Saisho Sightseeing

In Japanese, one of the words for begin or start is 'saisho.' Because of that, the title makes sense, and is quite clever... I guess it is time that I should be giving you a travelogue and update. I have sorted through the many pictures and videos, and this is the first part. 

 Starting in Kyoto, this is the shrine in Gion which was right up the street from our Hostel. I can't remember the name of this one. Something with an S.

 Super cool Samurai archer made less cool by the chicken coop fencing...

 Golden lantern lights the way to the Road to El Dorado (not part of Japanese mythology)

 Shrine grounds. 

 Brad is doing the traditional hand washing. Left hand, right hand, mouth, left hand again, dipper. 

 That water was cold. 

 Spitting in public

 Lions guarding the entrance

 Backside of the entrance gate

 This fellow was chanting and praying at the shrine, I snapped this picture. I think he was on to us. 

 They were preparing these halls for the new years holidays. 

 Parts of it look like a circus

 Tori gate leading out of the shrine

 Another entrance with a bunch of paper lanterns

 Artsy picture looking down the row of individual shrines

 This is a GIANT Tori gate we saw as we were on a bus. We got out to take a look.

 A picture for scale. It is super huge! 

 A shrine guarded by the big Tori gate. This temple/shrine is one of the biggest in Kyoto.

 They had a garden that you could pay to walk around in that would be super beautiful in any season...unfortunately less so in winter. This is the actual boxcar where the boxcar children lived! 

 Pretty gardens full of dead plants...

 Those are lily pads that you can see in the lake, and stepping stones leading across. Quite magical...like a fairy garden. If Japan has a version of FernGully, it takes place here. 

 A little stone pagoda on the secret island accessible by stepping stones. 

Don't touch life kids. 

You can't see, but it was actually raining a little bit right before I took this photo. 

 It was raining again at this point. 

 View across the pond.

 Bridgeway to coolsville. 

 Suddenly, we found a sign for a zoo! A ZOO! It was 600 yen and pretty cool. I have determined that zoos are kind of a sad place. I think I have always thought this, and in some ways, this one seems sadder than most. 

 Giraffe! Really close up. 

 Have you ever seen a Red Panda? I have! Here it is in the tree! Just a little ball of red furry fluff. 

 A better picture of the other Red Panda.

Bonecrushingly cute.

 In Japanese zoos, you can pet a chicken and a duck. What a country!

 Happy Feet eat your heart out!

 I could have reached out and grabbed the penguin (and don't think I didn't think about it). 

You can see how small this zoo was.

 Next were the Lemurs holding court. They faced the window so they could get warm from the sun. They are funny little buggers. 

 They look so sneaky.

 The leader came over and looked at me, I think he recognized that I am cool and didn't try to challenge my homosapien authority. 

 Then he showed me his butt (cheeky monkey).

One monkey...

Two monkey...

 Where Hedwig went to retire. 

 This one made me the most sad. 

 I love elephants, but this one just walked in circles in its tiny cage. 

 This alligator is not stuffed. I thought it might have been, but then it looked at me. That's the devil right there.

 These turtles had snake heads with super long necks. 

 See that super curvy dark rock? Not a rock, a Japanese giant salamander. 

 A little monkey squirrel thing in the nocturnal house.  

 Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. A nice little Brown Bear. 

 Sleeping tigers

 Sleeping leopard

The zoo was a nice surprise, look tomorrow for the next section when we visit Kiyomizu Temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine.