All I have to say is, “what a series of bad events!” We started the day early. I could not sleep so I got out of the tent to eat breakfast. The caretaker of the campgrounds came over and said to me we needed to leave before 8am. It was 6:30. He said we could stay for free but at 8am when the others came, we would have to pay so we had to leave before then. We packed, and were ready to go but then he asks if we needed to use the computer to look for another place, so we did. Just then the others came and we did have to pay 520yen ($5.50) and they were staring and talking to us so we got nothing accomplished. With no plan we drove off and left our beautiful campsite.
We decided to drop off our bags at the nearest station and drive to Kyoto. Little did I know, Nigel didn’t like this plan. He wanted to take the train in and take public transport. I thought it would be convenient to have our bikes in the city and give ourselves some freedom. Partway there when we got a little lost, Nigel’s top blew off. We eventually found where we were and where we needed to go with some complications.
I wanted to go to the Emperor’s Imperial Palace because it looked big and thought it may be similar to the Imperial Palace in China. Boy was I wrong. The interesting parts were all closed off because it was Sunday and the grounds were nothing but trees and grass, boring! We then decided on Nanken Temple. It was a huge area with many temples surrounding it. We looked around, went for a hike up a trail to another shrine area but still not so interesting. Golden Palace sounded good. It was 400yen to do a 5 minute ircle around the place. The palace was okay but again, meh. We were done sightseeing for the day.
My scooter headlight was busted and we planned to do a lot of night driving so we went to look for a scooter shop. None to be found! We drove circles all over town. We got sent to Autobacs, Leo Moto, saw Honda and others. We called the bike rental place and told them about the problem. By now it was 6:30pm and getting dark. They suggested a shop but it closed at 7pm and it was too far. The 2nd one they suggested was closer but it was off the map. We flew to Kyoto Station, got the location and raced there. We arrived at 3 minutes to 8pm. They had the light, YIPPEE, but it was 2900yen ($30). Good thing the rental shop will pay me back at the end of the month. They’d better!
Relaxed and happy, we went to the mall to find dinner. We had burgers and smoothies. We hung out there to use the computers and charge our batteries. I went to the bathroom, came back and got kicked out at 10pm when the mall closed. On our way back towards the train station to pick up our bags and then look for another campsite 20km or more in the dark, I realized I had forgotten my computer in the restaurant. Smooth move Dennis! I had to go back the next day to pick it up. I was now relying on Japanese people’s honesty to get my computer back.
What a cursed day!
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