We visited Washington, DC in the morning today to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. It was, unfortunately, well past peak bloom.
Continue reading “Past Peak Bloom at the Tidal Basin”Past Peak Bloom at the Tidal Basin
A Slow Day in Oita
We enjoyed breakfast and our in-room onsen at the アマネリゾート ガハマ Amane Resort Gahama before going down to Oita in the afternoon. We didn’t do much, mainly visited the AMU Plaza and its rooftop garden as well as the pop-up Super Mario x JR Kyushu shop, before returning to Beppu for an early dinner.
Continue reading “A Slow Day in Oita”Mount Hiei
After waking up at the Courtyard, we headed over to 瑠璃光院 Ruriko-in for its fall special viewing event. We then ascended 比叡山 Mt. Hiei by funicular and aerial tram. Atop the mountain, we visited the ガーデンミュージアム比叡 Garden Museum Hiei and various buildings of 延暦寺 Enryaku-ji. We descended by funicular to the east and returned to Kyoto by train. In the evening, we attended a special night viewing at 智積院 Chishaku-in.
Continue reading “Mount Hiei”Kiyomizu-dera and the Heian-jingu
After waking up at the Courtyard, we headed over to Kiyomizu-dera to see the fall foliage and the special viewing of the garden at Joju-in. We then had gyukatsu for lunch and headed over to Heian-jingu to take a look around the shrine and garden. We ended the day with excellent parfaits at Gion Tsujiri before walking back to the hotel via Nishiki Market.
Continue reading “Kiyomizu-dera and the Heian-jingu”From Dulles to Kyoto
We flew from Dulles to Haneda on United, arriving in the late afternoon. We went right to Shinagawa Station to take the Shinkansen over to Kyoto. We then checked into the Courtyard, which just opened in August, and ended the long travel day with Tsukemen for dinner.
Continue reading “From Dulles to Kyoto”