KYOTO AND OSAKA

This is one of my favorite photos of the Kinkaku-ji or the temple of the Golden Pavilion. I think I might like the job of the tree trimmer. What a beautiful place to work! Looking back, I wish we had taken the high speed train that would take us to the train station but no, I had us on a bus for over an hour. Best news though was a couple, Craig and Joan, were on our bus and we had met them the night before at the Dolce Vita bar as we were sitting with our new friend Kirk from New Orleans before dinner.

The four of us vowed to stay together, take taxi’s to places and had a grand day. I wanted to see the Golden Pavilion first since Michael and I were there in the mid 80’s with guides and interpreters because Michael gave a speech to the Japanese enology and viticulture society in the Yamanashi province. As you can see it was a great day for photos and a few ashes of Michael and my book club friend Julie were sprinkled nearby.

Haru of course is enjoying his trip in Larkin’s backpack. It was a cool and mostly cloudy day but the sun peeped out and made for great photos!

Next, we chose to take a taxi to the beginning of the Arashiyama Bamboo Grove walk. But first, one needs sustenance and we discovered a great local spot just up the street from where we were dropped off. We were the only non Asians. As we sat down the skies opened up and rained/sprinkled out entire time inside. When we left, it did sprinkle some as we left for the bamboo walk.

Note Larkin’s boots. Its now too warm to wear them but EVERYONE loved/loves them. I think she may tuck them under her bed until Scandinavia in April/May. Colorful dinosaurs make people happy.

We walked through the Bamboo Grove and up to the Jojakkoji Temple. I made it up many stairs but let Larkin, Craig and Joan take the stairs where there were no rails! There were beautiful views over the city of Kyoto. The beautiful photo with no people in it was found on the internet. You can see how crowded it was with Haru!

In Osaka the next day, we took another bus tour that started with the Osaka Castle area. The day was clear and this was our walking day with over 10,000 steps – depends if I trust my watch or my phone for the count. The castle tower was rebuilt in 1931 of ferro-concrete construction and miraculously survived the city-wide air raids during world war II. They have an elevator up and I forgot to ask for the next elevator to the top. I went slowly down the five floors of stairs as I didn’t want to ask for the elevator down.

Next our bus took us to the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine with four sanctuaries. It is the main Shinto shrine of all the Sumiyoshi shrines. The bridge is lovely but perilous for my knee so I walked around to the lower bridge.

When we came home from Kyoto for our overnight in Osaka, we took photos of both the huge Ferris wheel which lit up in different colors from the ships 11th floor as well as the sun setting on the aquarium building. Larkin took a photo of me with a lego penquin as they have a Legoland Discovery Center for kids in the market place where the cruise ship was docked! We truly enjoyed the sites on the Ferris wheel before taking the short jaunt to the Aquarium after our tours in Osaka.

We could not possibly miss the Osaka Aquarium! Larkin took most of the photos as it was crowded and dark and it was easier for me to just enjoy and try to balance a camera. The whale sharks at the aquarium were amazing…one of the few aquariums with the largest fish in the world. They are not predators but filter feeders like whales. This museum is designed to be views from the top floor about the 6th floor down to the base. They were arranged in areas mostly around our Pacific ring of fire. If I had only seen the top, I would not have been so mesmerized. As you walk down the ramp, you get deeper in each area…you see the Monterrey Bay sea lions were running up and down the glass as fast as they could a floor or two down….yet those on the top looked like they were in San Francisco on the boat docks. Loved the spider crabs and of course my last penguin was an up close and personal for people to view noisy, loud, penguins. Reminded me of our first zodiac ride in the Antarctic in 2018.

Sunset after our huge walking and enjoying Osaka day – with our first Italiano pizza.

Up next, a sea day and more of beautiful Japan!

JJ is still enjoying keeping warm in McCall, Idaho with Paige and Navy. He looks dapper in his fleece!