Dorit wanted to visit a museum, so we decided to visit the Kyoto National museum and the nearby Sanjusangendo Hall.
We took the bus to the Sanjusangendo Hall. As usual, the day was hot and humid. The Sanjusangendo Hall has 1000 small Buddha statues and one huge Buddha statue in a long hall, and additional 28 guarding deities. The Sanjusangendo Hall was the site of archery competitions over the last few hundred years. We bought a two anti-headache charms in the temple's store for Dorit and Shirley.
After visiting the Sanjusangendo Hall, we crossed the street to the Kyoto National Museum. The main collection of the National Kyoto museum was closed for renovation, so we decided to skip it.
We took the bus to the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts (Fureaikan). We ate lunch in a small restaurant/cafe on the way to the crafts museum (cafe 68 if I am not mistaken). It served hamburgers, but they did not taste or look like American hamburgers.
Dan and I entered the exhibition hall of the Museum of Traditional Crafts, while Shirley and Rena made a few crafts, and Dorit stayed with them. Dan and I saw many amazing hand crafts, including carpentry and home altars. A short movie showed the process of building a traditional chest of drawers. This piece of furniture is so exact that pushing in the last drawer into the chest creates air pressure that pushes out the other drawers.
From the Kyoto Museum of Traditional Crafts we walked to the Kyoyo Handicraft Center, which is a 7-stories building containing many shops selling Japanese crafts. I thought that the handicraft center closes at 6pm, so I rushed through the store. Fortunately, it closed at 7pm (summer hours). We bought many souvenirs there, including chopsticks, dolls, a glass plate, and a short ornamental sword. I decided to purchase only one sword because I did not know where we should place it. I though that we will hang the sword on the wall. Dan wanted me to buy a set of swords.
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