Kyoto with Heather and Matt

My friend from college, Heather, and her boyfriend, Matt, were recently in Japan visiting another friend that we all went to school with that now lives in Yokohama (just south of Tokyo).

While they were here, Heather and Matt decided to stop in Kyoto for a few days to do some sightseeing and I was luckily able to meet them for some little adventures and dinner.

Here is a little pictorial summary of the trip:

First, I met Heather and Matt at their B&B, where they were waiting with bikes for the three of us. We decided to take a tour around town to see some temples, stopping in a famous area called Gion along the way.
In Gion, we walked the bikes down a narrow road called Pontocho, famous for being an entertainment district and the spot for sighting Geisha (or Geiko, in Kyoto). We saw three Maiko-san (apprentice Geisha) along the way, but didn't take any pictures... poor girls probably get hounded enough!:
After leaving Gion, we took our bikes down to the path along the Kamogawa River where there was much less traffic. The water levels seemed unusually high and Heather and Matt really seemed to enjoy the tranquility and beauty of the path:
Our first temple stop (or shrine stop, actually) was Fushimi Inari Taishi, or the Fushimi Fox Shrine in a town just south of Tokyo Central Station. It didn't take us very long to bike to the shrine, which also happens to be one of my favorite and is famous for the thousands of orange tori (gates) that line a path through the forest.
My friend Katie and a friend of hers that she studied in Japan with were also in Kyoto for the day, so we met them at the Shrine. Here is Katie and Amanda:
And the group exploring:
After a while, Heather, Matt and I decided we should go because we wanted to go visit another temple. Katie and Amanda wanted to do the whole forest walk, so we decided to just meet up for dinner later.
After following the orange gates back to where we had parked our bikes, we set off again, this time biking up a huge hill to my favorite temple in Kyoto, Kiyomizudere. I've been 11 times, but I still think it's fantastic:
The large deck on one of Kiyomizu's main temples also afforded us a really pretty view of the city and of the sunset (going down behind the Arashiyama mountain chain):
Heather and Matt had to get back to Yokohama, while I still had a long train-ride home, so we met Katie and Amanda for a nice Japanese dinner (well, I had Korean kimchi, but...) before returning the bikes and parting ways.

This trip was short, but it was nice to see people from home, biking around Kyoto (a first for me!) was awesome and and I generally just had a really lovely time.