We took an early Shinkansen to Kyoto from Yokohama and arrived around 0830 on Monday AM. Kyoto is a city of about 1.5 million located in the middle of the main island of Japan, Honshu. Kyoto was the original capital city of Japan before Tokyo and is home to much of Japan's history! We basically got off the train, checked into our hotel which was pretty awesome and located right at the train station and hit the ground running... as usual! Our first stop was the Fushimi Shrine... home of more than 10,000 torii gates!!!! (Torii gates mark the entrance to many shrines and temples around Japan and represent the entrance to a sacred area). This shrine was located all along a trail heading towards Mt. Inari and there was a 4km hike (ALL uphill) to get to the top... we of course did this hike and spent most of it walking through torii gates... it was absolutely beautiful! 
Next stop was the Toji Temple which is home to a 5-story pagoda that is the tallest wooden structure in Japan and built in 1644! This temple is one of the oldest in Japan and it is believed that many of the city's religious foundations were laid here. It was very beautiful and we could see the pagoda standing tall from different areas in Kyoto. The grounds of this temple were a little more simple than some of the other ones we had seen, but still very peaceful and beautiful as it was located right in central Kyoto surrounded by modern buildings! One of the coolest structures in Kyoto was Kyoto Station... the train station!
We actually stayed at a hotel right inside the train station and it was phenomenal! Kyoto station has some of the most unique architecture I have ever seen. It was completed in 1997 by a famous architect from Tokyo and has won international acclaim for this design. It was very open and was home to the Shinkansen, the regular trains in Kyoto and the subway and bus lines. It is extremely centrally located and has just about any shop you could ever imagine inside it. There were 10+ stories of restaurants, shops, and malls and it was quite easy to get turned around very quickly as we found out a few times... We did some good eating and shopping in this station!
It's not a vacation with the Storz Family unless you are up and at 'em nice and early to see everything the city has to offer! We started our second day on a mission to see many of the popular Kyoto tourist spots. Our first stop was Kinkaku-ji or the Golden Temple. We arrived there after a short train ride and a few mile walk. It was totally worth the trip out to the city limits to get to this temple! This 3 story temple is covered in gold leaf.... inside and out! It was beautiful and I was really happy the sun was shining brightly the day we went to see it! The grounds of this temple surrounded a pond and it was one of the most peaceful temples we have been to. This temple actually served as a "retirement villa" for the original builder and I could totally see why. The picture does not even come close to doing this glimmering temple justice. 
Next stop was Kiyomizu-dera Temple which literally means "pure water." This temple was located on the complete other side of the city from the one we had just come from, but again it was totally worth the journey. This temple is over 1000 years old and is actually currently undergoing some restoration as most of the temple was under some scaffolding. The view from the temple was absolutely gorgeous as we could see over the entire city of Kyoto.
Many people make the pilgrimage every year to this temple to drink from it's sacred spring... and for a few hundred yen you could also buy a bottle of the sacred spring water to take home with you!We, however, did not get to drink from the sacred spring... the line was just too long! One of the most amazing things about this very large temple was the structure itself. Even though most of the outside was covered with scaffolding, you could still walk through some of the inside and see it's beauty. It is comprised of a large veranda that overlooks the city and the entire temple was built without using a single nail... absolutely amazing! 
On our walk down from Kiyomizu-dera we walked through the most darling little streets that were no wider than a sidewalk with cute little shops lining both sides.... so fun!!!! We came across the Yasaka Pagoda which is all that remains of a Buddhist Temple that once stood in this part of the city. The next and final temple in Kyoto we went to was by far the most awesome temple I have ever been to... and I don't even have any pictures to prove it so I had to borrow from Google to get a picture... Sanjusangen-do Temple is a sacred temple and pictures are not allowed inside... and neither are shoes... talk about cold feet that day!!!! Anyway, Sanjusangen-do Temple is home to 1001 statues of Kannon or the Goddess of Mercy! I didn't really know what we were going to see at this temple, but I knew it was a "must-see" in Kyoto. We walked into a room where we had to put our cameras away and take our shoes off, then we walked down a large hallway (that was freezing) and into this very very very large/long hall that had these 1001 statues lined up in rows... Sanjusangen-do is actually the longest wooden structure in the world!!! 
It appeared as if they went on forever! The hall is dark and the statues almost shine and create this magical and eerie effect... pretty awesome if I do say so myself! It took awhile to walk down this entire building and see all the Kannons lined up as if they were ready for battle! The statues are made of Japanese cypress and are considered a National Treasure. The building has remained unchanged for 700 years... absolutely blows your mind to see it in person... and again the picture just doesn't do it justice! After walking through the 120 meter building, we walked around the temple gardens which weren't nearly as cool as the statues inside. It was VERY cold in Kyoto and at this point in the day the sun was starting to go down and it was time to head inside since we had been outside pretty much ALL day sightseeing. The next day we headed out on an afternoon Shinkansen about 2 hours to Hiroshima and Miyajima Island!
Japanese Word of the Day:
Yama (ya-ma): Mountain
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