As you can see from the picture above, these temples buildings are huge. There are shops and restaurants all along the street leading up to the temples and shrines. We got an early start today as we wanted to take advantage of the free shuttle into town. It left the hotel at 9:50! Goodness that is early for us retired folks. We took a bus to the temple area and it let us off a few blocks away. There was a cool shop that we stopped in and picked up a few items, coasters, a spoon, a handkerchief and an pendant. Then we walked through the temple complex. We saw young kids walking around with clipboards and we knew what this meant. These kids were out practicing their English. We had talked with junior high kids way back in 2014 when we were first in Japan. So we stopped and talked with one group, then another group and then a third. They were in groups of three and four and invariably there was one kid too shy to say anything. One kid was the brave one but not necessarily the one with the best English, so sometimes this one needed prompting. We ducked down a side street and had some time to just enjoy the neighborhood. Then we found a bench and ate our lunch. As we were headed off to another area I heard the "hello, hello, helloooo" of another group. This time I was mobbed with seven or eight kids around me. Leslie was some ways away and she could see them laughing and giggling. My fourth English practice session was my last so we stayed to the exterior of the grounds after that. We walked to the Art Museum after that.
Leftovers from the Olympic games
Large wooden lanterns
In the shop
A surfing rabbit
The shopkeeper carefully folded the package
Many older buildings in the center square
These roses were huge
An odd decoration
A sundial?
More large wooden lanterns
Very crowded
Bahama bulls
The monks here have very fancy robes
Still wearing the sandals of torture
Squid or noodles?
Fancy wooden gate
A baby loving deity
A huge incense censor
Red hats are all the style
Everyone is wearing them
From this angle it looks like a new mom with her baby
A fancy type of prayer
Feathery
This gate is so tall
Ripped beast!
Giant wood carvings
All the kids in white hats were out practicing their English
Leslie is so patient
The chicken wire would be better if it were painted black
The three faced statue
Nice beard
My first group
Do not touch the dog!
Next time we will have to try the Oyaki
Time for a nose job
Gilded beauty
Her comes the senior council
Another huge bloom
Enter to a peaceful oasis
The Dragon!
This one seems to be new
Kobe Beef!
Rows of red hats
I get the hats, there are lots of pigeons, but why the bibs?
Everywhere you look there are huge temple buildings
The name for Zenkoji Temple
Lots of key chains
Lots of very old trees, some have seen better days
One of the English Teachers
Smoke is rising from a huge incense burner
It sure smelled good
A nice grove of trees right next tot he temple
The Brown Eared Bulbul in full squeak mode. The call of this bird sounded like a puppy with a squeaky toy in its mouth
Another huge building
We are loving Japan
Cuteness for all the cows
What a tree this must have been
It has been 1 year and 360 days since we began our Migration
