The rocks in Kyoto are different to Tokyo rocks

More photos from Kyoto! These are from Ryōan-ji, a Zen temple which boasts a large rock garden. When I first saw the rocks I thought "hmm great, rocks". After walking around the temple a bit, I came back to the rocks and sat down on the balcony where everyone else was sitting (there were a lot of people staring at these rocks), and soon found my self staring into the rocks, thinking. I can't remember what I was thinking exactly, probably something like "I'm hungry", or "tippy tippy ty all over the world", but, thinking is thinking! So congratulations rocks, you worked.


A view of the rock garden from a specially chartered helicopter the Japanese government organised to celebrate my arrival at Ryoanji.



The walls of the temple are made from clay that was boiled in oil. The distinctive patterns on the walls are from the oil leaking out after the walls were erected.


One of the things I loved about Kyoto was that you don't have to go far to be surrounded by trees. Most of the temples have quite lush gardens, the big ones especially so.



This is a snake Aaron and I saw climbing up the river bank while we were having lunch on the last day of my visit. We left just as it was about to slither onto the bicycle path.

Aaron, being the awesome person he is, met up with me every day for lunch and/or dinner, including the final night spent eating with the students of Kyoto University in their cafeteria - oh how that brought back memories! I must agree with Aaron, the food they serve their students is MUCH better and much cheaper than the fare at the UQ refec. Although, it's pretty hard to pass up a chicken dim sim.

So to thank Aaron for his hospitality, I now post a very flattering picture of him mid-bite of lunch.

Finally, some news. I am no longer coming back to Aus in September for the Tori concerts (sob, hardest decision I've ever had to make), so anyone looking forward to seeing me unfortunately will have to make the long trek to Tokyo (but the offer of a spare bed stands!)

And 3 days till my Patrick Wolf concert!!!