Sunday, June 19
We spent just two nights and one full day in Osaka before heading to our city of choice, Kyoto. It's smaller, full of shrines and temples, and purportedly retains much of the old-world charm of Japan. This city has been on Lee's bucket list of places to visit since he was a little kid. It was starting to rain when we left Osaka and fell harder and harder as our train headed north to Kyoto. We've been really lucky with the weather for most of our travels but today wasn't one of them.

There were lots of trains to choose from to get us to Kyoto so it was hard to go wrong. We ended up on a local rain that stopped a lot but we both enjoyed looking our the window, watching the countryside go by. It took less time than we anticipated and were surprised that we'd reached Kyoto so quickly. Everyone got off the train, including the conductor. Hmm, I guess we've arrived. A big sign saying Kyoto would have been useful, especially since this train station is HUGE. I guess everyone (except us, of course) just knows when you've arrived at the end of the line.

When I say the station is huge, I really mean it. I've never seen anything like it. The architecture is stunning.

We had some lunch and headed out on the 10 minute walk to the hotel. It had stopped raining when we set out but that was short-lived. We crouched in a doorway for awhile but it didn't look like it was going to stop so we just kept going. Fortunately the stuff inside our suitcases didn't get too wet, which is especially good since this is a traditional Japanese guesthouse which, in part, means sparse and no place to hang anything up to dry. It also means beautiful, refine, "authentic."

When you want to go to bed you move the table and chairs to the side and put the futons on the floor. This is a six tatami-sized room.