Tuesday, April 23
This was one VERY LONG day!
We had a leisurely morning as our flight leaving Osaka was not until 8:45 PM. We decided that we would begin our day with a very long walk up along the Kamo River, which has really nice paths on both riverbanks, below street level, which minimizes the traffic noise. The weather today was warm and humid.
As we reached the point where we needed to depart the river to reach our destination, the Kyoto Imperial Palace, we crossed a bridge and headed due west. We arrived at a very large urban park, not so much a landscaped garden, and entered. Following the map, we found our way to the imperial palace. This was a disappointment. We had been told by our guides that we could not enter the imperial palace, but no one had told us that we would not be able to see it! It was behind some very tall walls. We admired the ornate gates and then moved on, but we did see some nice flowering trees in the park.
Not too far away was another large green space that our guide, Yuko-san, had told us was the location of Nijo Castle. We weren't sure what to expect here either. Well, as it turned out, this was entirely different and a very large tourist destination.
Nijo Castle was a home to the shoguns before they relocated their capital to Edo (Tokyo). It was completed in 1603 by the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu was a very significant figure in Japanese history as he unified Japan after a long period of civil war. The peace would last over 260 years. The Emperor appointed Tokugawa as Shogun, and Tokugawa announced this appointment to the feudal lords at Nijo Castle. This castle was the Kyoto home of the Shoguns when they visited Kyoto. Edo Castle in Tokyo, however, was the Shogun's main capital. Then in 1867 Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (the 15th Shogun) summoned the lords to Nijo Castle to announce the end of the Shogun rule and return of political power to the Emperor. Thus, Nijo Castle witnessed both the beginning and the end of the Shogun era.
We toured the interior of the actual castle, along with throngs of many other tourists, and saw the actual room where these events cited above took place. We were impressed at the historical significance and also enjoyed touring the lovely gardens that surround the castle. There is another castle that had been relocated to these grounds, but it was hidden behind scaffolding, apparently under renovation.
When we finished touring the castle, it was afternoon, and we decided to hail a taxi to return to the Four Seasons. Here we had a nice lunch on the terrace (chicken for Rob and wagyu hamburger for Roy, very good). Then we visited the men's locker room area, near the pool and the sauna, to take showers before our long flights home and then change into our traveling clothes. All went well, except the locker room was TOO warm.
A local guide, named Ueda, arranged by A&K, arrived with a driver at 4:20 PM to pick us up for our ride to the airport, which took about one hour and fifteen minutes. The weather had changed and was now overcast. Was this the first time we hadn't had sunshine during our two weeks in Japan? Possibly. At the airport, we checked into our flight, spent a little time in an unimpressive ANA lounge and then located our gate. Our flight was delayed by about thirty minutes, but that was of no concern as we had a four hour layover in Honolulu. Both of us slept on the flight on our lie-flat bed seats, which was good.
Our layover in Honolulu was a little confusing as we had to collect our luggage and then re-enter the airport as if we were new arrivals. We both concluded that Honolulu could use a new airport. At least we had Global Entry status, which made immigration a breeze. Then we flew to Oakland on a nice flight, and our driver picked us up at 10:30 PM. We were in bed by midnight -- about 24 hours of travel completed!
We had a leisurely morning as our flight leaving Osaka was not until 8:45 PM. We decided that we would begin our day with a very long walk up along the Kamo River, which has really nice paths on both riverbanks, below street level, which minimizes the traffic noise. The weather today was warm and humid.
As we reached the point where we needed to depart the river to reach our destination, the Kyoto Imperial Palace, we crossed a bridge and headed due west. We arrived at a very large urban park, not so much a landscaped garden, and entered. Following the map, we found our way to the imperial palace. This was a disappointment. We had been told by our guides that we could not enter the imperial palace, but no one had told us that we would not be able to see it! It was behind some very tall walls. We admired the ornate gates and then moved on, but we did see some nice flowering trees in the park.
Not too far away was another large green space that our guide, Yuko-san, had told us was the location of Nijo Castle. We weren't sure what to expect here either. Well, as it turned out, this was entirely different and a very large tourist destination.
Nijo Castle was a home to the shoguns before they relocated their capital to Edo (Tokyo). It was completed in 1603 by the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu was a very significant figure in Japanese history as he unified Japan after a long period of civil war. The peace would last over 260 years. The Emperor appointed Tokugawa as Shogun, and Tokugawa announced this appointment to the feudal lords at Nijo Castle. This castle was the Kyoto home of the Shoguns when they visited Kyoto. Edo Castle in Tokyo, however, was the Shogun's main capital. Then in 1867 Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (the 15th Shogun) summoned the lords to Nijo Castle to announce the end of the Shogun rule and return of political power to the Emperor. Thus, Nijo Castle witnessed both the beginning and the end of the Shogun era.
We toured the interior of the actual castle, along with throngs of many other tourists, and saw the actual room where these events cited above took place. We were impressed at the historical significance and also enjoyed touring the lovely gardens that surround the castle. There is another castle that had been relocated to these grounds, but it was hidden behind scaffolding, apparently under renovation.
When we finished touring the castle, it was afternoon, and we decided to hail a taxi to return to the Four Seasons. Here we had a nice lunch on the terrace (chicken for Rob and wagyu hamburger for Roy, very good). Then we visited the men's locker room area, near the pool and the sauna, to take showers before our long flights home and then change into our traveling clothes. All went well, except the locker room was TOO warm.
A local guide, named Ueda, arranged by A&K, arrived with a driver at 4:20 PM to pick us up for our ride to the airport, which took about one hour and fifteen minutes. The weather had changed and was now overcast. Was this the first time we hadn't had sunshine during our two weeks in Japan? Possibly. At the airport, we checked into our flight, spent a little time in an unimpressive ANA lounge and then located our gate. Our flight was delayed by about thirty minutes, but that was of no concern as we had a four hour layover in Honolulu. Both of us slept on the flight on our lie-flat bed seats, which was good.
Our layover in Honolulu was a little confusing as we had to collect our luggage and then re-enter the airport as if we were new arrivals. We both concluded that Honolulu could use a new airport. At least we had Global Entry status, which made immigration a breeze. Then we flew to Oakland on a nice flight, and our driver picked us up at 10:30 PM. We were in bed by midnight -- about 24 hours of travel completed!
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