November 3 and November 4

November 3
We caught a bus to the temple we were going to visit today.  As we walked through the streets, we looked for a place to have breakfast and found a very nice cafe that had big windows that faced beautiful gardens.  It was a great place to have breakfast.  We sat at a round table that we shared with a young couple.  I had French Toast, which may have been the very best French Toast I have ever eaten.

That figure in front of the house is a quite popular figure in Japan.  It is a racoon-dog statue.

Lots of kimonos everywhere

There were lots of activities at this temple area and several tents with people helping visitors make crafts.  Eva and I participated also, making wooden snowflakes.  The snowflake started as little pieces of wood in a bag and it was up to us to position those pieces of wood into a snowflake - with their help, of course.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant that would have been a nice place at which to eat outside on the patio but since it was raining, it was more comfortable to eat inside and stay dry.

Dogs are definitely loved here.

We went back to the big temple today that was closed yesterday.  I loved the zen gardens.

It started raining while we were in this part.

This evening, we went back to the area we had been earlier in the day since the plan was to have dinner at a restaurant that Fernando and Eva had eaten at before and really liked.  Since it was still a little early, we decided to walk along a tree-lined canal called the Philosopher's Walk.  It was a very beautiful and relaxing walk in the cool weather and the mist falling.  We saw some open shops along the way and went as far as heading in the general direction of another temple but we just didn't have enough time to visit it.  So we headed back and walked by the restaurant we were going to go to.  It still seemed quite early, so we decided to go back to the shops we had passed and check them out.  After doing that, it was more a decent hour to have dinner so we then went into the restaurant.  It really was a good restaurant so it was a perfect place to have one last Japanese style meal.  Then we caught a bus back to the apartment.

November 4
  Took a bus to the train station, had lunch there, then Guillermo and Fernando took the bus back to the apartment because I forgot my retainer there.
When they got back we caught a train back to Tokyo and then back to Eva and Fernando's apartment.

We visited one last temple this morning

Ok, trip is basically over.  Time to walk to the bus stop and catch a bus back to the apartment and check out.

After we checked out, we caught a bus to the Kyoto train station.  While on the bus, I realized I had left my retainer on the pillow back at the apartment but it was too late to go back and get it.  Once at the train station, we had lunch and then the decision was made not to go visit another temple in the south of Tokyo.  Instead, Guillermo and Fernando were going to go BACK on the bus to the apartment to get the retainer while Eva and I waited at the train station with our luggage.  It took about an hour and a half until they got back.  Then we went to buy our tickets for the trip back to Tokyo and for a few minutes there it looked like all seats were sold out on the trains until Fernando asked about getting an unreserved seat and so they sold us unreserved seats.  We worried that we wouldn't get a seat on the train and would have to stand for 3 hours but everything worked out.  We got good seats and were comfortable the whole way back to Tokyo.  As we approached Tokyo, the skies were dark and stormy.  Then it was 3 different trains from Tokyo to Kashiwa and then we were back in the shopping mall that is by the Kashiwa Train Station.  We ate dinner at the food court there and then walked in the dark to the apartment!  

What a wonderful trip we took with Eva and Fernando - we just loved it all.  Now we have one more full day with them.  That's it. 

Buses, trains and walking

Today we took a bus and then a train to an area of Kyoto called Arashiyama.  We walked through the bamboo grove, visited a temple and then climbed up to a Macaque Monkey Park.

The bamboo groves  in Arashiyama are really interesting.  And if you want to pay the price, these guys will run you up the various paths.

This is a walking path near one of the temples.

The gardens surrounding the temple

After visiting the bamboo grove and the main temple, we were ready for lunch!  We found this nice little restaurant along the river.

Boats ferrying passengers to some places along the river.

After lunch, and after debating back and forth about whether we should do the steep hike up to the nearby Macaque Monkey Park, we  decided to cross the river on the Togetsukyo Bridge and curiosity won out.  So, we climbed a quite steep trail to the Macaque Monkey Park.  This is a view of Kyoto from the top where the monkey park is.

There were lots of Macaques!  The fun ones to watch were the babies but also interesting was a little section of the park where the monkeys seemed to consider it their grooming area.  There were plenty of monkeys in that section grooming one another.

Then we walked back down and across the bridge again.  We got some ice cream cones and then just casually strolled along the river before moving on to the next place we wanted to visit.

We had to go back to the train station so we walked along some very touristy street on our way.  We enjoyed the shops - one shop had little figurines made out of silk worm cocoons.  They were nice but probably would not have survived a trip back home.  Then we found a place to have a little dessert which we devoured as we stood outside.  I don't remember the name of the dessert, but it was delicious!

The train we caught to get us back to Kyoto was really full so we had to stand.  Then we caught a bus to take us out to the section of Kyoto called Guion.  We got off the bus at this temple.

Picking a fortune telling paper slip

The fortune paper slips tied on to accessible parts of trees.

We walked to the entrance gate to the main temple in this area but the gate was already closed.   We then decided to walk down the street to another temple nearby that had huge 800 year old Camphor Trees.  

The gate was already closed at this place, too, so we decided to walk back to the area where we got off the bus and start looking for a place to have dinner.  After walking around quite a bit, we finally found a nice little place that wasn't TOO expensive.  So this is where we had dinner that night.  We really enjoyed our meal here.  

After dinner, we caught a bus back to our apartment and it sure felt good to relax after such a nice day.

Kyoto

We did our last little walking around in Takayama in the morning.

Crossing the bridge to the river, we met a man who lives in Takayama.  He was very nice and gave Eva a present of a packet of little papers with which to do origami.

This is the man we met on the bridge - he spoke English quite well.

Last stroll through the market.

A different view of the river

This was the hallway outside of our guest room.  

Guillermo peeking out our doors.

Most bathrooms where people live have this outside the room where the toilet is.  You take off your house slippers on the brown floor and put on these toilet slippers to go into the toilet stall.

 I can NOT get this next picture to upload in landscape position (which would make the words on the slippers easier to read), no matter what I try.  ANYway, these are the special slippers the guest house had for guests to put on when using when using the toilet room.

After checking out of the guest house, we caught a taxi to the train station and then took a train to Kyoto.  That was such a nice train ride, as actually they all were.   While on the train, it was so tempting to constantly get my camera out because the scenery was always so interesting and beautiful.   I also spent plenty of time on all the train rides we took listening to music on my ipod.  "Keep the Streets Empty" by Fever Ray became my new favorite song while we were traveling by train.  I liked that song so much I would listen to it over and over again and eventually that song later came to be a very powerful and excellent  reminder of our time in Japan.
We are staying in a small apartment here in Kyoto.