Kyoto now!

Any Bad Religion fans out there to get the title reference?  I'll be highly impressed if there are!

I visited Kyoto with my sister back in September of 2011 but Jason had never been.  I thought it was important he see the historical city, plus it's super easy to visit Hiroshima & Kyoto in the same weekend and I really couldn't leave Japan without a trip to Hiroshima.  So we gathered some friends and off we went over Memorial Day weekend. 

 We spent 2.5 days in Kyoto and about a day in Hiroshima which I already blogged about last month.  I'm finally getting around to blogging about Kyoto and our side trip to Miyajima Island from Hiroshima.

Jason was thrilled that buses are the cheapest and most convenient form of transportation in Kyoto, he loves riding the bus.

Our first stop, Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion.

I think I've said this before but I could spend days in this location.  The beauty takes my breath away every time I'm there.  It's definitely one of my favorite sites in Japan.

From there we headed to Gion to find some dinner and found a couple Maiko (apprentice Geisha) instead.  

Day 2 started at Fishimi Inari Shrine

We have the best friends!

This shrine is famous for its torii.

There were lots of Japanese girls dressed up in their summer kimonos that are made of a lightweight fabric and called yukatas.  

Usually in Japan people ignore us but that weekend we had numerous people approach us wanting to speak English with us.

I love this photo.  It is a perfect capture of my husband.  He had 100's of children waving at him from across the way.  He's such an outgoing goofball and I love it!

These girls simply wanted to have their photo taken with me.  I will never know why but I was happy to indulge them.

We had dinner at a rooftop beer garden followed by drinks and karaoke at an izakaya.

Day 3 we spent in Hiroshima then on our 4th day we headed to an island near Hiroshima, Miyajima, that is known for a torii that appears to be floating in the water during the high tide.

 I've wanted to visit this Japanese icon since before we even arrived here and I'm so glad I was finally about to make it out there.

There are lots of wild deer that roam the island and what trip would be complete without my husband tempting fate.  Luckily the deer only bit the leaf and not him.

We had a great weekend with great friends.  With this trip on the books, I can officially leave Japan with zero regrets!