Land of the Rising Sun: Kyoto....

Sorry my posts have been delayed. Kyoto was busy and Hiroshima had no internet connection.

Kyoto was a beautiful city. It's one of the oldest from the Edo period and one of the few cities that were not heavily damaged by WWII. In Kyoto we visited the Fushima Inari Shrine. It is one of the most photographed shrines in Japan.

Fushimi Inari Shrine is the most famous of several thousands of shrines dedicated to Inari across Japan. Inari is the Shinto god of rice, and foxes are thought to be his messengers. Therefore, many fox statues can be found at Inari shrines.
Fushimi Inari Shrine is also famous for the countless torii gates, offerings by worshippers, that cover the hiking trails of Inarisan, the wooded mountain behind the shrine's main buildings. It takes about two hours to walk along the whole trail.

Needless to say, hiking up through the torii gates was a little too soon after Fuji and it was HOT. I actually think it may be more humid here than in Florida..if that is possible :)

Mom and Sheena at the Fushimi Inari Shrine

Kyoto is also famous for their Geishas. It is one of the few places where you can find geishas exiting private clubs in the Gion district. Our house was just about a 15 minute walk to the Gion district. We decided to take a walk down there just to get some pictures of the elusive geisha. After about 30 minutes of circling through the many alley ways and streets we decided to start walking towards home. Just to note, you could easily tell the other geisha hunters, since you would pass them constantly and they had their cameras out and ready. On the way down Hanami-koji Street, suddenly we noticed two geishas who just appeared from nowhere...just like the paparazzi, we were running ahead of them to get a good picture...almost getting run over by cars and scooters :) We got the best pictures we could in two minutes and we went home very happy!

Lastly, in Kyoto...we headed out to the the Golden Pavillion.

Golden Pavilion Kyoto Japan: The Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) is literally covered in gold - gold leaf. The Golden Pavilion is World Heritage listed and surround by beautiful gardens.

Golden Pavilion is the popular name for one of the main buildings of a Buddhist Japanese temple in Kyoto Japan. The name Golden Pavilion comes from the Japanese term Kinkakuji, which literally means the temple of the Golden Pavilion(金閣寺). Rokuon-ji (鹿苑寺 Deer Garden Temple) is the formal name of the temple complex in which the Golden Pavilion is found.

It was a rainy day, but that didn't damper our enthusiasm. The temple was just beautiful. We all took many, many pictures.