Last day in Japan 07_06_11 Mt. Mitake

Mount Mitake and the Mitake Valley

Tree with prayers on it

Hiking map

At the gate to the city on Mt. Mitake

At lunch

The view from lunch

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On the way to the shrine

The Shrine

Dragon!

 

More Kyoto

I realize now, that I can either have a blog entry that is heavy with pictures or heavy with text. When blogger figures out how to have a better platform for blogs with pictures and text, I'll revert back to that. In the meanwhile, here are some more pictures from Kyoto. :)

Zen garden

Couldn't figure out what this was all about, but we think it had something to do with luck!

Sign about the hay loop

Sign about how to walk through the hay loop

Traditional tea house

Another temple?

Temple where we say the monks doing prayers

Hot food from a vending machine!

Ordering lunch

To the noodle shop!

Still in Kyoto??

Today my mother asked if I was still in Kyoto, because I haven't updated my blog. She wasn't serious of course, but I got the point; it's time for me to get my thoughts together and update.

I do not plan to skip ahead to things going on today, so here are a few photos and explanations from day two and day three of Kyoto (June 27th and 28th).

On day two, Zeb and I thought it would be best so spend the morning seeing the Bamboo Forest and some Zen Temples in the nearby town of Arashiyama and spend the afternoon visiting more Kyoto temples.

Here are some photos from the morning:

We think this said something to the effect of "Welcome to Tenryu-ji Zen Temple". We truly had no idea.

In the gardens we saw a little bit of bamboo forest. The garden was a UN World Heritage Site, but then again so were most things in Kyoto.

Cool Japanese architecture. Our hand out told us to watch for the little lion guardian. So we did.

Yay little Budda statues! So cute!