OK, so now I'm up to Saturday, June 17, 2006. The sun rose as I awoke and I got a beautiful picture of it. A bunch of us met in the lobby at 5:00 a.m. so that we would have plenty of time to get to the train station and get on the 6:00 a.m. train to Kyoto. It was a very pleasant train ride and great company. The bullet train was VERY cool!

Once we arrived in Kyoto, I split off from the group and met Kozue Nagasaka. Kozue lived in Buffalo for six months and left the day before I found out I received this award. So, we never met while she was in Buffalo. Kozue was nice enough to take time out from her life to show me around. She even developed the following itinerary:

Welcome, Elissa!
Kyoto Cycling Tour
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Itinerary(tentative)

8:16 Meet Kozue at Kyoto station on the platform
Take a city bus to Kinkakuji (220 JPY)
9:00 Rent bikes (1,000 - 1,300JPY for one day)
Kinkaku-ji Temple (500 JPY)
10:00 Ryoan-ji Temple (500 JPY)
11:00 Leave northwest area and head for eastern area
11:30 Lunch at Homac de Paradis in Doshisha University
12:45 Ginkaku-ji Temple (500 JPY)
13:30 Walk down “Philosopher’s Walk”
13:45 Nanzen-ji Temple (have tea ceremony!?) (500 JPY)
15:00 pass through Big Shrine Gate of Heian Jingu Shrine
Kyoto Handicraft Center
16:00 Sanju-sangen-do (600 JPY)
17:00 Kiyomizu-dera Temple (300 JPY)
18:00 Leave Kiyomizu area
18:30 Return bikes near Nishiki market
19:00 Dinner at Mamecha (enjoy Kyoto style dinning)
20:30 Kodai-ji Temple (if possible) (600 JPY)
21:00 take a cab
21:30 Kyoto station
21:32 Leave for Tokyo by Train

We rode our bike's down the Philsopher's Path. It started pouring on the way from Nanzen-ji Temple to the Heian Jingu Shrine and the Kyoto Handicraft Center. I was soaked to the bone. Luckily, I have very fast drying clothes on for the trip.

While at Kodai-ji temple, I rang a bell in a shrine dedicated to the safety of children (and wished that for my own).

I'm going to post just a few of the great sites I saw in Kyoto right now - to give you a taste of its beauty.

At the end of the evening, we had a great meal at a typical Kyoto restaurant. I ended the day sore, but content and took the last train back to Tokyo.

Just one other thing. I wanted to make a comment on just how important it is to prepare. You can see from the top picture how prepared I was for the trip. I bought a laptop back pack for the trip. I knew it was the rainy season, so I was lucky to find one with a rain cover. I also brought a light weight umbrella. Finally, I improvised and used a bag to cover my camera waist bag. I got wet (riding the bike) but my important belongings were safe and dry! I also knew it might rain, so I wore fast drying clothes.

Remember kids, preparation makes for a smooth trip! :-)