Kyoto

Back in Kyoto today for another tour. A sunny day and fairly warm so a good start. We went back to the Golden Pavilion which is a lovely building so it was a pleasure to visit it again.

After lunch we drove to Nijo-jo Castle also known as Ninomara Palace which was built in 1603.  It has 33 rooms and was where the fifteenth Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshinobu lived. In October 1867 he summoned the feudal lords to the Ohiroma Ichi-no-ma (first grand room) and declared that sovereignty would be restored to the Emperor.
We were not allowed to take photographs here.

We then went to the blue tiled Heian Shrine. The Shrine was built in 1895 to mark the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Kyoto.
Only outside photos allowed here.

As usual with tours we ended up in a shop! It was a good handicraft shop though so picked up a couple of souvenirs.

We have really enjoyed our time in Japan even though there is so much more we could see and do on other islands. The Japanese have been very welcoming not only to us as individuals but to Cunard and Queen Elizabeth in general.

We've been impressed with the cleanliness, even the buses look immaculate. They are spotlessly clean on the outside too with nice shiny hub caps. We've seen the drivers with feather dusters while they were waiting!

We now have two days at sea before we reach Shanghai. The weather isn't good and we currently have a force 8 gale which is set to last for the next 24 hours!