Kyoto

On Wednesday, March 28th, a friend from work and I got on the shinkansen (bullet train) and went to Kyoto.  We went 300 miles in about 2 hours while making 2 stops along the way, so yeah, the train was moving really fast.  Although the ride itself was super smooth and there was a ton of leg room too! So much better than traveling by plane.

Anyway, Kyoto was a ton of fun, we found a hotel near the central station in Kyoto that acted as our central hub and branched out from there.  One of the reasons we went to Kyoto at this time is because the Sakura blossoms were supposed to be in full blossom at this point, but as you can likely tell from my context, they were only begging to bud, so no cherry blossom's at that point.  The Ume blossoms (plum blossoms, pronounced oo - may) were out and provided for some nice pictures, but they're still no sakura.

We were in Kyoto for about 48 hours total and did a ton of running around in that time.  It was a great time and if you'd like to see more photos I've posted about 200 on my facebook album titled: Kyoto.

The itinerary went like this:

Wednesday:

2:30 arrive in Kyoto, check in to hotel

3:30 head to Kiyomizu

 5:00 went to a museum

 5:45 went to dinner

 7:00 another temple

 9:30 Hugo (movie)

Thursday:

8:00am Head to Ryoan-ji

9:00 Arrive at Ryoan-ji

 10:00 walk to Kinkaku-ji

11:30 head back to downtown Kyoto/ Nijo castle

12:30 lunch

 1:30 Outdoor art installation

 2:00 Botanical Gardens

4:00 Toji Shrine

5:30 Dinner at a mall

7:00 Kyoto Tower

8:00 Bucket List (movie)

Friday:

7:00am Leave for Nara Japan

8:30 arrive at Todai-ji temple

9:30 leave Nara

11:00 find out that the Museum of Modern Art 

11:30 find an insanely long line for the aquarium

12:00 lunch

12:30 Kyoto Tower by day!

2:00 train home.