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After a long night of nowhere to sleep we managed to get going early in the morning today. We caught a train to Kyoto and caught up on some sleep. We arrived in Kyoto around 11am and quickly found a place to stay for the next three days by just going to the Tourist office and working with someone there to make our reservation. At this point we are dragging but unable to check in to our hotel for a few more hours. We left our bags at the train station and tried to make use of our time productively, despite the fact that we could barely stand. We didn't want to go to far and we didn't want to waste the day so we decide to check out the Nijo Castle. This was the first castle that we have experienced in Japan and it was quite interesting.
The 3300 square meter Ninomaru Palace is built almost entirely of Hinoki cypress. The decoration includes lavish quantities of gold leaf and elaborate wood carvings, intended to impress visitors with the power and wealth of the shoguns. The sliding doors and walls of each room are decorated with wall paintings by artists of the Kano school. The building houses several different reception chambers, offices and the living quarters of the shogun, where only female attendants were allowed. One of the most striking features of Nijo Castle are the "nightingale floors" in the corridors. To protect the occupants from sneak attacks and assassins, the builders constructed the floors of the corridors in such a way as to squeak like birds when anyone walks on them.
After roaming around the Castle and it's gardens we headed to our hotel where we planned on taking a nap but ended up not waking up until 12am and so we just called it a day!
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