Kyoto Trip Part 1

I'm in the pink jacket waving at the top of the stairs.  This was just the entrance, there were literally hundreds of more stairs to go up in order to get to the main temple.  This was built hundreds of years ago and there was a husband and wife that were in charge of building this (a modern day contractor), but they went over budget, so because they felt that they lost their honor...they committed suicide.   Suicide is unfortunately common in the history of Japan.  Could you imagine if all the contractors that went over budget in America committed suicide?  We wouldn't have a lot of contractors!

Beautiful!

These are Cherry trees!  Imagine those trees in bloom with blossoms in the Spring or the foliage in the Fall!  We went at an off peak time.  People come from all over the world to see them in bloom!

While on our wonderful trip to Tokyo we took the Shinkensen (the bullet train) over to Kyoto for 2 days and 1 night.  Our hotel room was very unimpressive (we had to sleep in separate beds), but Kyoto (the former capital of Japan) was spectacular.  There are so many historically significant sites in Kyoto, that during WWII,  Allied forces spared attacks on Kyoto because of it's history!  Now that was a safe place to live during the War!  Honestly, these pictures do not do Kyoto justice!  It was breath taking.  2 days was just not enough to see everything.  We only scratched the surface of this amazing city.  If we are ever stationed in Japan again (either Okinawa or Mainland) we would love to go back to take in more of the sights.  Kyoto was by far our most favorite place that we went to see on our trip!!!