Kyoto

The schedule for today was Nara. A place known for two things in particular. A giant Buddha statue and the bowing deer. Apparently the deer over there bow to you when you bow to them. But, I don't know that for sure, as I didn't go there. I wanted to see something in Kyoto, and not its surroundings, so today, I hung out with Patrick, who felt the same way. 

We went to the Manga Museum, only to find it closed when we got there. No worries, it would open in an hour or so, so we just started walking around and eventually found a temple. When we got at the temple, we thought we had accidentally messed up our schedule for the day after. As this temple had quite a bit of gold and was very touristy. And tomorrow's schedule would be the Golden Temple. Luckily, this was a different one. The inside of the temple wasn't that dazzling, and we actually were kinda glad when we got out. It started out fine, but then it just got repetitive. And our feet hurt from walking on wooden floors without shoes on. Because, as I have not told you before. In temples, it's prohibited to wear shoes. You often got to store them in special closets, like at a bowling area. Or carry them with you in a plastic bag.
I thought it was kinda weird that I did not like not wearing shoes. I love not wearing shoes in the Netherlands. I'd take em off any chance I get. But inside those temples.. I'd rather keep me shoes on.
Lucky me, this temple had a nice garden. Still not a lot of cherry blossoms though..

Back to the manga museum! When we got there, it already looked really alive. There were young people everywhere. Just chilling in the grass, reading manga. And when we got inside, not much different. Aside from the fact that there was no grass, and there were people of all ages reading manga. In the Netherlands, you're called a weirdo, a child, a pervert, whenever you'd read a manga. In Japan, it's encouraged. That's something I really love about this place. You can be yourself anywhere, and not be judged. While in the Netherlands, you can only do that in the presence of friends.
Inside the museum there were not only historical items about manga, but there was also.. the wall of manga. I've never seen this much manga in one place. So, I took out one of the books and started reading. I tried Deadman Wonderland, as I had heard about it before. It's a story about a boy being accused of a mass slaughter he did not commit and is sent to this prison, that serves as an amusement park where they make the prisoners participate in deadly games.
I counted at least 32 deaths in this book. Definitely not a children's book.
By the way, I feel like I owe an apology to those people that do not know what a manga is. It's a graphic novel, you could see it like a Japanese comic book. For those that did know, don't kill me for explaining it this way, it's just easier.
We ate something at the museum restaurant, which had a rather unique scenery. The walls contained all sorts of drawings; it was really cool.

By now, my wallet was getting really messed up. It was really tearing apart.. So we went to the Kyoto Station for some shopping! Two dudes. Gone shopping. What are the odds. So, we walked around the shopping mall over there, without finding anything of interest, and Patrick said he found something he wanted to go next: an anime store called "Animate" on the other side of the station and we tried to find a way to cross this station. We walked around for atleast an hour trying to find the correct exit. Maybe it's the shopping part that did us in. Turned us partly woman. As we all know, women cannot read maps, right?

Anyway, eventually we found the store and he bought some stuff, and weirdly enough, I also found a wallet! In a different store though