Up @ 9:45 AM.

Not sure what we’re going to do today. Have to be checked-out of the hotel by 12. Train back is at 6 PM. Going to go to Nijo Castle at minimum. We’re going to take our stuff with us, so not sure what we’re going to do.

We went to Nijo castle, which I kept calling Ninjo castle. Thankfully, I found ways around having to take the bus again in Kyoto. We ended up taking the subway up, which was pretty easy. Twice today we were stopped by older women making sure we knew how to get where we were going. The second lady spent a few minutes talking with us, commenting to Leon that his pronunciation of Japanese was very good.

The castle itself was kinda interesting, although, they clearly signed every 10 feet, no photos, no drawings of anything in the interior. The other interesting thing was that the floor boards were designed to creak so as to alert the Shogun’s guards of intruders.

We also met Julia from Germany at the castle. She had gotten lost from the rest of her group, and also wanted us to take a picture of her. She was part of a musical group traveling Japan. We had a fun time talking with her, and she stayed with us until we left the castle. She will be in NY in June, and we are going to meet up with her and probably show her around Manhattan.

We also got to go to the Arashiyama Monkey park, which was a lot of fun. It was quite a trek up the mountain, but well worth it. Leon and I fed the monkeys, and we got to watch them in their habitat. I also got quite a few good shots of the city of Kyoto as well. I will be able to put together a nice Panaroma. We also rode a JR express line as well as the Shinkansen.

Stopped at “Log Kit” which was a burger joint. We both got cheeseburgers, and in the end, it wasn’t THAT much more expensive then other things we got. However, the burger was 1/8” thick, but kinda big. It was pretty tasty - it had mayo, ketchup, and mustard on it. As with all things in Japan, it had it’s spin on it, and it was tasty.

We took the Shinkansen back from Kyoto to Shinagawa. This time we were in the green cars. The seats were even bigger, had foot rests, and reclined a little more. Other then that, we got a wet towel when we first got in the car. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same as non-Green cars.

Money: Still broke. Leon is also almost out of cash, thanks to me.

The Leica: I noticed this at the aquarium, and thought it was because of IR issues, but the Leica does not render purple correctly. Purple shows up as blue.