Full Day One - Kyoto

This is Kyoto Station, where the hotel is...along with 2 malls, a million restaurants, couple of grocery stores, etc. So if you look across the station, you'll see about 50 escalators disappearing into the sun...

and at night they turn one section into changing pictures with lasers (see that purple section)...crazy.

And of course you wanted to see the bathroom, right? So you still have your little stool and bowl, along with a fancy-schmancy shower head with 15 sprayers, then you have your tub for the hot soak after washing. Very nice!

This is the view of Kyoto Tower from the Skywalk of the station. I nearly had a panic attack on the OUTSIDE escalator getting here...Tracey, you would no-likey!

So today we did 2 things - Toei Movie Studio (think Universal Studios with Ninjas), where they film all the big Samurai movies in Japan, and the Monkey Park. Today's Sunday, and lots of people were in kimonos, plus I caught this monk...hope that wasn't illegal to take his picture.

This is the monkey park where you hike uphill for about 25 minutes...wait, did I say uphill? I meant up-MOUNTAIN. Nobody had a heat stroke, but I have a funny picture about that to show you tomorrow.

I also have a video of the kids feeding the monkeys (from inside a wire-enclosed building, Mother, no worries), but that involves Youtubing, which isn't working at the moment for some reason.

We actually got my MIL to do a silly Ninja picture at the movie studio!

And lastly, one of the highlights of the day for me was when a group of students came up to us at the movie park and introduced themselves. They pulled out notebooks and asked if they could ask us some questions, then asked where we came from, what our favorite Japanese food, and if they could take a picture with us. Their chaperone took it, then they were off. Cool school project, but wait...why was a class of students at a movie park on a Sunday?