Ok, so this post is long overdue. I am determined to get caught up on all that has gone on in our lives over the past couple of months, because a lot has happened!
Ok, so after our time in Tokyo, we headed to the Shinagawa Station to ride the bullet train to Kyoto. It was an expensive ticket, but how many times in your life do you get to ride the bullet train across Japan?? Not very many. We were having once in a lifetime experiences and we planned to take full advantage of that. Shinagawa station was amazing. There were tons, and tons of people rushing from train to train. This place was huge. Each train was exactly on time. We were amazed how precise they were with their arrival and departure times. It all seemed to be like clock work.
Here was our train! The boys were super excited. Inside, they had nice soft, roomy seats. It was quiet inside and a surprisingly smooth ride. Once we got outside of Tokyo, the countryside was beautiful. It was a fun way to see more of mainland.
We arrived at Kyoto Station and took two taxis to our hotel. First of all, our taxi driver was driving crazy and I thought we were going to die. Then, we started driving through what seemed like a scary part of town. We started getting a little nervous about our hotel and what kind of area it would be in. Luckily, he was just taking some strange back way there and when we pulled up, we felt much better. It was a tall, skinny, Japanese style hotel.
This was our room. All of it. Oh, and there was a small bathroom. It was just a little square with these two chairs that folded out into futon mattresses. We were laughing so hard when we opened the door. The floor was a tatami mat, so you are not allowed to wear your shoes. It was a full on authentic Japanese experience. :)
Our first outing in Kyoto was to the Fushimi Inari Shrine. This was my absolute favorite thing that we saw. I loved the bright orange Torii gates and at this particular shrine, the go on forever!
There is a trail going up a mountain that is lined almost the entire way with torii gates. We could have spent all day here, but with little kids in toe and lots more to see, we had to limit our time.
All the girls, loving on our kids again. Anderson didn't mind taking a picture with them. Jack, not so much. I loved seeing them in their traditional kimonos.
Each torii gate is a different size. They were paid for by donation and the bigger the gate, the more money that particular person donated. Here is the sign that tells you the size and how much each one costs.
This person was freshening the paint on the writing. It was amazing. I love their writing! I wish I would have spent more time learning the language. It's so hard though!
This picture shows the different sizes really well. I loved it. Especially in contrast to all of the beautiful trees.
The kids started out having fun and ended up being really tired in the end. I don't know how many miles we walked during our entire trip, but I'm pretty sure their little legs have never gone that far!
