Kyoto trip part 1

Greetings and Salutations,

Since I can only post a few pics on here at a time, I decided to break up the Kyoto trip into a few different posts.

The first one is of all of us waiting for the Shinkansen (bullet train) that would take us from Tokyo Station all the way to Kyoto in about 2 hours. Including the teachers that went along, there were 51 of us total (45 8th graders) and getting everybody on the train at the same time was kind of a pain, but not as bad as i had expected.

Once on the train, some people slept, some people played cards, but I tried to get pics of the countryside. Notice how close the mountains were to the farms.

We arrived in Kyoto, and immediately got on another train that took us to Nara (Japan's First capital). apparently, there is a huge park where deer roam freely and if they get a whiff of any food, they will become a little too friendly.

This next pic is of Todai-ji, or the largest wooden structure existence. It is a Buddhist temple and inside there is a huge statue of the Buddha. those of you that had me for social studies, should recognize this building from your textbook. . . and i saw it in person!!

The last pic i am very proud of. Inside of Todai-ji (under the Buddha) was a stand where people would light candles and pray about whatever, and on this particular stand there was only this single candle with a huge flame and I liked it.

Well, my kids are almost out of gym, so i will write more later

Oh, and a big congratulations to Mr. Costanzo on the birth of his new baby boy!!!