Kyoto Temples

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In Kyoto we stayed with a friend and his grandmother who lived in the heart of Kyoto. We walked around all of the temples in Kyoto and came across a few Geisha's as well. The best photo opportunity that I missed by a few seconds was two Geisha's sitting on a bench with their backs to me with Starbucks sitting beside them. They moved before I got a chance to take the picture.

At one temple there was a giant singing bowl that you could walk up to and hit and an awesome sound would resonate through the temple, after watching a few students do this I did as well.

Another cool thing that we saw was a giant white mound of paper with a hole in the middle, this was a place where people write wishes on pieces of white paper, put glue on the back, crawl through the hole and back and then place their wish on anywhere on the mound for good luck, so of course we did it.

Not only did we get treated to great sights but we were also treated to great food. We found green tea shaved ice that was delicious, our friend took us to a super local spot that had his (and now my) favorite curry and last but not least when we woke up in the morning his grandmother had a gift of chopsticks for us and a cute little breakfast with strawberries. Over all a very nice hospitable local experience.

Next stop Beppu for some Onsen soaking.

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