Kyoto - NeNe and Pappy

This past week we took a trip on down to Kyoto and Hiroshima. We rode the Shinkasen, the Japanese bullet train that goes up to 180 miles per hour or so. Here are just some pictures from Kyoto. There are a ton so I think I'll do Hiroshima on another post.

Eedie posing for the camera... maybe we should be doing some more modeling jobs. =)

We had to entertain with some suckers.

Some greenery we saw on the way down to Kyoto.

In front of the Shinkasen.

In front of the Golden Castle in Kyoto. It's a floating castle. You can't go inside but it's very cool to look at.

A little closer from the back of the castle.

Another shot

I don't know that they see that many American kids in Kyoto. The kids were very popular that day.

This lady just picked Eedie up and started having her husband take pictures.

In front of a shrine.

For some reason on this trip, the girls decided that playing with rocks seemed extra fun.

We tried to go see the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, but apparently you have to schedule a tour in advance. So we just got a picture of the outside of the gate. Kyoto used to be the old capital of Japan.

That night we ate dinner at a Japanese chain called "Bikkuri Donkey." They serve mostly hamburger meat meals. It was pretty good. My dad kept wondering if we were going to get bread with our meals. We told him they usually just have rice as their grain at meals. =)

Downtown Kyoto at night.

The next day we went to see the Fushimi Inari Shrine. It's basically a place with a ton of the torii gates. Here we are at the train station getting ready to brave the rain. It was crazy rainy that day, but it was nice because it kept things pretty cool.

In front of the huge torii gate.

Annabelle had her rain gear and was ready to go.

Charles trying to practice Buddhism. =)

It looked like a monk inside the shrine.

Torii gates...

and more torii gates...

Mike liked that on the back of the torii gates there was all this Japanese written.

Shrines and torii gates.

These people were praying in front of this shrine. Hopefully they didn't mind that we took a picture. =)

There were a lot of rocks up on that ledge so Mike had Annabelle put one up.

With the frog statue.

It just seemed so Japanese, I had to do the pose.

Inside the Kyoto station is this very cool architecture.

Hiking up to the Kiyomizudera Temple in the same day as the torii gates. Yes, we were a little crazy!

At the entrance.

Annabelle wanted to hike up the stairs by herself.

I was afraid she was going to fall in.

Annabelle trying to be a Buddist. She kept trying to do the water ritual. Mike helped her a little here. Two Japanese women kept starring. I don't know if they thought it was cute or offensive. The temple was closing shortly after we got there so we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked.

We saw this on the way back to the bus. Don't know what it is exactly but it looked fun.

Eating Yakiniku that night. We couldn't really take any food with us since we took the train so we had to eat out a lot. We bargained with my parents... one meal American (we could find McDonalds and Burger King most of the time) and one meal we made them try something Japanese.

Eedie and NeNe at dinner.

Look for our Hiroshima trip tomorrow!