Day 5 in Japan

June 7, Wednesday – At 8am, we gathered at City Hall. With 2 cars, Ogasawara’s and my host father’s rented car, we departed to Kyoto. My host mother and her friend, and Janice’s host sister also joined the trip. We had our lunch at around 12pm, in one of the restaurants found on our way to Kyoto. The restaurant was relatively cheap and each of us can order anything within 1,000 yen. The girls’ table ordered a set meal each and several side dishes while the guys’ side was over budget.

At around 1.10pm, we arrived at “sanjuusangendo”, a temple famous for its 1001 Buddhist statues. At around 2pm, we departed to the gold temple, “kinkakuji”. Visitors are not allowed to enter the building. The building was made up of pure gold. Then, we visited Heianji. We saw 2 girls dressing up in “kimono” and dragged them for some photos. I made a draw for foretelling my luck and it is “good”. My host mother and her friend went for some shopping and took a train back to Hekinan after that.

Then, we headed to a hotspring called “Oharo no Sato”, which means inside the great valley. It is located deep in the mountains as the name indicates. But, I like it there. It is very peaceful. Our plan to go for shopping at night was spoilt as the place is very deserted and impossible to get public transport around there. It is not a natural hotspring and it is much smaller than I thought. Around 4 of us stayed in a room. There were uniforms in the form of “yukata” prepared for us. All of us were shy as we need to get undress before entering the pool. The male and female pools were separated. The guys seemed to be very excited.

We had steamboat for dinner. After dinner, we had a scroll nearby. It was spooky as it was not well lightened around there. We headed back to the hotel and gathered at Boon Kiat’s room, transferring photos, chit-chatting, eating some snacks and taking photos. I think we were quite noisy. Even from other rooms on the same level, I could hear the noise coming from Boon Kiat’s room. On that night, we all slept with our “yukata” on.