Kyoto - Part Two

Day three we decided to do a walking tour mapped out in one of Christine's travel books.  Another early start with breakfast type sandwich and a chocolate chip dinner roll.  We caught the number 100 bus from Kyoto station and road about 20 minutes with the morning commuters and students.  Bus was packed.  First stop, Ginkajuji temple and Cultural Center. You had to climb up a long narrow street lined with shops and ice cream places.  Green tea flavor is the local flavor.  Not good to me.  I did try the mango and it was great!  The people really like Julia and we were stopped many times so they could talk to her and some to touch her.  She of course  loved the attention.
Picture of the temple

 They have these gardens with sand formations.

 Walking the path up to the temple

 Temple view.

 Family photo

 Then walked along the "Philosopher's path and found this cute little cafe tucked away with a sign reading Guinness that drew my attention.  We had a great meal and free cake.

 Then off down the Philosopher's path to the next temple.

 So many temples, so little time.

 All the temples are on hills so there is a lot of walking.

 This was a pagoda that you could walk up to the top of.  I stayed with Julia so she could walk around.

 Julia made a new friend who she shared rocks with.

 Going through the arc to the Golden Temple.

 The view from the top of the temples.

The next morning I found an actually breakfast place and had the fried eggs set.  They call combos sets here. One fried eggs, salad, french fries and toast with tea.  Salad and french fries are a common breakfast food but doughnuts are not.  Go figure.  Then we headed out of Kyoto.  We got pulled over by the police.  When the cop came to our car, he looked us and said "Oh" I am guessing because we were foreigners.  Jeff did a great job communicating.  Those Japanese lessons are paying off and NO ticket!  Apparently there was no right turn at the time period we did.  Who can tell when you can't read the signs.  Up Mt. Hiei we headed looking another temple.  Enryakuji Hieizan world heritae site was great.  There were lots of temples and working ones.  We got to see a real Buddhist ceremony.  

Map of the temples on top of Mt. Hiei

 We got to see a few and two ceremonies.

 You can ring the bell and make a wish, or a prayer.

 The bell is a soft gong sound.

 Up to the top to see the ceremony with chatting and prayers.  Very cool and a sweet workout.  People can also write prayers on wooden sticks and then the Monk burns them and says the prayer to Buddha for you.  Very cool but of course no pictures allowed.  It was cool up on this mountain, I was actually comfortable.

 More stairs, very steep!

The trees were huge and so beautiful.  That is Jeff and Julia standing at the top of the stairs by a huge tree.

 Then we headed back down the mountain and found a rest area with a great view and good curry.  The rest areas all have very good food.  It also had a little gift shop and this cool statue.  We meet a Japanese couple who loved Julia and were traveling with there two dogs. They let Julia pet them and she had a blast.

 View from rest area.  Yes, Jeff has not had a hair cut in 5 months.  Crazy hair!  But I like it:)

I drove part of the way home and only got honked at twice for drifting into the next lane. It is harder than you think to drive on the other side.  Highlights:  All the gardens in the temples, beautiful.   The kids asking us questions for their school project.  The top of the mountain, cool and a nice break from the heat.  Now home for a few days and off to Tokyo and home for 3 weeks!