About two weeks ago, we went to Kyoto. We rode on the Shinkansen (bullet train) super express. It took about an hour to get to Kyoto. We met Teji, my dad's colleague at the train station and got a ride to our apartment. It was nicer than our apartment in Hamamatsu, but a little smaller. Kyoto is the cultural center of Japan, so there are many temples, shrines and interesting places to visit. Kyoto has over 1,500 temples, so you are always close to one. Down the street from our apartment, there was the Kyoto Handicraft Center. We decided that we would have to check it out one day. We decided to go to the Imperial Palace Park. It was a beautiful park with a palace in the middle. We discovered that the park was huge, and walked nearly the whole length. Another day, we went to Nijo castle, a big castle that was supposed to have nightingale flooring and secret body guard rooms. Whenever you took a step inside the building, the floor squeaked! This was so no one could sneak up on the shogun. There were many paintings on the sliding doors of animals, like eagles and tigers and some trees and plants. The pictures were very beautiful. After we went through the castle, we walked through the gardens. There were many small ponds and interesting plants and trees in the garden. On another day, we went to the golden pavilion, a temple covered entirely in gold leaf. You couldn't go inside, but you could get a good look from across a small lake. A brochure said that the first floor was built in eleventh century residential style, the second in the style of warrior aristocrats, and the third in traditional chinese style. There were magnificent gardens all around the temple, and you could walk through them. At the end, we went back to our apartment to have many good adventures another day.
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| Moat at Nijo castle |
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| Guard house at Nijo castle |
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| A gate at Nijo castle |
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| Bridge at the imperial palace gardens |
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| Golden pavilion |
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| Phoenix at top of golden pavilion |
