First day: Sushi, Doshisha University, Gyogen Imperial Gardens, Gion District

Christopher came to get me after taking his tests and rode his bike over to my inn. Below is a video I shot of him riding his bike before he made me stop shooting.

As you can see, he is avery adept bicycle rider. Even the old ladies here ride, and NO ONE wears a helmet. I guess I should stop worrying about him! I think more cities should adopt this biking culture.

We put his bike away, but he STILL wouldn't let me see his terribly messy room. He kept saying he was "so ashamed."  Well hopefully soon I can see his room. I did tell him I could help straighten and organise it for him.  Then we went over to Kyoto Station to have sushi again.




The bike storage area at the dorm.

This place was smaller and better quality than last night's place but there was a small wait. Christopher said that the queue to get in had only recently formed, what with the influx of tourists to Kyoto in the spring.
Visit to Doshisha. Christopher took me on a tour of his campus, which is a very prestigious university in Japan. After Doshisha, we hit the Imperial Palace Gardens, which were basically right across the street. The sakura were basically already gone but for a few stragglers. After the gardens, we visited the famous Gion district, the nightclub district ( Kiyamachi Road.)

In Gion, we saw lots of tourists dressed as geisha. Apparently this is a thing. You can rent an entire outfit, and even go as far as having hair and make up done. Christopher explained that the real geisha were very shy, do not like to be gawked at for good reason and don't usually make appearances in the street. To see a geisha is a rare sight.

Well, we walked up to the theatre to see about performances and actually did see a real one walk by. She had an escort with her, but funnily enough the tourists didn't seem to recognise her because the place was swarming with "imposter" geisha. She was hiding in plain sight!