kyoto: day THREE

Day three was spent in Arashiyama, not too far from our apartment. As expected, all the sites were very crowded but understandably so. The crowds can make the temples hard to appreciate - I should have turned the camera 90 degrees and let you see the line of people gathered beside me.  The scenery was amazing though. Our first stop was Tenru-ji Temple and it was probably our favorite of the trip. We thought this stop would also be equally nice during Cherry Blossom season.

Right outside the gates is the entrance to the Bamboo Path so we battled the crowds down it as well. Then back into town for lunch before walking up the mountain to a monkey park. Monkeys are not my favorite since being charged by one in India for my granola bar. So I was wary but knew the kids would like them. Wiley was excited and talked on and on about monkeys but then fell asleep during the long walk up and missed them entirely. The ice cream was perhaps a bigger hit than any other activity planned that day. I guess spectacular leaves don't rank too high on toddler to-do lists. The Golden Pavilion was on our way home and it was truly very golden. We lost B's hat here :(. 

We had reservations for dinner at a Yakitori place (grilled "meats" - mostly bits and bobs) and Graham hit up the onsen again after dinner. We were settling into our routine. 

kyoto: day TWO

This was a big day. We rode the bus (it wasn't always a happy time...) down to the southeast edge of Kyoto with Kiyomizu-dera as our first stop. Full post on that coming up. Then we walked through the old steep streets on our way to get noodles for lunch. Blue is saying cheers or kampai as they say in Japan. We kept on seeing large plastic ice cream cones outside of shopfronts advertising their green tea ice cream so we had to get some. Then we kept on walking to yet another gorgeous temple - Koudai - not complete without the equally gorgeous gardens. Jumping is a great way to get a kid excited about posing in front of temples. As is asking to see their best dragon face ;). We strolled along to Heian Jingu just as they were closing so we will have to come back to see the gardens. I hear they are really nice.

                  

kyoto: day ONE

Day one in Kyoto included a taxi ride to the AirBnb apartment in Northwest Kyoto, a stressful nap experience that prompted us to nap on the go for the rest of the trip, a grill your own meat dinner which was tasty and affordable (Blue's favorite - cow tongue! He thought it was bacon, sshhh), a stop off at the convenience store to get diapers and a chocolate treat, and then lights out.

headed to KYOTO

We headed down to Kyoto last Thursday on the Shinkansen and this was our view for the first hour or so...

buying RECYCLED bikes

Graham and his coworkers are in a temporary office until theirs gets all fitted out. So Graham rides the train to Ginza each morning (about five stops on the Hibiya line) but come January the office will be in Ebisu which is only one stop away. So we had been scouring Craigslist and Gaijin Pot for a used bike so he can ride to work (maybe a 10 minute bike ride). We were not having much luck when we discovered that several wards (what they call neighborhoods in Japan) have programs where they fix up and resell for cheap bikes that get confiscated off the street. So we gathered up the kids in the stroller and headed out one Saturday morning in October.

It was nearby since it was run by our ward (Minato). We signed in and were each given a number and told to walk around and choose three or so bikes that we were interested in. Then about thirty minutes later they put all the numbers in a bingo ball and started calling them out... in Japanese. The three bikes Graham had an eye on were the first three bikes to get chosen. There were probably about 60 people there for thirty available bikes and our number probably got picked on round twenty or so. At least we think it did. It was really hard to understand what was going on. Needless to say, we didn't get a bike.

So, on round two we hit up another ward who we thought did it a little differently. Supposedly, according to the internet, it was a three day sale and you just went and picked out a bike. They would fix it up for you and a couple days later you go back to pick it up. We get there and that is clearly not the case. Almost everyone there has a number that corresponds to a bike they had previously scouted. They open the gates and in a mad dash we actually find ourselves with an available bike that doesn't look half bad. If you want a bike you have to act really fast so Graham grabs the papers and gets in line to check out. An hour or so later, after the bike has been paid for and registered, Graham realizes he will have to ride the bike out of the lot today. So much for getting to work on time. We are out in the boonies. So he gets on to ride it away and realizes it is way too small! Too late!

We still don't know if the bike is for a girl or just a small Japanese man. But the Japanese in general don't seem too concerned about it. I have seen many guys here riding bikes that look too small. Graham's commute is short and the bike was cheap so it will do.