Day 6: Nikko & Kyoto

This morning we had another feast for breakfast and then hiked by the river in the area surrounding our Ryokan - everything was so beautiful. There were paths, bridges, waterfalls and even a graveyard and temple. We left by bus over a very treacherous elevated path that was often reduced to one lane. We are sure that neither Signe or Anita would have approved. The scenery was amazing on the trip. They are in the process of building an amazing train track through the mountains that soars across the mountains - I`m sure it will be quite a tourist attraction in a few years - lots of tunnels and bridges over rivers.

Nikko was the half way point between our hotel and Tokyo and is Japan's version of St. Jacobs. It was highly recommended to us by a variety of travellers we consulted while planning our trip. We were dissapointed that due to timing, we weren`t able to include it in our itinerary. Fortunately, we had a few hours to spare en route to Kyoto so we managed to have a great lunch and make our way to the most important temple in town. The temple was very interesting. The grounds were expansive and the carvings were so detailed and intracite. The grounds were home to huge redwood like trees, mossy trails, and a 5 level pagoda!

Later that afternoon, we headed to Kyoto. 5hrs later by bullet train we arrived at the Westin in Kyoto. Thanks to Steve's days on the road with PwC he is a gold member at all starwood properties ~ that combined with his boyish good looks and unending charm resulted in us avoiding a typically small sized japanese hotel room. We were upgraded to a luxury suite. While we have been upgraded many times before, this is a different story. Our room is a similar size to our condo with two huge flat screens, a dressing area, monster bathroom and bedroom. We have our own surround sound system, fax machine, etc..... Its ridiculous. We have been thoroughly enjoying it. We had a great night sleep in our king size bed (an especially appreciated ammenity given our prior night spent on bean bag pillows on the floor).

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