Last day in Kyoto!

Today, we got an early start with our Kyoto Day Tour! We met our guide at 8:30 am and it lasted until almost 6 o'clock this evening. We got to see several temples and shrines (the first is for Buddhist and the second is for the Shinto religion). Our guide was an English speaking Japanese lady named Miko and she was great. She talked non-stop and kept all 30 of us from getting lost! The tours through the places went at a pretty fast clip because we had 7 places to visit. We hung out with a mother and son from Atlanta and it was nice to have some English speaking friends from back home to share it with. They are staying here at the Granvia too and we just saw them again! I really loved the Golden Pavillion and yes, it is covered in 22K gold leaf. So many people were there to see it. Also saw the palace of the Emperor, and the hall of the Kanon figures. (there were 1000 carved figures to protect the people of Japan!) Several places did not allow photography inside, of course, they want to sell you the photos, I'm sure! We had lunch at this place that was just floor after floor of Japanese crafts. Lots of neat stuff there and I bought a few things, of course. The lunch there was yummy too! We watched an approaching storm at our last temple visit and it rained like crazy. We were lucky to have had a dry day considering it was raining when we got up this morning too! I guess we're off to Hawaii tomorrow night. Our flight doesn't leave until 10:00 pm so were are going to try to leave our bags here for awhile . Otherwise, we would have to drag our luggage around Kyoto for hours and that would be totally weird! haha So we'll see how that goes. I am sure it will be a long day and I will be falling asleep in the airport, waiting to leave! Got to try green tea ice cream and finally, the Japanese got something right!!! It was great! We had pizza for dinner a bit ago and it was like soup on a really thin crust. Paper thin. Oh, well, they tried.........If there is some enterprising soul out there, open a Gino's here and you'll be rich!

What a day! Hiking around Kyoto again!

Sooo, today proved to be a very interesting one! We decided to take in another couple of temple tours on the other side of Kyoto in the mountain area. We got on the train to get there and it just kept on goin! I assured Dennis it was OK, there's always another train! It ended up going about 4 stops past where we needed to get off! There is a difference, turns out, between the local and express trains! We figured out where we needed to go and got on the correct train and made our way back to Nara. The temple there is the one you always see with all the orange and black tori gates!!! Like a bazillion of the things and I think we walked under all of them. Dennis was looking for a geocache and we went off on some long trail through a bamboo forest with mosquitoes eating us alive. What fun! I was not a happy camper. So we turned around and back tracked about a mile and figured out which path we needed to take - all UPHILL under those toris! My legs still have not recovered from Fuji and my knee hurt but we found the cache and Dennis was satisfied. We made our way back - 3 HOURS later! By then we were tired and hungry and we passed a bunch of teeny shops. One had Bar-B-Q out front with some old Japanese lady cooking. It looked tasty enough and we saw the sign that read "BBQ Quail". I told Dennis "I eat birds. I eat turkey and chicken, OK" So she motioned us in and we were handed a menu in English and I figured she forgot about the quail. We got a big bowl of rice, chicken , and egg with chopsticks for 8$ a bowl. Then here she came with the quail-a-bobs! Dennis took a bite of one of the pieces and made a face. "Bones!". he said. I tried it and about gagged.... It was like eating salmon with all those little bones in it. "No way am I eating this stuff," I said and I started looking for a plant or a hungry cat. What was even worse is it was 8$ more each and when I got back out front for a closer look, the heads were still attached!!! Yikes! I told Dennis there were beaks in there! (Dennis said he would probably cough up an owl pellet later tonight as a result.) Anyway, we walked another 2 miles to another neighboring temple, Tofukuji, and we walked around that one some more. It was pretty with all its Zen gardens and nice bridges so that was fun. We saw some young girls taking pictures of each other and they would make the peace sign and smile. I have seen that alot so I asked "are you making a peace sign??" and she giggled and said, "That make us look cute!" I said, "I'll have to remember to do that...alot." hahaha Weird.

Then we were done there and tried to find the train station to get back. The streets are like alleys. Really small and cramped so we missed that! Ended up walking alllll the way back to the Granvia. I felt like I had hiked Fuji all over again!!! Anyway , it was fun and we were so tired we got punchy. At the Zen garden where they rake all the gravel in circles and swirls, I told Dennis we should jump the railing and run through it! I could drag my heel through it and spell "Lee Ann (heart) Dennis" really big. We payed 16 bucks and didn't even get to see a Budda! We've laughed a lot today. I think we are losing our minds.......

Happy 4th of July! Culture in Kyoto today!!

