Amy and Madhu in Japan

Day 6 it was raining, but we found ourselves, along with every other tourist at the Golden Pavilion first thing in the morning. The Golden Pavilion, which is the Kinkaku-ji temple, is a very beautiful temple covered in gold leaf, that sits next to a pond on a hillside. The visit involves a short walk through a nice garden. Unlike some of the other temples we visited, this one can be seen in a fairly short amount of time, but is still worth the visit.   After Kinkaku-ji, we took a cab across town to do the Lonely Planet Southern Higashiyama walking tour. It's about a four hour tour that takes you through a few temples and a really beautiful part of Kyoto. It was recommended by Akash and Nicole and we really enjoyed it. We started at the Kiyomizu-dera temple, which is a pretty temple nestled at the top of a hill with a view of the city, and a large, three story pagoda. To get to the temple you walk up an incredibly crowded, touristy street full of shopping selling mochi ...

We started Day 5 by heading to the city of Nara which is about 45 minutes away by train. The town is well know for its wild deer population that is fairly tame. It's also the old capitol of Japan. Vendors sell deer cookies that you can feed the deer, and they aren't shy about trying to pick your pockets for more cookies. Some of the deer will bow for you but only if you have a cookie. No cookie, no bow!!         Our first stop was Isui-en gardens which was built in the 1600s.        Our second stop was Todai-ji temple which was huge and breathtaking and includes a massive Buddha statue.              We decided to try our luck with some train sushi by the station and did indeed get lucky. If you're unfamiliar with train sushi, the chefs prepare small portions of nigiri, sushi, and sashimi, and place it on different colored plates. The plate colors determine the price. You can grab plates off the trai...