Day 9-- Kyoto & Osaka

Today was our last full day in Japan. We leave tomorrow!! This morning we climbed through the famous red gates of Kyoto. We actually did way more of this hike than Bill and I did when we were here the last time-- mostly because we wanted to get away from all the people-- and most of them didn't go all the way to the top. We almost got to the top, but decided not to. We got so many great photos though! The narrow path at the bottom was so crowded with people though... last time lots of people were here, but you had the path to yourself as you walked-- not this time. It was wall to wall people! As we got further up, it thinned out quite a bit which was so nice! It was really cold and rainy! We walked through all the different shrines and got a great photo near the top with Kyoto in the background. We were so cold by the end of the hike, we went back to the market area where we found some really good hot chocolate (at a coffee place, of course) and just down a little we got some really yummy crepes-- so we sat down in this coffee place and ate our hot chocolates and crepes. I was so chilled! We kept trying to get into this really popular Japanese type pancake place but today we went there for the 2nd time and you STILL had to have a reservation, it was so packed with people! Just for a pancake! Ben really wanted to try them, so he was pretty bummed. We had to settle for the crepes, which were pretty good! We took the train to Osaka this afternoon and checked into our hotel there for just one night. It was a gorgeous hotel-- probably the nicest one we've stayed in in Japan. We had a huge room. After we got settled, we went to go see the Osaka Castle. It was a pretty good walk from the hotel and you could see it out our window. It was really amazing and the whole inside of it is a museum. We all loved Osaka and wished we had more time here. It's a big city, but no where near the amount of tourists! After we visited the temple, we walked to dinner and had another type of savory Japanese pancakes for dinner called Okonomiyaki. It was pretty good! They cook it on a grill in front of you-- just like so many foods we've had in Korea and Japan! Todd and Ben looked up this little place that was a hole in the wall and it got great reviews, so we went there. We walked back to the hotel after dinner and I about froze. It was a long walk too! Well this has been such an amazing trip and I have really enjoyed it. We've had so much fun together-- but I am so ready to head back to the USA tomorrow! It's going to be a long haul as we have to fly back to Korea, then on the Salt Lake and finally Arizona. It has been so fun and I'm glad we came!

                   

Day 8--Kyoto, Japan

Bill and I have been here before but this morning we went to the Temple of the Golden Pavilion... so pretty and the grounds were absolutely stunning! There were sooo many people there, it was really crowded! All of Japan has been that way... so many foreigners, not just Americans, too! Korea was pretty quiet-- it was kinda nice. There were tourists, but not like here. When we were in Japan in 2020 there weren't anywhere near this many in Japan either!!! We walked around the grounds and enjoyed all the buildings on the property. We found a snow cone place on this little quiet street in Kyoto off the beaten path and it was pretty good! They were huge! Then we headed over to the bamboo forest which was just as pretty as the last time we were there. We got some really pretty pictures there, but again... LOTS of people! I found some Dr. Pepper in a vending machine while I was waiting for everyone before we headed up to the Monkey park... I had a bunch of change in Yen so I tried to buy some and it wouldn't come out, so I kept trying and trying... another guy came up and used the machine and got one out just fine. Turns out, I was trying to use Korean wan! The coin looked exactly the same as the Japanese yen coin and had the same amount on it!!! So Bill put in his change and got everyone one! Hahaha! You can't fool a Japanese vending machine! We HIKED and by hiked I mean HIKED, up to the Monkey park. It was a half hour of straight up climbing! We were lucky it was a very cool day or we would've been covered in sweat! It was so worth it though because there were monkeys everywhere. We were the ones enclosed, not them! They were wandering everywhere and you could go inside a little hut and buy food and feed them too. (Megan, Todd, Brooke and Ben did it.) They were so fun to watch-- we stayed there for quite a while until it was time to make that hike back down the side of the mountain. First we got a great picture with Kyoto in the background. That night we went to dinner at a yummy Shabu Shabu place and it was SOOO GOOD!!! The servers were super animated and fun and had us shouting something they told us to repeat-- hahaha! They were super cute and tried so hard to speak English with us! After that we went back to our hotel and played cards for a bit and then everyone was so tired we decided to just go to bed!!!