To Kyoto

Oops! Another rainy day. No worries, it's  a travel day.
One of the highlights provided by OAT on their trips is a home-hosted visit. Each county has its own personality and today we got to experience Japanese hospitality. Six homes chosen to host small groups of two to four visitors. We each took a small gift to them from our home state. Lee and I were fortunate to have our own home visit, thus affording more time for personal interaction. Our hosts were a retired professional couple with two grown children, who live in a middle-class home. They spoke very understandable English and were very welcoming, giving us a tour of their home, talking about thier culture, teaching us some calligraphy, serving tea, enjoying a good exchange of conversation, taking pictures, and offering us each the gift of a beautiful set of chopsticks.
Time to pack up, eat lunch at one of the many restaurants in the huge shopping center/train station before hopping the train for Kyoto. Scenery today was low tree-filled mountains with rural towns and farms in the valley between.
Our last destination will be a five night stay here in Kyoto with many excursions throughout. Another included Japanese style dinner tonight featuring tempura, with many courses, some of which we are actually beginning to identify!

Pic 1: learning calligraphy from our host; Pic 2: Did you ever try to eat spaghetti with chopsticks? "Western lunch"  Pic 3: Tempura