Say sumpin about Kyoto here. Below is a panorama of the Kyoto harbor as seen from our ship.

Kyoto harbor was an impressive sight. In addition to the usual stuff, there was a Universal Studios theme park right in the harbor with its giant ferris wheel looming over our ship (right).

	After a rather long wait, we finally got off the ship...	...and met up with Toshi, our tour guide for Kyoto.

To our surprise, we arrived in Kyoto almost at the peak of the cherry blossoms.	Toshi first took us to the Ninomaru Palace, built in 1603 and completed in 1626. The 3300 square meter palace is built almost entirely of Hinoki cypress.

Three views of the entrance to the palace with beautiful gold artwork.

The castle also had a beautiful garden, the Ninomaru Garden.

Toshi took a souvenier photo.	Moat around the castle	There were flowers - and Lynda could not resist the temptation to photograph a few

Groundskeepers doing their thing	.. and the grounds were definitely well kept	Twisted??	Display inside

Continued..