Kyoto - Day 1

And we're back again. It was a good day of "touristing" in Kyoto and we saw some really cool temples. It has been said that "it is hard to take a bad photo in Kyoto" because there are so many beautiful things to see (and take pictures of), and I would have to agree. According to my Lonely Planet guidebook, Kyoto itself has 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, two of which we visited today. The first, called Kinkaku-ji (or the Golden Pavilion) is with reason one of the most-visited sites in Japan. The place was just flat-out breathtaking. Head over to Flikr to see some of the photos I took. After the Golden Pavilion, we tried to head to another nearby temple, called Ryoan-ji, but unfortunately it was closed. Luckily for us, not far away was another very beautiful temple, Ninna-ji (the Old Imperial Palace) that was also very beautiful. The grounds of Ninna-ji were far larger than those of the Golden Pavilion and there was no shortage of intricate classical Japanese architecture to photograph.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to visit these two sites. As for John, well, he's got the attention span of a three-year-old, so by the time we were nearing the end of walking around the second temple site, his "fun ticket was punched" so to speak and he was having a lot more fun playing in mud puddle from the morning's rains (see the video for the visual). Oh well, clothes can be cleaned, right?

We'll be at it again tomorrow, hopefully something more up John's alley.

GJS