Trip to Japan Day 2

Our second day in Japan was a little more laid back than the first.  We started out the day with a stroll through Imperial Palace Park, where the palace used by the emperor when the capital was in Kyoto is.  We couldn't see the palace since it is closed on Sundays but we had a nice walk through the grounds.  

You can see the gates to the palace in the background. 

Some pretty summer flowers in the park. 

 After a nice walk in the park, we headed to church.  It was even within walking distance from our hotel and the park.

Church.  Even showing up in shorts, t-shirts, and cameras, we were excitedly greeted by at least 8 people and welcomed to the ward.  Not knowing a word of Japanese, I guess I felt a little of what Cliff gets every Sunday.  However, it was so obvious that each speaker in church was testifying of Jesus Christ.  It always amazes me how Christ's church is the same wherever you go and that no matter the language spoken, the language of the spirit is universal.  We loved visiting this ward. 

 We decided Sunday was the perfect day to enjoy the bamboo forest.  We were hoping that it would be a step up from the "bamboos garden" at our arboretum and we were not disappointed in the slightest.

 Then we headed to check out the golden pavilion at Kinkaku-ji temple.  We were disappointed when the "silver pavilion" the day before was really just a regular wooden pavilion but this one was plated in enough real gold to make up for that.

Then we headed to Nijo-jo, the shogun's palace.  It was a huge palace that they actually let you go inside (which isn't very common).  We were able to get a much better view of some of the wooden door paintings and got to learn some facts about all the body guards they had hiding in the closets with red tassels, where the shogun met with the different samurai and some other cool things.  

The front of Nijo-jo Castle 

Nijo-jo has some of the most amazing landscape gardens.

One of the gates of Nijo-jo

At night time we walked around some streets with lots of shops and things to look for some dinner.I had this adorable penguin doughnut. (Japan has such cute things)

Walking street all lit up with lanterns at night.

Why yes, of course the hotel provided us with matching complimentary robes.