Ok, so this is late, but that's because of insanity. So I hope you will accept this anyhow. :)
MONDAY! (April 3, if you're confused)
We headed off to Kyoto! We planned on spending several days in Kyoto so as to better see the town (without the 2 hour round trip for commuting) We got there around noon, and after lunch, rented bikes to better see temple row!
Now, Kyoto has over 1,600 temples. This is not counting castles, gardens and other points of interest. They are all OVER the place, but one street borders the most popular ones in one long line.
I cannot name all the temples/gardens we went to see, but here are some pictures!
 |
| pretty sure this one is tofukuji. could be wrong. |
 |
| the blossoms are...kinda blooming. |
 |
| We did not get in trouble for this, amazingly enough. |
 |
| It's hard not to take pictures of EVERYTHING. |
We saw everything we could, and since we were well rested from our day off Sunday, this included climbing a lot of steps and even watching a Monk chant! (I did not get a picture of that. c'mon.)
We did not get to see inside several of the temples due to EVERYTHING closing at 5.
Seriously, Kyoto, major tourist town. Hours are 9-5. a FEW things closed at 6, some closed at 4:30. Heck, the streets were usually fairly dead by 8. Dunno. Just don't.
Anyhow, We took care of that Tuesday, by waking bright and early (mostly) and checking out the temples we missed before!
(sadly, due to reasons, Dani has most of those pictures, and still hasn't gotten them off her phone. maybe later...)
Tuesday evening, we had solid plans. We were going to go to a cat cafe and pick up Ramen at the nearby shop!
Well, the first idea went off without a hitch.
 |
| bengal kitties! |
 |
| this one liked me! |
For some reason, this one just decided my lap was the PURR-FECT place to clean itself then take a nap. I did not argue. About halfway through our time, Dani remembered she had a laser pointer in her purse, so I used it to lure several kitties into her lap! She had about 3 by the time I got their attention! :)
Then the Ramen. Oh boy. So the nearby shop was a small "artisan" type of Ramen shop, and their wait line was 2 hours. Thanks to Google we found another nearby one. WOW, what a long line. We found ANOTHER one a bit of a ways off, but the wait time was only 30 min. We FINALLY get in, and it turns out they are not STRICTLY a ramen shop. Ok, no prob, they have Ramen. Oh, and they have a 400 yen seating fee. Each. That's right, it costs us $4 to SIT at the TABLE. NO WAY.
So we went and got Okinomiyaki instead. (we're pretty sure the waiter forgot about us, because after 30 min we asked where our food was, he got this panicked look on this face and said "10 minutes, ok?")
Tuesday was also frustrating because that was the day we got lost on the bus system. Could NOT get to where we wanted to go! GAH.
Wednesday we went to the Studio park! You remember when I went when it was snowing? And they had samurai shows and stuff? yep! We did that.
Darnit, I really have to get Dani's pictures for this. Especially since... Well, ok, so at this portion, they do an example of stage fighting, and then they ask for volunteers. In Japanese, but I'd been there before so I knew the routine. When they started asking, I reached over and put Dani's hand in the air.
She left it hanging there for a moment before turning to me and saying "Why do I have my hand in the air?"
At that same moment, they motioned to her, so I pushed her forward and said "You just volunteered! Go, go!"
:D
I figured she's enjoy doing a sword demonstration.
They put that sword in her hands and the smile was kinda scary. :)
The whole park was entertaining, since it was a Studio park, mostly they showed what it was like to do movies in these settings, they showed how careful shots inferred things, etc. At one point they walked us through the basic choreographing of a fight scene, including showing how they did knife throwing (by having the target have a second knife) and stuff like that. Then, of course, they showed how it can all go wrong by having the robber/ninja win the fight in the "official take" of that particular scene. :D
It did only take half a day, thanks to careful planning and a little jogging.
This was because I had to meet up with a friend of mine in Arashiyama! (still in Kyoto) It's famous for being pretty and having lots of cherry blossom trees.
And a long bridge. Dunno why that's famous.
