Ryozen Kannon and Kodai-ji

On Sunday we woke up with intentions to go to church. I actually really like going to church when we're on vacation. However, by the time we got ready and started walking to the bus stop we realized we didn't leave ourselves enough time to get there! We decided to lay low and walk around the area we were staying. We started out at Ryozen Kannon, not a particularly busy spot in Kyoto. In it is the 80 foot high statue of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. It serves as a memorial to the two million Japanese who died during WWII.

It's impressive for a small fee but you can see it pretty good from the parking lot. There is not much else here, but right next to it is Kodai-ji, a beautiful temple.

I'm not sure what the name of this building is but you can see it from Kodai-ji.

We had kinda pockets of fall color, not as I had hoped but still really beautiful in spots.

Another zen garden.

These kids were such troopers, going to all these temples.

As we walked back to the house we saw this couple having their picture taken in front of the pagoda.

I assume it was a bride and groom. During the course of our stay in Kyoto we saw numerous couples and families getting their pictures taken near this pagoda, must be a popular place! This was our low-key Sunday. Still more to come.

Kennin-ji and the Geisha

Back to our Kyoto/Osaka trip, after our trip to the thousand torii gates we were heading back to our house and on the way stopped by a temple in the neighborhood we were staying in, Kennin-ji. We thought, even though the kids were tired, we could sneak in one more thing seeing it was on the way back. Founded in 1202, Kennin-ji claims to be the oldest zen temple in Kyoto.

Many of the temples in Kyoto have zen gardens, and they are strangely captivating.

Even the woodwork is amazing. Yeah, Dan and I are nerdy.

This is the ceiling in the main hall and this painting was installed in 2002 to commemorate the temples 800th anniversary.

I think this is what would have been the living quarters.

Tea ceremony in progress.

In addition to the zen gardens, these inner courtyards were my favorite.

Fujin and Raijin by Tawaraya Sōtatsu, a National Treasure.

Rayce got a nice shot of the outside of the main hall.

As we made our way back to our house we saw a couple of geisha. It's not uncommon in the area we were staying to see geisha, but anyone can pay to get dressed up like the geisha, so sometimes it's hard to tell if the geisha is the real deal or not.

I think the girls we saw were "apprentice geisha". They apprentice for up to 5 years before they are considered geisha or "geiko". These poor girls get mobbed, it's like paparazzi.

I was trying to be sly about my picture taking and keep a respectful distance but then...

I couldn't resist asking for a photo. These girls I think were apprentices, full geisha do not have the decorations in their hair like these girls with their flowers. Nonetheless, they were lovely and Avie didn't mind having her picture taken with them a bit. More to come.

9

Raycey turned 9 years old this week! We had his birthday party today, 10 eight and nine year olds! I'm not the fun mom that has the birthday parties meticulously planned out (I wish I was), so we had cake and presents here and then to the movies to see The Good Dinosaur.
They were actually a really good group, but man, boys are loud...and kinda crazy!

Rayce atop his birthday throne.

We love this kid sooooo much, he is such a bright light in our house. He's a peacemaker, he's generous, his big heart must have a hard time fitting in his body. He hates it when things are not fair or any sort of injustice in the world. He doesn't like any raised voices in the house, he's very aware and concerned about world events. I always have to be careful what I talk about when Rayce is in the room because he gets very concerned and can get upset. He's a caring friend and protective brother to his sisters and is acutely aware of his parents' feelings as well. What would we do without our sweet boy?!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

Fushimi Inari Taisha

I was so excited our first full day in Kyoto to go to Fushimi Inari Shrine. It's also nicknamed, thousand torii gates, it should be thousands of torii gates. We started the day taking the bus back to Kyoto station and then taking the train only 2 stops to the shrine. Sounds like a hassel, but once you get the hang of it, it's fairly easy to get around Kyoto.

This is the entrance to the shrine, I love the brightly orange colored gates and buildings.

And here's the entrance to the thousands of torii gates, all the way up to the top of the mountain.

It's a bit crowded at the bottom, that's where most people stay, not everyone hikes through all the torii gates to the top. We weren't planning on it at first, but just started walking. It's quite the experience to wander through all the lovely torii gates.

The back of the gates are inscribed with the donor's name and date. So some of the gates are new and have been recently donated and some are older.

Instead of hiking right up to the top through the torii gates, we took a detour, and hiked up the back of the mountain and then came down through the gates.

We saw lots of bamboo! It's hard to say how amazing the bamboo forest are and it's hard to capture how cool they are in picture, they are just cool!

There were a couple of shrines along the way with what looked like graveyards, but not sure exactly what it was.

As we were walking along we saw a man working on chipping away at a wooden person, he was very nice and let us take a picture. He spoke good English and we had a nice conversation. This is one of my favorite things about travel, all the nice people you meet. It really restores your faith in humanity.

More bamboo!

After a bit of steep hiking we made it to the top of the mountain as it's called. We didn't stay too long before walking back down. It's nice at the top but the real treat is walking through all the torii gates.

A great view of Kyoto.