Last day in Kyoto

Today we went to Himeji castle and Engyoji, It was a long and exhausting day but relaxing at the same time. It was about a 2 hour bus ride to Himeji and then another hour or so to Engyoji. When we got to Himeji it was a walk up to the castle and then we got to go inside and up to all the levels. The stairs and doors were soooo crazy… mainly steep and small. I’ll post a picture of people going down the stairs… you had to limbo to not hit your head. The view from the top was pretty amazing. Then we went to Engyoji which is apparently in the Last Samurai. Supposedly Tom Cruise took a helicopter to the top of the mountain but we had to hike it. Well most of it, we took a chair lift to the trail and then hiked up to the top. When we got to the final part we all decided to take Samurai fighting pictures because we all had walking sticks. Someone set up a tripod and took pictures in intervals… should come out pretty good. Then we walked back down and chair lifted back to the base where we went to our bus. Then we all passed out on the ride back. Came back home… last night in Kyoto so we went back to our favorite spots… rotating sushi bar… extreme ice cream place… and of course our favorite bar Gayagaya. The sushi bar had corn sushi! I felt so at home… It was literally corn on rice… had a couple of those. Also tried unagi which was good. Had 6 plates at 137 yen each… less than $10 dinner… not too bad in Kyoto. We were craving ice cream so we went to this ice cream place nearby that serves everything imaginable including a huge vase filled with ice cream and full melons and other fruit for $100. We saw someone get it but they didn’t finish. Then on to Gayagaya to say goodbye to our favorite bartenders… one of which turned blonde since we last saw him. Uski told us some good places to go in Tokyo, we had a beer, then left for the hotel. We opted to walk all the way home which wasn’t too bad. On to Tokyo tomorrow with the evening free….