For our second week in Japan, we left Nagasaki and went to the much bigger city of Kyoto, where we spent our first day going on a tour of the city. The first place we went to was the Golden Temple, which is a pagoda that is painted all over with gold. The tour also went to a few other temples and palaces. I really liked our last stop at Kiyomizu Temple because there were all kinds of really cool stores, called yomise, on the street leading up to it. Stefan and I had fun looking for souvenirs (I got an awesome ninja sword keychain to add to my keychain collection).
The next day we went to the Gion district of Kyoto where we stayed at a traditional Japanese inn to celebrate my Mom's birthday. They had a person come in to dress us all up in kimonos. The kimonos were kind of hard to walk in because we only had about a foot of free space inside, but it was still really fun walking around the streets in them. When we got back to the inn, we changed out of our kimonos and had a traditional Japanese dinner in our room, where we ate stuff like fish, batter fried vegetables (tempura), miso soup and fruit. After dinner, we went to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony like the one we had in Hirado, where you eat a 'sweet' before you drink the bitter green tea. We liked doing all of these traditional Japanese things and really like the food here, especially the sashimi (sushi without the rice).
The next day we went to the Gion district of Kyoto where we stayed at a traditional Japanese inn to celebrate my Mom's birthday. They had a person come in to dress us all up in kimonos. The kimonos were kind of hard to walk in because we only had about a foot of free space inside, but it was still really fun walking around the streets in them. When we got back to the inn, we changed out of our kimonos and had a traditional Japanese dinner in our room, where we ate stuff like fish, batter fried vegetables (tempura), miso soup and fruit. After dinner, we went to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony like the one we had in Hirado, where you eat a 'sweet' before you drink the bitter green tea. We liked doing all of these traditional Japanese things and really like the food here, especially the sashimi (sushi without the rice).
After
a good night's sleep on the tatami mats, we went back to our regular
hotel in Kyoto. From there, we visited the Uzumasa Toei Movie Village,
where they shoot samurai and ninja movies. Everything looked really
real and we even got to go behind the scenes of a TV show after they
finished the filming. We had a really exciting day at the movie village.The next day, we went to a temple with trails leading into the hills. These hills were lined with thousands of shrine gates leading up to another temple on top of the hill. It was really cool because every shrine gate was unique. They all were slightly different sizes and shapes, had different decorations, and were
different shades of orange. We also went to another temple that day,
which was cool because it had trails going through a bamboo forest. The
highlight of the day was our last stop at Arasiyama Monkey Park, or as
we called it, "Monkey Mountain."Monkey Mountain was home to about 150 monkeys. Lucky for us, we got there right when the monkeys came down to eat. They were everywhere as we walked along the trail leading up the hill. Once we got to the top, there was a place where you could stop and feed them. All of the baby monkeys came and ate from our hand. It was so cool to see and feed the monkeys.
After one last night in Kyoto, we head for Tokyo, which should be a great place to finish off our time in Japan.
Looks like you guys had a great time in japan so far!
can't wait to hear about tokyo. Hope your Mom had a great b-day.
-shrewdgirl8
Hi Ty,
I've been reading your blogs and everything sounds amazing! The movie town and 'Monkey Mountain' sounded really cool. Keep on blogging about the most amazing trip ever.
Parker
PS I can't wait to see you in Africa!!!!
Japan is my most favorite country. I can't wait till i get to move there.because of you guys i now know about Kidzania and can send my kids there when i get older.
We love the monkey park in Arashiama! Did you feed the monkey? We fed them peanuts and apples when we were there. It was so fun!
And we really miss the 'kaiten zushi' (sushi on conveyor belts) restaurants! They were our favorite.
people people that so great but next time take me if not no one.....
WOW you guys are so luck!!! japan is the most anmazing place in the world. It were all my faverit shows come from. ex( bleach and inuyasha) me and my best friend plan to go there when we get older.JAPAN HERE I COME!!!!! good luck on your next trip!
No fair I luv Japan!!!
Did you guys see any pandas?
so cool! LIke on all your stories i say i wish i could go there because you are so lucky!!!! it seems like you go everywhere in the world!! ( you probly will). i wish i could go everywhere you have gone!!!!!!!!