Kyoto

Ah, spring. The best time of year. The weather is heating up, the flowers are blooming, and as teachers we get spring break. After our adventure to Malapascua in the fall, we decided to take it a little bit easier on the travel side of things and just take a quick jaunt over to Japan.

We decided to explore one of its loveliest cities: Kyoto. The flight was only an hour and half followed by an easy hour-long train ride to the city center. The girls were sorely disappointed with the brevity of the flight as it didn't even allow them enough time to watch Frozen all the way through. Tears dried, however, we found the little Japanese house we rented for the week and explored our surroundings.

The girls loved their "special beds." We all slept on tatami mats on the floor.

Obligatory waving cat photo

Heian Shrine

Bike tour of the city

One of Kyoto's claims to fame is the array of flowering trees that appear in the spring. While we were a bit too early for the real blossom explosion, we were able to find a few.

We ended our time with a lovely and life-changing Kobe beef dinner overlooking some cherry blossoms and headed back home. In all, the trip was a smashing success and we hope to visit our neighbors to the east again soon.

 Sayonara, Japan!