Kyoto

Let me just start with the Lonely Planet's guide to Japan and its introduction to Kyoto: 

"Kyoto is old Japan writ large: quiet temples, sublime gardens, colourful shrines and geisha scurrying to secret liaisons. With 17 Unesco World Heritage Sites, more than a thousand Buddhist temples and over 400 Shinto shrines, it is one of the world's most culturally rich cities." 

So if you weren't Temple Tired before.... no seriously, it is fantastically beautiful, with temples absolutely everywhere... some have to be seen and some, well we skipped. 

Here is the Fushimi Inari-Taisha shrine dedicated to the gods of rice and sake. There are over 10 000 torii gates at this shrine and thousands of stone foxes. The foxes are messengers of Inari, god of cereals and rice. 

The postcard shot - thanks Kate. 

Kate and I stopped counting in the hundreds. 

Foxy Loxy - you have to know that all the Geisha in the photos are tourists dressing up for the day... admirable for them to climb to the top of this shrine (4km loop) in the kimono and sandals. 

Today, we did Kyoto by bike. The bikes came with the establishment. They are in desperate need of some TLC and are pretty small for us but it was great fun getting around the city this way. The whole city has river bank trails that are fantastic for running and riding right into the heart of the city. Great fun. 

Kate and I took in a cultural show last night - it included brief performances of a tea ceremony, flower arranging, puppets, geisha dances etc. It was a nice way to get a taste of the arts. 

Believe it or not... kate is up ahead... on her bike.

Kate crossing the river.... 

This is my favourite photo so far: 

Today we were walking a very popular trail (especially in cherry blossom time) and we came upon a large group of folks from Italy. They were laughing and joking and Paul offered to take their photo. Then one of them asked if they could take ours for us. We said sure but then, they just jumped in and join us in the photo. It was great fun. Lots of laughs - made me think of something my dad would have done on his travels. So here is the photo of our new Italian friends whose names we don't know nor where they are from or even going to.... 

The photo they took of us in the end. :) All for now. Ciao bella!