Anyhow, they also have a monkey park! The friend took us, which is a good thing because I had HEARD about it, but could never find the entrance!
 |
| We weren't allowed to pet them |
 |
| we got to feed them though! |
You could buy specific food to feed them, but you could only do it inside this building, through the screen. As you can see, there are people on the other side of the screen, but the monkeys don't rush them because they know THEY won't feed them. Just the weirdos on the other side of the screen. :)
It was really fun though! We got to wander around and watch them hang out, fight, play, etc.
After we hiked back DOWN Monkey mountain, we took advantage of the increasing blossoms and stretched out beneath a cherry blossom tree to relax.
When we felt ready again, we walked the bamboo forest and saw other random stuff they had around.
 |
| this was an art installation called "Kimono forest" |
 |
| Made with Kimonos! (I like the skeleton theme there) |
 |
| And a Newfie! |
That evening we hiked our way to the oldest bathhouse in Kyoto.
 |
| Yakuza based, apparently. |
It was also the CLOSEST bathhouse in Kyoto, which was really the biggest incentive for us.
We didn't run into any Yakuza, (that we know of) and relaxed.
Which is good, because Thursday was a bit busy!
We checked out of our hostel, dropped our stuff off at a locker in the train station, and decided to see a couple last things before we left. (because of course!)
First we went to Sanjusangendo temple!
This is also known as the "retired emperor's temple" because an emperor built it, then retired to it, basically saying "nope, no more politics for me!"
It's pretty cool! And I'd show you if I had Dani's pictures. (the running theme for this post it seems)
Ok, first of all, it's a LONG temple. It is the longest wooden building in Japan. Sucker is 390 feet long! It's very popular for two reasons.
One is the because it has 1001 statues of the Goddess Kannon. Life size. And one REALLY big one. You can see it if you look it up, but I can't show you because they were VERY insistent on the "no photos" rule.
This link has some good pictures.
The other reason is the annual archery contest! Competetors will shoot at a target the distance of the length of the temple. Which I hope you remember is really long. In the old days, this included competitions of "who can hit the target the most out of 100 arrows," "out of 1000 arrows" "arrows shot in a 24 hour period"...yes. People would shoot arrows steadily for 24 hours straight. OUCH. I mean, I can't imagine shooting an arrow that distance, let ALONE with accuracy!
There was one building we really wanted to know what was, so I took a picture of the sign to check it out later! (ah, google translate)
 |
| it says "closed" |
After the awesome temple, it was lunch time, so we went to the Thai place the parents and I frequented when we were in Kyoto and Dani agrees it's some of the best EVER.
Then we went to Nijo castle! We had passed by that many times on our "I hate the bus system" day, so we figured we'd see it once. It was pretty cool! There was lots of history, and even explanations! Which is NICE.
There were Nightingale floors everywhere. See, they found out that if the floorboard is squeaky... no one can sneak up on you. So they purposefully made all the floors squeaky! Instead of calling them "I'm gonna rip out my hair if you kids jump on that spot one more time" floors, they went with "nightingale" for how they sing out.
An interesting thing is that as we got deeper into the castle, it got less and less ostentatious. The personal rooms of the Shogun (who built this castle) were fairly simple so as to promote relaxation, and because he didn't have to impress anyone there.
The grounds were lovely too, and we got through them just before they closed...at 5.
Then back to Amagasaki we went! It wasn't nearly enough time in Kyoto, but our mantra was "you can't do everything!"
Friday, we were going to go down to Wakayama, but we made it to our transfer station before I realized I forgot my ticket, so we went to the Osaka Historical museum instead!
It was great! I love a good museum. First you go to the top floor and start in the past, then as you go down levels it gets more and more modern!
So we started with Old Japan, including how courtiers dressed up!
 |
| when they were HEAVILY influenced by China. |
And I think they were life size!
 |
| so short! |
The next floor down was the Edo period, and it was AWESOME. It had all these little dioramas and the little people in them had such personality! You could tell the artist had thought of back stories for each one of them!
 |
| merchants |
 |
| going to the theater |
They had a big one of old Sakai and we just wandered around it finding surprise people, like the guy taking a nap with the child tied by a string to the wall in the next room. The friends drinking in the afternoon, the boy who dropped his umbrella, the dad carrying his kids in buckets on a yolk on his shoulders, it was great!
