We spent our last days visiting with family and friends, and biking around the area. I was able to meet with a former student and his family on Saturday. I had not seen Yusuke since he was 7! We had lunch, went for a long walk, and reminisced... We celebrated my niece's first birthday with her family, including her grandmother, aunt, and cousin. I made the birthday cake... On Sunday afternoon, we all went to a beer fest at the farmer's market in Ome, where Dianne's friends had a T-shirt booth. Bill bought one... We took a 16 mile ride with my brother on Monday, up into the mountains near his house. The ride included several miles on a main road frequented by the dreaded dump trucks, but we survived! We went into a small mountain ... read more

We left my brother's home early this morning to travel to his wife Dianne's hometown of Kiryu. We took expressways since time was short, and it cost about $20 in tolls...Once in Kiryu, we boarded a sightseeing train bound for Nikko. The train has an open-air car, and since the weather was good, we sat there... The train route crosses the mountains along a gorge, with beautiful scenery most of the way. The train stopped frequently at small stations and scenic views, and at one station women sold drinks and food from the platform. We also ordered bento boxes for lunch, which were delivered to the train. Madelyn loved the train ride and wasn't scared, even in the long tunnel (5 kilometers). While inside the tunnel, the train car had an LED display that changed colors, ... read more

Last night we looked through the guidebook to see if we had missed anything in Kyoto that we really wanted to see on this trip, since we only had today left (we are taking a day trip to Nara tomorrow). We had already planned to visit Nijo Castle in the afternoon. Looking at the book, we came across a temp!e that got rave reviews, but didn't sound familiar, so we set off to visit it this morning... We walked through now familiar neighborhoods, and decided to take a narrow road up towards the temple. This road became a path through the oldest cemetery in Kyoto...We wound our way up the mountain, arriving at Kiyomizu-dera Temp!e. We had to go slightly downhill to get to the ticket booth..... And found ourselves at the temple entrance where we ... read more

We again got an early start to our temple viewing today...we arrived at the first one just a few minutes after it opened at 8:00 am! This first temp!e is called Sanjusangen, and home to the 1000 gilded Buddha statues and their fierce guardians, all surrounding a beautiful large Buddha statue. The statues are made of wood, and were carved Tankei and others from 1192 to 1333. This a very popular tourist attraction, and we were fortunate to be there when the 400 foot long hall was nearly empty. I was moved by the calm beauty of the large Kannon statue. No photos were allowed, so I posted some Wikipedia. Next we walked a block to visit the Chishaku-in Temple, where renown screen paintings are displayed and there is an exquisite small garden and pond. We ... read more

We left Matt and Dianne's home on a hot Sunday morning, with unseasonably warm temperatures brought from the tropics by a typhoon passing by. This weekend is the national sports day holiday, and we stopped by the neighborhood elementary school to watch the opening ceremony, before we left for Kyoto. The trip took a total of five hours, door to door. We walked to the train station and took a train to Ome, where we got on the express for an hour long ride to Tokyo Station. Once at the station we went to the railpass office where we exchanged our voucher (ordered online before we left the States) for our passes. The clerk made our reservations for Kyoto on the Shinkansen (the bullet train) which was leaving in 20 minutes, and we headed back into ... read more