We woke up VERY late this morning; Molly and I were both having really good dreams and did not want to get out of bed. We showered and dressed and quickly got out to the station since we were both starving. We ended up getting money changed at the post office first, then went to the bus station terminal office to buy bus passes and get food. Molly bought a piece of pizza, and I was about to buy one when I noticed yet again it had meat on it. :/ I bought a "bacon stick" and decided I would eat her pizza. We went back to the panya on the second floor of the station to get her something else. She ended up getting a blueberry pastry and a boboli roll. I bought an iced cappucino and we went back out to the bus station to snack on a bench. Molly drank her Mitsuya Cider from the room, as we've been trying to use up all the drinks we filled up the fridge with.
We rode the bus all the way back to Ginkakuji, which is on the north eastern side of town. We got off at Ginkakuji-michi, then walked east a few blocks to the temple at the end of the street. It's smaller than Kinkakuji, and the main
pavilion isn't nearly as pretty. However, the 
grounds are exquisite. It's set into the side of a hill, and the garden stretches up the side of it. Molly was snapping pictures like mad, and I was filming everywhere. The koi in the pond were all snuggled up under the bridges gulping, and Molly kept claiming they were yawning. :) Molly loved it!We wandered all over the temple
grounds, then walked back out with the destination of Kinkakuji, the gold pavilion. We caught the bus across town which dropped us off right at Kinkakuji-michi. Up the road right behind the stop was the entrance. This is one of my favorite places to come. As we walked up the road, I explained to Molly that this place was completely photogenic; you can't take a bad picture here. We entered the temple grounds and Molly gazed upon the 
beautiful gold pavilion, glittering in the sunlight. It stands over a glorious pond and the garden that surrounds is lovely. We followed the path leading through the
garden and past the pavilion up close. After we passed Molly stopped at a booth and bought a charm for her birth month, February. We wandered through one of the souvenier shops near the exit, then bought mocha coffee and cocoa from a vending machine. We exited and moved toward the entrance next to the street. We were running short on time (most things close at 4PM) so we decided to skip nearby Ryoanji and its rock temple and go straight to Nijo-jo, a castle in central Kyoto. We walked back out to the road where we crossed and checked the schedule at the bus stop. The correct bus was supposed to arrive in 10 minutes, so we took a seat and waited. And waited. The time of the bus passed, and the little electronic gizmo that shows when a bus comes close wasn't showing anything. We continued to wait, and Molly and I were getting hungry. Behind us was an Indian restaurant and the menu looked really good. There wasn't time to stop and eat though, since we had read the guide book and realized that Nijojo wouldn't let anyone in after 4PM. It was now 15 minutes late and we were getting cold and Molly was really getting hungry. Finally, 20 minutes after the bus was due to arrive, and 30 minutes after we got there, the bus arrived and carried us the 15 minutes to Nijojo. We raced in, buiing two 600 yen tickets at the vending machine outside the castle wall. We tried the gift shop first, trying to find something to curb Molly's hunger. They only had snacky things, and nothing hot. We went to the restroom outside the shop and I popped back in the gift shop to buy some Ritz. I offered Molly some, and she declined. We walked into the main entrance to the
Nishimaru Palace, which is the first palace (and only one you can go into) in the grounds. You must take your shoes off before going in, and you wear little slippers to walk around in. It's a set loop path through the inside of the palace, with signs showing what each room is. The floors are designed to squeak, and they make this bizarre chirping/squeak noise, which was designed to warn of intruders and too keep the concubines from killing eachother in their sleep out of jealousy, so I've been told. Molly really loved the paintings on the room walls and ceilings. I'm always in love with the sounds of the floor as much as all the history that is in this palace, as it was built almost 400 years ago. We caught one couple who had snuck past the ropes and entered one of the rear chambers. We watched them, but weren't sure who to tell or what to say. :/We heard announcements in Japanese and English as it was getting close to 4PM when the Nishimaru Palace closed for the day: "Nishimaru Palasu closes at 4 o clock. Please come to the palasu raaitaway!" We left the palace and began to walk through the inner garden. We were beginning to get worried, as the clouds were spitting heavily on us, and in a few moments it was sprinkling. We followed a group of Spanish (we think) tourists through the
