I'm going to pretty much photobomb you with pictures of our ryokan because it was by far, my most treasured experience of the trip. For the most part, we planned all of our hotel stays on a pretty strict budget, but we decided to splurge for one night because we had heard that staying in a ryokan is such an essential experience. It is basically a Japanese bed and breakfast, but if you stay at the right one, your hostess's mission for your entire stay is to make you feel like a queen or king.
At the Shiraume Ryokan, we were greeted with cold green tea and cookies, our hostess sat with us and a map for about 30 minutes pointing out places we should visit and how to get there, we had tea and sweets again when we returned from our touring for the day, we had our own private garden, our room magically transitioned from night to day while we were out to dinner, and we just generally felt like the most important people in Kyoto. Our hostess was stunningly beautiful and perfectly serene, and it seems as though her dinner room is one of the most premier places to be in the evenings as one evening a geisha was upstairs entertaining guests, and another evening the mayor and his aide were there for dinner. It was a fantastic experience, and I'd highly recommend it if you are ever in Kyoto.
L: Nazen-ji Temple Sanmon Gate, R: Nazen-ji Temple
L: Interior of Nazen-ji Temple, R: Hojo (Abbot's Quarters) "Leaping Tigers" zen rock garden
We began our tourist experience in Kyoto with a walk out to the Nazen-ji Temple. As we were staying in the Gion prefecture, we were pretty centrally located for most of the temples and some great shopping. We were also in the geisha district, so we were constantly on high alert for that elusive white-painted face. With a stop for lunch and plenty of window shopping along the way, it took a little over an hour to get to the temple, and then we spent an leisurely afternoon there, sitting in shady locations, strolling through a peaceful rock garden, sitting in more shady locations, and just enjoying the quiet that had been so hard to find in Tokyo.
We began the next morning with a rare experience--A WESTERN BREAKFAST!!! After inhaling several days worth of calories in fruit, eggs, sausage, bread and English tea, we set off for a day in Nara. We met a great girl at breakfast that morning who was traveling alone, so we invited her along for the ride, and our twosome became a threesome... but not like that. Nara was fabulous, but oh my heck, there was a ton of walking that day. We were sadly uninformed about the fact that there was a shuttle bus from the station out to the Nara Park area, so instead we walked the nine million miles there and back. First we hit up the Kofukuji Temple and Five-Story Pagoda.
We wrapped up our time in Nara by hauling ourselves out to the Kasuga Shrine and the Todaiji Temple to see the great Buddha. It was around this point that I began experiencing extreme temple exhaustion. The same thing tends to happen when I'm in Europe with the cathedrals, but I honestly felt like if I saw another temple, I was going to scream.
Fortunately, we did have some distraction in the shape of the hallowed Nara Park deer. There are about 1200-1300 of these deer scattered all around Nara Park, and they are carefully protected as it is believed in the Shinto faith that they are messengers of the gods. Those were the most fearless deer I have ever seen. They would brazenly walk up to any person who happened to be holding food--or not in some cases--and we even saw a couple of them going after clothing. It was pretty funny, but I still opted to keep my distance.
That wraps up the first half of our time in Kyoto, but please do return for the next installment, or deal with the wrath of...

The Incubator and I frequently thought we would have enjoyed an Asian teenager, as well. But, we just settled for the challenge of our own Princess Angela.
Somehow, I suspect that the Asian teenagers are somewhat different at home than out in public where they are perfectly polite and charming. I base that on reports from the field that you were charming, polite, and practically perfect in every way once outside our immediate parental unit control zone.
Posted by: Old Warrior | July 12, 2010 at 04:05 PM
So you're saying that the people on The Amazing Race don't just have phenomenally bad luck with cab drivers in Japan?
Posted by: Jenn | July 12, 2010 at 10:56 PM
loving all of these pics, it's like we went on vacation with you!
and your room and living room is so interesting and fascinating and ah, love your trip.
also, that last pic, priceless. nicely done :)
Posted by: katelin | July 13, 2010 at 01:43 AM
Wow your room looks very interesting with it set up for day and night. I am so messy in hotel rooms, this would not work for me :)
Posted by: Jessica | July 13, 2010 at 03:42 AM
Nice Gaijin pic Ang! Toooooo funny! You left out the amazing pina colada that you had at our mexican lunch. ;)
Posted by: Nicole | July 13, 2010 at 05:28 AM
I'm reading this and thinking I never ever thought about meeting a geisha, but now I want to add "Meet a Geisha" to my life list. That is so cool! And I love how they transform the rooms, what a novel idea!
Posted by: Brittany E. | July 18, 2010 at 09:48 AM