Wednesday, June 22
For our last day in Japan we spent most of it on the bikes. It was great weather - cloudy but no rain and the temperature stayed pretty mild, for Japan in June anyway. The bike shop was once again very helpful in giving us a map and directions, this time north and west of the city, as opposed to our north and east route on the first day with the bikes. Our first stop with Kinkakuji Temple, also known as the Golden Pavilion.

The pavilion was the Shogun's summer palace and it's golden because it's covered with gold leaf. It was very crowded and seemed to be set up mostly as a photo op destination but the grounds were beautiful.

We stayed long enough to take some obligatory pictures and then got back on the bikes again. The second leg we had a bit more trouble following the map and ended up not so much lost as not where we meant to be on the map. But we found many helpful people to get us back to where we needed to be and we got to see more of the countryside and small neighborhood lanes and less of the city streets. It's clearly early in the rice season as we saw lots of rice paddies with young seedlings just starting to grow.

We did finally reach our destination, the Tenryuji Temple and the Path of Bamboo.

Tuesday, June 21
We had looked into hiring a guide for today and doing a walking tour but many of the tours we found online assumed you were new to Kyoto and shy about getting around. After 36 hours in the city we feel like old hands so we saved ourselves the 28,000 yen (a little over $250) and took our own tour.

After breakfast at the hotel (western style - eggs and toast) we took the train to Fushimi Shrine and Mt. Inari. It's the one place that I'd seen photos of and could say that's Kyoto. It started out raining but cleared up nicely. There were lots of people at the shrine but as we walked up Mt. Inari the crowds cleared up as well.

The entrance to the shrine.

We often saw school groups on our tours. This group of students were dressed in traditional clothes, rather than the usual school uniforms. 

We took many, many photos. This is just a sampling.

The view of Kyoto near the top of Mt. Inari.

At the shrine there were strings and strings of origami cranes.

You could buy a small plaque to write a wish on and hang with the cranes.

On our walk back to the train station we found a sweet little coffee shop.

We rested up at the hotel for a couple hours in the afternoon, then walked over to a near-by temple, the largest wooden structure in the world. We then picked up bikes to have for tomorrow's adventure, found dinner at a little shop (over-priced but tasty okonomiyaki) and called it a night. Tomorrow is our last full day here, our last day before we leave Asia, our last day before returning to the U.S.

Monday, June 20
After settling in yesterday afternoon we rented bikes to have on hand for an early start this morning. The bike shop owner had given us a map and a route to follow so off we went. Kyoto advertises itself as being a great city for biking and I'd have to agree. There aren't many (any?) dedicated bike paths but many of the sidewalks are especially wide and labeled for bikes, and the pedestrians seem used to to sharing the sidewalks with the bikers. Driving is on the left side of the road and those rules apply to bikes on sidewalks too. It takes a little getting used to, but we did okay.

I love being on a bike. You can cover so much more ground than if you walk, there's the freedom of stopping on a whim, which you don't have in a car or bus. I love the wind and I feel strong. Biking makes me happy. It is odd though to not have a helmet. In the states or in Kaohsiung I would never consider biking without one but here we just hopped on the bikes and took off. As far as I can tell there are zero helmets in Japan.

We biked along a river then skirted the edge of the hills on the east side of the city, stopping at temples and shrines as we went along.

Ginkakuji Temple

We followed the "Path of Philosophy" for quite awhile where it was peaceful and serene.

We even came across a happy little sanctuary for cats. They were the fattest, healthiest cats we've seen in all of Asia.

Eikando Zenrin-Ji Temple, headquarters of the Jodo Sect of Japanese Buddhism.

Then we headed back to the chaos of city biking and visited the Heinan-jingu Shrine and walked around the gardens.

We were back at the hotel five hours later, which still left us time to put our feet up and still go to the Nishijin Textile Center. We've seen some looms and some weavers on our travels - Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar - but this has been the first place where I could buy silk thread. Happy day. :)

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.

Saturday, June 18
Welcome to Osaka. We started our day with a traditional Japanese breakfast at the hotel. Cushions on the floor, low table and many dishes of sometimes unidentifiable foods. We filled up and headed out to Osaka Castle. The subway system is relatively easy to figure out. Friends had given us their transit cards which are like magic passes to get through the turn styles. (They had put money on the cards when they had visited Japan but didn't have the chance to run down the balance.) Then all we had to do was get on and off at the right stops. We did fine with that and arrived at the castle with plenty of time to walk around the grounds and explore the castle.

It was hot but not too humid and there were crowds but mostly congregated in one area. The park is the largest in Osaka which tells you how big it is, but also, maybe, how little park area there is in the city. The original castle was built in the 1500's but burned down a few times. The one there now was built around 1930.

Much of the historical artifacts have been moved to the Osaka Museum of History so we crossed the street and had a visit.

It was a nice museum but the English signage was an after-thought and minimal at that. I have mixed feelings about the lack of English. I get that this is not an English-speaking country and if I want to understand the Japanese culture I should learn some Japanese language. But if you want tourists to come visit, and they seem to want that, given the advertising I've see, then you need to provide a bit more English. When we were on the train yesterday a couple, who were speaking Chinese to each other, switched to English to speak with the conductor. Like it or not, English is the universal language.

Back to our day in Osaka. Our hotel is very close to the touristy market and restaurant area called Dotonbori. It reminded me of similar places in Siem Reap, Cambodia; Bangkok; Yangshuo, China; and even the Central Park area of Kaohsiung. There are pedestrian-only streets lined with little shops, bars and eateries where people gather to spend their yen. Like all those places, Dotonbori gets especially busy as night falls. We wandered through a couple of times, had some coffee, ate some okinomyaki. It was even nicer in the early morning to walk along the river when most people were still in bed.