Day 13 - Kyoto

It's new years eve here!!!  We spent the day temple-going and shopping all around Kyoto.  First we stopped by a cafe for breakfast and I got a breakfast hamburger.  It was actually just an egg, ham and cheese sandwich, but this version had mayo, mustard and a ketchup-salsa spread and salad on the side.  It was surprisingly good!

After a train ride to Arashiyama, we visited the Tenryu-ji temple and garden (a UNESCO world heritage site) and the bamboo grove:

From a bridge in Arashiyama

Geisha apprentices

Bamboo grove

One of the buildings in the Tenryu-ji temple

Raked gravel in the garden

Mossy area of the garden

Koi pond

On our way back into downtown Kyoto, we happened upon the Nishiki Market, which spans four city blocks and houses over 100 shops and stalls that sell everything from candies to pickled vegetables to dried fish to knives.  We slowly shuffled our way through the crazy crowd and took in everything we could.  We even bought a few things :)

Green sweets...with a funny sign

The most colorful candy we've ever seen

Fried fish with flowers?

Knife sharperning

Silly badger-type character

Octopus pops...wait for it...octopops!

Crowded!

Pickled vegetables

More pickled vegetables

Candy that looks like sushi

Traditional "wreaths" popular on new years

In need of a rest, we cabbed back to the hotel.  Dinner was at Tenyu, another tempura spot and it was excellent, though I didn't take any good photos of the food.  To kill two hours after dinner, we bar-hopped in Gion - first at a place called Dylan II that only played, you guessed it, Bob Dylan, and second at a place called Fly Me to the Moon.  And then it was temple time!  We joined the masses and shuffled our way through the streets with thousands and thousands of people:

Sylvie and Henry at dinner

It's officially the year of the Sheep

Massive crowd waiting to get into the temple

Shuffling through...

Temple at midnight

What a lovely evening we had!  Happy new years to everyone back home!!!!!