Japan day 8 Kyoto - Hiroshima

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after the 8 course dinner - this was our breakfast at the ryokan!  at least there was a lot of tofu, rice and fruit!

Nijo castle.  home of the shogun.  we learned the coolest thing.  the day before at one of the temples - we noticed that the floors were "squeaky" they were an odd kind of musical squeaky but we figured it was just age.  nope - there are little metal struts placed under the boards to make a nightingale whistle when walked on - 1000 year old security system!  only a ninja can walk the floors without making the nightingale whistle! 

kinkaku-ji temple - the golden temple.  the original burned in 1950 - this exact replica was rebuilt in 1955.  very popular tourist site!!  satuorusan hired us a taxi van and the driver took us around to all the sites and hustled us through them - it was a speed tour of Kyoto's highlights - but since we had to get a train in the afternoon - it worked out great.  I was a little concerned when we got in the van and found only three working seatbelts - our driver said - "don't worry I am a good driver!" and he was! - though we made sure at least the kids had seatbelts.  it's amazing the tight spaces cars get into here!

it was very hot and very crowded - nice to get some ice cream from a vending machine for a short break!

ninja museum!  film sets from ninja movies - ninja mazes - all things ninja and samurai. 

first stamp on our ninja physical challenge - the kids and I got all three stamps!

film sets

kiwako-san insisted on buying us pictures at the dress up shop.  these are real kimonos - not just zip up the back.  it's amazing how fast they got us dressed.  arms up! arms down! turn around! hands in!

so, before coming to japan I said one of the things I was going to look for was a manekineko toothbrush holder. I found it! (or close to it) at a shop near the gotojuki temple.  However after being here for a few days and trying to dig into the bottom of my travel purse for my change all the time, I said I needed a change purse. everything under a 1000 yen (ten dollar bill) is coins.  of course I wanted a manekineko coin purse.  there are thousands of coin purses, but today I finally found a maneki neko!

matt also found the souveneir of his dreams - he used every last yen he had to buy ninja shoes!

this street is more crowded than it looks! this is a shopping street leading the way to the kiyomizu-dera temple. lots of women in Kyoto wearing kimonos, lots of shops advertising day rentals.  it seems to be a special occasion kind of thing.  it was fabulous to see all the young women in kimonos taking selfies in front of the temple!  in this picture you can see tony posing and our driver steering Kaitlyn around by the shoulders.  this is what he did all day - steered us around!

animal at the temple.  (when I asked if it was a lion I was told it was an animal)

this is as cooperative as matt got for pictures. 

beautiful view of Kyoto from the temple.

rest area on the path (not that we rested!) the kids and I had to run to catch up after stopping to take pictures. 

 

Fushimi inari-taisha shrine.  there are a thousand tori gates!  we went through the first part, but had to hustle back to catch our train. 

 

lunch was sort of a mishmash of snacks, so we were all hungry and had some time to grab dinner for the train to Hiroshima.  we managed to finally find some breaded chicken and plain rice for matt.  I actually had more trouble than him - everything, even the salad had meat or fish in it.  finally found this - decided it was probably a peanut butter sandwich.  it was, unfortunately it was very sweet peanut butter, but I was hungry, so I ate it. 

tony's bento box. he loves unagi

Kaitlyn asked if our hotel was fancy.... umm yes. 

part of the amazing view.  we got into hotel after nine.  kiwako and satoru headed to hot spring, Kaitlyn, tony and I headed to rooftop bar for a ramen snack and matt hung our with the ipad!