Kyoto with Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came to visit us at the perfect time. Not only were the blossoms in bloom and the weather was beautiful, but we all needed a vacation. It was 3 months since Jake left for the states and we were all getting a bit stir crazy. Also it was so good for me and the kids to spend time with my parents. My kids love my parents and enjoyed all the extra attention. When my parents first arrived we had a few days around home to help them get used to the time change. We took my parents to a pagoda temple near our house, and the kids were so excited to be the tour guides. They even took us on a tour through the cemetary.

We also decided to go to Showa park since the sakura were just starting to bloom. The older kids were in school, but we took Kai and Jane with us. It was a lovely day and the flowers were beautiful. We even found some black flowers!

On Wednesday we took the shinkansen to Kyoto. It was my first time boing in Tokyo station since Japan opened up for tourists, and needless to say I was a bit overwhelmend by how busy/big/and loud everything was (I got turned around quite a few times). I then also didn't realize how to purchase tickets for the shinkansen and had a wonderful tour guide help me navigate the purchase (from now on I will always buy tickets ahead of time). But we made it to Kyoto and the train ride went smoothly. In Kyoto we made it to our hotel and had a little time to relax at the imperial palace park. Then we ate dinner at a fun little one lady run restaurant. We had the most delicious curry udon and the kids got to drink grape juice out of goblets. Thursday we went to Fushimi Inari and took a side trail to our own secret bamboo forest. We had it all to ourselves. We walked far enough along the path until we found a small temple, which was fun to explore on our own. We were really glad we took the side trail when we got back to the main trail and it was already bustling. It started to rain pretty good, but we found a way to make lunch out of the street food around there. The melon mochi I got was so yummy!! After that we tried to go up Kyoto tower, but it was closed. So, I decided to take Jane and Kai back to the hotel while the older three went to a market with Grandma and Grandpa.

Friday Grandma and Grandpa found a really fun spot to explore on the river where they had stepping stones across it. The kids loved it so much they didn't want to leave, so it was a really good find by my parents. So we eventually convinced the kids to keep going and we headed to Kyoto Botanical garden. It was beautiful, had a wonderful greenhouse, a playground, a bonzai garden, and we got to eat ice cream under a huge sakura tree. The greenhouse had some unique plants, including ones that looked just like lips and some other we thought looked like ghosts. And the playground had a little libraries where the books were helpd in little mushrooms (so cute). For dinner my parents had a date night and I took the kids to KFC, so it was a win for everyone. That night Pace and Grant did a speacial outing with Grandma and Grandpa (and this time it was open!), and they came back super excited to tell me all about it.

Saturday was our last full day in Kyoto. And it was wonderful. We decided to check out the Gion District. We started out near Yasaka-jinja Shrine, wher there just happened to be a traditional marriage ceremony going on. It was interesting to see their customs and see similarities and differences with my own marriage. We kept going and explored the beautiful gardens. Then we walked over to Hokan-ji, one of the famous pagodas. But before we got there we found Yasaka Koshindo, a small temple with colorful prayer balls. The kids loved it. Then we bought candy strawberries and cheese 10 cent pancakes for a snack and enjoyed the pagoda. We then checked out the shops until about 11, when the crowds poured in. It was just too crowded. My dad found a delicious dumpling restaurant. Everything was delicious except for some of the rainbow soup dumplings the kidds all ordered (they looked beautiful, but just didn't compare to the other yummy dumplings). After we went back to the Imperial Palace park, where Pace accidently set off the alarm by jumping over the small mote around the outside of the palace. We had a good laugh about that. And we enjoyed the afternoon at the park, and Grandma was happy to push the kids on the swing the whole time.

Our train ride back to Tokyo went a lot smoother since we were more experienced. We made some really good memories in Kyoto and we did a lot of new things that we hadn't done on our first trip. It felt all new to us. So a big thank you to my parents for making this trip possible and having fun with us. Added bonus, we came home to the sakura on base in full bloom.