Labor day weekend in Kyoto - Day 1

We decided somewhat last minute to take a trip to Kyoto for Labor day weekend.  We never really had Kyoto on our list of must sees in Japan until we got here and heard everyone talking about it.  I'm so glad we listened to them and visited.  It was exactly what I expected Japan to look like before we moved here.  

In my head, I expected Japan to be full of temples and shrines and unique houses...things like that.  Well, Okinawa doesn't look much like that at all.  Because of the typhoons, most of the buildings have bars on the windows and the buildings are cement bunkers.  When my friend Trina visited, she thought it looked like Tijuana, and I'll admit, I can see the resemblance.  Kyoto was different, and very cool.  

We flew up on Saturday morning and then took the limo bus to the Kyoto Train station.   A limo bus is like a charter bus. It was that or the train, and with luggage, the bus is easier for us. 

We checked into the hotel and then went searching for the Fushimi Shrine.   This shrine is famous for it's Torii gates, there are supposed to be 1000 of them.  We decided not to bring a stroller on this trip because some of the streets are cobblestone and also because all of these temples have oodles of stairs.  Brandon took one for the team and hauled Brock around on his back for 3 days.  

You are supposed to wash your hands before approaching the temple.

 See the girls in the Kimonos?

This is the entrance to the Torri Gate path.

The farther you walk, the closer the gates get together until it's like a tunnel.  

The pictures below are of the Kyoto Station, the main Train/bus station.  It's an amazing building. 

 We had friends visit Kyoto over the summer and recommend a restaurant to us, so we had to check it out.  Here we are at Katsura.  We were each given a bowl of sesame seeds to grind ourselves.  We then mixed the seeds with special sauces to make salad dressing and dips for the meat.   Delicious!

Here's a picture of my meal.  I had a pork loin along with vegetable "sushi" roll that was fried and a cabbage salad. 

The restaurant was in the Kyoto station, so after dinner we took these photos.   Notice Brock trying to escape?   We learned a lesson today...don't let him out of the carrier, or he won't get back in it.   He had a mini melt down at the Fushimi Shrine when we tried to load him back up.

The stairs changed colors every few seconds, it was really pretty.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Today I was inspired to download the pictures from my iPhone.  Some of these may be repeats and there's a little bit of everything.

We recently hosted a baby shower at our house for some friends.  Brandon wanted to make my dad's famous Gin bucket, but we had left our cooler in storage.   We found this gem at the Sea and Sun store and Brandon was in love.   Girls like purses and shoes, well, Brandon likes coolers, luggage and coats. So, this is his first (of many) Japanese coolers and he's thrilled with it.  

 Brock's front tooth was coming in behind his bottom tooth, so being thee dentist's kid we had to fix it.  They put a cap on the tooth to make it fall in front of the bottom one and he had to wear the cap for about a week.  We called him hillbilly baby.

This was taken in Iowa this summer.  My nephew Colton can always come up with a fun way to entertain Reagan and Brock.  

This was at Okuma overlooking the private couple's beach.  

There is a restaurant here called Arashi's that has a ticket ordering system.  You put your money in the machine and order your dinner.  It spits out tickets for you to give to the chef.  

Here's a picture of the machine.

Reagan was at a friend's house, so we just had Brock to entertain.  They don't have high chairs, but did have small kids seats. 

 Check out my glass Pepsi bottle.  It was a tiny bottle.

Here's Brandon stealing a sip.

 luckily no one was behind us at the next table, because Brock was all over that place.  He kept lifting the screen and peeking under it. 

We ordered the Soy fried rice.  It comes out screaming hot in the cast iron skillet and has a raw egg around the edge of the pan.  Then, you are supposed to mix everything up.  It was delicious!

 After dinner we took a walk on the Sunabe sea wall. 

This is a spider that is in our backyard.  It doesn't look big in the picture, but it was easily the size of a baseball.  Bugs here are on steroids, I swear!

Shopping at Nitori a few weeks ago, we stumbled upon this.  I love that you can wash your hands on the top of the toilet and we thought the sign inside the bowl was funny too.  

A random store  - we didn't stop :)

Reagan spotted this sign at an indoor kids play place we went to.  Read carefully!

Nepal Spice Kitchen and Hansen Fest

I'll admit that I really want to like eating off base here, but honestly don't love it that much.  I want to be an adventurous eater, but just struggle finding things I really like.  However, since we've been in Okinawa we've discovered that Reagan likes curry, and more importantly LOVES Naan bread.  A few weeks ago Brandon had eaten at Nepal Spice kitchen with some friends and wanted to take us back for the bread since they make it from scratch.   A side note, we eat early, so the place was empty when we got there, but was filling up when we left.

Reagan took over the camera for some scenery shots.

Here's Reagan's meal, Samosas.

 Brandon had a combo with lamb and then chicken curry.

Brock and I planned to share the vegetable curry, but it was a bit spicy for him.  

Later in the weekend we went to a festival on Camp Hansen.   Below are a few pictures, it was HOT, so we didn't stay too long.