Day 11 was rather stressful as we were preparing for a presentation we had to make the next day. So I decided to go to Nijo castle, which i could cover within 2 hours. Nijo castle is one of Kyoto’s many UNESCO world heritage sites and is easily identifiable due to its two moats surrounding the castle.

There was an entrance fee of 600 yen, which is pretty reasonable, considering that even the interior of the castle is accessible to the public. Photography is not allowed though, as the murals and paintings are very old and sensitive.

It’s always very interesting to see people’s interpretations of the world at a time when access to information was virtually non-existent. Their interpretations of foreign animals, depictions of wars and the environment around them is always fascinating.

It was also nice to just take a stroll along the gardens as well, and enjoy watching the koi and ducks swimming in the moat.

Next was something a bit different from my usual flowery, nature obsessed travel habbits- the Kyoto manga museum! It was only about 15 minutes away. I wasn’t planning on going because of my presentation, but heck it.

I’m quite an avid fan of anime, so there was no chance I was going to skip on this. Although I don’t really read manga, I really respect the amount of effort that goes into making them. And besides, most anime have manga as their source material.

There’s an entrance fee of 800 yen, which was rather expensive since I had to leave in 2-3 hours. The first thing I noticed was this giant bird, but I’m not sure of its significance.

Inside the museum there are hundreds upon hundreds of manga, stacked in shelves that reached the ceiling. They have some shelves with foreign languages right at the entrance. Don’t be fooled by the word museum, these manga are for reading.

There were also some exhibits and facts about the industry, but I mostly just went around finding and taking pictures of the anime I liked. If you do visit, come early (unlike me) so you have the time to grab a manga and start reading!

During weekends I hear that they also have events. It’s definitely worth checking out if you like manga.

I was pleased to see some of my favourite titles, including natsume yuujinchou (I very highly recommend this series by the way), barakamon, Gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun and so on. They also obviously had all the very popular titles, including the big three. It’s a shame the English section is rather small.

I rushed back to the dorm since I was already behind schedule. No fancy dinner, I contributed to 7/11’s profits again. I walked 15274 steps.