Monday Morning

Monday in Kyoto
We returned to the Royal Rhiga Hotel and left our bags. This was a free day and we had many things planned. First we headed to the Imperial Palace to take the English tour at 10am. You have to present yourself at their office with your passport to gain entrance and there was a large crowd. Unfortunately the tour wasn't great. You are not allowed to go inside any of the buildings even though the palace is empty and never used. So we trekked around and saw the buildings and beautiful gardens, but I wouldn't recommend this site.

Next we took the train to Nara to spend a peaceful afternoon in this ancient capital city. This was one of the best places we saw. A beautiful little city with large open spaces, parks and tame deer everywhere. The deer are considered to be messengers from G-d and a protected species. We did buy deer food and found them to be adorable, but a little pushy. One guy gave me a nip on the rear when I didn't get the food to him fast enough. All in all Jeff and I really enjoyed being with them as they followed us like puppies.

First stop was a huge Buddhist Temple complex with the world's largest cast bronze Buddha. He was huge! It was so impressive as you walked down this long path with beautiful gardens on each side. The building is very old and the largest wooden structure in the world. Inside was the Buddha with a bronze warrior on each side. Other interesting displays completed the scene. Next we walked up a hill to a Shinto Shrine complex which was peaceful and had great views. Our third site was a temple with thousands of stone lanterns. I know this is starting to sound mundane, but each place is more gorgeous than the next and the size of the buildings and gardens is awesome.

I have to write about the school kids. There were groups everywhere and are they cute. They all wear uniforms and look very neat compared to the US kids. They seem playful, but are disciplined and courteous. We got a big kick seeing them and they would often wave to us or practice a few words in English.

We ate some lunch by showing the waitress what we wanted by pointing to the plastic displays in the window. Wearily we walked back to the train station and rode home. Back in Kyoto our group of 7 went out for a farewell dinner at an Italian restaurant. We just had to have pizza and pasta.

In the morning everyone but us left for the airport and Jeff and I were on our own.