We first walked through the market in Kyoto and appreciated all of the very different kinds of foods and products for sale. We also appreciated the fusion of Western and Eastern culture at the KFC.
The Colonel Samurai:
We browsed through a men's clothing shop called "Men's Knuckle."
Since the prior day a lot of the temples and shrines were closed, we went back to that same neighborhood and explored.
This was a buddhist temple/grounds that also had some Shinto shrines, an interesting mix of religion.
The temple was beautifully nestled amongst the green hills of Kyoto.
We saw a geisha, with who we assumed was a geisha in training. We were amazed by the care and perfection of her makeup, dress, and hair.
On the way up and down from this temple we stopped off in shops to sample the various kinds of mochi. I particularly loved chocolate cinnamon, melon, and peach flavors. It was a HOT day, so we also got a shave ice. As we walked through the neighborhood, we took a detour to get another look at this huge Buddha we had seen the previous night.
After visiting another temple it was time to head back to the Toyoko Inn where we were meeting Alex who was dropping off his family's and Emily's luggage. Emily had joined them in Nagoya the previous night!!
Amy, Emily and the kids headed to a different part of town, where we met them. It was Evan's 7th birthday, and to celebrate we were going to visit the monkey park, which also happens to be where Evan celebrated his 2nd birthday back when they lived in Kyoto. After getting an ice cream cone we walked up to the monkey park. It was awesome to see the monkeys up so close, and get to feed them from the feeding cage.
Here's a sweet monkey family:
Here's a sweet Bates family:
The people could get inside this feeding cage and the monkeys would gather around the cage to be fed. A lot of the mama monkeys came with their babies hanging from them. The mamas would eat the nuts while the babies breastfed. It was interesting to watch.
Here's a picture of us from the park, with Kyoto in the background.
This monkey was being cheeky, trying to swat the fish in the pond.
There was a little playground with a zipline that Jeremy took to immediately.
Here's the birthday boy. He was singing the theme to Indiana Jones as he ziplined.
Juniper had a blast on the seesaw, giggling away. That's Amanda ziplining past in the background.
After we'd had our fill of the playground we headed back down the hill on the gorgeous walk out of the park.
We had to cross this big river to get over to the park. I thought it was lovely.
This fisherman had the longest pole I've ever seen. We figured he was compensating for something.
We had a delicious meal at a nearby restaurant. That's Juniper's finger. She had to poke every part of my meal. The noodles had very thin layers of bean curd on the top.
After our delicious meal we went walking through a bamboo forest. We learned from Alex that bamboos grow to their full size within a month, and they are like 40-50 feet tall!!
Eventually we came across another playground. The Japanese children were very anxious to play with us.
This little girl loved Sean. We thought is was funny that on the front of her shorts was a playboy bunny, then written across the back it said "Playboy." I'm sure neither she, nor her parents knew what that symbol and those words represented.
We rode the street car back to Toyoko Inn where we readied a little party for Evan. We had brought some little presents for him from the US. Amy fashioned a cake out of some Japanese sweets she found at the store, and she also got some ice cream sandwiches. We all piled into their little room and sang to Evan, had presents, and ate the treats.
Juniper used these hotel slippers to transform herself into a tough robot. Evan got right to work assembling his new legos.
After the kids went to bed we all gathered in Emily's room to hang out and play games.
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