Ana Kyoto

... beginning with Fiji, it quickly escalates into more adventurous activities such as road trips, 3 day hikes through New Zealand, farming in Australia, surviving in the Philipines, and taking a tour of Tokyo. Ana and I can't wait to see what lies ahead!

The Cherry Blossom Festival in Nippon

... bus passes for the day, and headed out into the city. I need to take a moment to describe the doorman at the Ana Hotel Kyoto. The friendly Japanese man had spent 5 years prior in Southern California, and therefore took it upon himself to greet us at ...

... of Kyoto famous for Geisha ) to eat so that we could walk around and try to see a Geisha. If you're going to Kyoto, don't read Memoirs of a Geisha. You will only be disappointed unless you are a rich ( and likely Japanese ) business man. We ...

... shrine.  The shrine is relatively new, being built in 1895 to commemorate the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto.  Again, a spectacular shrine complex (apologies for repetition but it is difficult not to run out of superlatives here!). ...

... 35 minutes from the campus by bus.              Yesterday we went up into Kyoto. It was a lot of fun. We got paired up with a couple of awesome Japanese students and they shepparded us around a ...

... different during daylight hours. After a while, we veered down a new alley and found ourselves in front of the Royal Hotel Kyoto. Being daring, we went in and asked the hospitality desk staff for directions to some good antique shopping areas. They were ...

... , but after 2 days we had to take a detour, or whatever you wish to call it, to Hiroshima due to overbooking at our hotel. Kyoto is a beautiful city which has a lot of historical value to the Japan of today. It used to be the capital of Japan, so there ...

... satisfying at the same time.  I'm sure the Geisha just thought it was annoying.  Regardless, we got the picture.  Kyoto was a very interesting place, modern yet at the same time, very culturally rooted as it was not uncommon to see women ...

... , thats how new it is (came out in late Jan in Australia). Anyway, we headed to the Bic Camera shop here in Kyoto (5 entire floors dedicated to all things electronic and about the usual size store for Japan!!!!). Bill is getting a lot more confident ...

... sat smug as the poor saps filed on to the back of the plane. We were a little concerned about catching the bullet train to Kyoto out of Tokyo because we'd heard that the train station is very busy with multilevels of tracks and over 3000 trains per day ...

After our usual stint at the breakfast buffet, Dad & I headed off across the street to Nijo castle. Trying to be funny, we asked our friendly doorman for directions, and he seriously explained to us how to cross the street. Thanking him, and ...

... traveling.  Tomorrow is going to start whenever we roll out of bed.  After some breakfast we'll be heading to Kyoto's principal market followed by a wander over to Gion where we hope to see some Geisha's and then probably back past some temples ...

... sightings are very rare, we'd headed there to see the traditional wooden machiya style merchant houses, built in a design characteristic of Kyoto. Apparently due to an old tax law, these are very narrow houses that can extend for 20 meters or so ...

... we had a brief video conference to catch up on our adventure.  A fantastic way to finish the day off! Tomorrow we're hopping on the train to spend the day in Nara.  This was once the capital of Japan (before Kyoto).  Until ...

The Cherry Blossom Festival in ...

... 'd had stayed it would have been crazy! We grabbed a late lunch on the way back through the town and took the train back to Kyoto. Whilst we were a little disappointed that we were not able to see more, we still had a lovely day and it was definitely well ...

... given a place to sit and a nice cup of green tea.   After a week in Tokyo, we boarded a Shinkansen (bullet-train) to Kyoto.  While Tokyo is modern and glitzy, Kyoto is a city steeped in history.  As the imperial capitol of Japan from 794 to ...

... .  But it wasn't to be!  So today we decided we are going to divide the time with Osaka and Kyoto.  We researched accommodation, and found it hard to book accommodation in Kyoto again, but have now successfully booked for both ...

Nagoya - Kyoto - Mt Fuji - ...