Day 15 in Japan

This is Kinkakuji, which I think is the most gorgeous temple in Japan. Roughly translated, it's the Golden Pavilion. No one is allowed inside, but just looking at it is fine with me.

Jessica was very unhappy to find meat in her curry udon. The waitress mixed her order with her father's.

Kotoe, Miki and Jessica after lunch. There is definitely a family resemblance, no? And again, can you believe Kotoe and Miki are both 52-years-old? Jessica will turn 21 in August.

The first stop on our bus tour was Heian Jinja. I should know the significance of all of these shrines and temples. But, as my brother said, "Seen one temple, you've seen them all." Not quite, but when you see five temples and shrines in two days, they get muddled.

Walking across stepping stones in one of the ponds at Sunjusengendo.

This is the garden of the Sunjusengendo temple that houses the 1,000 statues of Japanese dieties. We were not allowed to take photos inside.

This is the absolutely breathtaking view from the very top of the Kiyomizu temple.

Because I got there before Cheryl, this is my vantage point. That's Miho and Kotoe to the left of the wooden sign.

This is Kiyomizu in Kyoto. Cheryl took this one.

We had to put these stickers on our shirts so the ticket takers wouldn't charge us admission since we were on a bus tour. On the way back to the hotel, my darling relatives stuck them all over me.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4

We get up early and have breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants. It was a traditional Japanese breakfast and was very good. At this hotel, breakfast was included in the stay.

Later on, one of the cousins said this particular restaurant was well-known for its menu.

After breakfast we met another cousin, Miki, who lives in Kobe. She's the younger daughter of our uncle, who died about 10 years ago. Miki's father was an electrical engineer who worked for Mitsubishi, and had worked in Mexico and Colombia. When we were stationed at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., they visited us there. Miki was very young.

So it had been something like 30 years since we saw her.

My mother was tired out after walking so much the night before, so she decided to rest. We had reserved a bus tour that began at 1:30 p.m. We decided to go to a very famous temple.

Fred said he would stay with her. His reasoning? "If you've seen one temple, you've seen them all."

Well, he's very wrong.

Kinkakuji is the most gorgeous temple in Japan. At least I think it is. In English, it's known as either the Golden Pavilion or Golden Palace. It's surrounded by beautiful gardens.

We took a bus to the temple. It kept stopping and allowing people on board. It was packed. Fortunately, we had gotten on when the bus was empty. It was ridiculous how crowded it was.

We finally got there and got off that bus.

We paid our admission fee and just began walking around in awe.

It's truly a magnificent sight.

We had to hurry to get back to the hotel to eat lunch and then catch the bus tour. We decided to take taxis back instead of getting on another crowded bus.

At the hotel, there was an attached several story high mall. And there was a floor featuring a bunch of restaurants.

Kyoto is known for its noodles, so we found a restaurant featuring udon.

Jessica is a vegan, as I said before. She ordered curry udon with no meat. Her father ordered the same thing, but with meat.

When the meal came, she noticed hers had meat. You should have seen her face! The waitress made a mistake.

The bus tour made stops at three shrines and temples. The first was the Heian Jinja. It featured orange-red buildings and a very pretty garden.

I asked the tour guide about the color of the shrine. In Tokyo, they are red. He said orange is a lucky color in China. And the Chinese influence was stronger in Kyoto than Tokyo.

The second stop was the Sunjusengendo. This is supposed to be the longest building in the world that is made of wood. It's filled with 1,000 statues of various gods. The building smelled of incense and it's darkly lit. And kind of creepy. Unfortunately, we couldn't take photos inside.

The third and final stop was Kiyomizu. This was yet another beautiful place. The bus stop was at the bottom of a hill. You walk up this street with shops on either side.

The temple is on top of the hill. But it's not just one building but a series of buildings.

When we were at the very top, you can see the city of Kyoto. It was stunning.

Kotoe looked at her watch and said, "We have to get back to the bus. It leaves at 5 o'clock."

Now, we're on top of the hill. So Kotoe, Miho and I went running down the hill. And I do not run. Now that I think about it. I don't know why we hurried. We could have taken a taxi back to the hotel. Miki stayed with my mother and she had a cell phone.

The others had decided to shop instead of walking to the top of the hill.

When we finally go to the bus parking lot, hot, sweaty and breathless, there was no one there except the bus drivers.

Kotoe had the wrong time!

It was too late to go back up the hill to shop, so we just sat down.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to have the "Viking" dinner (the buffet) on the rooftop beer garden. It cost roughly $35 a person, and included all the Asahi beer you could drink.

The beer dispenser was really a neat machine. You placed your mug on the stand. The mug would fill with beer. Just when it got up to about three-quarters full, the stand would tilt the mug to have the perfect foam on top.

I think between the 10 of us, we got three beers. It was wasted on us.

The food was OK. But the view was fabulous. And the company even better. For some reason, no one took pictures.

After dinner, we went to the mall next door and did some shopping.

We said good-bye to Miki and told here we'd meet her the next day.

It was another tiring day. And I slept very well that night.