Kyoto, and off to Tokyo

Because we are still suffering from jetlag, being a full 12 hours from our regular time zone in Brazil, it means that we are going to bed very early (sometimes 8pm) and waking between 4 and 5:30am.  The upside of this is that we can take care of breakfast and getting dressed and still be up super early with more than enough time to do some trekking around before we have to check out of our hotel rooms.  Yesterday morning, we took an early walk through a quiet wooded park, full of winding stairway paths that led up to a hilltop with a lovely view.  Cassio discovered in his research another shrine that was within walking distance of our hotel so we dedided to "kill time" and check out yet another temple.  Boy, am I happy we did!

Everywhere you go, there are Buddha statues, some with offerings of water and/or flowers, some with fabric apron type "bibs".  I am not certain of their meaning but they look cute.

This is the view some people have as their back yard.

Above is the entrance to the Kinkaku-Ji Temple and what a surprise was waiting for us inside.  It is a gold gilded structure, surrounded by a pond and bordered by a sea of purple irises.  The sun was glancing off the temple and it took my breath away.

The flowers, in my opinion, were just as magnificent as the Golden Temple.

This Tower Hotel is not where we stayed but is opposite the Kyoto Central Station.  There is nothing really traditional about it, but the colour of orangy-red is the same used on many of the temples and shrines in Kyoto.

In front of the Kyoto Central Station, they were doing some sort of game or promotion and I included this photo just to remember and show the contrast of kookie and regal that abounds here in Japan.

We took the bullet train to Tokyo.  It was a bit confusing, trying to buy the right ticket and to get on the right train.  In the end, we ended up with non-reserved seating because all the reserved seats were sold out.  The upside of this is that we were able to choose to take a later train to get a seat, instead the first one we boarded and promptly got off of because it was crammed.

Not the most flattering picture, but nonetheless, a good example of the type of food we have been eating and also to show we "multi-task" and save time by eating while travelling!

This last shot is not nearly as impressive as the view of Mount Fuji we had in person as it filled the windows of the train and obliterated the view of all else.  One moment we just saw fields and low mountains, then we were in a tunnel and BOOM there it was, the HUGE mountain.  We had a clear view of it for a few minutes, even if on a very grey day, before we entered another short tunnel.  When we emerged again, Fuji was long gone.....