Kyoto and Osaka Day 2 - POSTED BY BOB

I forget if I posted a picture of the Ryokan that Jason and I stayed at, but here it is. Also to the right are the bikes we rented to ride about Kyoto.

This is "omelet rice", but when you say "omelet rice" in Japanese it sounds like "omu-lice". For the last six years I thought it was the later. All you really need to know is that it is fried rice under a flat thin piece of egg. Yummy.

This is some famous Golden Palace because it is gold. I do not know how much of it is real gold, but it is still pretty impressive.

Here are the Raish brothers in front of the Golden Palace. Too bad Jason's huge head is blocking most of it.

These stone lanterns are all over Japan as far as I can tell. Some are cooler than others, but I really like the ones with moss growing on them.

I love this last picture. You can really see the moss growing on the ground. There is grass most places, but for some reason there is just moss on this patch of dirt.

I am not sure what these rice balls are, but they are kind of chewy and I am not really sure how they make this out of rice. It seems as if Japanese can turn rice into anything from alcohol to snack deserts.

This is one of the most famous Japanese rock gardens. It is pretty tranquil. You are supposed to be able to sit here and ponder great things, but there are so many kids and tourists it is probably impossible. It would be cool to get an hour here alone.

I do not know if you can see the support keeping this tree up, but that tree has no business being alive.

I messed up the order of the pictures and here is another picture of the rock garden. Supposedly each big rock is strategically placed to induce thoughtfulness. Also the wall is pretty cool. It is a result of the oil and water working with the wood to make the pattern.

These leaves were seriously as tall as me. I am not sure if it is tropical in Japan, but it sure feels like it right now. These leaves make me think that it is pretty tropical here.

CRAZY!! This was an awesome road Jason and I found wandering around some of the back roads of Kyoto and looked like it was straight out of a movie.

This is Dotombori. It is a cool hang out in Osaka. It is a bunch of blocks somewhere in Osaka with some awesome street vendors. This is a pretty big tourist attraction, but a lot of Osaka's youth hang out here so it is an interesting mix.

This is supposedly one of the center pieces of Dotombori and you can see why. It is a really large neon sign. There are lot of these in the area, but this is probably the most ridiculous.

The first picture of food there is a Japanese pancake, called okonomiyaki prepared Osaka style. I guess Tokyo prepares the pancake differently, but the ingredients remain the same. All I know it is some type of batter with cabbage and other vegetables in it and topped with various sauces. The second picture are octopus balls and we got from some street vendor. There are pretty delicious.