Kyoto!

View from the window of the "Shinkansen" otherwise known as the bullet train!
Lilia enjoyed her Shinkansen ride!
There were a bajillion school kids in the train station in Kyoto. With all of it's history and political importance, Kyoto is a popular field trip destination. We would race ahead of these school groups everywhere we went in order to get places faster. Can you imagine standing in line behind a bajillion kids everywhere you go? We could and we didn't.
Our first stop after the hotel was Kiyomizu-dera.







It rained and rained and rained our first day, but I loved it. It cooled things down and made all of the greens of the trees stand out. We each had an umbrella too, so the rain didn't slow us down.








Taking a break for lunch and trying to find where I stashed the cash. Lilia... in a daze?
We had udon and soba. YUM! Great on rainy days.

There was a lot of Kimono and Yukata wearing going on in Kyoto. We saw people dressed up everywhere we went. I appreciated it. Makes for good pictures and keeps with my romantic/ idealistic vision of Kyoto.

Lilia made friends everywhere we went. The Japanese middle school students, (especially the girls,) loved her. Here she is blowing kisses to her adoring fans.
Anyone that has ever been to Kyoto and every tourist for sure can tell you about yatsuhashi! This Kyoto style sweet is absolutely everywhere and fun to try! If you like mochi, you will like this and if you don't like mochi, you may still like this. The baked yatsuhashi is more the more traditional, but the tourists seem to prefer the raw form also known as "hijiri." It's like they took a ball of mochi and rolled it super thin and then filled it with a little red bean paste, or fruit, or whatever, and then folded it back up into a neat little triangle of confectionery cuteness. I bought three packages before leaving Kyoto.
This lady was pressing the yatsuhashi.