I think I've had more tea on this trip than ever in my life.

CA: January 14, 4:48 a.m.
Japan: January 14, 9:48 p.m.

Go figure, now that the trip's almost over, I'm finally more or less used to the time change. :p

Anyway, hello one and all. We've returned from Kyoto and it was a great trip! I wrote a short blog when we got there...

California- January 11, 9:21 p.m.
Japan- January 12, 2:21 p.m.

Ok, so we’ve arrived at our hotel, the Kyoto Tower Hotel, and as of right now, I don’t have internet access. That’s totally ok! No worries. I’m just writing a Word document and I’ll copy paste the blogs later. Anyway, just a quick hello. We’re heading to the Kyoto Toei Movie Land at Eigamura Studios. Right now we’re just chilling in the hotel for a few so I can charge the battery in the camera for a little bit. :P Anyway, you might not read this until Wednesday sometime, but I wanted to write before I forgot everything that happened. OH! To get to Kyoto, we rode the Bullet Train. J Apparently there are three different trains of three different speeds (basically). We took the medium speed one and it was very cool! :D Anyway, NOW we’re leaving. See ya.
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The movie studio was really cool! Saw a lot of different sets and such (though I didn't know what they were from). I met a samauri who let me hold his sword (I have photo evidence), and I saw a HUGE display all about the different varieties of (don't laugh) the Power Rangers! That was my favorite part of the place. Totally geeked out and took many, MANY pictures of it. :D

Day two in Kyoto was fun. We did another all day bus tour and it was really nice to see all the different stops. Our first stop was at The Golden Pavilion, which was a shrine kind of place that was totally painted in gold/gold leafed. It was absolutely beautiful. While we were there, it started snowing! The other day, when it snowed in Tokyo, I didn't actually see the snow. When it snowed at the Golden Pavilion, not only did I see it, but I was in it! That made the sight even prettier.

After the Pavilion, we went to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. As you may or may not know, Kyoto used the be the capital of Japan. The word "Kyoto" actually means "capital city." So we saw the Palace in which the emperor lived when Kyoto was the capital. Now that the capital is Tokyo, no one lives in the Palace, and we were actually allowed into the grounds. "Tokyo" means "new capital."

Once we were finished at the Palace, it was off to the Kyoto Handicraft Center for a buffet lunch and some shopping. Lunch was absolutely delicious. The buffet included of MANY different items. Some of the big ones included: curry, shrimp sushi, vegitable tempura, and, of course, rice.

When the time rolled around to begin our afternoon tour, our fisrt stop was the Heian Shrine. The buildings came off as having sort of a Chinese feel (I thought), but they were beautiful nonetheless. At the shrine, we were allowed into a huge garden area (not open to the general public) that was absolutely breath taking. Turns out, they filmed a small part of the movie Memoirs of a Geisha in that garden.

Later, we went to the Sanjo-Sangendo Hall. In this hall, there are 1001 images of Buddha. There are 1000 statues (that stand at average human height), then one massive Buddha statue in the dead center. At first glance, I just thought it was a small, mirrored room filled with Buddha statues, but I was sorely mistaken. Technically, there were three statues missing. One in each of the three Japanese National museums. Luckily for us, 998 images of Buddha was just as mind blowing.

The last, and my favorite, stop was the Kiyomizu Temple. This temple is high up on a hill, from which you can see a sweeping view of Kyoto. Being high up on a hill, it was a bit of a climb to get there, but it was well worth it. I'm not exactly the religious type, but this place (as well as all the others) made it very easy to appreciate all the value and beauty in it. It was absolutely amazing.

Today was our last day in Kyoto. We had to check out of the hotel at 10 this morning, but our train didn't leave until 2:30. So to kill time (and see more of this beautiful city), we walked over to the Tijo Temple. I think I heard something about this being the largest temple in Kyoto. While we were there, we saw many monks. What nice guys. ;) After the temple (and some pretty cool birds you'll see in the video), we walked back to Kyoto Station to browse arond the shops and have some lunch. After lunch, I had a massive ice cream cone. Soft serve green tea ice cream. Yum!

ChaCha mentioned I haven't talked much about the food, so I'll try to do that a little before heading to bed. This place cracks me up. The day we got to Kyoto, we went to an Italian place for lunch, but there was no real Italian food. It was all Japanese! That same night, we went to a Chinese food place for dinner, but was there Chinese food? No! It was all Japanese. By no means am I complaining about that, I'm just saying. :) I have actually had a lot of different foods here (and I think Keiko is to thank for that, she's a great cook). Dinner has been at the house here every night (with a few exceptions), and it has consisted of many different things. I think my favorite meal so far has been the katsu curry that MKBS made. :D Otherwise, I've had some other curry, sukiyaki, sushi, ramen, McDonald's, and some others. :) I must say though, being the ramen nut I am, my favorite ramen is still that at Ringer Hut. While all the ones I've had here have been good, I'd take the Ringer Hut ramen over any of the three or four I've had here. I'm surprised! Oh well. :)

Here's a massive spam of videos I couldn't post. The last one is long and terrible quailty. The quality went down hill after I compressed it (as do the rest, this one was just worse because of the length). Tomorrow? TOKYO DISNEY with Mayumi and Ai (Mayumi's daughter)! Stay tuned!

~Kilani

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8k4tM7_bds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRVZkt0kF04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5ixWMcHfLM