Sunday in Japan... Temples and Sushi

What a great day to start off the trip! Most of us had a decent night of sleep after yesterdays travel marathon and this morning the hardest decision anybody had to make was whether the wanted strawberry jam or orange marmalade spread on their breakfast roll. The food served at the hotel was excellent and once finished we had a perfect sacrament meeting (reverent, spiritual, and brief) before catching our tour bus to see the sites around Kyoto, Japan.

Kyoto seems to be a nice, clean, modest city, about the size of Salt Lake with some rolling hills surrounding the area. It’s a religious center and we spent most the day visiting various Buddhist temples and shrines. The first place we visit was an enormous wooden structure (supposedly the longest all-wood building in the world). Inside we saw 1001 gold plated statues guarded by some freaky mean looking Buddhist deity. Afterwards we all gathered together for a group picture and John McPhie won the hearts of a dozen or so school girls by posing like the super-hero we all know he really is (John spent about 10 minutes signing autographs for the dazzled Japanese kids afterwards).

Our afternoon was spent temple hopping all around Kyoto and waving to hordes of Japanese school kids who loved to flash us the two-fingered peace sign. We visit the Kiyomizu-dera temple up on a hillside and browsed through a cool market place on the way down to the bus. Lunch today was fantastic, we enjoyed traditional Japanese food and had to cook up our own steak on a sterno fryer… a little bit like cooking up fondue… all while sitting indian-style on the floor. Most everyone enjoyed our lunch and it may have been the highlight of the day.

Also this afternoon we made a visit to Nijo castle and walked through the never-ending maze of dark hallways with squeaky floor… a little bit like a spook alley or a first-person-shooter video game. The final place we visited was the Golden Pavilion temple named Kinkaku-ji– a beautiful structure with some lush gardens surrounding. We were lucky the weather cooperated perfectly today - overcast and cool with no rain.

Tonight we all met up for dinner… but then split up into several factions based on our preference and willingness to have sushi for dinner. Some went looking for a McDonalds… some made it to the top of the Kyoto tower… while others found some good sushi in a nearby mall. But certainly the bravery award for the day goes to Shayne Howell who, after finishing off his sushi, devoured a heaping spoonful of wasabi to win a bet for 2500 yen.