Ricky and I got up fairly early this morning and got going. Unfortunately the bus system was not going to be our friend today. The bus map of the city we have is terrible. What looks like one block is actually about 2 miles, and in other places what looks like 2 miles is maybe 100 yards. Also bus stops may be on one street, but on the map the appear to be slightly up and adjacent street. Seems like today, we spent a lot of time waiting on busses, or trying to find the stop for the right bus, or walking forever trying to find a bus stop.

I have to emphasize how great the Japanese people are. Everyone we have met is friendly, helpful, polite, and willing to try to speak a little English to help Ricky and I out. This city is very interesting and beautiful. We've seen lots of amazing things and experienced some very interesting cultural differences.

Today we started out at Ginkakuji Temple or the Silver Shrine. It was built by the grandson of the guy who buy the Golden Pavilion, but there is nothing silver about it. Seems the mad died before they could get the silver part done. This temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the gardens were beautiful. Outside the temple we found a small shrine that must have been off the tourist maps because we were the only people there. It's not on our tour map. It had some very interesting buildings and a great entrance.

Then we walked a very long ways down the Philosophers Path. A small stone path that runs along a creek around the side of Kyoto. What we found more interesting was the houses that were on the other side of the path. We learned a lot about the culture and saw some interesting things as we walked.

At the end of the Philosopher's Path, we saw the Nyakuoji Shrine which was nice, but no spectacular. Then we walked down to the Heian Shrine which was very nice. The building were huge and the gardens were very extensive.

By this time it was 5:30 and our feet were killing us. Unfortunately due to the bus issues described above, it took us about an hour to get back to the hotel. When we did, my luggage was waiting on me. It had finally come from Canada. It's been amazing to me how many people I know have written to tell me they hoped my luggage was show up soon. No one seemed to realize that without my passport, I can't leave the country. :-)

After a short break, Ricky and I went to a aquarium shop that was recommended by Mr. Hayakawa who is Mr. Amano's assistant. It was an amazing shop. Fish and plants here that Americans seem to only get from specialist breeders or for much money on Aquabid. Most tanks had at least a few plants in them and there were multiple planted aquarium. Very high quality Crystal Red Shrimp (which are almost unobtainable in the US) were for sale in one aquarium. Rocks and driftwood just like in the ADA pictures and a complete line of ADA products were available as well. The shop had a large selection of new aquariums for sale and they were all rimless. We can't get even one rimless tank in the US. Tetra sells rimless tanks here. The sizes of the tanks were much smaller though. I think it is because most Japanese have small houses because things are so expensive here. The shop owner was very nice to Ricky and I allowed us to take lots of pics and even gave Ricky an older AquaJournal he found.