori was too intriguing to pass up. With that I also had two half-pints: Jazzberry and Daydream (yuzu citrus + shanso pepper). All of it was tasty, and I did that thing we often do where we continue eating past the point of comfort and consider taking the rest home too late.

Oddly, when I asked for takeaway for the last 2 slices, the server said ‘no’. I was unprepared for this. I asked the English-speaking hostess, and she said, “Well, I guess that means we don’t have any bag.” I asked the server a second time; I was having a hard time understanding and accepting that a restaurant does not offer a means of taking home uneaten food. It was 19:00, and I thought I would get hungry again before bed, but also…. WTF. I ended up assembling a makeshift carry-out tray using three napkins. Success!

I walked a few blocks back to the listing, and it was time to check in for my flight home tomorrow.

I was flying home in the Delta One cabin, or Business Class, complete with a flat-bed seat, and I was very excited. To my dismay, I found that my carefully researched and selected seat had been changed since yesterday when I logged in and made my meal preferences. I called Delta, and they said my original seat was blocked. There was no particular explanation, only speculation: possibly an aircraft change or a special needs situation, like a disabled passenger or one with a baby (neither of which explains the change, since all of the seats in Business Class are of the same type). I asked if it was acceptable to move my seat because I paid with points? The response was an emphatic ‘no’, that I am still a paying customer. I was glad I hadn’t actually paid $2,000+ to then have my seat changed! I resolved to pick this up with Delta in person at the airport tomorrow.

I was feeling not so good from the pizza and beer as I got ready for bed. I showered and washed my hair one more time in the tiniest bathroom, and I packed up. I did get hungry but, ironically, I couldn’t eat the leftovers I had been so stubborn about bringing home.

I slept at 23:00.