Day 2 - palaces

 

Day 2

I had discovered that I had lost my sun cream and so had to go to a pharmacy to buy a new one. I have gone for the spray - I'll let you know how it goes! I was especially annoyed about this because I had left it at the Onsen but a lovely old lady had spotted it and gave it back to me on my way out! Clearly my sinus headache was very bad because I must have dropped it somewhere else. It obviously decided it wanted to stay in Kyoto!

Anyway after going to the Pharmacy and getting breakfast at Tully's Coffee. I headed to Nijo castle which is were the Shogun would stay when visiting the Emperor and to protect the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately the main palace: Ninomaru Palace (and most of the buildings tbh) were closed for renovations but for a small extra fee you could see the famous murals from inside in a separate exhibition space. They were worth the cost - truly beautiful! The weather also meant that the little tree garden wasn't in bloom.

        

 

It was very sparse but the mural paintings were really beautiful. I then headed towards a the Imperial garden and Palace via the cosy book cafe: Cafe Bibliotic Hello! I also stopped in a fascinating little shop called Yurin where the very enthusiastic owner showed me all his beautiful wares. He uses Obis (the sash on kimono) to create panels or cushions and also copies the design on other items. It was beautiful but I didn't have the space for cushion covers and panels! 

I had a nice coffee, ginger ale and this ice cream cookie sandwich at the cafe! It was delicious.

I then wandered up to the Imperial garden and up to the Imperial Palace which was free to enter and had lots to see! 

This is a teahouse in the Imperial garden.

 

I liked how this looked like a samurai helmet.

 I liked how this was framed and repeated on the other side.

You could smell how the roof of the palace is made with bark. It is a thatching technique. It was really interesting and see how low key this was. I think I prefer the Korean palaces with their bright tiles though.

As you can see the Imperial Palace had a beautiful garden (obviously only the Emperor got to use most of it!) but it was very nice just very hot! So I went home and wrote my blog!! 

I popped out for dinner at Ippudo and then stopped at Nana Green tea for a black sesame parfait (black sesame ice cream good - jelly - not nice!). Ready for a nice sleep!