after getting up today, we had to look for a new hotel. since we wanted to go to osaka, we took our laptop to the nearby shopping mall and connected to the public wifi there. but what a bad surprise - we forgot it's upcoming weekend. so all hotels are already fully booked, or miles away from the centre of osaka, or expensive five star hotels. thus, with all the japanese people travelling around their own country, we made a change of plans and decided to stay in kyoto for two more nights and use it as a base for day trips. for that we found a nice little hotel on the other side of the town. puh, lucky us, we got a room. actually, this reminds me of our taiwan trip; different country, same problem - weekends mean travelling folks all over the country. so, pretty late, but relieved, we finally got to the nishiki street market[01-47] - and just in time for some delicious food. and there was plenty of all kinds of food. from dried and fresh fish, squid, shrimps, meat of chicken and pork, to vegetables, fruits, sweets, knives to gut fish, or animals, sweet chestnuts, sweet potatoes (oh, i love them so much, and missed them so much since taiwan), tea, and loads of other stuff. here and there we grabbed a bite, and tried out loads of stuff (sometimes things we have never seen before), until we were full. it was so very awesome - all of it. then we really had to hurry to make it to our next sight, namely the kinkakuji[48-80] temple, the golden pavilion. we got there ten minutes before the last entry time. while this on the one hand meant that we would have not much time to enjoy the temple and garden, it also meant that there were not many people - and the golden pavilion usually is pretty overrun (according to our guidebooks). the pavilion's upper two floors are fully covered in gold leaf, and with the pond in front of it, it really makes a wonderful picture with the reflections on the water and the golden phoenix on the roof. unfortunately the inside of the temple is not open to the public, but on the other hand it also was not covered for renovation - so lucky us. on the way to the exit one passes by the anmintaku pond, that is said to never dry up, and also some small stone statues, that one can toss coins at. this should bring good luck - of course we threw some coins, but missed the metal bowl (which would have given a wonderful gong sound, as we heard, when other people hit it). also we could get an impression of how many people usually are there by the large number of kiosks and small huts, selling food and drinks along the short way to the exit - but as it was already that late, they were all closed. and so we also headed home to our new hotel. at the hotel we had a free reliable internet connection for the first time in japan - yippieh! so, checking emails, sending messages that we arrived safely, but without luggage in the beginning, and no ATM to withdraw money, etc. that was the time when we also found out that the maestro network is not working since april - yes, about four months! wtf is wrong here? and why did no one mention that at the travel agency? oh well... furthermore, it seems wireless internet is not so common in japanese hotels, but one can get a cable at the reception for ethernet connectivity. which also means only one can go online, since there's only one slot per room. but the hotel room was nice, the A/C was very silent, and we had western style beds again - nina had a hard time sleeping on the hard mattress. and now it's time to check out the cosy beds...