Kyoto with Carolyn

Last week, Carolyn and I went to Kyoto. I've mentioned before that it's a really old city with lots of historic temples and shrines to see. When you go to stay at Kyoto, it is common for Japanese people to stay at a "ryokan", which is a traditional Japanese inn. Carolyn and I decided to get the full experience, so we stayed at one! It was very interesting!!

This was our room when we first came in. It was very small, but clean and nice. These tables were sitting out with hot green tea waiting for us. The room was just this area, with a small bathroom.

They brought our dinner to our room at a specified time and it was so fancy! It was all traditional Japanese food. I tried most of it, but not all. There were a few things I just had no desire to even try- the sea urchin, the salted anchovies, and the slimy black stuff...Carolyn tried everything but the sea urchin- way to go!!

This was a piece of shrimp that still had it's eyes in it...I wasn't too sure about that.

After dinner they took our trays of food and moved the tables over to the side of the room. Then they laid out our futons for us to sleep on...They were very nice futons, but both of us weren't used to sleeping like that! They were hard and uncomfortable all night long.

The next day we walked around Kyoto. We saw lots of temples and the grounds around them- which were gardens and huge gates and stuff.

We also walked along the "philosopher's path". It is along this really pretty canal and you can stop and visit other temples and shrines along the way.

When we got done with the walk we were tired, so we stopped for a "cream soda" which came out green! We were surprised with the color, but it was really tasty and refreshing.