okay…I’m on the trip of a lifetime! I added Cloud storage to my phone ’cause I know that I am going to take a whole lotta pictures, which I did. Had our amazing breakfast buffet at the hotel and we usually went back upstairs to do whatever and then meet at our spot. Wellllllllll I took my phone out of my pocket for the moment, took care of what I had to do and left the building. Didn’t realize till we arrived at our first stop that I was without it! Do you realize how much we depend on these things and to be without it…OMG!

My awesome travel buddies, knowing my dispair, shared their pictures with me for that day. So all the pictures that you see for day 2 in Kyoto were generously shared to me by Mary Alice, Janet, Debby and Pat, a dear BFF. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I think that I failed to say that we are in Kyoto. We started off here and we will end this amazing trip in Kyoto after moving to Mt. Fuji, Tokyo, Okayama, Hiroshima and back to Kyoto. I have to say that Kyoto, well besides Fujiyama was my favorite!

We arrived at our first stop; Saga Arashiyama and Tenryu-Temple, Buddhist Temple as Pat explained it to me. If it was Shinto, then it was a shrine.

We removed our shoes and were quickly in awe at the beauty of it all. There were tatami mats all over for you to walk on…but I always love a reason to be shoeless! This is Midori and Mary Alice and they are the ones that put together this amazing “embroidery tour” which I never wanted it to end!

the gardener was hard at work! He had an incense pot burning and I would later learn it was to keep mosquitos away.

This was our walk on the way to the Bamboo Street. So peaceful and beautiful!

This is a little bamboo shoot and I was told that…

just overnight it could grow to this height!

This is a lot of our group here on the left.

and this was just our morning! we would walk into town and do a bit of shopping on our way to a very Japanese lunch. Then Midori had a very special afternoon planned for us, which I will save for next time. Just too many pictures to get it all in one post!

so for now I will say…sayonara