Ninjacat123 and family travel to Tokyo and Kyoto - LIVE land trip June 28 to July 7, 2024!!​🗾​

[Imgma23]

5 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Now we are back at the hotel and getting more spa time!

The pics are great! I love you all at the tea ceremony! 

[ninjacat123]

13 hours ago, Imgma23 said:

The pics are great! I love you all at the tea ceremony! 

It was so much fun!! I couldn’t imagine wearing a kimono all day. So tight!😜

[ninjacat123]

This morning after another delicious hotel breakfast. Aki picked us up and took us to Arishiyama Bamboo Forest. Here’s a posing pic in Aki’s car🤣

[ninjacat123]

The bamboo forest was awesome!

[ninjacat123]

We also got to experience Tenryugi-temple ! A World Heritage site😁p

[ninjacat123]

So beautiful!!

[ninjacat123]

Walked to the Katsura river!

[ninjacat123]

Then lunch! I had cold ramen noodles. Sat at a low table. Very tasty!

[ninjacat123]

More lunch pics😄

[ninjacat123]

Then we had reservations at Katsura Imperial Villa. Aki took care of it. So beautiful and informative. Our guide was great!

[ninjacat123]

It’s so crazy hot here in Kyoto (92 feels like 100) we have been downing bottles of water which there are dispensing machines all over. I was very happy to have a cold sake at lunch🍶

[ninjacat123]

After our tour, Aki drove us to Fushimi-inari. Very dramatic!!

[ninjacat123]

Aki even double parked his car at Kyoto Station (girls stayed inside) and helped us get bullet train tickets for tomorrow. 

[ninjacat123]

It felt sad saying goodbye to Aki at our hotel, knowing he was such an important part of our time here in Japan. We were so fortunate to have him in our corner. He says he will be coming to SC this November for business and we insisted that we would meet him and show him around.👍

Edited July 5 by ninjacat123

[ninjacat123]

We spent some time in the onsen then cleaned up for a CB little dinner. We asked front desk about Japanese curry and they suggested this place. Took a cab because we didn’t want to do a sweaty 10 minute walk🥵

[ninjacat123]

A bit like a Japanese Waffle House. Nothing special but we got curry.

[ninjacat123]

The girls wanted ice cream so we stopped at this cute shop on the way back to the hotel

[ninjacat123]

Saw at least four places on the way back that would have been more interesting for dinner. Le sigh.

[ninjacat123]

Then we saw this river with frogs serenading us.😍

[ninjacat123]

Sky wanted to do the onsen again so I did a session in the massage chair. We want to try the included nightly ramen🍜

[ninjacat123]

From 9:00 to 11:00, the hotel has free ramen in the breakfast room. A soy based broth, noodles and green onion. Very light but a nice finish to the day. 

[ninjacat123]

Checking out of this lovely hotel tomorrow and taking the bullet train to Nagoya so we can see Ghibli Park!!

[cellfree]

On 7/4/2024 at 3:37 AM, ninjacat123 said:

After the lesson we took pics in the garden.

Looking good with that umbrella Craig!

[ninjacat123]

28 minutes ago, cellfree said:

Looking good with that umbrella Craig!

If any guy could carry it off, it’s my Craig😁👍

[JaneRetired]

13 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

We also got to experience Tenryugi-temple ! A World Heritage site😁p

Ahhhh <3. We spent a week before a 2019 Kobe/Kamchatka/Kodiak cruise kicking off our first year of retirement. The Bullet train to Tokyo and Kyoto from Osaka were mindblowing and bucket list worthy! Thanks for the trip down memory lane 🙂 The family photos are just adorable, too!!