As it got more modern, they started using mannequins more
 |
| shopping on the street |
And it was just a really great museum! :)
Then we went to Osaka castle because it was a joint ticket! The grounds were lovely, despite the constant drizzle we were facing.
 |
| the trees were REALLY blooming by this point. |
 |
| rain or no rain, they WILL Hanami! |
(Hanami, if you remember, is specifically picnicking under the sakura.)
 |
| I got Dani to try Taiyaki "It's a fish SHAPED cake, not a cake with fish in" |
And they are very picky about what you can and can't take pictures of, but it's got some cool history on the Summer War. The best part is, they have a long video (maybe 15 minutes) explaining it, which means you can sit for 15 minutes and learn rather than walking and standing.
After, they had a "dress up" section and you could choose kimono or samurai.
 |
| are we surprised? |
 |
| big hats! |
 |
| had to. |
Well, it was fun, but since we had to go to Wakayama on Saturday now, we went home and found my train tickets. :P
There's not much to show you about that. It was a LONG train ride down to Shirahama. It is a cool little town I wish we had more time to explore! They had some neat stuff! We were there for one thing though.
The hot springs.
They have some OLD natural hot springs that face the ocean. It was all open to the elements, so I really didn't mind the fact that it was raining, because I could hide in the hot/warm/cool water! (different pools, different temperatures)
There were three pools, and the lowest one was right against the sea wall and the waves would crash against the rocks and sometimes douse whoever was sitting close to it. The farthest pool was also high up and you could see over the sea wall and watch the waves coming and the churning ocean. It was lovely and we stayed in there for about 4-5 hours.
I finally made us leave because I was hungry. We found a cute little Italian place that overlooked the sea and was basically empty because we were the first to show up when it opened.
 |
| TINY Caprice salad...but really good! |
 |
| Well plated, and really tasty! |
Let's see, that was Saturday, so next is Sunday!
Sunday we did not go to church because it was the day conference was broadcast to Japan, so instead we downloaded the talks and got on the train!
 |
| Hiroshima here we come! |
That's right, all that time in Japan and I'd never been to Hiroshima! We took the bullet train, because it may cost more, but the slow trains took 6+ hours and we...we didn't want to do that.
We dropped our stuff in the hostel and then went to sight see! We knew it wasn't much time to see Hiroshima, but we were running out of time PERIOD, and had to rush a few things.
 |
| the A-bomb museum |
I'm not going to tell you how it was going through the museum. Because you probably know. I was sad to see that a good half of the displays were under construction, so we didn't get to see the whole thing. What I did see was presented very well and matter of fact.
And I did not cry.
Did not.
Then we saw the parks!
 |
| world peace memorial |
 |
| Children's peace memorial |
 |
| A-bomb dome |
Ok, a moment for the children's peace memorial. It was built in honor of all the children who died, not just of the initial blast, but suffered due to the radiation after effects, like the most famous, Sadako. You may have read the book in school. (I remember I did)
I also now know the book LIED to me. It said she never completed the 1000 cranes, when the museum reports she folded more than 1000. Ah, literary license to try and make things more dramatic, you don't always have to.
The A-bomb dome is a building that was 60 ft away from the explosion. Straight down. Due to new earthquake-resistant building, it survived...kinda. It was one of the last buildings to still be standing while reconstruction was being accomplished, and people argued about what to do with it. Finally, they re-enforced it and left it as a reminder.
We also checked out Hiroshima castle!
 |
| re-built only 18 years after the bomb |
 |
| the main tower of course |
 |
| re-creations of rooms! |
The inside of the main tower had been built as a very good museum, with videos and lots of local history. It was well done!
When we finally called it a day, we stopped in for some food.
 |
| the divider is if you want to eat alone. It lowers for groups. |
And went and slept!
And that was the week! Next is Monday, and you're gonna love it!
I just hope I get the pictures I'm missing in here some time!
Hope you're all doing well!
