the same thing you thought hard about

This morning, whilst having breakfast in the hostel, I started chatting to a girl who also lives in London. We spent the day sightseeing together which was nice. Started the day off in Arashiyama where there are a few temples and nice gardens. The main thing I wanted to see was the bamboo grove, which was one of my favourite places in the whole trip. It's so calm everywhere and the green from the bamboo plus the sunlight made me very happy today. After that, we went to a few other temples. The highlights were Kinkaku-ji (the Golden temple) which was lovely and Ryoanji temple, which has a famous zen garden comprising of 15 rocks and not a single blade of grass. I've really enjoyed learning a little more about the concept of zen since I got here. I feel like I've been so wrong all these years, thinking it was mere minimalism. There's so much more to it - harmony, balance, calmness....

I've been using the same lil notebook I used during my sabbatical to keep a record of my expenses. In it there is also a section filled with ideas of my future plan. Top of the list is "sunshine." I'd forgotten how much I love the stuff.

Checked out of my hostel and into a lovely ryokan style guesthouse in cetnral Kyoto. It's lovely - tatami mats, sliding doors...all in a really old traditional building. Slept like a baby.