Leaving Kyoto

On another train and finally getting around to posting again. We left Kyoto this morning after 12 nights there, and are heading to Takayama, up in the mountains. Kyoto is a beautiful, interesting city but the stifling heat and humidity kept us from fully enjoying it. We still managed to spend a fair amount of time away from our air-conditioned apartment and probably logged 5-6 miles a day of walking around the city. Highlights include:

- crossing paths with a real-life Maiko (apprentice geisha) in an alleyway near our apartment one night, whose "house-mother" insisted we get a picture with her and Emma and David

- the Gion Matsuri festival which happened to coincide with our first morning in Kyoto; giant, 10-ton floats on massive wooden wheels are dragged through the streets by dozens of men; to turn a corner they have to lay down bamboo under the wheels and push/pull the float around; the whole process takes about 10 minutes, with the drums and flutes from the band riding along on the top of the float ringing out the whole time.

- a day trip to Nara, and the spectacular Todai-Ji temple, which is the largest wooden building in the world (and only 2/3 its original size) and which houses a giant wooden buddha that dates from the 8th century

- feeding and petting the deer at Nara

- the imported foods store we discovered, and the italian meats, cheese, pasta, and red wine we stocked up on (We have not been entirely successful in adapting to the japanese diet; small portions, mainly fish, not a lot of protein. We have been craving a big steak since our first week here, but have settled for a couple of visits to McDonald's.)

- a visit to the beautiful riverside Arashiyama area, and walk through the bamboo path

- al fresco riverside dining on the deck at Tsuruse

- Tokugawa's castle; dating from early 1600s and amazingly preserved; contains the room where the 16th Tokugawa shogun handed rule of Japan back to the emperor, thus ending 250+ years of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Unfortunately most of our pictures from Kyoto were accidentally deleted, which is a bummer but we're over it. I'll post the ones that survived.

We are looking forward to getting back up the mountains where it is hopefully a bit cooler. After 5 nights in Takayama we're heading back to Hakone and the Fujiya hotel where, if we muster up the courage, we just might make a run at climbing Mt Fuji...