Nightingale Floors

On my third and final day trip (half day) to Kyoto, Jas and I went to Nijo-jo, a castle with 'nightingale floors,' floors that are designed to creak and squeak when you walk on them. They were designed this way as an alarm system against would-be intruders. I was interested in seeing this castle after reading Liam Hearns fictional Japanese Trilogy, starring a 'nightingale floor.' This is another place I would recommend seeing as early as possible - it was difficult to hear any squeaking over the clamour of a hundred school kids.

After going through the castle you can walk a circuit around the gardens, which ends with a guantlet of clone souvineer shops that you find at almost every temple, shrine, castle and any other place of significance, (significant tourist traffic, that is). As this was my last planned trip to one of these sites, I picked up some tacky gifty things to give away to friends, then we made a dash back to Sakarai to meet up with another of Jasmines students who had invited us to her place for lunch.

Naoko, one of Jasmine's students had prepared a lovely meal for us, and considerately included a potato salad because that apparently is what foreigners eat, potatoes. Unfortunately I may have helped confirm this belief - not because I didn't like any of the other foods Naoko made, but because it was the only dish that had a spoon to serve it, and against Jasmine's warnings I did not practise using chop sticks before I visited.