Falling in love with Kyoto, Japan...

It is hard to put into words just how beautiful Kyoto is. We have just returned from a fantastic 6-day family holiday in Japan and we spent most of that time in the historic city of Kyoto. Temples, castles, bamboo forests, mountains and lakes, quaint streets crammed with shops and restaurants, geisha-spotting in Gion, exploring the 1000 gates of the Fushiminari-taisa shrine, meeting a traditional origami artist who creates stunning works of art by folding connected paper cranes, getting up close and personal with hundreds of Japanese monkeys at the Arashiyama monkey park, wandering beneath thousands of cherry trees in full bloom... we had so many adventures in Kyoto that is impossible to list them all. This city has worked its magic on our family and we have fallen in love with Japan. Some of us are already dreaming of returning...

Himeji-jo castle and nearby Zen gardens...

About 1 1/2 hours by train from Kyoto you can find a lovely old castle called Himeji-jo. Built by shoguns in the 1300s, this castle is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It rises up from the surrounding landscape in a majestic way and is also known as the White Heron castle. It is a large and impressive building, surrounded by spacious grounds and thousands of cherry trees. Just across the moat, beside the castle grounds, lies the buildings which once housed samurai warriors. This property now boasts several large and beautiful Japanese gardens. These places were incredibly serene and lovely and we felt we could spend hours just admiring the still landscapes. While strolling here we stopped at a traditional tea house that was as still and peaceful as the surrounding gardens. It was a wonderful day.

The beauty of Miyajima...

Just outside of Hiroshima lies the beautiful island of Miyajima. There are several temples and historical buildings on this small, calm island. One of the most photographed sites in Japan is the floating gate here. We were lucky enough to approach the island in the late afternoon and then see the gate at sunset and later in the evening, lit from the shore. This was a magical place, full of serenity and cherry blossoms and pine trees.

Hiroshima and a message of peace...

In Hiroshima we stayed at a peace centre called the World Friendship Centre. Our hosts there arranged for a guided tour of the Peace Park for us, as well as an interview (1 1/2 hours) with a hibakusha (A-bomb survivor). The lady we met was named Okada san and her story is so sad. She was just a young girl on August 6, 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped over Hiroshima and the story of her experiences that day, and during the following months, is tragic. She is passionate about peace and nuclear disarmament and we learned so much from her. After touring the museum we encountered many more moving and tragic stories, and came away digesting a lot of information and emotion about what happened in this now-beautiful and peaceful city. The girls began folding paper cranes in Hiroshima and Cora would like to fold 1,000 (just like Sadako, the young girl who died of leukemia in Hiroshima at the age of 12 in 1955).