My first visitors! Part 4

Continuing on with Dad and Georgie's visit, and I'll try to write less, with more pictures. Then maybe I'll get to finish!
There is a place in Wakayama City that very much reminded me of Monterey. The area is called Wakaura, and it is where I take hula lessons each week. It also is where the school is that I am at now, called Meiwa. Anywho, we walked along the beach and hiked up a small hill to check out the view from up top. Both were quite beautiful.
That night (Wed I think), we met up with a couple of my friends to have dinner. Shogo and Theo picked us up from my apt. and drove us to the restaurant. There we met one of my adult English students, Chieko, and her husband. We had a huge okonomiyaki, noodles, egg dish, and salad. It was a nice chance for my friends and family to meet.
On Thursday, we took an early train to Kyoto. Once again our goal was to see the fiery leaves of autumn, and once again, we were just too early in the season. But a few obliged us, and we enjoyed looking at all the nature. We focused on two areas: Kiyomizu and Arashiyama. Of course we saw many temples, all of which were beautiful. The first day we stayed in the Kiyomizu area. There is a very famous temple and Georgie and I enjoyed the shopping on the narrow streets. Since there is so much to see, we decided to stay overnight. Before they came to Japan, Georgie knew of a place that her friend recommended to her. It is a Japanese style inn. It took a bit of searching to find the small, and very hidden pathway to the inn, but Dad did a good job navigating. We slept on the tatami mat floor (on futons) in one room. There was a nice bath to soak in after taking a shower, which I enjoyed relaxing in.
We also visited the Golden Temple to the north of Kyoto. It is actually covered in gold sheets, and is quite beautiful. We were running out of daylight, so our visit was quick. I would like to go back and see it again.
Another place that was just gorgeous was the bamboo forest. It is a place I could imagine getting lost in for hours. On the way to the bamboo forest, we stumbled across a small group of elementary students on a field trip. Maybe for a school project, they were supposed to be foraging for nuts, but what caught our attention were the little boys and girls rolling down the dirt hill. After a few minutes, they noticed a few foreigners spying on them, so a small group came to investigate. They shouted greetings to us: �Hi!� �Hello! and �Hamburger!� are apparently the only English words they knew. We tried to chat, but I think we were all content to stare at each other and comment on how cute they were.
Overall, Kyoto needs many more days to visit. It is a beautiful place, but way too many people! We were packed like sardines on the bus.