The next morning, I decided to record us in our kimonos as we prepared to go to our baths and when we returned, it was time for breakfast and the realization that we would be moving on.

We walked towards the Imperial Palace stopping to note a drink machine and a yield sign before I recorded this sign as a marker for where we had to turn on our return with this arrow pointing the way before we entered the palace grounds and recorded the details as we noted the long entryway through the garden and the many smaller structures and beautiful trees interspersed with buildings and monuments and then more temple like buildings and trees and other residences trees residences and Suzanne walking in the heat so that we realized we needed water before seeing the infected tree

As Americans, we were able to gain same day access to the Palace itself and so we waited for the gates to open and when they did, we entered and made our way through the buildings

and rooms with tatami noting that the red lines between mats made the room for people of lower rank as our guide led us to buildings

as Suzanne was engaged with her words and we passed a shrine and then some freshly raked gravel before the remarkable buildings

gave way to gardens

and after getting back to buildings we saw more gardens before making our way towards the exit and observing workers keeping up the remarkable grounds even as we departed and began the walk down the long path past this lovely tree to the pond by one of the houses on the palace grounds complete with fish and their own bridge where Suzanne and then I posed before we took one last look at the house and wondered if the turtle was real or made from stone as we'd seen in other gardens. We left the grounds by this gate and made our way back to the ryokan passing this store which made me wonder what an optional shop is.

This was the day that we moved and so we made our way to the Miyako Hotel at the train station and because we couldn't check in, we hung out in the train station and tried to find things where the information center was not helpful (though very friendly). We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant in the train station where this was the menu and this was the beer we had as Suzanne's meal came

but it took 15 minutes for my pizza to arrive. We noted this clever display on the way back to the hotel where we could settle in.

Once settled, we decided to do some exploring. The concierge at the hotel gave us a lesson in Kyoto buses and we began our adventure at platform D1 waiting for the 100 bus to the Ginkaku Temple (the Silver Pavilion) and once off the bus, we were at the temple recording the rules as we made our way in having passed up this hill with all of its shops. This temple had raked sand around a single rock which was very spiritual as was the cone of sand we saw there as well as the garden and the shrine where the bell could be rung. The conical sand was quite impressive as Suzanne observed and you can imagine their concern about interference with both sand gardens as we got closer to the raked garden and then made our way to the gardens and into the forest above looking back at the sand gardens and down at the fish in the pond and the waterfall in the distance to which had been added a different kind of sculpture though we suspect the coins caused more harm than good. We marched on up the hill with Suzanne in the lead and enjoyed the views of the temple grounds and of the city below sculpture and special tree about which this story is told and moss went along with this failed attempt to capture one of the local crows in flight but I did catch him when he landed and after this warped tree caught another crow walking by as we learned how the roof was made (and about the famous bamboo nails) which probably did not come from this grove. After capturing a few shots of this flower in bloom we read the reasons why this is a world heritage site and found our way to the start of philosopher's walk where we saw the occasional fish and hydrangeas of various colors before coming to one of the bridges across the canal and getting a view downstream noting that there were temples and shrines all along the way not to mention the obligatory phone booth photo before we came across a shrine that had to be explored because of its base and interesting animal pieces and so we passed through the entry to the shrine itself where animals stood guard and there was a bell to ring in the religious process before Suzanne led the way to the decorated pavilion and on our way out we recorded the tale of the shrine before admiring a turtle in the canal along philosopher's walk and wondering if it was real (I still say it wasn't) and then recording a license plate before heading back into town and finding a bar where we could order this gin and tonic and this martini not to mention nuts and cheese elegantly prepared and to have this picture of us taken by the friendly bar tender before we found our way to the river for a pleasant night time walk where we were joined by this bird and then after the bus ride to the station, we came to the aqua fantasy which was fireworks made of water which responded to the music being played