Kyoto Sightseeing Part One

While Mom and Dad were here, we took a trip to Kyoto. This gave me the chance to ride the bullet train for the first time, which was pretty cool, and of course there was the joy of seeing Kyoto. We stayed in a Japanese style hotel that was within walking distance of a lot of the sights, so on our first morning there, we set off for a walking tour.

First stop was a Budhist temple devoted to statues of various gods. It's one of the longest buildings in Japan. Inside, of course, there was no pictures allowed inside where all the statues are, but outside looked like this.

From there we went to the home of a famous potter, which was supposed to be a good example of a traditional Japanese home. Unfortunately, it's tucked away in the middle of an otherwise un-touristy neighborhood and really hard to find. Fortunately, it's in Japan, so we asked some nice lady on the street how close we were, and she literally walked us there.

The first interesting feature of the house was the picture policy. I asked the lady at the front desk if I could take pictures. She asked me to sign in, giving my name, address, and purpose (hobby) and then I was allowed to snap away. It was worth the effort.
Here's the main central room:

Here's one of the kilns out back:

And here's the other kiln:

The house was incredibly beautiful and very Japanese:

From there, we headed on to find a shrine that was recommended to us by pretty much everyone we talked to before we went: Kiyomizu. Stay tuned.