Our last night and morning in Kyoto, Japan

We had to move to another ryokan for our last night in Kyoto because of the crowds coming to Kyoto for Golden Week. We found out after we had made our reservations that we were going to be visiting Japan during Golden Week, the busiest vacation week of the year for the Japanese! We loved it because we got to see a lot of people, all types, singles, couples, families, young and old. So our last night was spent at the NISHIYAMA RYOKAN.

This was one of our rooms. This was a larger Ryokan with each of the 2 rooms larger than the entire room we stayed in the first night, but it was about twice the cost. It was very beautiful inside and had a nice garden outside as well.

The morning we were to leave Japan, I woke up at about 6 am, to beautiful sunshine and another clear blue sky. I was going to sneak out and go bird watching by myself, but I just couldn’t leave Cheri behind on such a beautiful morning and the last morning at that.

So I emboldened myself and woke her up, exposing myself to a barage of grumbles and complaints!! By the time we got to Arashiyama, an hour later(!!) she was finally saying she was glad I woke her up.

And once we had walked through the gorgeous little rural town and come to the Hozu River, she was completely over the complaints and loved it.

We walked along the river and watched the quiet town wake up, bird watching and taking pictures.

I sure would hate to have this as my only way to get around on the river! My kayak would be much easier. This guy only had a pole, whereas some of the other boats had a pole, but also a small outboard motor.

A little egret was already having breakfast.

On our way back, we just had to visit one more temple!! We had only 1 and-a-half hours, but we couldn't resist once we got a glimpse of the area and read a little about it. It was the Tenryuji Temple, a World Heritage Site and one of the most historic sites in Kyoto.

It was the head temple of the Tenryū sect of Rinzai Zen Buddhism and was founded by Ashikaga Takauji, primarily to venerate Gautama Buddha.

As a temple related to both the Ashikaga family and Emperor Godaigo, the temple is held in high esteem, and is ranked as the most important (Rinzai) Zen temple in Kyoto. In 1994, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as one of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto".

This temple was surrounded by beautiful gardens as well, and was one of the few places we saw the simplicity and order of the gravel zen garden.

We made it back to our Ryokan to check out, grab a quick breakfast, some of that good Japanese coffee ( they do have very good coffee), and stop and photograph our last local community shrine on the way to the subway to Kyoto Station.

There we jumped on board one of the Japanese Shinkansens – one of their beautiful streamlined, fast and very quiet trains, the bullet train bound for, ultimately, Narita Airport, headed for “home”, Saipan. A wonderful trip and vacation. One we would recommend to all!!!

Going Back to Saipan...

A toast to our Trip and to all our Friends!

from a restaurant overlooking the bay at Kobe!

Japan - Some more pictures left....

This "cat shrine" was just outside of the Golden Temple in NW Kyoto.

These were some shrines outside of the Tenryuji Temple in Arashiyama and we thought very appropriate for our "fertile" friends in Spokane...

Reminds me of the Robinettes, but one short soon!

And at the shrines we often found paper or wooden notes written by visitors ----

And at almost every street corner in Japan are vending machines filled with every type of beverage you can imagine.

After using the vending machines, of course, you occasionally need to use one of these. Which end is which end supposed to face?

Some more beautiful temple in East Kyoto..

You would see traditional Japanese attire at most shrines and events.

This was a view from our hike up into the mountains of eastern Kyoto.

Part way up we wish we would have employed one of these guys, but not after that tempura dinner!

Once a year, in December they ring this little bell.

Some of Cheri's new Japanese Friends, who will hopefully help us on the rest of our SE asia trips.

Japan – Our trip to Himeji Castle and Kobe

I had seen the picture of this castle in the tour guides and wanted to visit it if at all possible. Well we did! And it was well worth it.

The only bad thing about it was that after 5 days of touring Japan on foot we had probably walked 50 miles and our feet and backs were killing us and then to look up at this castle on top of the hill! I found it rather shocking that we can regularly run 4 miles 3 times a week, and run up to the top of Suicide Cliffs in Saipan and not feel sore, and yet it was unbelievable how sore we were after just 5 days of touring!

There was even wildlife in the castle ponds - a new bird for us, a spot-billed duck.

Like other castles they built this castle to be as impenetrable as possible so they had lots of portals where they could throw rocks and hot water on the encroaching enemies -- portals of all shapes, seems a little artistry got in the way of efficiency here, but perhaps the triangles wouldn't allow the enemy to enter.

Oh, And we did run into a samurai at the top!

Himeji was a cute little town, much quieter and slower than Tokyo and Kyoto. A pleasure to visit. As you can see they do like to cater to their dogs.

Walking the small streets of Hemiji you just can't ever predict what you may run into!

On our way home we visited the coastal town of Kobe. A good contrast to Himeji. It was a new, bustling, glimmering city, with lots of Japanese tourist spots and tour boats.

The odd thing is, I was expecting to see some “sea birds”, but no, we didn’t even see one gull! Only pigeons. Very odd.

And of all places in the world, Cheri found Elvis!