Kyoto Day 1

Tuesday morning we hopped on the train and made our way to our final destination...Kyoto! I don't know when I first heard about Kyoto, or what made me want to go there, but for some reason it had been in my head for awhile of a place on mainland that I really wanted to visit. We booked this trip for the first week of April so we could be there for the cherry blossoms, which were amazing!

We dropped our luggage off at our hotel and hung out in the lobby of the hotel and figured out what we wanted to see.

The day before, I posted a picture on Instagram stating that we were headed to Kyoto and a friend of mine, Erin, who I played lacrosse with at BYU (and haven't seen in probably 10 years) commented and mentioned that she and her husband were in Kyoto too (a far ways from their Iowa home)! It was SO random and awesome. We met up with them for lunch and then tagged along with their plans to go see the kiyomizu temple (pure water temple). Abe served his mission in Japan so speaks Japanese, knows a little about the culture and food and helped jump start our Kyoto trip. It was wonderful.

The weather was gorgeous, the cherry trees were in full bloom and I started to fall in love with Kyoto immediately.

Rowan posing with the kimono girls who were loving him!

There was a cute little area to walk through after going through the temple with beautiful views of the city, mountain and other shrines.

We made our way across to this awesome building...

...and then made our way to the bottom, where we drank from the waterfall which is said to have therapeutic properties. Drinking from all 3 streams is said to confer health, longevity and success in studies. I was a little worried about contracting giardia or something, but figured it was safe given the thousands and thousands of people who drink from it daily...and good news, we didn't get sick :) I'm pretty sure it healed me from the inside out ;)

Rowan enjoyed looking at the turtles in the pond at the bottom

And then we enjoyed some delicious sakura (cherry blossom) ice cream (which became a staple in our diet throughout the week!

We made our way through some cute little streets that REALLY reminded me of park city (of course with a bit of a Japanese twist), but I couldn't believe how much it really did feel like I was walking through downtown Park City.

Our neighbor Alli had us watch Memoirs of a Geisha before our trip, since it takes place in Kyoto, so we were excited to actually see a few real geishas while we were there!

One of the fun things about Kyoto is that there is so much to see as you walk...I couldn't have planned any of our days to turn out as well as they did...

And around sunset, we got to this gorgeous area with some amazing trees. The weeping cherries were huge and awesome.

Erin and Abe eating takoyaki (which I learned in Osaka I would not eat again :)

Rowan sharing his puffs with me :) We later found some vendors and tried our first Kobe beef which was awesome!...and a good little pancake dessert

The Japanese are pretty obsessed with their cherry blossoms....there were picnic areas set up everywhere, where people of all kinds (including men in business suits, etc) were sitting around picnicking and "watching" the cherry blossoms.

Finally, we walked through the Gion district and caught a bus back to the train station...

And since we were done being adventurous with food...we had some McDonalds for dinner (for the first time since moving to Japan). I was sad to break my no McD's streak, but it was worth having just a hamburger and fries for dinner...and we had the sakura drink, to make it a real Japanese experience :)

It was so fun to see friends, start exploring the city, check into our new hotel and spend time together in this gorgous little city...Stay tuned for picture overloads from each day ahead...