We left Tuesday morning making good time to Kyoto. The hotel was nice except the air conditioning in the room sucked. We got there around 3:00pm and checked in the headed to our first temple near the hotel. It had a huge pagoda and lovely gardens. Then off to the train station for dinner. It had two department stores, shopping and over 70 restaurants. We found a good place with a great view. Finished the night at the hotel bar with my sister-in-law while Jeff watched Julia.
Bridge on the way to Kyoto
Our room with a view of the trains.
Christine with her trusty travel book
Pagoda at the first temple.
Julia running around collecting rocks.
A walk in the garden with Aunt Christine
Daddy pushes me up the stairs
Dinner at the top of Kyoto.
View from restaurant on top of Kyoto
Beer for me and water for Julia
Drinks to end the night!
Done after day one.
Then next day we were up at 6:00am to have breakfast and go on our all day bus tour. We saw the Nijo Castle, Golden temple, Imperial Palace. Then lunch and shopping. Then two temples and one shrine. Remember it is 88 and sunny and still humid. At least the bus was air conditioned! We had several couples on our bus and meet some very cool people from all over the world. One shrine was the Sanjusangen-do, which is a National Treasure because it has 1001statues of the Buddhist deity and 30 guardians. It was quite impressive but of course no pictures allowed. The guardians had glass crystal eyes which made them really freaky to look at. The shrine was called Heian Jingu Shrine
Daddy will keep you shaded from the sun.
Map of the Castle. The gardens were my favorite part of all the places.
Arc to castle
The golden temple. Covered in gold leaves. The picture does not do it justice.
A painting that was inside the castle. This was one of the few places you could take pictures inside.
The process before entering the temple. Fill with water, wash each hand, hold up to mouth and take some in mouth and spit out, do not drink. Then tip right up and let the rest drip down. This will cleanse you before entering the temple.
The color is good luck.
If you get a bad fortune you put it on this tree so it does not come true.
I thought this wish was funny. Not asking for much.
View of a the bridge at the temple.
Julia feeding the coy fish.
View from the top of the last temple for the day. Then ice cream before dinner of course. As we made our way down the hill to the bus we were stopped by Japanese junior high students and asked questions in English, probably for their homework. He looks at his paper and then to me and says "Hello, may I ask you a few questions?" What is my favorite Japanese food, What is my favorite sport and where do I come from. It was very cute.
Julia ready for dinner.
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