First night in Kyoto

I arrived in Kyoto a little later than I had hoped, close to around 4pm. It was kind of a dreary day outside, though, so I don't think I missed too much. I made my way out of Kyoto Station to find the hostel that I reserved nearby.

It had been a while since I'd had a hostel experience, but J-Hoppers Kyoto made things easy and comfortable. A pretty small place squeezed in along a main road near Kyoto Station, I checked in and moved in to my large bunk on the second floor. There were about 7 other beds in the room, most of which this evening were inhabited by some young guys from Britain, who clearly felt the best way to pass the time on a dreary day in Kyoto is to make frequent trips to 7-Eleven to load up on Asahi tall boys. They had quite a little mountain of beer cans under construction on a table in our room. They were friendly enough, though. I made my way up to a very nice little kitchen lounge area to fix a cup noodle dinner gifted to me by my friend Tsuchi before I left Tokyo. I met and talked to a couple other travelers up there.

Later in the evening I decided I had to get out and see some of the city even if it wasn't all that nice out, so I hopped on a bus to Gion, the main nightlife area in Kyoto and also famous as a neighborhood frequented by real geishas and their customers. The bus actually dropped me off right in front of a bright vermilion shrine gate. I poked around inside, as it was a rare opportunity for me to see one of these old shrines lit up at night.

Gion was actually not very crowded on a drizzly Sunday night, so I basically walked around the area for about 30-40 minutes and headed home to rest up for the next day of sightseeing.