Winter Trip 2011: Kyoto

On December 17th we left our little U.S. home in Japan and headed to the train station for an hour ride to the Shinagawa station to catch the Shinkonsen(Japanese Bullet Train)...for a two hour ride to Kyoto.  The last half hour of the ride to Kyoto got pretty interesting, where Noah was laying in the aisle of the train just screaming.  He was tired and it was way beyond nap time.  Zack was taking care of Caraline and I was supposed to have a handle on Noah.  Zack shot me a look saying..."Aren't you going to do something?"  And I responded by throwing my hands up in the air...exactly what did he want me to do with a tired screaming toddler that turned to a noodle every time I tried to pick him up?  Thankfully the Japanese people are fairly understanding and looked upon us with smiles...probably thinking that this was exhibit A for why they don't bring out their young children!  But we made it there and Noah fell asleep before we even made it to the subway below the train station.  We got to our hotel and checked in.  And we were able to knock out a few sights before it got dark...the Nijo Castle and the Imperial Palace grounds.  That next day we visited many Shrines and Temples in Eastern Kyoto.  The city is known as the historical/old culture capital of Japan.  I've posted some of the pictures we took on facebook...but the pictures don't do it all justice.  You can't see the grandness of it...or the feeling of awe that comes across you.  It was absolutely amazing...amazing!  That evening we ate at an Irish Pub...you see that pretty much wherever you go in the world there is always an Irish Pub and a Texas Bar!  This bar was actually owned and operated by a young man from Ireland...just loved his accent!  Noah had a melt down or two in the booth...he was tired and hungry.  We all had a long day.  A waitress brought him over a dancing/singing snowman and Santa...and then we were able to eat our meal in peace!  The Japanese are so great about young children and lending a hand if they can.  The next day we had lined up a private taxi tour to take us to a few sights in Western Kyoto before heading to the train station to travel to Hiroshima.  The city has so much to offer that you could stay there for a month and have a full day planned each and every day.  The tour guide was able to explain a lot to us and we asked him many questions.  It made us realize that we had seen a lot the day before but hadn't really understood.  A lot of items were posted in Kanji and then English below it...but we would come across a sign in Kanji with a lot of people gathered around it.  It must have been pretty interesting stuff...but too bad we had no idea what it said!  We learned more in the three hours with him than we had the entire day before!  My top enjoyments of that leg of the trip was seeing a 600 year old living pine tree trained into the shape of a ship and the Golden Temple(actual gold leafed).