Violet's Trip Journal

Day One

We arrived at the airport on Thursday morning. All of us settled into the plane & we were soon on our way to Kyoto,Japan. We checked in to the Four Seasons hotel in the afternoon. After unpacking, we were off to our first gyoen (Imperial garden, thanks to my sweetheart, Scott for the help on the Japanese this trip wouldn't be possible without him!), the lovely Kyoto Imperial Garden. A pretty stream , rocks & bridges made this the ideal place to start our tour of  traditional Japanese Gardens. Next we took off on our tour bus to the Anraku-ji Temple Garden. You should see the azaleas there. They are absolutely breathtaking. The final gaaden ( Japanese for garden) we visited that day was the Daikakuji Temple Osawa-no-ike Pond Garden or the teiko (garden pond, hey this Japanese thing is easy once you get the hang of it!) Some of the waterlillies were still in bloom there & I got pictures for mom :-)! We then went to Minokichi Honten Takeshigero for dinner & enjoyed traditional Koyoto food. We then retired to our hotel for the night

 
 

We woke up bright & after breakfast, headed over to The picture garden. The picture garden is a unique outdoor art museum. The artwork is beautiful. The sunlight adds a pretty touch as you look at each picture & stroll through each path. There's even some huge waterfalls to add the touch of water to this unusual museum. Next, we went to the Ikebana (flower arrangement) museum. before visiting the museum, I never knew that the art of flower arranging was so old! Complete with tons of centuries old books, scrolls, & vases this place taught me a lot about one of my favorite hobbies :-)! Next we headed to Daikoku-ya for lunch. The food there was great. My koibito (boyfriend :-)!) was happy that they had sushi there & I was happy about the vegetarian menu since I just recently became a vegetarian :-)! After lunch, our trip was drawing to an end :-(! We returned to our hoteru (hotel) packed up our stuff & headed to the airport!