Kyoto: Part 1

At the end of October we rode the shinkansen, Japanese bullet train, to Kyoto. Mike had spent the week working in Tokyo and I took the 3 kids on the train and met Mike in Kyoto. Kyoto was once the imperial capital of Japan. Today the city is well-known as one of the best preserved Japanese heritage sites in all of the country. This is due in part to the 2000 religious places within the city (1600 Buddhist temples and 400 Shinto shrines) and the fact that Kyoto was sparred from the destruction of World War II. At one time Kyoto was at the top of the list for Atomic bomb target cities. However, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson personally removed it from the list due to it cultural significance to Japan. We only spent 2 1/2 days in Kyoto but could have spent weeks. The kids were great sports as we dragged them from site to site and rode on a million busses and trains. Even Cameron did okay missing his nap for 3 days! Here are a few things we saw Friday afternoon and Saturday.

 

Just an entrance way to someone's personal residence. So beautiful and so Japanese!

 



 

Pictures from the Nijo Castle. The entry gate into the palace areas was beautifully ornate. As you walked through the castle palace areas many of the rooms had displays of daily life inside the castle. The kids loved seeing the full samurai armor and shogun outfits. The Nijo castle is also unique in that the Ninomaru Palace  of the castle contains "nightingale floors" (uguisubari) in the corridors. To protect the occupants from sneak attacks and assassins, the builders constructed the floors of the corridors in such a way as to squeak like birds when anyone walks on them.



Pictures of the castle grounds and gardens

 



 

Kinkaku-ji Temple (Golden temple)



The Kinkaku-ji temple's gardens are famous and know for their representation of the muromachi period design representation. 

So if you don't particular for gold you can head to the Ginkaku-ji Temple, or silver temple. The sand garden is a highlight at the temple and the tall round sand hill is said to represent Mt Fuji.



It was hard for the kids to resist not playing in the sand-poor Julia!!!