Kyoto - Day 3

Our third day of our adventure to the mainland was really our last FULL day in Kyoto. I had scheduled a tour with a guide through "Tours by Locals" (a tour guide company that actually reminded my quite a bit of my step-mother-in-law (say that 3 times fast) Ruth - may favorite tour guide in the Mid-Hudson River Valley). ANYWAY, because I had a couple of places that I felt that we needed to go, I decided to go this route so we could tailor our day accordingly and not have to "think" too much about the process of getting from place to place. (which in turn we could have done, but this made it much simpler).

Our first place of business: Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.

To get to Arashiyama we took 2 subway trains and a trolley car (who knew there were trolley cars in Kyoto?)

The girls waiting for the trolley car

Alessandra checking out the sites from the trolley (think San Francisco)

And what would our trip be without seeing a purple trolley car? Oh, life is SO sweet.

 Arashiyama is on the outskirts of Kyoto. The little town gave us a slight comparison to somewhere like Woodstock, NY or Flagstaff, AZ (but Japanese and not quite so artsy). Small town atmosphere, with lots of small shops and places to eat. The walk along the river and through the residential neighborhoods was lovely and we could only imagine what the trees would have looked like in 2 more weeks. (Brad and I had a few moments of really missing those trees changing colors in the States there...)

The view along the river. Apparently this is the place to be when the leaves are changing. Oh, and cherry blossom season too.

One of the Zen temple entrances. Just in case you would like to purchase your own statue for the garden. Alessandra digs bald Buddhas.

Tenryuju Temple

The reason we take tour guides with us.

Entering the bamboo forest...

We thought this was only a walk/bike through area, but surprisingly a few cars came through while we were walking.

From Alessandra's vantage point...

Large bamboo and small girls

I love this photo - it's blurry, but makes me smile. I saw a photo similar to this when reading about Kyoto and knew we HAD to go here. Worth it - bamboo larger than I have ever seen. Gorgeous.

Once we left the forest (which mind you, isn't THAT big). We headed back into the town to catch the subway for our next destination. However, on the way in we had seen people eating what looked like cucumbers on sticks. If you know my girls, you know they are quite fond of a good cucumber, so we had to first make a stop...

The cucumber barrel.

Town

Main road with rickshaws.

Happy Aiello girls with (slightly) pickled cucumbers on sticks. Check out that "fair food" Poppi!

OH - and our first "beer" vending machine. We don't see any of these in Okinawa (I am guessing due to the many young service members out there, perhaps?). We knew they existed, but it was pretty fun to see on in person.

Some interesting yummies for sale.

Waiting for our next train.

Ahhh, I almost forgot. Rumor has it that blond curly headed girls get a lot of attention in Mainland Japan. (enter: small, but mighty. Blond, curly with attitude). We experienced a bit of that in Singapore and in Cambodia, so we were ready. Thankfully it didn't happen often (happily due to the large International population in mainland Japan), but when it did, both girls obliged.

Getting their photo taken by some school girls

And with some school girls...

And we're off...

Next stop: Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine

One of Kyoto's oldest Shrines, the thing that makes this shrine stand out is the THOUSANDS of red Torii gates that meander up the hill to the entrance of the shrine. The forest is lovely and quiet and the bright pop of color through the trees is remarkable. Probably my favorite part of the trip - a "must see" place if you make it to Kyoto.

Kelly heading on up...

One of the large entrance Torii

It went on and on like this...

The map of the grounds and the pathways

 

Girls on the down hill

View of Kyoto from the top

Gorgeous.

After our visit and crazy walk through toriis, we decided it was too late in the day to head back to the hotel and crash, so we decided to hit one of the other touristy spots in Kyoto and do a little shopping.

This district has streets that people drive on through it, but there are mostly walking streets.

And lots of people and shops...

This was on the outside of the Studio Ghibli store. Not sure if you know any of the characters at Studio Ghibli (these guys are not any of them), but the girls were SO happy to be in there. If you haven't seen any of their movies yet, check them out!

And of course, you can't go to Kyoto without getting more photos with a pagoda in the background!

Olivia took this one for us

Self-portrait

Busy street

At the end of the day, we made it walking A LOT. Trains and trains and more trains. All in all... we LOVE Kyoto and would go back in a heartbeat!