京都 Kyoto

Our program began in Kyoto ( where I found a new charger and was able to take photos again!).
My group had been in Japan for over a week and had traveled form Osaka to Nara where we saw most of the tourist sights.

A few of us were surprised at how much our traveling depended upon walking but I think honestly we were all glad of it. We also decided to visit Iga Ueno to visit a castle and a ninja house, the day was rainy but the best part was the train ride to and from Iga Ueno. The mountains where amazing and covered in mist and drifting clouds, it was so beautiful it nearly made me cry.

The walk back from Iga Ueno

A sign for the Ninja House

To get to Kyoto we had to take a very long ( and a little confusing for a beginner) train ride from Nara to Kyoto. We took a few wrong trains, milled about in confusion and finally hopped on the correct train.

A sign we saw while we were lost

We arrived at the main Kyoto station, we were surprised at how large it was. We had to find our way to the hostel but had no idea where it was. Taylor found a payphone and we called Andrew and Adam Procter who had already arrived. We met a few of the other program participants in a covered shopping area ( I found a shop selling sony camera battery chargers) and then we were on our way to the hostel. The hostel was the nicest we had been in yet. Despite the shared rooms I preferred this hostel to any of the higher end hotels I've stayed in. The attendants where nice and friendly as where the fellow guests.

The youth hostel and the "lucky" stone

When our professor arrived we all went back down to the main train depot and met the rest of the group. Our professor had planned several group outings to temples and shrines in Kyoto and the surrounding areas and off we went.

Me, A statue Stephanie and I ran across on a random walking adventure, Austin God of Thunder

Amanda and Cody at a Zen Buddhist temple we visited

The Giant Dai (大) on the side of the mountain, apparently they catch it on fire during Obon

Amanda, Taylor, Cody and I went down to the river where Amanda remembered playing when she was a child.
We played on the back of stone turtles and watched little kids and their families catch crayfish

Amanda and I went off to find her childhood home and we found it, we also found a train shop while searching for a candy shop she remembered

A nest of baby swallows, it's seen as a blessing to have swallows build a nest at your home or business.
Nests aren't removed but are instead tended after and the birds watched over.