my sister's version

Yesterday, we went to an old castle, which was kinda nifty... It was where the shogan stayed ( the shogan was the head lord of a feutal society, basically meaning that he was the leader of a clan and his clan conquered the other clans). The castle had "nightengale floors", which means that when you step on the floor, the cramps and nails rub together, making a squeaking sound. This sound sounds like birds singing, thus earning the floor the title "nightengale floor." ... It's literally impossible to even sneak by this floor-- believe me, i know, i tried. lol. The floor was also built all the way around the inner part of the castle, so that no one could sneak in.... Sounds like the kinda house I'd like to have. lol. jfa. Also, another security thing was that the doors could only be unlocked from the inside of the house, meaning that you couldn't get into the next room if someone didn't let you in from the inside. So, you might think this guy was paranoid, but wouldn't you be too if you thought you had political assassins crawling at you from all sides( and having to swim accross the moat-- ewwie). All of the walls, sliding doors and ceilings were painted. Mostly pine trees, symbolizing longevity (the crane actually is a sacred bird in Japan which also represents longevity). One of the pine branches is actually 12 meteres long! There were also eagles and tigers, though. The interesting thing about the tigers is that tigers had never been brought to Japan before. So, the school of artists that painted the room with the tigers in it had to rely on hides that had been brought back to Japan... Basically,they had to paint a tiger, based on the hide, not knowing what a tiger was.Also, the gardens originally did not ahve any native Japanese trees because the shogan did not want to be reminded of the whole dying/rebirth process that the leaves/trees underg in the winter. The gardens did have ponds, however, and one of the ponds had three islands in it. A cool thing (you may think) about the shogan: only women were allowed to be his attendants in his personal chambers,though he had male bodyguards.A little more history about the castle: it was built by Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603 for defense of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and there are six buildings on the grounds, including a "rice storage" fascility that we passed which is freakin huge!-- can hold a TON of rice.. omg!Sorry if this just seems like a random boring text book to read-- all we did was basically walk around the whole time and of course, i took notes, and then, right when we were on the opposite side of the castle grounds, an announcement came on that we were supposed to get back to the main entrance because the castle was closing for the day (4:00pm). ... so we had an exhillarating romp back to the entrance. It was fun..... (not so much). Nothing really entertaining happened. We're teaching mommy sarcasm-- it's an interesting journey of a lesson, you might say. She's picking it up rather well, though she's relying on the badddd-not-so-fun side of sarcasm, which is no good in hot weather.Today, we went to a huuuge temple (at the top of a mountain...which we hiked up... in the middle of the day again.... in 100 degree weather). It seems to be a trend... we never walk around unless it's in the middle of the day (from 11:00am-1:00pm) and the temperature is above 100 degrees. We set out from our hotel at about 10am, and took the subway to the middle of town. We needed to go to a bank, so well..we did. (haha...great story-- i should tell it at parties, right?) Anywho, after we got out of the bank, we decided it was time to teach mom how to use a map because well.. she can't orrient herself worth a darn. So, every time we turned a block, we had mom figure out where we were gonig next-- the museum of Kyoto.........only about.... five blocks away from the bank... so we walked...and we walked.... and we walked...and walked some more.. and then, just for a change in pace, we walked... in the 100 degree heat... at 10:45am... After about fifteen minutes, we stopped and had mom orrient us again. Two blocks to the left. So we turned, and walked. lol. We passed a sidestreet and mom stopped and was like 'is this where we turn?' our response: dunno.. you tell us. but, she decided that it wasn't the turn, so we kept walking until we got to the next street.... And when mom orriented us, we found out that the small street was the right street, so we turned around and walked back to the museum of kyoto... oh wait... did i mention it was the wrong museum of kyoto that mom led us to, which we found out as soon as we got there..?-- yeah. made jud and i real happy... we then pointed out to mom that the first rule of orrienting yourself is to know where you are going. So, since it was so bloody hot, we decided to go to a huge temple... which was up on the top of a mountain that we had to hike up... at 12:15pm. hahaha. yeeess... And, at the top of the mountain was.......STEPS!!!! yaaay... oh how we love steps... (ps. my ass hurts from climbing up so many steps in the past couple weeks--that's how many steps we've gone up.) However!-- the temple was really really cool and had an awesome view. A Buddhist temple (of course), which belongs to the Kida Huso sect and was founded by Enchin (a great priest) in the eigth year of Hoki (appx. 778 A.D.).The Kiyomizu-dera temple was originally created in 778 by the Enchin, who had enshrined an image of Kannon (the God of mercy) on the top of the mountain, overlooking the Otowa-notaki falls. It was not until 798 A.D. that the famous general Sakanove no Tamuramoro built a Buddhist hall at the same location that the temple was on the map.The falls that I just mentioned are now just a mountain spring, and the water that comes out of the mountains is considered as holy water (and yes, ya get to drink some and wash your hands with it..etc). One thing that was really cool is that the metal cups, which are attached to rods to collect the mountain water-- the sanitzer for them is basically a tin resting place with UV rays that sanitize the cups-- pretty gosh darn cool, if you ask me. :P Another thing which was really really cool was that, in one of the first buildings you get to in the temple, there is a basement with a rope in it. you go into the basement (after taking off your shoes) and you have to feel the rope to get through..... Half way through, there is a stone-- the sacred stone of St.Hara. You reach out and touch the stone (which looks like it's floating because it's so dark that you can't see anything except the stone because a light is shining down on it from above) and make a wish. The thing is... when I touched the stone, I felt lighter.... Just felt so lifted and suddenly so calm and peaceful. Spiritual experience, anyone? I kept my hand on it for a good minute or two, just feeling as if I was floating away, and I hated to take my hand off of it. When Jud touched the stone, he later said he was almost at that same point of floating as me when mom bumped into him from behind and whispered loudly, "JUD! JUD! I wanna get your picture with the stonneee!"..........this is a sacred basement place where people ahve spiritual revilations..the last thing you want is to be blinded by the camera flash of a crazy american woman for a picture that wouldn't show up anyway... but yeah.. that's mom for ya ;)