Valley of the Temples - Byodo-in Temple

Not the most successful of adventures today, just because of the strange rainy weather.

The day started with a visit by Bob, who was gung-ho on organizing a quiz game for John's surprise party (there have been lots of hush-hush preparations over the past few days in the lead up to the great event tomorrow). It was a fun conversation as the game is called "It's all about John" and so we had to get all kinds of funny/strange info from Angelo.

We didn't organize ourselves very well as we set out for the North Shore too late in the morning. We started off with a visit to the Valley of the Temples, which is actually a cemetery, but with a beautiful replica of a Japanese Buddhist Temple (the original is at Uji, just outside Kyoto). 

Then off up to the North Shore. It takes about an hour and a half to get up there and by then we were famished. Just as we stopped the car to eat at the food stalls at Shark's Cove it started pouring down with rain. Darn it!! We stopped at the Macadamia farm on our way home.

John had invited us to dinner, and presented us with a very nice pasta with shrimps (though Tiziano's is far superior, I must say), salad and dessert. He told a tale or ten during the evening.