Update from Lauren

For those keeping score- I am still in the lead on the temple stamp race. Although I am fairly certain this competitive nature is very un-buddha.

The tea that Kristen refers to as "like sipping the bottom of the fish tank" is Matcha- a green tea in powder form. Elsa loves it. I think it okay- not my favorite. You can find it in the US in most stores- definitely whole foods- so if you want to really get the Japanese experience make a super dense overly sweet frosting and enjoy that with some Matcha and you basically have created the tea ceremony. The sweets are absolutely beautiful- I hate to eat them for 2 reasons they taste horrible and they are just soooo pretty. Unfortunately the ladies watch you like a hawk and will not take your plate away until it is empty. This is in contrast to so many yummy treats that you find all over- you do have to be careful of the ever present bean paste- K10 is right it is in almost everything.

For our faithful readers- I want you to take a moment and realize that Kristen traveled to Kyoto solo. I was so impressed! She got herself to the train station. Bought tickets- got on the correct train and then explored Kyoto all by herself. It may not sound impressive- but if you could imagine all the signs written in Japanese and no one speaking English...you start to understand how brave and impressive that feat was. Needless to say we were all glad when she made it back safe and sound.

Arima and the royokan was a great experience and I recommend anyone traveling to Japan- make sure you stay in at least one royokan. We checked in about 1:30pm to a proper tea ceremony- yes more bean paste works of art and of course a cup of Matcha tea. After 'enjoying' our treat we were escorted to our room. It was actually more like a suite, the front room with the large window and views of the mountains had a living room set up, separated by sliding screen doors was our inner room that had a low table and pillows on the floor. The entire floor was tatami mats and when you entered the room you had a small room where you took off your shoes. The hallway to the bathroom was actually small pebbles with large stepping stones as the path. Some royokans have only shared bathrooms so make sure to be clear about a private bath when you book. Most royokans have hot spring baths and this was no exception- so after changing into our yukata (cotton kimono) we headed for a soak....it was glorious and I will leave it at that. They provide everything you will need at a royokan from the shampoo to the pj's- even a tooth brush- so don't pack a thing- they have it all! Our dinner was served in our room. It was a 12 course kaiseki dinner- before dessert was served our server asked us what kind of futon we wanted, pillow, blanket, etc. As usual language was a bit of a barrier so Elsa was not exactly sure what she chose. After dinner another soak was suggested by our server- after we poached ourselves again we headed back to our room to find they had laid out our beds. We had been wondering about the bed situation- they roll them up and hide it somewhere in the room.

The next day we checked out of the hotel and then checked out the town of Arima. Elsa enjoyed sampling the street food and I collected 2 more stamps with a couple of temple visits. Oh yeah I am still in the lead big sister!