Tyler and Kinkakuji

Howdy- I haven't posted lately, so I have some catching up to do. Last month, my brother's friend(and now our's) was over working for Nissan in Tokyo for the month. One weekend he made the bullet train ride to visit us over in Kansai. Naturally we went to Kyoto.

Dan and I have been to many places in Japan now and are pretty convinced that Kyoto is the best city. So, we took Tyler to a few of our favorite places as well visiting some new ones for the first time. One place we went was Kinkakuji. It's the "Golden Temple". It is one of the most famous temples in Kyoto and probably Japan for that matter. Interesting fact#1: It was burned down by a Buddhist monk who had become obsessed with it.

Kinkakuji in all it's glory. It had snowed the day before we went and turned out to be a great day.

Another view of Kinkakuji

We also went to the Imperial Palace, but soon realized that it wasn't that cool. It's open to the public for one week a year, and Dan and I didn't feel like going when it was. The grounds are really nice. There were people running, walking their dogs, and strolling around. Maybe it's the central park of Kyoto. The actual palace is surrounded by tall walls and you can't see any of it.

Me, Dan, and Tyler at the Imperial Palace grounds.