After being "on the road", "in the air", "on the sea", "in a bus", "in a taxi", "on a train", "on an elephant", "in a submarine", "on a ferris wheel", "on a junk"...and we still have a helicopter ride, dog sleds and wading through rivers of trout ahead...You'd think we'd be tired. We are. However, we still have much left to see and do!
The 9 hours tours though, those are over. Much to the disappointment of the whole family, we just completed our last "all day in a bus" tour. Kyoto. Unfortunately, we have landed in Japan while they are getting the outter reaches of the big storms that slammed into Manila, which was horrible. Here, there is only rain. We were fortunate that the Japanese like to have clear plastic umbrellas. One gal on our tour had the beautiful thought that maybe the Buddist people like to be able to see all of life twjile it is raining and be able to look up to the skies.... That was nice but not true. I asked a local man that spoke English why they like to have clear plastic umbrellas. He looked at me trying to understnad my crazy question and said simply "They are cheap"! So much for the beauty of it all! They cost $3-4 US dollars and are quite sturdy. Both a couple and they did come in handy.
Kyoto is about 2 hours by bus from Osaka. We however got lucky and got on a super highway with no traffic!! It only took a little over an hour to get there. We went straight to the Golden Pavillion or Kinkakuju, a beautiful 3 story structure covered in gold foil. The Shogun used to "summer" hre and actually, there was a spot on one end of this building that went out to a small island that was his "fishing spot".
Lunch was interesting. You can see it in the large black lacquer box. Not much of it was recognizeable. The raw fish was not a big hit with any of us, the shredded unknown vegetables were lovely to look at, the "Ginko leaf" wraped green dumpling for dessert was the same texture as a really old piece of Double Bouble that won't stick together well! The best thing in the "lunch box" was the grilled fish. It was the size of a small child's palm and was good. We did not find out until we were back on the bus that it was EEL!! Oh well, that is something new we can serve at the lake this summer!!
There was a Bride and Groom outside the hotel. It wasn't as beautiful as we thought. They were Japanese models doing a commerical for weddings that can be held at the hotel! Still nice to see their outfits.
After lunch we went to the 17th century Nijo Castle. Beautiful gardens, very ornate. This was the Shogun's Palace The Palace has a built-in security system. The ancient flooring has small clips built underneath that cause the floors to "Sing like nightingales" when anyone, especially intruders hoping to kill the Shogun, walked on them. There is not photo taking inside. Sorry. The gardens outside were beautiful. The trees, the flowers, the cranes. Cranes in Japan are a symbol of long life, so are turtles. The carp in the pond have their special meaning as well. It seems that many years ago the story was told that carp are the only fish that can swim upstream and successfully spawn. The "folk tale" as it is told says that the carp has the ability to turn into a DRAGON once it has made it upstream! That is why they are held in such high regard and you see them everywhere.
We had time for some local handicraft shopping. We were more fascinated by the rows of vending machines that extended forever than the shopping. You can get almost anything you need from these vending machines. Coffee, ice cream, cokes, cigarettes, drug store items...and you can swipe your credit card to use them!
The cute gal in one of the photos is our friend Katie from Oklahoma. She leaves us in Tokyo. She has been on many of our tours with us and we have very much enjoyed her. Safe travels Katie!
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