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.