Kyoto, land of many temples and gardens

The Golden Temple
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We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo to Kyoto Saturday morning, arriving at 11:45am.  It was a 2.5 hour ride, very comfortable and very fast.  We saw much of the countryside between the two cities, it was beautiful with mountain layers and fog settling between.  A family friend of the Thuli's, Kentaro Esaki, picked us up at Kyoto Station and we headed to a "sushi train" restaurant for fabulous fresh, raw sushi (conveyor belt style...).  We then headed to the Golden Temple, a temple on a pond that is covered in gold leaf.  It was newly re-golded, and so it was shiny and beautiful.  The gardens surrounding this temple were also very lovely.  Next we headed up the mountain (thank you Kentaro for driving us around the these lovely places!) to a wonderful garden in the mountain side.  The garden included a temple building, a moss garden, walking trails, a stream down the side of the mountain, many stone pagodas and figures.  We learned that each temple has its own scent of insense that is only burned at that temple.  This one also had its own special tea flavor, which was sour and very good.  It had gold flakes floating inside as well!  (Ken, many pictures and suggestions for the HOTR garden will be on their way, as soon as we figure out where to post of pictures online!).  Later that night we had a tasty Japanese dinner with Mr. Esaki (Kentaro's father and a family friend and business partner of the Thuli's) that was full of many flavors and dishes, with the wierdest thing being grilled chicken guts on a stick!  The sashmi (raw fish pieces without rice or seaweed) were very fresh and tasty.  Everything was wonderful at this meal!  Today (Sunday) was a very very special day for us.  We (Kentaro, Eli, Jessica) met Kentaro's girlfriend (Keiko) at the train station.  She was wearing a traditional yukata (cotton version of a kimono) and was beautiful.  We all proceeded to a place where we all changed into this traditional clothing, Keiko helped me get dressed, which was a good thing, because there are so many layers for the womens outfit!  We met Kentaro and Eli, who were wearing the male version, kind of like a robe with a thick belt below the belly. Eli looked like royalty in his!  Keiko took us to a friend of hers, who is a teacher of the traditional tea ceremony.  We had a private lesson, which was very interesting and we learned so much about the "soul" of the tea ceremony, summarized it is all about everyone being equals in the tea house and showing respect for each other.  It was very very hot in these outfits!  I can't explain how wonderful this experience this was, the old Japanese man spoke (Kentaro transulated), and he had a wonderful sense of humor.  We also played traditional Kyoto game, throwing fans to knock a mini hat off of a box (harder than it sounds!).  After some cultural lessons in the equiveland of heaven and hell, we were off to see another temple and garden in our outfits...let me tell you it was wonderful to wear them, but it was sooo hot!  (By the way, the first day we were in Tokyo it was the hottest day of the year so far, about 40 C, or about 105 F, also with lots of humidity!).  After taking the yukatas off, we went to another temple, can:t remember what it is called off hand, but it has about one thousand or maybe more orange temple gates lined up one after another (the inspiration for Christo's flags in Central Park).  It was so neat, we climbed the mountain for about 30 minutes (the entire loop takes about 2 hours and is very strenuous) and we were already too tired and sweaty from the rest of the day. But the part we did walk was great, we saw Kyoto from halfway up the mountain.  I bet this walk would be fabulous at night!  We then proceeded to the public bath (onsen in Japanese), which was a first for both of us.  The baths are hot springs, dug down 1000 meters, and are seperated by gender.  You get naked and go to a variety of different bath areas with different options (massaging jets, super hot, electricity underwater, very cold, outside, inside, sitting on a seat, in a saltwater sauna, etc).  It was lovely, I wish the US had these!  It was so relaxing...  Then another great dinner (oh the gyoza is so good here!) with Kentaro and Keiko and off to bed.  This descrition of the day cannot even to justice to how much we learned and experienced today. Thank you Kentaro and Keiko!  Tomorrow is off to Osaka and Nara before heading way south to Hiroshima and the mountain area near the sea.  Hello to everyone!