Here we are with the third installment of our Kyoto pics. These are from one of the Hongan-ji temples; I left my Japan guide book at work so I don't remember which one, but this was the first stop we had on the guided tour we took on Sunday the 11th. This is a Buddhist temple, this time belonging to the Jodo sect which the majority of Japanese belong to.

Another beautiful example of Japanese wooden architecture. The beams are treated to make them less likely to catch fire, but even so quite a few of Japan's buildings have gone up in flames (some multiple times). Here's a fountain that was in the main courtyard area:

Hey, I wish we had one of those, don't you think that would be a way cooler alternative to a normal garden hose? ;) Here's the entry gate, I think:

Sorry this picture is blown out, but we took it with the little camera. Seems like we didn't take a whole heck of a lot of pictures at this temple, plus most of the ones from inside the temple didn't turn out too great due to low light. But I found some shisa!

Here's a second...

For some reason this second one reminds me of depictions of the Minotaur in Greece. Wonder why. Anyway, here's the third shisa:

They were all on the bottom of...something...I don't know what it was, but I liked the shisa so I just took pictures of them ;) Here's a picture looking down from the front of the temple:

Gravel, gravel everywhere. Most of the temples and shrines we visited had a lot of gravel rather than lawns and such around the buildings...I suppose it would be easier to keep up since you don't have to mow it, and it wouldn't get muddy when it rains, although I think it would get slick. Anyway, that's pretty much all she wrote about this temple; I've got some really nice pics up my sleeve for the next installment.
But for right now, and since I didn't post a ginormous number of pictures today, I thought I'd share a couple more from our trip to Texas from about six weeks ago. Don't know why I didn't get around to posting these sooner...oh yeah right, that darned research paper! Anyway, here's us with Lee's parents:

Lee's mom is holding a cross stitched piece I made for her and Lee's dad. I had intended to send it to them last year for Christmas but couldn't get it done in time, and we missed Valentine's Day too, so my mom had just been hanging onto it waiting for a good time to give it to Lee's parents. My mom figured it would be nice for me and Lee to present it in person, so we did. You can click on the picture to see it up close; the cross stitch is a couple on the beach, all done in browns and taupes and if you think I was tired of brown by the time I finished stitching it, you'd be right.
Here's a fun picture...

Yep, that's my dad and Lee, arm wrestling. My dad has this thing where if he invites someone out to eat, then he pays for them unless they can beat him arm wrestling, so Lee had to try it when we went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse (man I love their rolls and honey butter...*drool*). Lee almost won too, but Dad says he musta given up because he got tired.
Couldn't leave my mom out of the pics today!

Dad (or maybe Lee, I can't remember) took this of us outside of IHOP right before my parental units headed back up to DFW. Lee and I were in Texas for several days after they had to go back to work, and no amount of puppy dog eyes on my part could convince my mom to stay in San Antonio and go shopping with me. Sniffle.
Ok, one last picture and I'm done for the day...

Yep, it's Cocok's with the Silent K. This time I went with Amber (left, gold and brown stripes), Jenny (top, butterflies), Margaret (top right, koi fish), and Jamie (right, black and red Oriental designs). I got my She-Ra toes although I'm not super-thrilled with how they turned out; the stripes aren't exactly even. They're supposed to be V-shaped; maybe it would look better if my toenails were taller rather than wider. Oh well, I've had my toes this long so I guess I can't trade them out now :p
Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of my evening...cross stitch or scrapbook? I think I'll skip the gym tonight...I didn't get much sleep last night so I'm pretty tired already. And it's trying to rain outside so my kiddos will just have to do without a walk today. They'll get over it, I brought them treats from the store today!