The next morning we visited Nijo castle

Nijo castle is a flatland castle, so it's mostly walls and a couple of low buildings. 

The gate on the inner walls.

This is about as tall as the inner buildings get.

There is a nice garden inside, albeit very small.

And this rest house where feudal lords held sake tastings for tourists as early as 1608

the moat

steps up to the top of the wall

the view down from same

Afterwards we went to visit the tranquil bamboo forest of Arashiyama

well it would have been tranquil if not for all the people

No seriously, it was the weekend and every man in Kyoto and his shiba inu were there.

Towards the evening I took Mel to see where I had spent the month working from Kyoto

We walked along the canal

It was nice, but it's better in spring

We popped in to visit Asaki at Story coffee

We also attended a meeting of the language group and introduced them to the wonders of Tim Tams and Vegemite.

Kyoto - in which I get a concussion

After Osaka we moved to Kyoto

We stayed in a Machiya, which is a traditional townhouse, first rented on AirBnB during the Heian period (794 AD) 

Machiya are combination home and place of business.

This is the entryway to the house part,

traditional futons for bedding.

this modern bathroom was probably retrofitted as part of the meiji restoration

A nice big wooden tub

With death stairs, angled to ensure anyone that fell down them definitely broke their neck.

A little couch with the "welcome to our death house, here's how the aircon works" manual

kitchenette

You can't tell from the perspective in this photo, but the chair is positioned just under the 5 foot high ceiling beam so you can concuss yourself when you stand up.

This room was at the end where the roof sloped down from the 5 ft door way to about 2 foot of the floor at the far wall. The artwork is a traditional method of saying "don't use this room, you'll give yourself a concussion"

upstairs had a shower

and toilet

You can't tell from the perspective in this photo, but the chair and table has been repositioned away from the 5 foot high ceiling beam so you can concuss yourself when you stand up and turn your head to walk away from the table.

This overlooks the entry way

this is the door to the garden

garden

lawn furniture (sans lawn)

the work space was a fabric "weavery" (Mel insists it's a real word) 

it was apparently active (but not very noisy)

we were there on the weekend so it was unused

one person came in on monday morning just as we wer leaving so we didn't get to see it in operation

punch cards that contain old computer code (or fabric patterns, not sure)

It's weavalicious

(For those keeping score at home, in this venue I cracked my skull into doorways and low ceiling beams seven times, a current high score)
 

Oh, deer biscuits!

We went to Nara as a day trip from Osaka

Saw the shrine in the park

road resurfacing deer

The deer don't bite Mel. She says it is because she blows air in their faces to keep them in line.
I think she's been punching them when I'm not looking.

No sweet potato for you

Have this adorable children's TV character instead.

If you can crawl through the gap in the pillar you get a wish or something.
If you can't you get to pay for emergency services to extract you.

One more stamp fiend falls for the "first stamp is free" line.

I R so good at holiday planning.
The week long Nara gourmet festival with Michelin starred chef's preparing elaborate meals in picturesque locations starts the day after we leave.