Moshi Moshi from Kyoto!

Kyoto was Dave's favorite part of Japan. We took the Bullet train (Shinkansen) there and man it does go quick! We missed Mt Fuji on the way there, but we were able to catch it on the way home. We went to a lot of really cool historical sights. On August 15, our first day there, we went to the golden pavillion, which was beautiful, and we went to gion, which is the geisha district, and then a park behind gion, which is some sort of a massive shrine. There are something like 1600 shrines in Kyoto. We didnt plan on how little english there really is there, and have been had a bit of a hard time navigating, but we have managed to find our way thanks to the kindness of strangers.

We took a cab to the Golden pavillion, and you wouldnt believe how nice they are here, the drivers wear suits and keep their cabs immaculate, and they think that tipping is considered offensive! Its like Dave's dream come true! Our driver loved America, and was telling us how he loved Clint Eastwood, Bing Crosby and Dorris Day, and lets not forget Rambo. He sang White Christmas for us.

The food was really REALLY terrible, but we have been really adventurous in trying a lot of different things. You have no idea how unnerving it is to eat things that you have ABSOLUTELY no idea what they are. We went for a traditional Japanese dinner in Kyoto. The setup was beautiful, but the food was so icky. The shrimps still had heads, which was disturbing when Molly went to take a bite out of it. We ate something that turned out to be eel, which wasnt too bad, and a lot of things that were so gross, we didnt even eat a quarter of what they served. They even ruined white rice but putting what we think were worms on it.

On the 16, we saw the gold pavillions cousin, the silver pavillion. It was equally, if not more impressive! Dave thought that it was much more impressive. We were able to see these impressive sand sculptures, as well as some Buddhist artifacts. We also went on a little hike to see the grounds from a hill above, it was pretty incredible. We took a little stroll through the market, and then headed towards the philosophers walk, at which point we realized that we didnt have enough money to get home. We started a search for an ATM, but found out quickly that there were none to be had. After begging a cab driver to take a credit card we finally got back to the main part of town, and then had to try and find an ATM that spoke english.

We finally found an ATM that both spoke english and accepted non Japanese issued cards, and Molly literally fell to the ground and threw her arms around the machiene. When Dave said, "Are you kissing the machiene?" I replied, "Don't be silly, I'm hugging it. We were able to get money in time to get to the Bullet train, but we had more adventures to come... read on to find out what!