Kyoto

On May 5, we took another shinkansen to Kyoto. After dropping off our bags, we took the (crowded, because of Golden Week) bus to Ginkakuji, the Golden Pavilion. It's covered in six layers of gold leaf and surrounded by gardens.
The irises were in bloom - beautiful.

You could buy candles and charms to cure almost anything.

Mom grabbed a free sample of some tea. Turns out it was sakura (cherry blossom tea) with real gold leaf in it. That sounded good in theory, but the Japanese add SALT to it. It was gross.

On our way to Kinkakuji, the Silver Pavilion, we saw some cute carnation "dogs" that the Japanese sell for Mother's Day.

Kinkakuji is an exact, but smaller replica of the Gold Pavilion, in wood. It's famous for its zen garden, one of the three most beautiful in Japan. The Japanese are fond of naming the top three of most anything. This cone is supposed to represent Mount Fuji.

The azaleas at Kinkakuji were great.

The view of the zen garden from the mountain. The Silver Pavilion is on the left.

Then we headed to Kiyomizu Temple. This is Jishu Shrine, home to the god of love.

View of Kiyomizu Temple. It was a cloudy day, but we managed to avoid most of the rain. We ate dinner at McDonald's (Adam's decision), then crashed for the night.