Kyoto, Japan (July 2007)

Kyoto was a lot of fun. We visited this city at least three days to see all the sights. This is a city where there were a lot of tourists. It was wonderful that they accepted my credit card at some places in this city. (I had a hard time in Japan because 90% of the places would accept cash - yen - only. I was rather surprised as I expected to use my credit card and very little cash in Japan.)
This picture was taken at the Golden Temple. Nate threw a 10 yen coin (approximately 10 cents U.S.) into the middle pool of water. According to the legend, Nate will have ten years of good luck as a result!!!


This cute picture was taken with some Japanese tourists. After we took a picture with them, other tourists asked for a picture too. They were cute girls and very friendly. Maybe it was Adalei that got their interest in taking the picture as they had me take a picture with their camera after I took a picture of them with my camera.







This is the inside view of a temple.



















Dusk was at approximately 6 p.m. This shot was taken as we walked down the hill with the temples on our way to the train station. It was raining again and we were tired but thrilled to be in Japan and seeing these awesome sights.
















This picture was taken just outside the train station in Kyoto. The largest festival in Japan started the day before we left so there were lots of Japanese men and women dressed up in kimonos. It was so fun to see them so I took a few pictures. (This is another situation where I took pictures with two cameras - my camera and then theirs!)








This is a picture of the Golden Temple. It was my favorite temple and sight that I saw in Japan. There is actually gold on this building and it just glistens in the sun. I loved the view with the pond all around it. The grounds were immaculate with every pebble in place. It was very peaceful and spiritual to visit this site.














This is a picture Misty took of me near the Golden Temple with a little falls in the background. Misty wanted to make sure you knew I was really in Japan since there aren't many pictures of me there to prove it!
















Here's Adalei not wanting to miss a thing! :)



















Nate and Adalei had fun with the deer. There were approximately 1,000 deer in the park with several temples. The deer were very tame. People purchased food for the deer but they came up to you even without food.











Nate fooled this deer into thinking that he had food in his hand but he didn't. (We saved 150 yen by not feeding the deer!)












A typical sight at the Japanese park......





















Isn't this a beautiful view? It was just getting dark when this picture was taken.












This is a view of Kyoto from up on top of a mountain peak that we climbed.












See the deer with big horns? Well, I became acquainted with one of them. I was eating an ice cream cone and had my back turned to the deer. All of a sudden, I felt a bite on my bum! A deer bit me! I screamed and everyone looked. I quickly realized that the deer wanted my ice cream cone but I wasn't sharing! I finished my cone as quick as I could after running away from the deer. Fortunately the bite was a friendly bite and didn't do any damage to my clothing or my body! It was the biggest surprise I had in Japan!




This was an interesting Buddha. The Buddhas in this temple had their hands in this same pose.




















This is a picture of the temple with all the Buddhas.












This was a creepy Buddha. It was sitting just outside the temple door. I don't know the significance of the cap or the cloth draped around the statute. But notice that the arms and hands are in the same position as the other Buddha above.














A beautiful river in Kyoto......














Another beautiful river view......















I just loved seeing these beautiful Japanese women. It almost felt like we were going back in time.















Typical Japanese buildings along the river - taking advantage of every piece of land.








I just loved this picture. The mist on the river and the fishing boats waiting for the next trip. This is exactly what I pictured Japan to do like. The rivers in Kyoto are so wonderful.