We ventured into Kyoto with Rebecca in a wheelchair. Somehow, she twisted her knee a little bit, felt something pop, and couldn't walk very well. So, we borrowed a wheelchair with semi-flat tires and went out to do the town anyway. In Tokyo the subway is the way to get around town. In Kyoto the buses are king. They have a subway system, but the buses are so well laid out that we used them exclusively. The hotel gave us a map and we planned our day using it. It's very pictorially laid out (as opposed to most subway maps), so you can either just look at the map and find a bus that went from the hotel to the destination or use their handy bus-finder grid that would tell you the bus you wanted. There was a bus stop right by the hotel, so we just walked out and hopped on the next one that rolled by.
Our first stop was Sanjusangendo Temple. This place is amazing (unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside so here's a link to a page that contains some: http://www.taleofgenji.org/sanjusangendo.html). Imagine a hall filled with 1001 carved buddhas, 100 rows, 10 deep, and one giant one in the middle. In front are 33 carvings of these other special "gods" who have special jobs. Truly awe inspiring.
We spent the rest of the day at the Kyoto Handicraft Center. We kept calling it the Kyoto Handicapped Center just to drive Rebecca crazy as she was riding in the wheelchair all day. On the way, we stopped at this small, pretty temple. At the Center, we did some shopping for gifts and souvenirs, while Rebecca got a lesson in cloisonne (http://www.khc-kyoto.jp/taiken/taiken-e.html#cloisonne).
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