We packed up or bags, left our little Dormy Inn in Tokyo, and headed to the train station to hop on the Shinkansen (also known as the Bullet Train) to Kyoto. But first we stopped for lunch. I found sashimi on the menu...happy girl!
Megan and Veronica
Oh, YUM!
Kimberly and Kara
Kara's lunch
Off to the train station...
A happy Megan, excited to be going to Kyoto and staying in a temple!
Megan kickin' back on the Bullet Train. It was amazing. The train reached up to about 180 mph, but you wouldn't know it unless you were looking out the window.
Kara doing her hair on the train. : )
Veronica listening to her tunes.
As we were cruising along, Veronica and I glanced up for a gander out the window and said, "Is that what we think it is? Ahhhh, yes it is! We're zooming past Mount Fuji!"
Mount Fuji in the clouds.
I felt like a little kid in a candy store. I loved cruised up and down the passenger cars, especially when the train was taking off from a station. It was the weirdest sensation when I was walking through the cars as the train picked up speed and zoomed along.
Green rolling hills, high mountain peaks, clear blue sky, beautiful country.
As we were heading over the mountains between Tokyo and Kyoto, we slammed into a wallop of a snowstorm.
But once over the other side of the mountain, the skies cleared and the sun shone brightly and beautifully once again.
Woohoo!! We're in Kyoto!!
This wonderful man turned out to be our little lifesaver upon arriving at Kyoto Station. He spoke English and helped us find the temple where we would be spending the next two nights.
Ahhhh!!!! What I've been looking for and longing for...SUSHI!!!!!
Our taxi driver, who took us from Kintetsu Kyoto Station to our temple stay, was just adorable. The guy really cared about us and our safety. Once he found the correct street, he hopped out of his taxi and ran up and down the road making sure to drop us off at the right place.
Shoho In Buddhist Temple...our home for the next two nights.
There she is...our sweet little Buddhist temple in Kyoto.
Gates leading into the courtyard.
Outside door leading into the temple.
Megan having to duck again. Japan is not made for tall people.
The courtyard.
Detail on the temple roof.
Front door.
Prayer and meditation room.
Altar
Buddha on altar with offerings.
View from our room into center courtyard.
Our room! We were so excited to finally be here...and VERY COLD! The Japanese doors did not offer much in the way of insulation and we only had a space heater, which promptly ran out of propane soon after we arrived. But did we care? No way! We were in a temple in Kyoto!
Center courtyard.
After settling in, we venture out to explore our new neighborhood.
Evening clouds above the wires.
We found this incredible snack store. We don't have ANYTHING like this in China, so it wasn't long before we all had a bag packed full of good things to eat!
We explore the neighborhood for an authentic Japanese restaurant and happened upon this place. The menus were in Japanese, but with the help of our guide book and Veronica, who had studied up on the language a bit, we were able to order their special...which turned out to be quite a dining adventure.
First, the waiter brought out a large bowl of broth and placed it upon a small portable burner. Soon after that, four raw eggs were placed on the table. We surmised from the waiter's sign language that we were to break each egg individually into small bowls and scramble them up. Then came two large wicker baskets, one filled with raw meat and the other a mixture of fresh greens. The meat and greens were placed in the boiling broth. We then understood that we were to dip the cooked meat and greens into the raw egg before consuming. Being that nine of our teachers at DAIS had just recently survived food poisoning from raw eggs and the fact that my stomach was finally happy, I decided not to chance it. Kara and Veronica dipped away and Megan placed her egg into the broth for a bit of cooking before cracking it open.
Megan with our handy, dandy guide book.
Once we had consumed all the meat and greens (which didn't take us long!), the waiter then brought out noodles to add to the broth. This meal just kept getting better and better!
Our adorable waiter. : )
We had also ordered sushi and were quite surprised with this came out. Raw beef sushi??? Weird, but man was it deeeelicious!! We even ordered another round.
Interesting!
The gang of four.
We had purchased these little guys at the snack store earlier and decided to have them for dessert. Sadly, they looked a lot better than they tasted.
10,000 Japanese yen equaled about 100 US dollars. We soon found out that traveling through Japan was not a cheap experience in any way, shape, or form!
We stopped at the local 7-Eleven on the way back to the temple for water and snacks. No hot dogs or burritos here! (We really wanted to get some booze too, but none of us had the gall to bring liquor back to a temple.)
Snuggling into our Japanese mats, otherwise known as shiki futons, for the night was truly an authentic and unique experience...not to mention C-O-L-D! We had three comforters piled over the top of us, but we were still chilly. I love this picture of Veronica. : )
