Oniko's Travel Diary: July 24, 1999

Oniko's Travel Diary:
The Saigoku Pilgrimage
(July 20-August 16, 1999)

July
		20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

August
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16

Saturday July 24, 1999
I slept in and genrally relaxed this morning; now it's about time to go test my roaming connection and check and send email if I can. I also want to relocate a bookstore that has issues of 'Dragonball' that I need; I saw them the other day before I found a bank, so I didn't buy them then. All I plan to do today is edit my Oniko's Gallery web page, shop, and get stuff into the mail. I'll let you know if something more happens, eh?

* * *

Well, something did. I located the book store, bought a mess of books, then walked to the post office near my hotel to pack up the books and get them in the mail... all forgeting that it's a Saturday. The post office is closed today and tomorrow. (I seem to make this mistake a lot...)

So I'm stuck carrying a mess of books until Monday, when I'd hoped to get rid of them, hit the local temples on the Saigoku route, and peel out for parts new. Worse still, now that I'm thinking about it, the temples might not be open to stamp my book tomorrow, so I may be stuck another day in Kyoto. So I can:

A) Get the hotel room for another night, and lose the stuff on Monday morning... not a good option. I don't want to pay for another night, given a choice.

B) Tote all the stuff around as I visit the temples... WHICH WON'T DO.

C) Try something in between... which is what I decided on.

I'm going to check Kyoto Center's coin lockers; if these are good for overnight, I'll park my stuff there on Sunday, and come back Monday to take care of it. If they are not good for over night, I'll park the stuff, go to the temples, and then pick it up on my way elsewhere the same day. (Both plans assume I'll be able to get to the temples on Sunday, which we'll see).
I'm also going to check out the larger post offices, rather than just the branch offices; these may have more accomedating hours. I can hope.
On the brighter side, my roaming connection works from the local pay phones, and the telephone cards I have will more than cover the cost of using the pay phones for the entire trip! On the dumber side, I dropped my bag, and dinged up my computer... but it still turns on, so I'll live.

* * *

I'm back from another long walk. I never found the lager post offices, because the tourist map I was given is wrong. Wheeeee. The lockers are for up to 11pm only, so there's that. And I got caught by one of Kyoto's famous summertime specticles, a bunch of guys toting a huge shrine up and down streets that have been clogged with traffic that can't move... and no wonder! There were at least three separate groups working different areas of the same downtown, tying up roads in all directions.

I'm seriously considering biting the bullet and getting one more night; if I do it, nothing on Earth is making me walk more than a block away from the hotel tomorrow!

Onwards to July 25th, 1999

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