We are on our way to the airport.  The plane will take off around  9 a.m. this morning.  It is off to Germany where we will catch 
the next flight to Japan.  We will be in Kyoto, Japan by morning.   Long flight ahead of us :)  I am going to try and get some sleep (finally).

We took a long flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Osaka, Japan.  It was an INCREDIBLE airplane!  They even had HIGH SPEED INTERNET!  :)  
I got to chat with Joey for about 20 minutes.   That was kewl.  First time I had ever been on an airplane with high speed!  
I fell asleep pretty fast.  I had only slept two hours the night before and two hours the night before that.  Jet lag is kicking my butt! 
I am having a great time.

No internet here in Kyoto.  I will just keep a journal and upload photos later!  

We took the train from Osaka to Kyoto!  It took about an hour to get here.  There are tens of thousands of houses 
along the way.  I have never seen so many dwellings in such a small space.   There was no room between the houses at all.  I am not 
sure what the population of Osaka is.  I will have to look it up later.  It must be large though from the number of apartments and houses.
It was an interesting train ride!  

It is spring here.  Same as in the United States.  There are a lot more flowers blooming here and trees than in Western Kentucky.  
I would imagine, that when I return home, there will be plenty of trees blooming.  The Dog Wood Festival should be beginning about
the time I arrive home.

So anyway I am excited to be here.  Looking forward to seeing the sights and sounds of Kyoto.

This is the line for the taxi - Kyoto :)

We have arrived at the Inn we will be staying at, in Kyoto,
for the next three days. Beautiful gardens surround this place.  
It is a wonderful location...in the hills.

The place we are staying is called Yoshida Sanso.  It is located on a beautiful hillside.  It is actually right on
Mount Yoshida.  A very quiet area of the city of Kyoto.  The rooms are for accommodations and they also
have a lot of private tea gatherings.  The place is surrounded by beautiful landscaped gardens.

The view looking out of the Tea Room.  Peaceful.

Lot of spring flowers around Kyoto

You can see the Cherry blossoms in the background

These ladies were serving Green Tea to us.  It actually tastes better than
it sounds.  ;)

This is me in front of one of the many Cherry Trees that are in full bloom.  
Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow.  It has rained most of today. 
We even had thunderstorms!  

SPRING IN JAPAN!

This is a shrine near one of the temples that we stumbled across in Kyoto.
This one is actually not too far from the hotel.

Walking up to the temple...beautiful scenery.

A woman dances in the temple for the people visiting.

This is what our rooms look like here in Kyoto.  Zen comes to mind!  :)  We will be here 
until Wednesday.  Then it is on to Tokyo.

David and I spent the late morning and most of the afternoon walking around.  We explored some of the back alleys!  It was
raining the entire time.  We even had thunderstorms.  By the time we walked back to the place we are staying we were both
soaked to the bone.  :)  My kind of weather!!!!!!  I had a lot of fun just looking in the little shops and eating with chop sticks.

The people are wonderful...everywhere we go for that matter.  The people of Japan are extremely polite.   
I think the more you travel the more you find yourself hating war and the like.  It seems to me that people are basically the 
same - no matter where you go.