Travel Log: Day 2

This was our big day in Kyoto and we tried to pack in as much as possible. We woke up to a free continental breakfast at our hotel. A bit different than the donuts and coffee you find in the US. Miso soup and onigiri (rice with stuff on it). Our first destination was Fushimi nari. These red tori gates line the trail as you hike through the mountain side. The whole hike is about 2 hours, but we did a shorter version. Of course there were also Jinja's and shrines along the way. This is the kind of thing that I LOVE, but I wasn't sure if the kids would like it. They seemed to enjoy running through the gates though.

Next we went to Toji Temple. This was a 5 story pagoda, beautiful ponds and gardens and 2 other buildings (temples). In the temples there were a lot of golden buddha statues, but we couldn't take pictures inside. Shane and I both really liked this place. To give you an idea of the size of the pagoda, I am the small person standing in front of it.
After lunch and some bribery (ice cream) for our kids to keep going, we went to Kinkakuji. This is a golden temple, and we hear that it really is covered with gold.

Kinkakuji is a must see in Kyoto, but while we were there there were a million students on school trips, so it was very crowded. We had to wait for a chance to take the above family photo for about 15 mins. By the time we got done with Kinkakuji we were ready for a break. We decided to drive around and Shane tried to find where his old mission apartment in Kyoto was. We got close but never found the exact building. While we were in the area Shane remembered about an old bridge, Togetsu kyo, that is famous for some reason and is a popular tourist destination.

We found a place to park and relaxed by the side of the river for a while. The kids found a drinking fountain to play in and kept turning the spout so that it would shoot strait up in the air and get them all wet. Out of all of the neat sites and famous attractions we saw in Kyoto that day, if you were to ask the kids what their favorite part of the day was, the water fountain would probably be it. After some time by the river we found a restaurant had dinner and went back to the hotel for some sleep!