kyoto and graveyards

This last weekend I met Lindsay in Kyoto while, for the first time, I realize, leaving Alex and Nate home alone. Before coming to Japan I had always had this notion of Kyoto being this quaint place where everything was traditional, beautiful and full of history. While I see why it is such a popular tourist destination for the Japanese, so much of it is actually a concrete jungle of sprawl and modern ugliness that I wonder what it is that the Japanese value so much. If they valued the traditional buildings and history, it seems that they would have tried to save some of it, rather than tearing everything down and rebuilding McDonalds and pachinko parlors everywhere.
Anyway, it was a fun time, and we did see some amazing sites, such as the Kinkakuji temple (the golden pavillion). The top 2 stories and top inside room are covered completley with gold leaf, it is truly amazing, if only they would let you see the inside! They also had a nice selection of key chains and cell phone charms. We went to Kiyomizo-dera, a buddhist temple which had the most beautiful and ornate lanterns and brightly-colored floral designs on the builidngs, and much more than I cannot even start to describe. We also went to Arashiyama. There was a walk through a bamboo forest and once we got away from most of the tourists (it was a 3 day weekend here, there were so many tourists everywhere, you could hardly walk down the streets) it was so peaceful and pleasant, walking through small streets with old farmhouses and groves of trees, it was one of the nicer times I have had here. The main tourist attraction here is the bridge, although we weren't that impressed--too much traffic. Our walk ended at another temple which had 8000 primitive buddhas that had been collected from around the countryside where lower class people had been buried. We also did a ton of shopping and had a lot of fun eating and I hope Lindsay didn't get sick of me dragging her into every souvenir shop in search of the perfect silk purse, which was never found!
Alex and Nate apparently explored some rather infrequently visited graveyards, saw some very large spiders and took some eerie photos. Alex is still too young to be wary of what situations his father is getting him into. Now we are home, resting, have caught colds and are back to normal.
kind of.