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Published: April 11th 2008
Kyoto
More cherry blossoms Kyoto is a beautiful city, it's one of those places that grows on you the longer you stay there.
Our ryokan was traditional, and like many things in Japan was quite compact. Any short comings from the lack of space was more than made up for by the generosity of our hostess, Toyoko. Tokoyo is not young of age, and we have great memories of her riding her pushbike along the footpath, being chased by the kids, while she was looking for a restaurent for us to dine.
We went on a great walk, appropriately named 'The Philosophers Walk'. It wound around a stone lined canal with cherry blossom in full bloom on both sides. It was also the access point to many shrines and temples.
Japanese gardens are great, one of the most amazing ones we saw was at the Hi-an Temple, and yes the cherry trees were in full bloom. It's amazing how addictive photographing cherry blossoms can be!!
A favourite temple was The Golden Temple, a stunning temple gilded in gold, with a traditional Japanese garden with lots of bonsai.
We also visited Nijo-jo Castlle, which had great squeaky
Kyoto
Philosophers Walk floorboards that sounded like 'singing' when many people were walking on them. The idea was that the floorboards would squeak, thus alerting guards to intruders in the castle.
On leaving Kyoto we maximised the last day of our JR rail pass, and took a side trip to Himeji before returning to Osaka (near Kyoto).
Himeji is home of the famous Himeji Castle. It came highly recommended and certainly did not fail to impress. The strategic layout of the castle involved moats , multiple walls with twists and turns, hundreds of archer windows, and the central castle being 6 (huge) levels high. All this in the backdrop of.........cherry blossoms!
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Tracey
non-member comment
Hello the Lukes
Hi Family Luke Lovely to be able to see your travels. You all look like you are having a great time...We'll be checking in on you frequently. Take care, Tracey