Kyoto free day

We loved getting snacks from 7-11 they had so many different types of musubis & snacks!

On our free day from the Shady Acres Retirement group we went to the Ryoanji temple, a rock garden. It is believed to have been built sometime in the 1400's. Who knew a rock garden could be so peaceful & beautiful?

Carving on top of the temple...

We then visited the Kyoto station & went up the staircase to view the city & garden. We got snacks from Mister Doughnut & coffee from Cafe Du Monde (they didn't have beignets).

We then caught a taxi with a crazzzy taxi driver up to the Ninenzaka Slope to find the Ohagi shop my cousins had recommended. It was the tiniest shop that only served azuki bean & mochi treats. It was neat to be sitting in a shop where my cousins, aunts & grandmother had been.

Ohagi-rice balls covered in sweet beans

We took a walk down Ishibe koji the 'prettiest alley' in Japan.

We loved their English translation for example:
"the combustion egg was sliced to chicken's sunshiny scorch coming and one container"

Geiko walking down a street in Kyoto. She then got on her cellphone & ruined our touristy moment. Many of the women in Kyoto wore Kimonos.

Later that afternoon Josh & I went for a long walk around Kyoto. We found hidden temples & while people watching at Starbucks we saw the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia). Did you ever Black Rain with Michael Douglas? We were sitting outside of Starbucks & I noticed a fancy tinted car parked with a man sitting in the back & his chaeufer in the front. They waited in their car until a man in a suit entered Starbucks & gave him a nod. The man then got out of his car & when he passed me I noticed he had no pinky! Eeek!


We had a Japanese style crepe for dinner called Okonomiyaki (pictured upper left hand corner). They served us Americans lots of food. Mom & I thought we were going to die because we couldn't feel the air conditioner & stove was hot!

Nara-Kyoto

In Nara the deer roam freely & are sacred, it looks pretty, but smells like a petting zoo.

We visited the Todaji temple in Nara that houses the largest wooden buddha. To imagine the size, there is a monk wearing purple praying in front of it.

Cherry blossoms in front of the temple.

Our next stop was the Kasuga Shinto Shrine which houses over a 1,000 stone lanterns. The girl scouts were there fundraising & singing. They were so cute!

At the main Kasuga shrine a wedding had just finished & they were posing for their pictures.

Our next stop on the tour was the Nijo castle, but we weren't allowed to take photos. This was a fun place to visit because the nightingale floors squeaked when you walked on them. It sounded like birds singing & was built to prevent sneak attacks.

Josh & I in front of the Kinkuji temple or the golden pavilion.

At the Heian shinto shrine our tour guide taught us how to purify ourselves using the laddles. I was happy to find out that you spit the water out, I was worried about the germs in the water.

The garden at the Heian shinto shrine was one of my favorite places to visit because it was so beautiful & peaceful. There were so many cherry blossoms & when the wind blew it looked like it was snowing. We walked under canopies of cherry blossoms.

Osaka & Kobe

Josh & I woke up early & went for a walk to explore Osaka. I was excited when we found cherry blossoms, before the trip we had been told we were too late to see them.

We found hidden shrines nestled in quiet neighborhoods.

We had walked by this restruant & saw people eating breakfast, so we skipped out on the hotel breakfast in an attempt to be authentic. With some finger pointing & hand gestures we were able to order.

We loaded up on the bus & headed to Kobe. Our first stop was the Kikumasamune Sake museum, can't beat having sake first thing in the morning :)


Our next stop on the tour was the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake memorial park. In 1995, an earthquake struck Kobe killing over 6,000 people & destroyed the city. Being the worry wart that I am, this stop freaked me out! Our tour guide kept telling us, "the next big one will hit Tokyo". Oh great...

Kite being flown at the park...

We ate lunch the Mosaic mall & did a little shopping. We found that the Japanese love anything with Hawaii on it, a store was selling shirts saying "Poi Dog Club the symbol of Hawaii". Weird!
I took a picture of Josh & a Kewpie doll for Granny because she always tells him he looks like one.

Osaka Castle...

View from the top of the castle...

Osaka

Our arrival into Japan wasn't as dramatic as I had envisioned, no Hello Kitty to greet us & no big firework show. It was just an airport. After customs we met up with our tour group, which Josh called "Shady Grove Retirement Home".
View from our room at the Sheraton Miyako hotel...
After we checked into our hotel we headed to the Kintetsu department store & went downstairs to their grocery store. Grocery stores in Japan are so different than the ones we have at home, the store is neatly organized with specialty counters. The meat in the meat case was perfectly folded & arranged neatly. Look SPAM is SPAM in Japanese!

Josh & my Dad stocked up on the important things...beer! We later had a beer sampling up in our room with some fried Ika (squid), YUM!

SFO-->OSAKA

I didn't have much time to blog in Japan, I was busy trying to keep up with our travel journal & was too tired to do anything at the end of the day.

So rewind & here we are off to Japan!  Lucky us, we were upgraded to business class thanks to Jer! It was awesome. 

We left Hawaii Wednesday night & arrived in Japan Friday afternoon...confusing!

Marleyism

Marley was so excited for our trip she greeted me at the door 

screaming & jumping up & down. She gave me this note: "I'll miss you!" 

Plane ride #1

We're off to Japan...well kind of, right now we're in San Fran. We had
to fly into San Fran because there are no direct flights to Osaka from
Hawaii & we didn't want to connect in Japan. So our travel today
including 6 hour layover is about 24 hours. Thank God for my Iphone!!!

Kitty motel

If I hadn't gotten married, I would have liked to have been a crazy
cat lady. The lady that runs the kitty motel is total crazy cat lady,
she likes to cut out cat pictures. She also has cat stuffed animals
everwhere & cat cartoons playing.

Miso's kitty condo, it's 3 levels