Kyoto day 1

For the 3-day weekend in February we decided to take a bit of a vacation. We took a bullet train to the former capital of Japan, Kyoto. There is so much to see and do in Kyoto but we really only focused on accomplishing one thing a day which is about the max you can do with 3 small children. And the main purpose of our trip was to experience the high-speed train, so once we got to our destination we were already feeling accomplished! Our hotel was right across the street from the Kyoto station, and it was called The New Miyako. Across the street to the side of that was a big AEON mall, which I visited at least once a day.

We caught the Shinkansen (high-speed train) in Yokohama and we really wanted to make sure we were there with plenty of time since we had to switch train lines in Yokohama from JR to the subway system (which we had to ask help for). This means that we left about 2 1/2 hours before our train was scheduled to leave. We did end up with a little extra time but we just bought some coffee and donuts.
Once on the train we were pleasantly surprised at how much room we had. We had only purchased 3 seats since Abby and Tristan were free but I was worried we would be cramped. We had so much leg room and the seats were plenty spacious enough for all of us. After the first few stops the train thinned out and we could also move into some empty seats.
Jamie wanted to play his DS away from Tristan so he chose the floor.

Later Abby took up residence on the floor:
Can you see how roomy it is?


After checking into the hotel, we headed out to find the Shrine with the 10,000 tori gates. First we had to ride another train (or was it two?).

The tori gate that lets you know you're at a shrine (and not a temple):


This particular shrine has 10,000 of these gates that lead a path up to the top of a small mountain. Most gates have writing on them, letting you know (if you read Japanese) who (or what company) sponsored each gate (they are replaced at least once every ten years).
There were several places where miniature gates were placed on small alters, I'm not sure what that symbolized.
You could purchase the mini tori gates and I was thinking of getting one (for decoration) but they were not cheap.

We did not walk thru the whole trail, probably only a 1/4 of the way but it was quite the sight to see!
On our way back we found a small neighborhood park with a concrete slide!
And we even went out of our way to see the Nintendo building!