Kyoto

Last day in Kyoto: blossoms, temples, modeling, and night photography

Posted by Jason on March 29, 2013 - 1:05am in Our Travels.
When: 
March 12, 2013

Our day today started at Kitano Tenman-gu shrine to view the plum blossoms. We are in Japan too early to see the famous cherry blossoms, but the plums bloom earlier and are also very pretty. The place was full of people with cameras taking blossom pictures, with everyone swarming to the same sights. It was really pretty (well, except for the crowds).

Gates, gardens, and castles in Kyoto

Posted by Jason on March 28, 2013 - 2:55am in Our Travels.
When: 
March 11, 2013

Today, we started by taking the train to Inari to see the shrine there. The big feature of this shrine is lots and lots of orange gates. People buy them for good luck, with the bigger gates costing more money. The gates go most of the way up a mountain, and we hiked to the end of the gates, about 700ft up. There was no view at the top, just lots of orange gates, but it was a really cool place.


Soggy temple marathon in Kyoto

Posted by Jason on March 26, 2013 - 2:34am in Our Travels.
When: 
March 10, 2013

Today was our first day exploring Kyoto. Unfortunately, we left the hotel poorly prepared for the weather, which became cold, rainy, and windy about an hour into our day. We had left our raincoats, hats, and winter coats at the hotel, so we got soaked and were freezing at times, but we made the most of it. We saw six temples, including four UNESCO world heritage sites. We started our day with a bus ride to the Higashiyama area and a walk up the hill to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple, which is a world heritage site and contains a second world heritage site.

Hiroshima, peace, and a bullet train to Kyoto

Posted by Jason on March 23, 2013 - 4:49pm in Our Travels.
When: 
March 9, 2013

We are about to go to bed in our "Tea Ceremony" room in a ryokan, a Japanese-style inn, in Kyoto after a long day of sightseeing and travel. Our day started around 6am in Hiroshima, when Katie and I both gave up on trying to get anymore sleep. Jet-lag has been really bad. After a Japanese-style breakfast at the hotel (rice porridge, smoked salmon, miso soup, salad, and various other small dishes), we took a walk to Peace Memorial Park, to see all the monuments dedicated to the victims of the atomic bomb blast.

Japan - March 2013

Posted by Jason on March 22, 2013 - 11:37pm in Our Travels.
When: 
March 7, 2013 to March 16, 2013

Katie and I recently got back from our trip to Japan. We decided to have Penelope stay at home while we traveled, rather than bringing her with us, and this was the first time we had both been away from her at the same time for more than a single night. It was hard for us to be away, and a little hard on Penelope too, but it really worked out for the best. We were able to do the things that we wanted to do that would have been too boring for Penelope, without having to worry about naps and strange potties (she would have loved the food, though).