Day 2: The curse of Kyoto

This day was so cursed, that I finished this blog already and somehow lost everything and now have to write it again.

Day 2, we woke up on our nice campsite very early in the morning. We had stayed in a nice park, on an island on Japan's largest lake, Lake Biwa. It was looking to be a great day. Our camp was setup, it was early, and we were ready to drive to Kyoto to have a look at this ancienct capital of Japan. The cultural center.

Then the groundskeeper came. And he told us that we can not stay there that night on a Sunday night! Oh great! So now where do we set up camp? We were disappointed. The solution was to leave our bags in a locker at a train station. The good news was he offered to give us the night camping for free.

As we packed our tent and bags and got ready to go, the groundskeeper offered us to go inside to use the computer to look for another campsite. It was too far. 20km north, we would waste too much time. So, we decided on the locker idea. It was all good until the other groundskeeper showed up, because he made us pay for camping after all! Ugh!

So, anyways, we left early and went off. We dropped off our bags and started driving the 20km from Otsu City, to Kyoto. It was a nice drive, when we took the wrong turn and started driving in the wrong direction. Getting lost took up another hour of time, but we got back on track and headed for the Imperial Palace. Sounds nice, right? Wrong! Closed on weekends! Ugh, Sundays in Japan!

So,.. finally we made it to some famous temples and had a nice walk around just the same as the other tourists. I must admit, they were nice, but I didn't get much culture out of the experience. Later, we went west to some famous golden temple. Made good photos, but not much else.

After our temples trip in Kyoto, it become apparent that Dennis' bike's headlight was broken and we needed to fix it before leaving the city. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! OUr rental bikes are made in Taiwan, and being in Japan, the part is hard to find! So, first we went to a bike shop, no, then a huge motor department store, no! Another motor department store! No! Gas stations, no! A Honda bike store, no! We were running out of options until finally Dennis called the shop in Osaka. They pointed us in the right direction, at at 7:55pm, five minutes before the shope closed, we found a shop to fix his deahlight! Relief!

Hunger!!

We went to a restaurant to charge our computer batteries, and of course, eat. Success! time to go get our bags and drive the 40 km to our campsite. It wasn't until 15 km into the drive that Dennis realized he had forgotten his computer in the restaurant! He would have to return the following morning by train to get it back!

After the long drive, at about 1am, we found a perfect spot to put our tent. A beach, on Lake Biwa. Wow,... so nice. And that is where I am writing to you now, on day 3 of our trip. Enjoy!