garden, and eventually passed them. We passed through an area of 
scary trees outside the inner wall by the rice storage. We followed the main path out of the castle area and crossed the street to the return bus back to the station. I caught a glimpse of something on the bus, and I have to say: I WANT A JAPANESE CELL PHONE. They're small, have color screens, are internet and email enabled, and have REAL GAMES. A girl was playing, get this, TETRIS on her cell phone. Everyone seems to have these cool flip phones, and I mean everyone. I want one. :) We were both tired and very hungry, so as soon as we got off the bus, we headed straight for the food court on the 9th floor of the Isetan depaato (I said Setan earlier, I was wrong). Molly tried the place she thought served pizza, but it was just pasta. She went over to Panda Express and ended up getting vegetarian dishes, although they only had two. Chow mein noodles and vegetables in a white sauce, neither of which were very good. I got KFC and donut-shaped biscuits with maple-honey syrup. Molly ended up getting fries from KFC later, as she didn't eat most of her chinese food. She was in a desparate mood for a crepe, so we purchased two crepes from the stand in the arcade. She got a strawberry ice cream and strawberries, and I got a custard peach/strawberry one. They're SO delicious! We tried the tambourine game next, but as it turns out, it's not very much fun. It's much more complex than Samba; you not only have to shake at each circle (little balls move out to 6 circles on the outside) but also hit the tambourine if the ball is pink, as opposed to blue. This actually HURTS, too. On top of that you have to follow a shaking pattern they draw on the screen quite a bit. The music isn't as good either (although they do have one Ayumi Hamasaki song).
We went back down to the bus station and rode the bus to
Shijo Kawaramachi, the prime shopping district. I had visited an Animate in my previous trips (a store that has lots of anime goods) and it basically remembered where it was. We got off the bus and headed up the left side of the road in search of the store. After passing Musashi, a kaiten zushi place (conveyor belt sushi) we reached the end of the shopping district on that side, but no Animate. Hrm. He turned around, thinking it might be a little south of the bus stop. Just past the bus stop I noticed a granite building that looked really familiar. I told Molly that if we didn't find it by the end of the road, that was it. Sure enough, we didn't find it; Animate was gone. :( We stopped for a moment in front of one store because it had this 
totally amazing piece of art. Basically there were these little balls that were carried to the top of a big wire work maze, and they rolled down in little spirals and rows in really amazing ways. It was random which way the balls rolled, and one part on the top left kept hoarding the balls. When it had five, the weight of them caused the holder to tip forward, and four of the five went zipping through the maze all at once. The fifth fell out of the holder completely uncontrolled (or so it seemed) hit a strategically placed plate about 2 inches across, bounced, then landed in a spiral coil that zipped the ball back to its brothers. It was totally amazing. We continued south and turned right across from the Takashimaya depaato. A little bit down we turned right into an arcade, where we began to do a little shopping. We found cool pins and playing cards, and I was looking around and... ANIMATE! I found a staircase leading to the store. It was almost in the same vertical position as the original store, but was in the arcade now. It has just moved. We raced up the stairs, and... it was closed. It had just turned 7PM and the people inside were closing the registers and cleaning up. :( A girl outside was pulling the storm door down and locking the outer doors. I was SO upset!! We kinda wished we hadn't found it at all. :( I saw another store that looked similar, Melon Books, down the way, as we went in Molly realized after a few seconds - it was a pornographic manga shop! they also had video games. We laughed and ducked out. Molly kept saying, "I can't believe you took me into a manga porn shop." :)
It was getting late, and we needed two hours to do laundry (the washer and dryer at Sieki close at 10PM), so we caught the bus on the north-south street opposite Takashimaya for the station. Back at the Ryokan we had gotten a message from Kelly, the daughter of Molly's parents' friends who lives in Kyoto and is a clown in a circus. We didn't get her message in time, so we weren't able to meet up with her. We tried the number we were given, but it didn't work; after dialing the first three numbers we got a funky busy signal tone. :( We did laundry, munched on mikan (which I went down and grabbed twice from the big pile on the front desk) and watched Mickey Blue Eyes on the Stars channel in english before hitting the hay.
-- Hik