Letter from Kyoto

Just before we left Guangzhou to move to Abu Dhabi we had air miles to use up and having never been to Japan decided to head there for 5 days – oh my goodness, we just loved it. We flew to Osaka and travelled up to Kyoto and based ourselves in a little ryokan and spent our days pottering about, taking busses, visiting temples, sampling the food and soaking up how beautiful and peaceful it was compared to China!!!

The pics/captions are from our old site

August ’07, holiday to Japan In August we went off for 5 nights to Kyoto Japan, a first trip to Japan for all of us! We loved it there, it was so refreshing compared to China. People were quite reserved and didn’t come up and prod Saffron and stick their phone cameras in her face. We did a couple of days just pottering down quaint backstreets and popping in and out of old and new temples and trying out lots of different foods. And it was so clean, and unpolluted and really quite easy to get around. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable trip!

Tommy and Saffron at GZ airport Kyoto station – very impressive building amazing sunsets over the moutains surrounding Kyoto We took a gorgeous walk along a little river, popping in to ancient temples along the way and spotted 2 fishing teddies! we tried lots of Japanese food Japanese sweets and other delicacies Saffy eats sushi! and shaved ice deserts – yummeeeee – no food colourings, honest! lanterns at shrines and temples old street along the riverside Saffron trying out Japanese Guinness at an Irish Pub on Daddy’s birthday We went on a steam train And played with model trains	our little backpacker! First temple temple door carving – a breastfeeding dragon! We saw several Geisha and apprentice Geisha, Maiko – some happy to smile for the tourists, some not so! At the Golden temple Arrival back in Guangzhou again.	Saffron trying out the chair on the floor in our hotel room! We stayed in a basic Japanese place, with tatami mats and futons. eating Japanese curry! a break from temple hopping rows of Buddha’s wearing bibs! Tommy and Saffy at an ancient brothel! Saffron ringing the temple bell