Three days in Kyoto, Nara and Toba

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Hi!
It's been a couple days since we have had a chance to update since internet has been hard to come by. The following will cover the days leading up to going back to my grandma's in Yachimata.

I believe we left off at our first day in Kyoto - we took a short train ride to Nara, a neighboring city known for it's ancient temples and deer park. Robert says that the deer there are very small compared to those in Wisconsin although they are the same whitetail deer. Even though they aren't very big, there's something a bit unsettling about having a deer come charging at you because it thinks you've got food for them!

The next day we took a trip to Toba where the Mikimoto pearl island is. My mom had been wanting to go there ever since I told her about it two years ago from our last trip. It was about 2 hours by train one way but I had to take my mom since I had promised her I would. 😊 That little excursion took up the entire day and we decided not to stop by Ise-jingu (Ise Shrine) since we were so tired!

Our third day in Kyoto we had to make sure that we could catch the early Shinkansen (bullet train) back to Tokyo, which is about 3 hours away from Kyoto and then get on the local bus for about an hour to get to my grandma's house. This left us with only a little time in the morning to go to one last attraction. I decided to take my mom to Kinkakuji (the Golden Palace) since it really is a spectacular sight.

Kyoto is always fun to visit and it has so much history (it was the original capital of Japan before Tokyo) but the only problem is that it's so damn HOT! It is not near the ocean like the other big cities and it is nestled in a valley so there is minimal breeze and the humidity hangs very thick in the air.

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Photos

Robert and me in Nara
No, it's not raining...that's a sun umbrella! all the ladies here have one, so I had to get one

An old idol
Rumor has it that if you touch this idol and say a little prayer it will banish any physical problems you've got

Himeji Castle Replica
This thing was ridiculous. Thousands of pearls, rubies, sapphire, emeralds and white gold were used to make this replica of Himeji castle

Pearls!
As big as my thumb!

robert waiting
while my mom and I looked at pearls

my fan
it was so damn hot!

detail on kinkakuji
Close up view of the top level