Today was a very busy day! We ventured out on our own this morning and visited three temples near our hotel. It was so strange to see such historic places in the midst of such a busy, modern city! The architecture was spectacular! One was considered to be the largest wooden building in the world. We got to witness a Buddhist monk performing a ceremony. Kind of like a church service where we come from! We had to take our shoes off before entering any of the buildings. I forgot my socks but luckily, bare feet were OK! It was really warm and humid today. A lot like home! Later, we did our "Kyoto Special Night" tour and it was really neat! We had our own taxi ride to the historic Gion District, famous for it's tea houses and geishas. We were taken to a tea house, which was really tiny. We learned about how a proper tea ceremony is done, then had a traditional tempura dinner of veggies, rice, miso soup, kelp, and tofu! All with chopsticks! Sounds icky but it was quite tasty. Lots of green tea to wash it down. Then we were led down the narrow streets to the theatre to see traditional performances of Japan. We saw geishas, a comedy play, bunraku (puppet theater), and weird Japanese music. The taxi took us back to our hotel and we called it a day! Lots of fun!

Crazy , crazy day!!!

Well, Dennis and I made it from Kawaguchiko to Kyoto on about three different trains! The last was a Shinkansen that traveled about 165mph and got us to Kyoto in a hurry! It was nothing short of a miracle that we were able to find our way through all of the stops and stations. We had to search for any sign in English and ask for help alot. There are sooo many people that travel the trains so not only is it confusing which train and then which car, but you have to filter through all of the people running past you! But we made it and the Granvia Hotel is quite swanky. Our legs are killing us! haha We are able to use wireless only in the lobby so here we sit with all kinds of people running around. This hotel has about 9 restaurants and if you order a room service orange juice it will cost you 9 dollars!!! Translated, we are going to be really skinny when we leave here! haha Tomorrow, we will walk around some and see some sights close by then we will have a tour tomorrow night. Dennis is sooo NOT driving here because it is crazy busy. 'Til next time!!

We survived Mt. Fuji - barely!

Hello everyone! We started climbing Fuji yesterday at 8:30 am and got back to the room　at 10:00pm. We had to take a more difficult route due to the snow blocking the trail we had planned to take. There were wind gusts of up to 120 mph!!! One gust started a rock slide and a rock the size of a cooler hit me in the back while I was curled up in a fetal position with Dennis crouched in front of me, holding on. It took us 7.5 hours to climb up and 5 to get back down. So many times I wanted to just throw in the towel but hated to go all that way just to give up. It was sooooo much more difficult than we expected. We used our headlamps to the last half down. Dennis said his legs were shaking all the way down. The trail was full of big lava rocks that you had to go hand over hand and crawl your way up and then back down the same difficult path. We were beyond exhausted! And all that on just some peanut butter crackers and some snacks! The hotel sent us on our way with a breakfast of sea weed, rice , and raw salmon! They call it a Bento Box. We had black dirt caked in our eyes, ears, nose, even our feet were dirty with shoes and socks on. Our legs really hurt today but not as bad as we thought it would be. There were some older Japanese people climbing that were amazing! One younger fella was wearing a cardigan, dress pants and loafers and practically skipped his way to the top!! And there we were with the best of equipment about to die. We could hike just about 50 feet then had to stop to breathe. Ｔｈｅ　ｗｈｏｌｅ　ｔｒａｉｌ　ｗａｓ　ｖｅｒｙ　ｓｔｅｅｐ！The altitude made us a little lightheaded but otherwise we did fine. One lady on the way back down was really bad off. We passed several people on their way up at about 8 pm and we warned them about the terrible winds. We would ago a little ways and here the gusts start up at which point we just had to crouch down and shut our eyes and hold on to whatever we could!!! We were happy to have made it all the way to the top and got to see the actual crater which was amazing!! Glad thats over though!!!Ｔｏｄａｙ　ｗｅ　ａｒｅ　ｒｅｓｔｉｎｇ　ａｎｄ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｓｅｅ　ａ　ｆｅｗ　ｔｈｉｎｇｓ．　Ｗｉｌｌ　ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ　ｇｏ　ｂｕｙ　ｏｕｒ　ｔｒａｉｎ　ｔｉｃｋｅｔｓ　ｔｏ　Ｋｙｏｔｏ　ａｓ　ｗｅｌｌ．　Ｍｉｓｓ　ｅｖｅｒｙｏｎｅ！

Have more time on the old internet card so I will add some more! It is cool and rainy today which is typical for this time of year. All the Japanese people we have dealt with are super nice and patient with our ignorance of Japanese.A lot of them even speak english and I always say Hello so they will know to speak English. I am the only one here just about with blonde hair. At least Dennis can find me easily! The flight bout killed us. A baby squalled for about 2 hours and sleeping in the fetal position on a hard seat is impossible. Slept a long time last night though to make up for it. Will write more later! Hi Mom and Dad and everyone else. Wish you were here! It:s pretty crazy! Love, Lee Ann and Dennis

We are here!!

Hi, everyone! Internet access is very limited and slow! I will keep this short. Flew a really long time and got lots of sleep last night here at the Hilton. Taking the trains today to Fuji. Later!