On Monday, April 6th, we woke up in search of breakfast and decided to just hit a favorite and get a quick bite. Where else? Starbucks. We wanted to get going we had a lot to see today. We walked to the bus station and then ate breakfast and bought a daily bus pass. 500 yen for Don and I and 250 yen for Megan about $12.50 total for all day. Pretty good. Our first site was the Kinkakuji Golden Pavilion.
Here are the kids on the bus...
Look even in Kyoto they love me, MK my initials (they were all over the taxis)...
Entrance to the Golden Pavilion...
The Golden Pavilion, any guesses why it's called that? You are right, because it's covered in Gold.
Next, we visited the Nijo Castle. It is unique in that aside from secret rooms and corridors where guards could keep watch, guard towers, and the moat, there were specially designed wooden floors called "uguisu bari" or Nightingale Floors. They were designed to creak and squeak whenever walked upon, the floors prevented anyone from sneaking around the castle without being heard, even if they were in bare or padded feet. The creaking is produced when someone walks on the floor because the clamps used to fix the floorboards rub against holes in the boards.Sorry no pictures were allowed of the inside...
I thought the plum trees were beautiful... 
We went to the Imperial Palace next but we could only walk outside the grounds not inside so we didn't take any pictures. Next, we were on to our last stop of the day which was the Kiyomizudera Temple. It is one of Japan's most famous temples, the pure water temple. It was founded in 780 AD and the present buildings date from 1633. It was quite a walk about 10-15 minute all uphill. Our reward on the way back down, Cherry Blossom Ice Cream, YUMMY!!!
We saw some beautiful Japanese ladies dressed in Kimonos, Kyle asked for a picture with them...
Megan blinked, oh well...
A few more shots on our way down...
It was back down the hill, cherry blossom ice cream, molassess ice cream, shopping, the bus and back to the hotel for dinner and bed. The next day was our last morning in Kyoto before taking the bullet train another 1 1/2 hours to Hiroshima.
After getting off the bullet train and arriving in Kyoto, we quickly checked into our hotel the Rhiga Royal Hotel and off to our first destination. The Fushimi Inari Shrine. It is a peaceful park like setting with 10,000 small torii gates. It is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Inari, the god of rice, sake and prosperity. We had fun going through them. We walked for about an hour and thought we had made it to the top, come to find out we only made it a little over 1/3 of the way. The kids were done. They were hungry and wanted to be done and on to the next adventure. After all, the torii gates all looked the same.
When you go back, you see the Kanji written on the backside of the torii gates...
Next, we were off to the Toji Temple. It was first erected in 794 as a guardian temple of Kyoto. It is a five-storied pagoda. It is the highest pagoda in Japan, measuring 187 feet. The pagoda burned down four times after being struck by lightning. The present pagoda was rebuilt in 1644.
Back to the hotel for dinner, sleep and prepare for another day of sightseeing. 
My favorite black and white...
