OK, OK - Its one thing to be lazy, but...

See we've essentially been back now longer than we were on a trip. It just doesn't feel like it. Hopefully we'll be going back and making notations of our trip memories soon, before they become forgotten memories. I've been able to geotag the first day of pictures. Its rather labor intensive, but fun. Kinda. It is rather amazing what you can remember by reviewing your steps with Google Earth.

And just so that its officially on the blog - the forgotten last day, day 10. A day I didn't have high expectations of, being a travel day essentially, but Nijo Castle during the daytime was very cool. I couldn't take pictures of the inside, but it had some of the most interesting and well preserved interiors of any ancient building we saw.

And let me tell you, Osaka's International Airport (KIX), is a MONSTER! The trip out to the airport was in the rain, but when you are taking a bridge out to an artificial island, and the land disappears from sight... well, that's a big island.

Japan - Day 10

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Back in Seattle - last day in Kyoto and exit via Osaka KIX

It's over, it's one for the books. We're back home, physically at least. We've been up going on 28hrs and counting. The last day consisted of a morning visit to Nijo Castle again (and a good decision that was!), a quick stop by the Kyoto Imperial Palace Park and the train ride to the other-worldly huge Osaka KIX Airport.

We're burnt out right now, but more details will follow as we look back and review.

The end is near! More Kyoto and Nara

Well things are happening so fast that I didn't even have time to post anything yesterday. Now we've just wrapped up our last full day in Japan. But first things first - yesterday. We started out the day going to the Torii gates in Fushima. The pictures pretty much say it all - Miles and miles of red temple gates. The scope of the whole complex was amazing. After that we returned to Kyoto proper, did some shopping and had some truly amazing ramen noodles. Fatty pork prepared in a way I didn't truly think possible, just like butter. We went east again and got lost in temple after temple. We capped the day by going out for tempura - a place all about the ceremony of presenting the tempura. There was a Japanese couple there from Tokyo who were spending a few days in Kyoto, so we we're able to have some conversation while we shared similar dinners. Lucky the restaurant was right in the Gion neighborhood, famous for its cherry blossoms along a river bank.

...Sigh, falling asleep...

Today, Chiba-san came by bullettrain to meet us at the Kyoto train station. We then headed out to Nara, a capital of Japan just before Kyoto. We saw many great things there. I think the top 3 though were the wild deer, the Great Buda, and a cherry tree of epic beauty. We finished Nara off with a healthy lunch, composed of many interesting elements. We returned to the hotel in Kyoto after saying goodbye to Chiba-san. For dinner we stumbled into a small family restaurant just a few blocks from the ANA Hotel. We don't know what its name was, but the grand-daughter's name was Senda. The food, deep-fried, was great.

Time for bed, a few stops in the morning, and then the flight out.

Pictures:

Japan - Day 8

Japan - Day 9

Epic day in Kyoto

Well once again, not enough time to write. I can't even summarize yesterday without it taking two hours to write. The super highlights:

First full day in Kyoto. We did a walking tour of the old part of Kyoto. We saw several nice temples and gardens. The funny thing is we barely touched the tip of the iceberg. There are just that many temples and shrines here. One of the more interesting moments is when we went out the back gate of one of the hillside temples... it didn't say we couldn't go out it. Well a little stroll in the forest became a rather interesting hike. Eventually we popped out at the top of a ridge overlooking Kyoto. It was quite a view, and we were very alone on top. We found out that it was another burial site for a Shogun. The trip down was even more exciting because we discovered we had actually taken a goat path up, but there was a nice trail down.. but where it lwould ead to we were not exactly sure. It went in kinda the right direction, and it did. It just got a little dicey because as we started going down the path it went from nice rock to muddy grass. We were afraid the trail would just end and we'd have to turn back up the (steep) hill. But no, we emerged out into a HUGE cemetery. Minutes later we were back on the map, literally. More temples, gardens, amazing mochi desserts and a grilled Unagi dinner summed up the rest of the day. We got back to the hotel after dark and then headed out across the street to Nijo castle for a nighttime walk under the lights. Amazing day. You could spend a year in this town.

More hoofing expected today. Anya is zonked out right now, she had to do some work last night. But shortly we'll get dressed and see if we can get lost, again, in Kyoto.

Japan - Day 7

Screw the planes, I got trains at 200 mph!

Bye-bye Tokyo, hello Kyoto! Its quite a shock to the system (shock #325 this week,) going from the huge metropolis of Tokyo to Kyoto, but I think we'll do fine. We kinda have to learn everything over again, but faster. Time is short. What is riding the Shinkansen (series 500) like? Well, its long and spacious. Very nice. You know when a plane is in the process of taking off down the runway, right before the wheels lift off? Imagine that for a little over 2 hours. 200 mph, and it feels it. I've never felt G-forces in a train before.

So anyways, we're here. Safe and sound. New hotel, the ANA Hotel Kyoto. We just discovered our window opens up to a view of a major castle in the area. Not a bad way to start Kyoto.

Need to figure out dinner now.

Japan - Day 6

Last full day in Tokyo - Blossoms for the last

Well another fine day in Tokyo. Wonderful sun in the springtime. We decided to go over to the Imperial East Gardens and take a look inside this time. I nice place to get away from it all. Well almost. Unlike Palatine Hill in Rome, you can still hear the Tokyo grind from inside the palace walls. After that we stopped by Mitsukoshi, a department uber-store with multiple locations in Tokyo, to pickup up a bento-box lunch... and then some. (Mitsukoshi's breadth and quality of food offerings boggles my tiny American mind.) We then jumped back onto the subway and headed back to Ueno Park to see the cherry blossoms in full effect. There were a few in bloom when we stopped by in the evening a couple of days ago. Now they are in full bloom. It is ground zero for Sakura watching in Tokyo right now. So we sat, along with tons of other people and had our lunch. We counted our blessings and had the best picnic lunch I could ever conceive of. Of course the two mochi ice cream desserts we each had kinda put our meal over the top, but we figured we'd walk it off. Hey, when in Rome... Then we headed over to Roppongi and the new uber-shopping/building complex, Roppongi Hills. A huge, massive complex. Amazing. But so over the top, it just oozes money. It feels like you need to be so rich to shop and live there, that DNA and bank account statements should be required for entrance. The large number of security personnel does nothing but reinforce this. Like I said, an amazing place, but I don't think we got much out of it. So now we're back, getting ready for our last night in Tokyo. Its been a great trip so far. We'll see how tomorrow goes with stashing the luggage at Tokyo Station until we get onto the bullet train for Kyoto. Every day is a day of firsts here. By the end of our stay here I think we've travelled on the Ginza, Marunuchi, Hibiya, Oedo, Hanzomon and Asakusa subway lines, plus the JR Line out of Shinjuku. Not bad for a couple of days.

Japan - Day 5