Toei Studio Park

We had one last day in Kyoto before we would depart in the afternoon.

On this day, we decided it would be best for my sister’s family and our family to go our separate ways. We wanted to take Kai to the Toei Kyoto Studio Park, which is primarily geared toward kids, while my sister’s family could tour the former Imperial Palace and other sights that we did not get to the day before.

Toei is a kids’ ninja-version of Universal Studios Park.

The park has a setting of ancient Japan, including streets and buildings of that era.

We saw several shows including one that demonstrated how they film a ninja fight scene.

And went through several attractions including one where you received ninja training.

But Kai’s favorite was the show that featured a ninja water fight that got the audience wet, too.

Early afternoon, we started to head back to the hotel where we had left our luggage. When we got off the local train at Kyoto Station, Kai was antsy to get as much wifi time as he could. So I offered to take him back to the hotel while my wife and father-in-law went to ticket counter to buy the tickets for our train to our next destination, Hiroshima.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Our hotel was right across the street from the station. How hard could it be to get there?

But when we came out of the station, I realized that something was wrong. Nothing looked familiar. I knew we were on the opposite side but finding my way over to the other side was harder than you would think. Kyoto Station is large, and there’s no direct way to cut across.

Kai started loudly moaning that we were lost and he would not have any wifi time. I tried to ask people how to get to the hotel, but they either were not familiar with our hotel or could not understand my poor Japanese. Kai was getting more upset by the second.

I finally found someone at a small shop who looked up the address of our hotel and gave me directions on how to navigate around the train station. We got there to the relief of my wife who was panicking that we were lost.

Kai just wanted to get on his iPad. But when the wifi connection didn’t work, he got upset all over again. I frantically tried to get it working to no avail. And then it was time to go back to the station to catch our train.

It wasn’t until we were settled on board and started watching a video that he finally calmed down.

The hot weather hasn’t bothered him as much as we thought. He has been remarkably patient as we’ve toured many sights.

But the thought of missing wifi time will bring out the worst.

When it comes to the iPad, we have to take the bad with the good.

Touring Kyoto

Our Monday in Kyoto started at our ryokan (Japanese inn) with a traditional Japanese breakfast.

We had ordered a western breakfast for Kai, but he didn’t eat much of it.

To see the sights in Kyoto, we made arrangements to have a jumbo taxi take our crew of eight to several of the most notable sights.

First stop was Ryoanji Temple.

Our taxi driver was also a tour guide who provided explanations at each stop (in Japanese, which my wife translated for everyone).

Ryoanji is most famous for its rock garden. There are 15 stones in the garden, though a person can only see 14 of them from any one vantage point. It was planned so only the Supreme Being above can see all 15 stones.

Next is the beautiful golden pavilion, Kinkaku-ji.

Although you can’t tell from the picture, the place was loaded with visitors. And after walking around the grounds, Kai was getting very cranky and wanted a break to use his iPad.

We thought that it would cause too many difficulties for everyone if we tried to get him to see the next sight, Kiyomizu Temple, so we decided to let him stay in the taxi so everyone could take their time to see the spectacular sight.

My wife volunteered to stay back with Kai, but I wanted her to help translate the explanations for my sister, brother-in-law and nephews, so I stayed in the taxi with Kai while they went to see the temple.

Kai was happy to have some quality time on the iPad.

I am glad that he was so content, because we were locked in the taxi (with the air conditioning on) so it would have been a huge problem if he wanted to get out.

It took nearly two hours before the others returned from seeing the temple and nearby charming streets. That was just in the nick of time as Kai had started to get antsy to see Mom and get some lunch.

After lunch, we went to Sanjsangen Temple:

The main attraction there are the 1.001 golden statues inside the temple. Photographs are not allowed inside.

Our next destination was the Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine.

Among the features are the foxes that are messengers often found in Inari shrines.

However, the main attraction at Inari are the thousands of torii gates of all sizes that line the path.

It was really spectacular, as the gates seemed to go on forever. We turned around and headed back before reaching the end of the path.

We got back in the taxi and made one more quick stop to see one small part of the Nishi Honganji Temple.

And then we got dropped off at the hotel where would spend this second night in Kyoto. The ryokan was really nice, but expensive, and we wanted to save some money. The rooms at the hotel, though, are very tiny, with barely enough room to spread two suitcases out next to the bed. The bathrooms are equally tiny.

For dinner, we went to spot along the Kamagawa River where we could sit outside and enjoy the ambiance. It was a perfect night for outdoor dining; not as steaming hot as it had been a couple days earlier.

Kai has been handling the sightseeing relatively well, certainly much better than we had feared. Some of the keys to success are always having bottles of water handy when walking around in the hot weather, and giving him access to his iPad.

Though the iPad hasn’t been a complete win. He is hooked on a couple apps that require access to the network, and there has been several times when he wanted “five more minutes” at the hotel to do something before he lost the wifi connection. Or he would get upset if we didn’t come back to the hotel early enough to have a lot of wife time before heading out for dinner. I’ve been tempted to cut off his access to those apps. But I think overall, having the iPad has enabled us to do a lot more than we otherwise would have.

On to Kyoto

On Sunday morning, we packed up our bags to go to Kyoto.

But first, we had to walk about a mile from our hotel to get to the rail station where we would catch a local train to take us to Tokyo Station. Walking in this heat is challenging enough, but pulling or carrying a couple pieces of luggage made it an ordeal.

All was good once we were on the shinkansen (bullet train) that would take us to Kyoto in under three hours.

After lunch, our first stop was the Nishijin Textile Center where they make kimonos. We saw a kimono fashion show.

Kai is at that stage in life where anything related to romance or love is yucky. But he seemed smitten with the ladies in kimonos. Afterward he said he fell in love. When I asked with which one, he said all of them.

We then took a look around the textile center. One of the most interesting things was seeing live silkworms.

After that, we took a bus over to the famed Zen temple, Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion), which dates back to the 1400s.

After that, we went over to Nanzen-ji, another Zen Buddhist temple established in 1291.

When we arrived there, Kai seemed to be getting cranky so I was surprised when he eagerly joined me as I went up to the top of the main gate.

We had a great view of the temple.

Kai is getting to be an expert at lighting incense and praying at temples.

We then took a cab to the ryokan (Japanese inn) where we would be staying the night. We had to give Kai his iPad time, but it wasn’t too long. We went to Gion Corner to see a one-hour sampling of 7 Japanese arts: tea ceremony, flower arrangement, koto zither, kyo-mai dance, gagaku court music, kyogen (comic) theater, and bunraku (Japanese puppet theater).

As the performance started, Kai was got very frustrated when he could not see as tall people were sitting in front of us. He started to express his frustrations loudly so my wife and father-in-law took him to a spot in the back where he could stand up and see everything, and relax in between the various arts.

I was wondering if he would enjoy any of the performances, but it seems like he actually enjoyed some of it, especially the comedy portion.

After that, we went back to the ryokan. I introduced my nephews to the Japanese bath. Then we had dinner dressed in our yukatas (casual kimono) that are provided during our stay.

Dinner was the traditional Kyoto kaiseki, a lavish, multi-course feast with highly refined artistic presentation consisting of about ten different small dishes.

That night, we slept on the floor on futons that are laid out over tatami mats.