Tuesday 10th May 2016 (updated)

We wake at eight with Jen ringing our room to see if we were ready for breakfast; give us 15 minutes we say.

Outside it is raining gently, but maybe it will stay dry for us, we hope anyway.

Kyoto is the cultural capital of Japan, and it is famous for many things, but one of the most well known things is the area of Gion which is the Geisha Quarter, but in Kyoto they are not called Geisha, but Geiko. I think it should be photogenic, so it is agreed that we go there as soon as we have cleaned our teeth, nice and clean.

From our room window, over the roofs and air conditioning units, we can see the hills surrounding the city, all covered in trees, disappearing into the low cloud. It would be a beautiful view on a clear day.

We flag a taxi down to take us to Gion, but its not far and we probably could have walked there in less than 20 minutes. I sit in the front seat hoping to snap sights out of the front window, but the rail falls steadily. Anyway, he drops us off at the start of the most ancient street, and good news is that the rain has stopped if only for a while. We are dressed in raincoats and all have unbrellas we bough the evening before. I am very dangerous as I try to wield the camera in one hand whilst grasping the brolly in the other. I'll have someone's eye out at this rate. Jools follows me trying to remind me to be careful, but I am single minded on taking shots. As ever.

We have no maps, or we do but they are useless as they are all in Japanese, and I can't find where on the map we were. We walk along the street, investigating the narrow side streets which look from another age, if not a different planet. It is stunning, and not too busy as it is still early. We walk up many alleys, to fond each house has a small fenced off area, and small gardens, mostly ferns and acers, are growing away. Every house seems to have some plant, many far more of course.

At the end of the street there is the entrance to something, a wide gate and a path leading to some ancient buildings; it is a Buddhist temple complex, so we pay to go in.

We try to work out if we have to pay or not; we do, and take our shoes off as well, and wear sandals too. We have no idea what the ettiquette is, so try to make a little fools of ourselves as possible.

We find that there are few others, and with the subdued light outside make for some stunning shots. It really is like a different place, with everything placed just so, as everything seemed to have its place to be. We were just glad to be there. There are large rooms, their floors covered with rush mats and with wonderful hand panted art on the walls; either scenes of mountains and lakes or fierce animals.

At the far end, we go into the garden, which means we have to change into different sandals, and walk over to a large wooden temple, the inside of which is glorious, and has the most wonderful dragon painted on its ceiling.

After an hour we leave but nearby find another temple complex, but this one housing a photographic exhibition; so we pay to go in and find the building, gardens and works of art wonderful. However, I nearly fall onto the precious moss-covered garden, and then we mistake an image placed on the path as part of the exhibition, which it was, but meaning not go go further, but we saw others had walked past it, and on it, so we did. There was a shriek, and one of the curators came running and escorts us back. We do this twice in the temple, and the second time was walking among the moss garden, which resulted in another shriek.

We see she is flustered, and we seem like clumping country bumpkins in these delicate surroundings, so we decide to leave and see what else there is nearby.

Of course we all come here to see Geisha, and there are some delicate ladies in kimonos walking about, but not all are Geisha, as we think costumes can be hired, and certainly some are clearly brides having some wedding pictures taken. Anyway, it is all so wonderful and once again exotic.

We find a coffee shop on the main street in which to have lunch. And coffee.

We walk some more through the more modern areas, all nightclubs and bars, each with unlit neon lights, no now, and all with exotic names promising nights of naughty fun.

There are a couple of girls dressed in kimonos, being followed around by two photographers. We tag along and I try to snap them, but we think they are just having a day dressed that way, maybe for graduation. Anyway, as we leave them, rain begins to fall again, and we flag a taxi down on the narrow street, and after showing him the address he takes us back in something like 5 minutes.

We can chill out for the afternoon, listening to the UK radio via the interwebs, as this is the modern way

With the rain still falling heavily, we walk just along the street to an Italian place beside the river, where we fill our faces with pasta and red wine. The food is good, and the service, as ever, is wonderful. I even have a cold limonchello to round the meal off. Seems a bit off to not eat Japanese food when we're here, but we just craved something familiar.

Back to the hotel for more cards and local beer, as usual.