Kinkaku-ji Temple and Ryoanji Temple
Two hours on the bullet train from Tokyo to arrive in Kyoto early evening. It was cold and dark and the streets were narrow and poorly lit. Went in search of something marked on the hotel map that was close and looked like a tofu restaurant. Turned out it was a tiny storefront with a very modest refrigerator containing blocks of tofu. Four of us piled into the store, filling the space and the elderly woman who came running out but had no English was utterly confused at our questions about dinner and menus. In the end we gave up and picked up dinner from the amazingly dependable seven eleven, these convenience stores are on every corner and are so much more than the seven elevens of America.
Turns out my buddhist pilgrimage to Kyoto (home to over 1600 temples) would not go as planned. Perfect buddhist moment, life turns upside down when you least expect it. I ended up with food poisoning which took me out of action the whole of the next day, although something about being stuck in the zen ambiance of a beautiful hotel room, outside pouring rain all day, felt strangely poetic.
Thankfully I had recovered enough the next day to walk the Bamboo Grove and see two of the one thousand six hundred temples before we bulleted back to Tokyo.